America

What if George Washington had been killed during the revolution? What if America never existed? I'm looking forward to this film in the summer.

Spring 2014 Garden Diary, Post 4

Today I planted another section of Bed #4 in Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach, about a 2' x 5' bed.  I've not had good luck with spinach in the past, and I just don't know why I can't seem to grow it.  I pre-soaked the seeds, so maybe that will give them a better start.  We'll see.

Then I put in the two artichoke plants that survived - I had four but two of them just shriveled up and died in their little pots - no idea why, I don't have much (any) experience with this plant, but the two that are left still look healthy. The variety is called Green Globe.  We'll see how it does.

Yesterday I planted the ten Jersey Supreme asparagus roots that I've had in my fridge for the past month - I followed a tutorial from YouTube! They look a little like some kind of sea creature, don't they?

The peas that I planted last week are already showing up, along with some very tiny beets and a few chard plants -- just poking their heads up from the soil.  Can you see the row of peas here?

Finished up by trimming back one of my sage plants that's gotten totally out of hand.  They like a good hair cut occasionally, a good dose of plant food and watering.  Then I trimmed off the tender ends of the plant for the kitchen - hanging in the pantry room until they dry. They smell just glorious.

It's supposed to start raining tomorrow, so I'll probably have to wait until next week to continue on. I wish this cold weather would move on!

Need a little update on baby Joss?!

Beautiful and expressive, right?!

What I'm Reading --- Cemetery Dance

I've been listening to this book by the writing team of Preston and Child, the 9th in the series.  I've been a big fan of these two since I saw a movie made from one of their earlier books, Relic.  They follow a cast of characters that include special agent of the FBI, Aloysius Pendergast, and NYPD Lt. Vincent D'Agosta.  These two have worked cases throughout most of this series -- and I just love the chemistry these two have. Since then I've read two others, Mount Dragon and Fever Dream.

This one has it all -- voodoo, the walking "dead", one of the regular cast of this series is killed off at the very beginning (no spoilers here!) and a secret cult killing animals as sacrifice in the smack middle of Manhattan.  When the neighbors of this creepy villa start complaining of the noises, the mystery begins.  Very entertaining.  I highly recommend you start at the beginning, though, it helps to build the relationships between everyone if you read the earlier works first. Start with Relic. Most of these books are set in the Museum of Natural History, a fantastic place to find mystery.

Training has commenced!

Okay, we've officially had enough of "bad" dog, Sydney.  We are starting training now - first step is to teach her to stop jumping on us all the time. John and I are walking around with a few pages of rolled up newspaper all the time now, so when she jumps up, she gets reminded, "down!"  She's got to learn some manners!

I love this little face!

Spring 2014 Garden Diary, Post 3

Darn this cold weather.  On the one nice warm day we had, I did get part of Bed#5 in.  Green Macerata Cauliflower, De Cicco Broccoli and Early Flat Dutch Cabbage went in, some that I started early, and some directly sown in.  All of these plants can take some freezing weather.

 On these cold days, I put together my seed mats for Bed#4.  These are several lettuces:

• Romaine, Jericho
• Black Seeded Simpson
• Crisphead Batavian, Sierra
• Crisphead Batavian, Tennis Ball

And I'm doing 1/4th of this bed in these Siamese Dragon Stir Fry veggies that can be used in salads, too. The packet didn't tell me which specific veggies these are, so it's going to be kind of fun to look them up as they grow and find out what I have here.

The Swiss Chard that I've had in the green house all winter are still going strong.  I cut these back to the base a few weeks ago and they've just grown again like crazy.

I made all the plant markers today while it was cold out.  There's always something to do!