Keep on Surfing. This is Not a Real Post.

Okay, nobody has swine flu. We did hose down the library and put out gallons of hand sanitizer. I have got to break myself of licking my fingertips to help separate papers.

I found an artist for my claradendron tattoo.

Maybe tomorrow I will have enough material for a real post. Possibly something about the care and maintenance of carnivorous plants. Stay tuned.

It was a Dark and Stormy Night

No, really, it is a dark and stormy night. The weather dudes are predicting floods. As any good mother would do, I heated up frozen pizzas for dinner tonight. The dog even went on self feed and ate straight from the bag. I tried to get a picture, but as you may know, Abby is camera shy. She has learned what the thing sounds like when I turn it on and runs away. Silly dog. Hopefully, we will not be under water by morning and I can post on some flower or another. They are shutting down schools and canceling sporting events around here because of that pig virus. Wouldn't you know it, Baby Monkey has a cough. Dude, you do not have swine flu, seriously.

Anyway, stay dry.

Wonder Where He Gets it From?

I didn't feel like cooking tonight so Teenage Monkey made grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for dinner. I wandered outside and found that my Mexican Bird of Paradise is blooming
 
 
I came back inside and found Teenage Monkey doing this. Sandwich flipping. None landed on the ground. I think we may have another man cook in the making.

Maybe I've Gone a Little Overboard

It is raining, so I am indoors doing a little garden planning. This is an exercise in how much stuff I can cram into my little garden. So I started a list and now I am a little afraid.

Vegetables;
Peppers - Habenero, jalapeno, Serrano, chili pequino, sweet bell.
Swiss chard
Lettuce - red, freckles, oak leaf, green leaf, and endive.
Onion - Red, white, yellow
Carrots - Nantes
Tomatoes - Old German, Russian black krim, yellow pear, Avivvi, san marzano, celebrity, green zebra, sweet 100, Mr. Stripey, Ladino di Panacchio, early girl and better boy.
Collards
Squash - Zucchini, yellow crock neck, ronde de nice, some other sort of heirloom zucchini that is light green, acorn squash
Corn - Not popcorn, not this year. Just sweet corn.
Yard long beans and red noodle beans
Sugar snap peas
Potatoes - Yukon gold and sweet potato
Okra
tomatillo
Black eyed peas
Water melon

Herbs
Dill
Rosemary
Sage
Lemon Balm
Lemon Verbena
Basil - sweet and lemon
Thyme - English and lemon
Lemon grass
parsley
thyme
Mexican mint marigold
fennel
Comfrey

I won't even try to list the perennial and annuals that are inter planted amongst the food.

Nightmare on My Street

 
 
I love to sleep. It is one of the things I do best. Because I get plenty of sleep, I remember a lot of my dreams. Last night I had a doozy. It was about the garden - imagine that. The whole thing was overgrown and lush, pretty much what it looks like each July. There was a beautiful mystery vine covering a little shed, that I do not have. Inspiration maybe. Then came the nightmare part. Everywhere I touched there was poison ivy. Vibrant, beautiful, red stemmed and horrifying. The whole garden was overrun with it.

After I woke up this morning and made coffee, I checked out the garden. Sure enough, in the usual places, poison ivy was starting to grow again. This afternoon, I will go outside with plastic shopping bags and pull the stuff up. The technique is simple and effective. Simply place the plastic bag over your hand, grab the weed and pull it out. Now turn the bag inside out and throw the noxious weed away. Ta-da poison ivy does not touch skin.

This is the only reason I would throw out plastic bags. I use reusable bags, but I cannot get Manly to do it. Instead of letting him throw out the bags, I save them to recycle or use them to carry my give away veggies. I have to make an exception when it comes to poison ivy. The stuff is evil and I must protect myself.

Do you have a poison ivy removal technique?

I Married Well

 
 
 
 

Fridays are officially my favorite day. Both Manly Man and I have the day off and the Monkeys are in school.

I have a confession, I am not the best cook in this house. Now I can cook, but Manly can COOK. Today he made chicken fajitas. It takes hours and hours for him to prepare fajitas. The chicken is marinated for at least four hours. It takes more than an hour for the onions to caramelize. The peppers are roasted and sauteed. This stuff is gooood. We ate very well tonight. Middle Monkey walked in, took a sniff, and asked, "fajitas again?" Then he exclaimed "SWEEEET."

Yes, that is a picture of Manly tossing peppers in a skillet. If I tried that, there would be peppers all over the kitchen floor.

Don't hate me because my man cooks.

Great Day at the Outdoor Education Center

I survived and nobody was buried in the bog. Thanks for you support and concern.

The Outdoor Education Center worked like a charm as a classroom. The traffic was easy to manage as the path is an oval traveling the whole distance of the garden and back. The students came in groups of thirty or so. We broke the talk into short explanations of garden plots and plants by me and then a man explained rain water harvesting, our water shed and the mechanics of the gardens. Then I took it back and talked about plants. Then another man talked about rain barrels. Then I talked about plants. finally a man talked about how rain gardens function. Silly boys, don't they know it is all about the plants. I really enjoyed myself. Only one kid asked if we grew pot. Another did not understand the word scented. She thought it was a verb or something. The question was, "How do you scented a plant?" I should have suggested she speak to her English teacher. Otherwise, they were bright kids and well mannered.

Sorry no pictures. I was too busy talking about plants.