the Deck Garden





half-drowned forget-me-nots

We've had days and days of rain here. There are usually a few hours each day where there is no rain, and there may even be sunshine. Occasionally we even have a whole day of fine weather--inevitably, though, it would be a day when I didn't have time to garden. Either that or I was out of dirt. Growing up, you just couldn't run out of dirt because we had a whole huge backyard--dirt everywhere. Here, though, the backyard is just a little bigger than my office at work and the deck is about 2x the size of my office.

So, deck garden. With dirt imported from the nearest garden department that day.



I actually found some potting soil in the basement that had been left by the previous tenants, but it wasn't quite enough for me to finish planting things. It took a couple weeks for the dirt and the sunshine to allign, and they finally did this Saturday. I finished planting my flowers (a whole windowbox worth of begonias, plus the forget me nots and some blue salvia) and upgraded my cilantro (it was very grateful).

I'm slowly realizing that, like Shasta Daisies, the cilantro is happiest when I regularly harvest leaves. Regardless of what I'm cooking I try to go out periodically and harvest some cilantro and put it in the fridge to keep my little plant fat and happy. Seems to be working. I think I'll do that with the indoor chives, too.


half finished project and the final bag of dirt

I get an enormous amount of satisfaction from walking onto my deck, now. I don't have a vegetable garden (maybe next year) but I have some very happy herbs (who, thankfully, have been doing well with the regular deluges) and some very happy flowers.

However the squirrels like to bury their nuts in my winter onions so I brought that pot close to the house to discourage such unseemly behavior....If you visit me and you happen to meet a squirrel with onion breath you'll know that it's because he pulled up the wrong thing from his stash on my deck.

Pilgrimage.

I should have posted this ages ago! But I forgot, sorry! It's been that busy. April was a bit of a mess, and then when I turned the calendar to May the whole month was full before I even got there.
 

peach blossoms



I worked the MassHope homeschool conference for work--which meant work flew me north--and then Nick and his brother drove up and we all spent Sunday with my folks.

We introduced my brother in law to the Uconn Dairy Bar. I almost forgot about the Dairy Bar. Almost every time I'm in my old Connectiwegia home I beg my family to take me to the Dairy Bar. I've only found one place to get decent local ice cream down south (all the cows around here are beef cattle, I love steak and all, but beef cattle just don't make ice cream).

We almost didn't have the time--being there for only one day and having quite a bit of furniture to stuff into my in-laws 15 passenger van (generously on loan for this trip). 

The men folk wrestled with the furniture while Mom and I putzed around the garden (Mom let me dig some of her mint, lemon balm, winter onion, and garlic leaks!)

 Grape Hyacynth:

Finally, the furniture was tied up so it couldn't escape, and it was ice cream time.

The line was out the door when we arrived.



can you find them?

  It only took 15 minutes for them to blaze through the line, though. Very impressive. Great service, and great ice cream. It doesn't get much better than that.

 We had to rush off as soon as we got our scoops of creamy goodness so that we could meet some friends we were having over to dinner. But the ice cream escapade was soooo incredibly worth it.

So were the friends.

And the rushing around.

And the furniture.

And the family.

Yeah, it was pretty much just a good trip all around.

New Toy

We got a grill! Technically, this was an April developement--and yes, this is May now--but we almost immediately hit a spat of cold and wet weather. Figures. Still, our little propane grill is a much delighted-in addition to our home. Nick is quite good with it. We also just got a couple other pieces of furniture from my folks.  Since this week is packed to the gills, you won't see pictures for a while because the new pieces are a bit scattered and "in the middle" of things with nothing on them/in them and nothing in it's right place. We'll get there, though. Eventually. It's very exciting to get new things, so I chafe until I can play with them. Just like a little kid, I guess.

one year since...

...Nick acted so random I never caught on that it was all intentional.

 ...since he bought haagen daz and had spoons in the car and insisted on "trespassing" and having a picnic in a vineyard in the dead of night so that he could propose under the stars. And it's things like that...that made me fall in love with him.
one thing leads to another:

 and another:

and another:

 and another:

One year since the adventure began to begin in earnest.

Chicken Curry

I've made this recipe 2 or 3 times now, and it's been wonderful every time! It's from Taste of Home, the cookbook my mother gave me before my wedding. It is definitely my favorite cookbook. I have no idea how "Indian" this particular curry recipe is, since it doesn't really taste like/act like the Indian currys I remember having.  But it tastes really, really good, so I'm keeping it, regardless of authenticity.

Ingrediants:

 Chopped carrots, broccoli, scallions, diced garlic. 1 cup Chicken broth, 1 T corn starch, and 1 T soy sauce-plus 2 tsps of curry powder and 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes make the sauce. And of course, cubed chicken.
I cooked the chicken first, then swapped it out for the carrots and garlic.  Adding the broccoli and scallions last. Oddly, the sauce came next, and then the chicken.

 It boils and thickens up quick like a bunny:

 And hopefully you remembered to start rice sometime before starting sauteing things, so you could serve the curry chicken over tasty Jasmine rice. (It's taken years, but I've finally started to remember the rice more often than not)
Nick's verdict? "Can we have curry every night?"

the sweet sound of success.
-The Lady

In like a lion, out like a lion

This March has been very busy!  We've hosted friends from school for a long weekend, and then my folks for a little over a week.  We also went to an International Defense Pistol Assoc. competition, and of course, there are the night classes, the work, the horse-back riding, writing, and housework that we always have going on.

We had some gloriously warm days in mid March, but the muddy month has returned to its winter ways as it hands over the reins to April. We'll see if April will pursue the "flowers" or "showers" route...

In the mean time here are some pictures from Saturday's adventuring:

 it was far too cold Saturday morning. And far too early.

 IDPA specializes in creating situations/scenarios for you to shoot through--including having to use "cover" and move from cover to cover, crouch, use your weak hand only, or shoot from a prone position, things like that. The idea is to teach you how to shoot in realistic situations, so that should the occasion arise you can defend your life, or the lives of those you love without endangering innocents.

 After you shoot through a specific "set" the range is made safe, and then everyone toddles down front to see how you did--if you hit the target where you are supposed to, etc.  Points are tallied, and then the targets are patched up for another round.


patching up the target

Each set is also timed.

 Did I mention that it was cold?

Here is an example of close quarters shooting (I'm 6' from the targets):

 After freezing our little fingers off from about 9:30am-2pm we went to Uncle Frank and Aunt Joanie's house for soup and refreshing, and to clean our pistols. We also warmed up by playing with the 1 year old Springer Spaniel, Dandy, who loves to be chased.

Dandy

 After dinner Nick and I headed back home to our little big house and crawled into bed for some much needed sleep under our nice cozy covers.  Because March missed the "out like a lamb" memo.

Sp-ring fe-ver

It's the time of year when I itch to be re-finishing the odds and ends of furniture I've accumulated. When I want to pull allll the books off the shelves in our library and work in the two boxes of my books that Mom and Dad just brought down to me. When I want to hang curtains, rearrange decorations, make home decor, and plant flowers.

At least we DID get to hang curtains.  The furniture will have to wait, though. As will the flowers and veggies. April comes quickly enough.

More Visiting! Green Grass, Curtains and Coffee

Recently, our place has been a haven for the winter beleagered!

Mom and Dad--that is, Abby's Mom and Dad--have come south for a visit! Proving to themselves that snow does not in fact cover the entire earth. We even have green grass and flowers:


green grass (and a dog, but he's not ours)

The sun has made several appearances, and we've even opened windows in our long little house.  Mom and I have gotten in some lovely girl time (shopping, coffee shops, more shopping, etc.) I tried Starbuck's new cocoa cappuchino (iced) but was unimpressed with their grainy rendition of chocolate. It was good, but it wasn't great. It looked cool though:

The men have generously played with drills, hammers, screws and such:



This is them feeling self conscious because I've been hovering around taking pictures



 Our master bedroom has taken large steps this weekend toward looking respectable. Curtains go a long way when it comes to communicating habitation beyond the transient dorm room feel.

After all that work hanging curtains we had steak for dinner and watched Live Free Or Die Hard. Don't worry, Mom and I spent the first half of the day at JoAnn's purusing the clearance and making shrewd use of coupons, so it wasn't an entirely manly day.
;-)
Not that I'd mind, being a bit of a tomboy.

-The Lady