IT'S NO CONTEST

The Bandit and I had a “staring contest” Sunday afternoon after I came in from working outside and got done with the week’s baking. 

 

As you can see there isn’t much on top of the computer desk right now. (So it took until spring cleaning to get the autumn garland put away; it was a nice touch of color in the corner.) 

She noticed the change right off and has been eying it. Note: She’s so darn big she can’t even sit on top of it and fit. And I don’t even want to think about twenty odd pounds of cat looking for a place to land after taking off from up there.

Lucky for me the top of the little stereo is overloaded with CD’s and DVD’s right now so she really didn’t have a good place to take off from anyway. The clutter is partly laziness and partly deterrence; there’s a squirrel highway between our house and neighbors.

Lucky had occupied my lap as soon as I sat down and was busy creating sawdust when I heard the wheels turning on the other side of the room. She looked up, I said “NO” and we looked at each other for awhile. “Hey, I’m comfortable, I can sit here and look at you all day. It’s not like I was planning to disturb your big sister here.” This happened a couple more times and Bandit decided to arrange herself on the desk and “nap” for awhile. When I caught her speculating the last time it was “you know darn well that if I have move Lucky to get the water bottle she is going to kick your butt.”

That seemed to work for for the moment, and she departed for more congenial pastures.

We may have to look through our supply of silk flowers and fill up that corner and make it look fuller than it is.

 

SPRING IS A LITTLE CLOSER

The red tulips out front are almost bloomed out while these little white ones are just coming on. They came as a set with the grape hyacinths. With luck the hyacinths will still be blooming while a few of the white comes come on.

The stepping stones are in. The rosemary is in the center of the paths. Brought around the parsley and winter savory that made it through the winter. The savory is behind the rosemary and with luck there will be a very pretty red cone flower blooming between the savory and the grass in the back. We need to pick up some basil, oregano and a couple of thymes to go with the golden steppable thyme in the background. It didn't want to plant that one until I got the others in. Poor thing might get squished.

The Japanese rushes, and the Boulder Blue fescue added to the flax. There's another little variegated grass but I don't remember the name. We have some primroses, too but I don't want to plant them until I have the herbs.Then we'll put down the soaker hoses and bark this section to hold in the moisture.

Next  step, the garden section. I see a shovel in the tea leaves. Lucky for me, part of that garden plot just needs to be spaded. Actually things are looking pretty good for this time of year. It's not even May yet.

And May means the primary election here in Oregon. Suddenly we are very popular. We have vote by mail, I'll worry about it when the time comes until then I'll try to avoid throwing things at the set when the political ads come on. Or when the Current Occupant shows up on the tube speculating on how our "stimulus" checks will be spent. And since he never anwers questions nobody gets to ask him how borrowing money to throw at our problems is supposed to help. I'd better not get started. :-P

SOME PROGRESS

In spite of the crappy weather we managed to make some progress in the back yard this week end. Very little has ever been done with this piece of the yard, so anything is an improvement.

The curbbing is in and the last stepping stones sort of where they'll be. I'm planning to continue the path, so it will probably need some tweeking.

The plans for the stones in the flower bed started out as a circle, morphed to tight cross and just didn't look happy. Opted for a looser plan. They'll act as an informal border to each bed. This will house the plantings for kitchen herbs and maybe some dwarf sunflowers. At least for this year. We'll see what the yard has to tell us when we get that far. Oh, and I have a very nice Tuscan rosemary that will go in the center of the stones. The grass in the back is going to be moved closer to the pavers.

Somebody painted that retaining wall red once upon a time. I think we'll plant some more ivy along the wall, being careful to confine it to the wall. Anything to cool off all that lovely concrete during high summer.

View looking north off the back deck. Ah mud, lovely mud. They're as level as I could get them this morning. I have only so much love for mud pies and thirty degree temperatures.

At least the heavy stuff is done. Once we get the rosemary plant in the center we can get postioning finalized. The green, snowy clumps are blue bell flowers. If we can find the plants mom would like to alternate them with chamomile and alyssum. The alyssum can be white or purple and Roman chamomile looks like tiny daisies; looking forward to it.

And it's freaking hailing........again.

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THIS was the view off our front porch at about 6:45 this morning. 6:45 AM on the morning of April 20th. We had about an inch of snow. I have never, ever seen snow this low this late. Those tulips looked awfully cold. Of course by nine or so it was all gone, for which I was very grateful.

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APRIL BRRRRRR!

Last Saturday it got to 81 degrees. And this is what we woke up to this morning.

A light dusting of April snow. I've seen winters that never snowed th whole year and here we had a light dusting of snow this morning.

And this was the view off the porch about noon today. Not snow, hail. Some of it was the size of a large pea. Totally weird weather for the weekend.

BLESS ME FATHER FOR I TOTALLY SPACED OUT

I have been reminded that I totally spaced out on about five of the most intense years of my life. There was this Little Bakery in the Mall. Also known as Le Chatel. I got long hours, sore feet, and the assurance to know that one way or another the JOB WILL GET DONE. And probably the scariest day of my life was the first time I baked on the day after Thanksgiving. If you can make it through food service on Black Friday, you can do just about anything.

I also found a good friend. Bless you Lisa.

I'VE BEEN TAGGED

Cin  was tagged by Amy and then she tagged me, so here goes.

 

What was I doing ten years ago?

 

Taking computer classes and looking for a new job. Ended up with a local auto/RV dealership. And I’ve been there ever since.

 

What five things on my list of things to do tomorrow?

 

1. Driving to work.
2. I have a co worker with a recurrence of cancer so I’m doing another shawl.
3. Work on the plant list for the backyard.
4. Tease the cats.
5. Work on the endless to be read book list. Current favorite, The Herb Lovers Handbook.

 

Snacks I enjoy:

 

So many yummies so little time. Dark chocolate, dried cranberries, spiced tea..

 

Bad Habits:

 

I’m not sure it’s a bad habit, but I’d rather read or knit than move. And with a laptop I can knit and surf at the same time. Oh well.

 

What would I do if were suddenly a billionaire?

 

All my nephews would besure of their college educations. After that, I’m not sure, but I think there would be a lot of donations to the local schools.

 

Five places I have lived:

 

I guess I’m a real home body. Oakridge <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Oregon and Springfield Oregon. And they’re only thirty eight miles apart.

 

Five jobs I have had:

 

1. Picked beans in high school
2. Child care
3. Answering service
4. Hickory Farms pushing cheese and crackers
5. Paper herder (accounting office at the dealership)

 

Ok, Cin. Hmmm, I guess I’ll tag Lisa.

SLIGHTLY MORE COHERENT

Ok, I’m a little more coherent today. It seems like I’m either working, knitting (no matter how hard I try I can’t knit and type at the same time), gardening, sleeping or leafing through a half dozen books on herbs or perennials. Not necessarily in that order and realizing why so many people stick with rhodies and juniper. It may be boring but it’s easy. But, nobody in this family ever took the easy way to anything. There is so much to learn. A life times worth it looks like.

It did sink in this weekend that the key to peaceful coexistence of bread baking and gardening is “start the bread first.” And put it in the chilliest corner of the kitchen to do its thing. It does its thing and you do yours.

Then all you have to worry about is making sure you punch the dough down before it totally escapes from the bowl and comes looking for you. Now there’s a picture; a yeasty version of the Michelin Man roaming free in the garden. ;-)

You can cut cheese into cute little cubes and dice little green onions whether you’re standing or sitting. (I would decide that it was time for cheese and onion bread this week.) So I’m slicing, dicing, finishing off the last of the chicken stir fry, snagging the odd cube of cheese or bit of onion, and just as happy as can be. Ok, my lower back was a little sore. That’s why I was sitting down.

Held back about twelve ounces of the dough for a homemade pizza. Mostly veggies, a tiny bit of diced salami and no mozzarella. I think I’ve figured out what all the cheese for. It protects the toppings at high temperatures. Ok, next time the salami goes on first and gets covered by the tomatoes. Goddess I’m looking forward to home grown tomatoes again. And I’m not sure if I’m making pizza or a really fancy foccacia. No mozzarella, just lots of freshly shredded parmesan and asiago.

And stone, shmone. I’ve been using a big iron griddle. I get everything prepped, stick the griddle in the preheated oven, get the dough and topping on the oven temp griddle. (really good hot pads are key here, and for heaven’s sake don’t forget the blasted thing came out of a four hundred degree oven) and bake. This seems to warm the dough and start the rising process right away. This weeks' came out with a wonderfully crisp crust.

Are the results as good as a baking stone. I don't really know. What I do know is that trying to get raw dough and toppings off the peel and onto the stone without totally cooling off the oven, or losing half the project off the peel and onto the oven floor, was more trouble than it was worth. Besides, that griddle is much easier to store when I'm not using it.

Oh, and the leftovers are very handy later in the week when mom would rather be getting her hands dirty outside instead of inside.

I THINK I'M TIRED

This entry isn't going to be terribly eloquent or even very coherent. I'm blissfully tired.

A couple of years ago, we did this in the back yard on the north side. Frankly I don't know where those huge pier blocks came from. I think they were there when we bought the place.

Some grasses, some rushes, a flax and the silvery shrubs were santolina. The santolina never really did work out. If you don't keep trimming them they get all floppy and while I don't mind trimming things to keep them neat, this stuff doesn't look like much when it is trimmed.  

In transition. Got rid of the big concrete blocks left over from the big deck. Things had gotten pretty messy by this spring. So,

phase one the make over. We either pulled or moved everything, put in the preliminary path and the rock border. I put in about four hours this weekend. When we first started out about a month ago I could do about two hours and be flat for the rest of the weekend, so every weekend it gets better. I've basically been bopping around all weekend. I'll get some more pictures this week. Right now the bed has the big New Zealand flax and a row of bell flowers. I'm thinking alyssum (white) behind the border and we have a truck load (almost) of land scape strawberries that need new homes. They'll do until we have time (and spare change) to put in some different ground covers around the stepping stones. The other plants will hold in pots until this weekend when I can finish and get them back in the ground.

It hit eighty plus Saturdy. Warmest it's been in six months and it lasted exactly one day. But, considering that it's mid April, the yard is looking pretty good. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out as we go. I'd have taken more shots of the work in progress, but frankly I was too pooped. LOL

Mom got her white candy tuft in this afternoon. The plan was to put them along the path as a border. The four plants apparently had their own ideas and only looked happy when they were in a semi circle. Who's running this garden anyway? That leaves room for a pink andromeda that is NOT HAPPY where it is by the house. I think it't too wet for it so with luck it will be happier with more sun and drier "feet."

More from the plant wars later.

THE MEME CONTINUED

This was fun. Reminded me of flicks I haven't seen in years. Saw Planet of the Apes when it first came out. Might be fun to do again.

 

1.      What we have here, is a failure to communicate. The prison superintendent in Cool Hand Luke.

 

2.      It’s a revolution, dammit! We’re going to have to offend somebody! A very irritated John Adams in 1776.

 

3.      But, John. But if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists.  Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park.

 

4.      What don't you understand? I found the cure for the fucking plague of the twentieth century and now I've lost it. Haven't you ever lost anything doctor Bronx? Your purse? Your car keys? Well, it's rather like that: Now you have it and now you don't.   Robert Campbell in Medicine Man.

 

5.      I think that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos. Sir Thomas Moore in A Man for All Seasons

 

6.      Doesn't matter what it was. When one man says to another, "I know what let's do today, let's play the war game."... everybody dies. A Polish allied general in A Bridge Too Far

 

7.      You know those five thousand ships you say the Allies haven't got? Well, they've got them! A German officer on the cliffs in Normandy in The Longest Day

 

8.      Play it, Sam. Play "As Time Goes By." Ilse in Casablanca

 

9.      Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many. Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring

 

10.  The fires of Isengard will spread, and the forests of Tuckborough and Buckland will burn. And all that was once great and good in this world will be gone. There won't *be* a Shire, Pippin. Merry in The Two Towers

 

11.  Certainty of death, *small* chance of success... What are we waiting for?  Gimli in Return of the King

 

12.  Good night and good luck.  Edward R Murrow in Good Night and Good Luck

 

13.  Whenever I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always. Mahatma Gandhi in Gandhi

 

14.  Name a shrub after me - something prickly and hard to eradicate. Captain Jack Aubrey in Master and Commander

 

15. I know, I know. We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can't You choose someone else? Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof

 

16. Oh my God. I'm back. I'm home. All the time, it was... We finally really did it.  You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!  Astronaut Taylor in Planet of the Apes.

 

I think my favorite on the list is the one from Jurassic Park. LOL

 

A MOVIE MEME

I don’t do memes very often. But this one looked like fun. Got it from Russ’s journal. The rules are per Russ.

* Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
* Go to IMDB (imdb.com) and find a quote from each movie.
* Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.
* Fill in the film title once it’s been guessed.

1.      What we have here, is a failure to communicate. 

 

2.      It’s a revolution, dammit! We’re going to have to offend somebody!

 

3.      But, John. But if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists. 

 

4.      What don't you understand? I found the cure for the fucking plague of the twentieth century and now I've lost it. Haven't you ever lost anything doctor Bronx? Your purse? Your car keys? Well, it's rather like that: Now you have it and now you don't.   

 

5.      I think that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos. 

 

6.      Doesn't matter what it was. When one man says to another, "I know what let's do today, let's play the war game."... everybody dies. 

 

7.      You know those five thousand ships you say the Allies haven't got? Well, they've got them!

 

8.      Play it, Sam. Play "As Time Goes By."

 

9.      Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many. 

 

10.  The fires of Isengard will spread, and the forests of Tuckborough and Buckland will burn. And all that was once great and good in this world will be gone. There won't *be* a Shire, Pippin.

 

11.  Certainty of death, *small* chance of success... What are we waiting for? 

 

12.  Good night and good luck. 

 

13.  Whenever I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always. 

 

14.  Name a shrub after me - something prickly and hard to eradicate. 

 

15.  I know, I know. We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can't You choose someone else? 

 

16. Oh my God. I'm back. I'm home. All the time, it was... We finally really did it.  You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

 

I tossed in an extra one just for the heck of it.I'm not sure what this selection of films says about me.  It's eclectic as heck. I avoided the oldest ones in the library, even I probably wouldn't recognize them. Good Luck. I'll post the answers later in the week.