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Recent Entries to this Blog
Time Flies
Posted: 12 Jan 2012 Posted: 07 May 2010 Posted: 20 Dec 2009 Posted: 03 Dec 2009 Posted: 14 Sep 2009 All Entries |
lulu1107's Blog
Time Flies
Category: Sharing the Joy with Others | Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 7:44 pm Wow! It has BEEN a while! I guess I don't multitask as well as I have always thought I did. In May, 2010 I was swept off my feet and fell madly in love, starting a whirlwind roller coaster ride of a relationship that lasted almost a year. Funny, one of the things that brought us together was my love of gardening and his love of unique foods. He would walk past my two fig trees in front and knock on the front door with the remnants of a fresh fig in his hand. We'd kiss hello and I'd hand him some freshly dried tomatoes to taste, or an Asian pear, or a taste of something fresh cooking. Next, I dated a fellow gardener, but we spent most of our time at HIS house!! With dates hitting three plus days per week, my garden was feeling the pinch. Yes, thankfully, a lot of my plantings are permanent or perennial, so they had been well established and were fine. Still, the guilt crept in, as well it should! This year I am hoping to finally be able to mesh my passion for gardening with my newest hobby of dating! There are raised beds to use now and I will employ every time-saver I can to be able to enjoy the fruits and vegetables of my labor, without compromising my life in the world outside the garden.. This blog entry has been viewed 727 times
Anticipation...Anticipay-ay-tion is making me wait...keeping
Category: Sharing the Joy with Others | Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 6:45 pm The long winter is over. Camping indoors in front of the online dating sites, looking wistfully at the Raintree catalog and with regret at the several feet of snow outside has given way to SPRING!!!!!!! My daycare children share my love of gardening. We have had our cool season garden planted (and added to on an almost daily basis) since early April. Our first window box salad is now on our plates. Of course, my 23 year old son and I had to test out all of the great salad fixings first...just to make sure there was nothing wrong with any of it!!!! I casually mentioned to my son that the lettuce is ready to eat, then found myself in the middle of an invitation to make a great salad with it. So... I puttered around the herb garden and the yard and added basil, oregano, parsley, walking onion stalk, carrots, kale, perpetual spinach,and Italian dandelion to the window box lettuce. The only thing that wasn't from the garden (besides the peppercorn Ranch dressing) was the pickled pepper rings. I reminisced to my son that he had "tasted" this for the first time when I had been pregnant with him. "Yeah, I remember!", he smiled! This blog entry has been viewed 179 times
Whoa, That's Snow!
Category: History and People | Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 1:31 am I guess it would take a couple of feet of snow to get me to sew again! I used to sew entertainers' costumes as my third job...usually costing me much of my sleep. Since then sewing has lost much of its charm for me. It has been snowing for almost 24 hours straight now...and I mean SNOWING. We can only get out of two of our doors and I haven't seen piles of snow like this since about 2002. So the nesting instinct kicked in..... Today my grown kids, dogs, cats and I hunkered down and stayed inside. I spent most of the day sewing three fleece dog coats out of an old waterproof fleece lined jacket that a neighbor had given me. (I cooked and caught up on Inspector Morse episodes in between.) I found two fake fur collars from old coats and decided to add that to the dog coats. They are ADORABLE! Each one is slightly different, depending on what I had to do to make the portion of the "people" coat I used work. I dressed up my three dogs like little dollies, anxious to try these devices out against the snow. In the meantime, Charlotte is furious with me for putting her in that contraption, Spiffy likes her coat, but is a bit miffed that she can't reach the fur to play with it, and Wilbur absolutely sulks if he has to wear his. Luckily his coat still needs a bit of work...I broke the sewing machine needle at the end of his little project! How are the coats working in the snow? Once our little guys get used to the snow, I think they'll start to warm up to the idea a little! At least they aren't dressed in toddler cast-offs from Goodwill anymore. (Hilarious, but practical.) Tomorrow we will dig out. I'll just pretend I'm doing some serious snow gardening! It IS beautiful..... This blog entry has been viewed 248 times
Winter Gardening...I Guess It'll Do for Now
Category: Sharing the Joy with Others | Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 7:19 pm It's been hard saying goodbye to the garden for another few months. There are ways to try to recreate the joy and bliss of gardening outdoors.... I started a sprout garden inside. I discovered that a LOT of things will make great sprouts..like the garlic chives that have reseeded in my herb garden every year! I researched the topic and found that fennel, basil, all kinds of brassicas, lentils and lots more are great as sprouts. Broccoli is many times more nutritious as a sprout than as a full grown vegetable. My gears are turning...can I pull off the feat of making pesto from basil sprouts?!!!! Another way to keep up the gardening is to crank up the 'ol Aerogarden again. I just can't get the pump working again. How about microgreens in a shallow pan of light soil INDOORS? Of course, the ultimate boost is to rummage through the freezer and discover a lost stash of dried tomatoes (yes, I freeze them after drying...suspenders and a belt, I guess) or sweet blackberries. Yes, many of the trees and bushes are bare, but I did my homework when I put all of this in...mixing evergreens with deciduous, adding grasses, bushes that kept berries into the late fall, etc. There may not be any flowers (except the lavender and marigolds), but the husband and wife Cardinals are a beautiful and engaging replacement. Soon I'll walk around the yard, gathering rosemary, holly, bittersweet and pine boughs to decorate the porch and windows the way people used to. I feel better already! This blog entry has been viewed 268 times
Switching Gears
Category: Sharing the Joy with Others | Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:04 pm My daycare kids and I took down much of our sunflower maze, harvesting the huge heads of seeds as we went. I cut big lengths of the stalks for them to carry, drag, and otherwise play with. Then they helped me put them in the compost pile. After all that, we put our sunflower heads on a table in the sun to await further instructions! (I need to quick research how to properly dry and roast the seeds.) We will be roasting sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds this week. MMMMM! Next to harvest will be the amaranth. They say you can pop it, as well as bake it or serve it like a porridge or even like a rice. I'll look into that, too. One of my new students is allergic to a LOT of things, including corn, so we may just have stumbled on a replacement for popcorn! We will be very careful to research it first, then try only a little until we know its effect on him. I can't wait to taste popped amaranth! Fennel seeds are ripening nicely. Too bad the squirrels got most of the fruit, that would've gone nicely together. I finally gave up on nursing the old sour cherry tree. It had been coaxed back, giving us quart after quart of cherries and still leaving plenty for the birds, but, as the last two years came and went, it became too much of a struggle. The canker had girdled the tree, so I hired one of my tutoring students to chop it down, just like good ol' George Washington supposedly did! No regrets. This is all part of the circle of life...Yes I will compost anything I can't use in my wood stove! This blog entry has been viewed 253 times
Archie Lives On
Category: History and People | Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 1:06 pm I always find a way to tell people about others who are now gone. It's a way to honor them and keep them a part of our lives. Even though I never met Archie, I especially like to tell about him. He was my dad's best friend and was a couple of years younger, about the age of my dad's younger sister. Archie, Robert (my dad) and Margory (my aunt) were inseparable. When they were children, my grandma (Lucky 13) would take them places and would often be asked if Archie and Margie were twins. She'd smile and say, "No, they're six months apart!", and leave it at that! Granted, in THIS day and age, a mother could pull that off, with the help of some doctors and incubators, but THEN?! Archie was one who loved to gross people out. He put together a sandwich of grape jelly, abalone, gravy and white bread that turned the stomachs of all who witnessed him eating it. That's why he did it! After a while he actually enjoyed them. Hey, don't knock it, as they say... The trio continued in their childhood rich with fun, friends and promise, until WW11 hit. Archie was 17 and he talked his folks into letting him join the navy. He was stationed at Pearl Harbor and was trained to be a gunner. On that fateful day, long before I was born, Archie manned the gun turret on one of the doomed ships in the harbor. As one of the Japanese pilots realized his plane was going to crash, he aimed it straight for the ship. He hit Archie directly. The ship sank soon after. I'd like to meet Archie someday. I know I would have liked him a lot. I even thought to include him in my parents' 50th anniversary celebration. We had a big graffiti board that people signed and added comments to. I put a little something down on Archie's behalf, thinking that Dad would be touched by it. Unlike me, he feels better trying to forget. The memory is too painful, even to this day. You have to really tune in to see when my dad is upset. He won't out and out say so, but I know he was. I'll respect that. This blog entry has been viewed 250 times
Hybrid Homesteading...Just the Ticket
Category: Getting Back to My Roots | Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 12:36 pm I'd LOVE to just move out into the woods or the mountains, into a little cabin or an old house. My preference is a nineteen teens house, or even a Victorian. It's not that I don't love this house, because I do. Still, the thought of being secluded..no, nestled in nature's arms is very enticing. It's definitely in my future! So...I do hybrid homesteading in the middle of semi-suburban Pasadena, MD. It does have its advantages...Pure homesteading might involve a generator, coming up with my own wind power, or something. I'd also probably have to be even more careful with electrical consumption. Yesterday I thrived in my little not-quite-this, not-quite-that world. I puttered in the garden, harvesting pumpkins, early sunflower seedheads,a huge green pepper, lots of poblanos and jalapenos, a batch of green beans, two baby summer squashes, herbs and a lot of Malibar spinach. I then proceeded to dry, freeze, or eat them! With the dehydrator running non-stop like you'd expect of an air conditioner, I am filling the cupboards fast. Fig crisps will be next. There's no better end to a day like that, than a plate of salad that has nothing in it but my own garden tasties. Tomorrow I will have to step out into the world (to pay for some of these things!), then it's back to getting the fall garden off the ground. That'll be my third or fourth try at a decent fall garden. Here goes! This blog entry has been viewed 268 times
Welcome to the JJJJ-Jungle
Category: Getting Back to My Roots | Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 12:30 am ..as the song goes. I've been lucky enough to add several students to my family daycare (I now have 5 3 year olds and 2 8 year olds), all the while being blessed with a busy entertainment season. The result is that my stomach is no longer tied in knots about money (for the first time in years), but I am getting incredibly busy and TIRED! The yard and gardens have been showing it. Once I gave in to the temptation of all-day air-conditioning, that didn't help either! I took a sobering look at the place yesterday and resolved to get down to business! So I weeded everything in sight today! I ruthlessly finished yanking out the Trip L Crops and I went on a wonderful treasure hunt for Rutgers tomatoes nestled happily in the tangled wilderness that was once so carefully maintained. The two huge baskets of round, red, luscious tomatoes helped ease the guilt of having been so laissez faire about weeding and keeping up with staking the veggies. Now a bit sparse, but tidy, the veggie garden is navigable, even with the several pumpkins growing there. There are still green beans, Malabar Spinach, basil, anchos, at least a dozen Rutgers and several new starts that will now have homes. My dog, Wilbur, decided that the new spaciousness of the garden meant the old rule of staying out of the garden must not apply! OH YES IT DOES! He was quite adorable, though. Spiffy and Charlotte remembered the rules and stayed at the edge. Good girls! The herb garden should have been harvested at least twice now. At least it's weeded again. I usually make a HUGE mess in the kitchen when I bring the herbs in and dry them. There just hasn't been time, what with the daycare parents expecting the place to be tidy and all!!!!! I'll make time soon. Luckily I can continue to dry the tomatoes, which has proven to be a very easy and non-messy process. The hard part is having some left after my son and I snack on them! Blackberries are still in need of daily vigilance. Soon I'll actually be able to save some for jam! The persimmon tree has three persimmons on it! Please, squirrels, don't eat them! The figs are going full tilt, so they'll be the next thing to dry. This is the time of the year when I resolve to stay on top of things through the dog days of summer next year. Here's hoping! This blog entry has been viewed 321 times
A Sad End to a Great Friendship
Category: Sharing the Joy with Others | Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:17 pm A horrible accident befell our butterflies yesterday, on the day they were to be released. It's so sad. I had been acclimating them to the outdoors by putting them near outside or actually outside in a shaded area. My daycare kids and I had studiously prepared ourselves for the honor of being their care givers. We watched the instructional video that came with the caterpillar kit. We kept referring to the little information pamphlet. We even googled information on Painted Ladies butterflies. We even kept logs of their progress! As usual, I had lovingly set the butterflies outside...this time on the front porch. It gets very little sun in the early part of the day and, when the sun got to the point of being direct they would have been protected under the table that sits there. Kyle (my 8 year old nephew), worried about his little friends, moved them to a shady spot by the front door. This spot only stays shady for a short time. A couple of hours later, while heading out to check the mail in the 90 plus degree heat, I exclaimed in horror that they were dead. (They were all exposed to the sun and laying on the bottom of the little "butterfly hotel.") Of course I realized instantly that I shouldn't have let Kyle hear that. So, I did the only thing I could. I said I'd open the habitat outside and leave them in a shady place to recoup...."Perhaps they were just stunned." Then I quietly and gently placed them in the mint garden to 'rest in peace', being careful to hide them. The next part is just short of LYING! I came inside and proudly showed Kyle the empty butterfly habitat. He assumed they had recouped and flown off. I plan to let him believe that because it would devastate him to know he caused their demises. He was riddled with guilt as it was. We did, however have a serious talk about checking with the grown up at all times about whether or not an action will be safe or not. I did so wish they could have had their freedom. What do they say about good intentions and roads? Last edited: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:20 pm This blog entry has been viewed 298 times
Dog Days of Summer? Depends on Your Perspective!
Category: Getting Back to My Roots | Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2009 8:10 pm I just can't let go of my summer garden, not that most of it needs it yet. Some of my neighbors are losing interest and abandoning theirs already, especially now that it's getting so hot. My cucumbers, however, have finally gotten sick enough (and I've finally gotten sick enough of fresh cucs) that I was able to ruthlessly yank them out of the garden and replace them with some young runner bean plants that were waiting for their turn. I also transplanted some Malabar Spinach and lined the edge of the garden with my rather tall Poblano transplants and some Jalapenos. Presto changeo, the tangled mess of a jungle is starting to look civilized again! The tomatoes are coming in (big time), the sunflowers are bowing their full heads and the pumpkins and winter squashes are slowly starting to ripen. Very soon the summer squashes will vacate their spots for something else. All that's left is to (once again) tie in the tomato plants. My reward? All that weeding and digging made me VERY hungry, so I held a couple of tomatoes under the sprinkler and ate them like apples. MMMMMMMM! I walked by the blackberries and stopped for a moment to grab a few to pop into my mouth, then decided to peek at the fig trees. THEY HAD SOME FRUIT!!!! It's early, but three or four were ripe, so I ATE THEM TOO!! Before long we'll be making candied figs with a recipe (I googled it last year) that is over a hundred years old. That's when all self control goes out the window! Some of the blackberries were put aside for drying, along with some store bought blueberries and strawberries (catch a sale and its worth it). If you've never dried sliced strawberries, you should! It's easy and DELICIOUS! Last Christmas I gave gifts of dried herb blends. It's time to prep the herbs again, but this time I'd like to keep some for myself!!! You can google Mrs. Dash and Emeril's Essence recipes, as well as African Curry and Greek Seasoning. I'll be stocking the shelves with those, too. The perennial veggies I recently bought from the Canadian company are doing fine, too young to transplant, but adorable and full of promise! The kale, carrots and arugula are still doing okay, probably because they're in a partially shaded garden. I can't figure out why I have to force myself to mow the grass in this heat, but can spend half the day digging and weeding in the garden?! Last edited: Sun Aug 09, 2009 8:14 pm This blog entry has been viewed 245 times
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