Saturday, April 25, 2009

Garden Updates and John's Magnificent, Organized Garage

Well, it's OUR garage, but he did an incredible job organizing the thing. See:

From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos


We, in keeping the economy alive, bought a carload of containers at The Container Store for the task. John also created labels on our Brother PTouch.

From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos


A couple of weeks ago, we also went to the storage shed and picked up all the plant-pot boxes. There were quite a few items in those boxes that are now on my local Freecycle.org page (old yarn plant hangers, old hanging baskets, etc.). All those pots will soon be filled with the little seedlings quickly growing in my office.

From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos


This is a great area for someone like John who winds up doing all kinds of projects requiring specific tools.

From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos


Remember the other custom pull-out cabinet John made for the kitchen? This one is very specific to the workshop in the garage. We bought magnetized jars and I labeled them while we sorted out their contents. Mind you, the sorting process took quite some time.

That's enough of the garage. Suffice to say, it looks great and helps make everything a lot easier to find and manage.

OK, now for the riot of color that is my garden. Because you probably know all these, I won't clutter them with words.

From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos


From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos


From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos


From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos


From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos


From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos


From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos


From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos


From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos


From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos

Saturday, April 18, 2009

A Hilariously Terrible Orchestra

From March 2009 Recipes, Reviews and Other Photos


Do you recognize the Scottish gentleman playing the Sousaphone (looks like a small tuba) in the lower center of the photo above? If you don't, he is Alexander McCall Smith, famed author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency book series (as well as several other brilliant book series).

McCall Smith immortalized the wacky Really Terrible Orchestra in his Isabel Dahlousie books and joined them for a great night at Town Hall in New York. My mother and I were lucky enough to see their New York performance during Tartan Week (a couple of weeks ago). We had excellent seats in the balcony of Town Hall, with a very good view of the stage.

From March 2009 Recipes, Reviews and Other Photos


Later, during the audience participation portion of the evening, we discovered that we had even better seats than we originally thought. The people visiting from Scotland sitting in front of us were incredible singers, especially the woman directly in front of me. She definitely could have been a professional. I had to stop singing just to enjoy her performance as well as the orchestra's.

The musicians were hardly terrible, but very funny. You could hear the quality of the playing during the original song "Mma Ramotswe" as well as in the classic "Highland Cathedral" -- both done beautifully.

The playing was broken up by a pretty long interview with McCall Smith, but he and the interviewer said the orchestra needed a break. We learned a few things about him as well as the orchestra during the interview.

Finally, I'm really happy to have been able to experience this with my mother. She and I saw McCall Smith on a previous book tour (at the Cooper Union), but this was another, completely different, yet entertaining evening. She and I enjoy reading McCall Smith's novels and passing them back and forth. We always have plenty to talk about as it is, but this is like we have our own little book club.

Most of all, I'm grateful that I get to spend time with Mom. Many of my friends either no longer have their moms in their lives or they don't get along. Lucky for John and me that we have our moms and we very much enjoy spending time with them.

I hope that the Really Terrible Orchestra returns for another concert or takes their show on the road in the United States. I'll bet there will be many happy audiences.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Garden Updates

From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos


I always forget how much I enjoy the primulae when they welcome spring in my front garden. It's not just the grape contrasted against the deep new green leaves, it's more of the waking up feeling I get when I lock the door and look to my left to see these wonderful flowers greeting me. And, it's always the purples first. Then come the reds and yellows, and finally the whites and pinks. The primulae last a long time, then die down during the hottest parts of the summer, only to resume blooming during the nasty cold rains of fall. A wee bright spot in the rough weather.

From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos


The other very exciting change to the gardens is due to my hero, John. He's systematically replacing the ugly plastic edging (which, by the way, I freecycled recently) with these lovely yellow cement borders. We were challenged by the slope of the property and the extremely rocky (read poor) soil. However, the biggest plot is now fancily outfitted with the cement borders while the smaller plots await our digging and malletting.

From April 2009 Recipes, Reviews, and other photos

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Sprouting Seeds in My Home Office

From March 2009 Recipes, Reviews and Other Photos


That's how things looked on March 22, when I took the big plastic sweater containers I'd been keeping under the bed and filled them with peat pots, wet compost, and flower seeds. These containers are now sitting on John's cedar chest in my office by the very sunny, southwestern exposure window.

From March 2009 Recipes, Reviews and Other Photos


After a couple of weeks of keeping these guys pretty moist and warm, I now have sprouts!

From March 2009 Recipes, Reviews and Other Photos


Mind you, not all of the seeds have germinated yet, but it's safe to say that at least 2/3 of them have little green seedlings peeking up over the compost, reaching toward the light.

I ordered most of the seeds from Park's Seeds, but some I just picked up in the $1 bin at the grocery store. Here's just a partial list:

1. Coleus
2. Calendula
3. Astilbe
4. Aster (2 varieties)
5. Lobelia
6. Dianthus
7. Coreopsis
8. Campanula (one of my favorites)
9. Aquilegia
10. Marigolds
11. Gypsophila
12. Statice
13. Larkspur

I can't wait to plant them! In the meantime, John and I have a big project ahead of us replacing the very ugly plastic garden borders with some nice concrete edging that will match the color of the house. I'm not looking forward to that. However, it's been raining a lot, so the earth should be very soft for digging.

What are you planting this season? Are you starting any seeds indoors?