Tuesdays, Year 3, Week 33

It's been a while since I have posted to my family and gardening blog!  An especially busy and hectic spring, along with a personal addiction to Huffington Post had me sidelined, but I will try to post at least weekly throughout the summer.  Today is the first official day of summer, and a grand day it is!  High 70's for temperature and a sunny sky with almost no clouds,a day for enjoying!

I picked my first spinach and arugula last week, and everything is growing well, except for the tomato plants, which have been deprived of sunshine for most of the month until now.  As it warms up, hopefully they will kick into growth and catch up.  The only one that is going great guns is the grape tomato plant which is covered with tiny green tomatoes.  The garlic is really amazing, some of the tops are as thick as my thumb, which means a good sized head coming on.  Two of four potato plants have popped through the dirt, so far, I have high hopes for them.  All my different varieties of lettuce are within days of picking, the fava beans are about 6 inches high, so eventually picking time will come.  I planted squash seed two weeks ago and they are also slow in showing themselves.  It's been an extremely slow, cool couple of months, so it remains to be seen just how much of a harvest this summer will bring.  My pepper plants are starting to branch out, so maybe blooms won't be too far behind!

The old man and I went for a short ride the other day, in the middle of a rain shower.  I can't remember when I last saw the desert as green as it is, with wildflowers blooming.  An unusually wet and prolonged spring did green things up...and kept me from cutting the wild grasses and dandelions as they grew huge. So, little by little, I need to get the jungle under control.  There are still pretty good sized patches of frozen snow drifts on top of White Mountain, usually they are melted by the middle of May.  Odd year!

Well that's it for now, I'm going to scoop myself a big bowl of vanilla ice cream and browse Huffington Post,  I guess as addictions go, that's a pretty harmless one!  Enjoy the longest daylight day of the year!

Fridays, Year 3, Week 27, Friday the 13th

Well, the most beautiful day in at least the past month!  Even got to sit in my zero-gravity chair until...get this...the sun got too hot to be comfortable.  Friday the 13th is always a lucky day for me, must be my old witchy karma! I have actually been able to do a small amount of planting, some lettuce, about 6 kinds and some arugula.  I also picked up some of those plastic things you fill with water, to protect my tomato and pepper plants.  They came in the mail from Oregon Thursday and now they are on the kitchen table waiting to be planted outdoors on Sunday.  I got shorted 2 tomato plants, the momotaro ones, so they will get here next week.  The moon will be in Scorpio, a water sign, so transplanting promises to be a lot of fun, especially with the moon in my sun sign!

I could hardly believe it, the temperature today was 74 degrees in the shade!  I have to put new cooling mats in my evaporative coolers and get them ready for use also.  I know we will still have some pretty cold days coming, but it was so good to have a warm one for a change.  The other day, when I went to Albertson's for a few things, they had their greenhouse up and I stepped inside just to be able to smell that sweet aroma of growing plants.  My favorite part of the year, gardening and being outdoors, that's living!

I had a little chat with one of the squirrels today, promising to add some nice peanuts to it's food if it would just QUIT digging up where I planted my lettuce.  She acted like she knew what I was saying, so I think we have a deal!  The garlic is about 4 to 5 inches high already, boy oh boy, what fun to see things start to get seriously green.

Time for me to have a supper snack, but I just had to let you know the gardening is finally getting to begin!

Sundays, Year 3, Week 25, Easter Day

Sheesh!  I just checked to see when I posted last time on my personal blog and it has been way over a month!  I get so involved in whatever is going on in the rest of the world, that time loses all meaning.  Guess that really is a signal of my advancing age, takes me longer to do things, and even longer to get around to it!  Anyway, it's Easter Day and the weather is unsettled, so my priority for today is to update my life!

That sounds way bolder than it really is...my daily chores are done and I have some time to reflect on the fact that even though Spring has officially sprung, it still hasn't made it to Rock Springs, Wyoming yet.  My garlic is coming up, but it's still way to cold to do much else, especially any planting!  The night time temperature was a brisk 25 degrees this morning and the weather forecast is for more of the same, so I guess it's just as well that my energy level is at zero.  Day before yesterday Mercury finally came out of retrograde, so my energy should improve over the next week.  I feel a little less bozoed out than I have felt for the last few weeks, so little by little, I expect to return to my normal bustling self!  The last few weeks have been a roller coaster ride of high and low barometric readings and my aching body has needed an extraordinary amount of heating pad time.  I like to be in tune with Nature, but at times it can be a pain to be a human barometer!  Poor me!

Enough of the pity pot...I have been following the liveblog from Libya on Al Jazeera...what the people of that country are going through in their quest for freedom from dictatorship makes my little aches and pains look minuscule.  Thousands have been killed and the stories can be heart-breaking, but also uplifting.  Each day brings them a little closer to their goal of freedom and I can't help but admire their courage and bravery.  In all my planetary books it says that the planets are aligning in the same ways that they were aligned back in the 1960's when all the social upheaval was going on, so my hope is that someday soon all the people of the planet will be able to achieve their personal freedom and pursue peace.  Putting myself in their place sure makes my problems look small!

On a personal note, my grandson and his family are leaving California to move to Vermont sometime in the next few months.  My granddaughter is getting divorced and despite having gone through a rough period of time, is having a blast competing in a roller derby league...I had a huge laugh watching the video!  My son and daughter-in-law are planning to visit her for her birthday in June.  Both my son and daughter-in-law are in good health, so what more could an old woman wish for?

Last, but definitely not least, The old man and I have made it through yet another long, long winter without killing each other, and miss kitty is napping next to me on her pillow while I post this.  I'm so happy that the monotony of winter is slowly sailing into the promise of spring and summer to come!  At this precise moment, the sun is shining in the window and making an otherwise gloomy day more enjoyable.  Maybe by my next post, the little buds on the trees and bushes will turn into leaves!  That would make this old broad happy indeed!

Saturday, Year 3, Week 19

Man oh man, tomorrow is the first day of spring! Not to say we probably won't have a few more snow storms, they can happen anytime in Wyoming, but at least we're past the worst of the winter. Of course around here, it is still to early to even contemplate planting anything yet, but as the days get nicer, I've got lots of work in the yard to get ready for the new season. What a wonderful challenge that is. Tonight is full moon, supposed to be a spectacular one, and I'm a happy camper to have made it through another long winter!

In fact, the old man has even been able to ride his bike a few times in the last week or so, so that always helps. Just to have him out of my hair and the tv off for a while each day makes it much nicer. He went down and bought a new tv a couple of days ago, one with all the bells and whistles, so he's got something new to complain about, the old one was from 1985,so this one is really different! He hates anything new, it's a challenge to him because the channels are all on different locations than before and he's such a Luddite! I'm thankful for my computer, I just put on my headphones and ignore him as he cusses at it for being new, even as he cussed at the old one for being old. It's been a long, long, long winter!

Just so you don't think that my attitude sucks, I have been deep into all the news happening all over the world. Each day brings me new found admiration for the courage of citizens of the globe...Japan took all Mother Nature had to throw at her and still is standing. I saw a picture of a group of Japanese people, sitting in a circle around a fire, reading their newspapers and trying to keep warm in the middle of a snow storm, what incredible folks they are. Makes me feel kind of humble and mildly spoiled rotten to be complaining about the old man and the weather. What courage in the midst of diversity...them, not me! I'm just an old, spoiled woman who likes her comfort.

Well, anyway, spring is coming soon so I should be able to post more often, as new exciting things become available to write about. Green, growing things, that is. I'm always excited to see things growing. At the beginning of December, I planted 5 bulbs in a pot by the kitchen window, they are about 5 inches tall now and should be putting out blooms in th next few weeks. That's when my new year will begin, when they bloom and I can finally put my hands in some warm dirt! Old gardeners never die, we just compost! See you next time, enjoy the full moon.

Sundays, Year 3, Week 16

Wow, I frittered almost the whole month of February away keeping tabs on the people's revolution in Egypt, Libya and the state of Wisconsin here in the U. S. of A.! When you are a news junkie like me, any news that takes my mind off of the current weather is a blessing. Today is partly sunny, partly cloudy and windier than hell, with a current temperature of 36 degrees. The barometer is slowly rising and is 29.67...this is the highest barometric reading of the week! The other night it was down to 29.45 and it has been super slow coming up. It makes me feel like I am carrying a bag of bricks on my shoulders when moving around. At least I'm not having any of the usual pain with it...exercising every day has kept me pretty limber!

We has a surprise visit before Super Bowl Sunday from my son and his wife who had flown up from Phoenix to watch the game at her sister's house up close to the Wind River Mountains. Surprise!...they got snowed in and he got sick, so I told them not to come over to our house on their way to the airport to fly back...don't need any foreign germs! I have to say it takes a true love of football to fly into Wyoming in the middle of winter and then be surprised by being snowed in. Duh!

Got a message from my grandson this morning saying hat he might come hunting here next fall for elk or deer. He is also trying for a new job in Madison, Wisconsin. They currently live in San Diego, so that would be quite a change! My granddaughter is learning to be a roller derby skater, which really sounds like a lot of fun...she's a toughie so I know she'll be good at it. They must have leagues for roller derbying in New York. Makes me long for my youth, you know, when you could do wild and crazy things and not suffer for days afterward!

I broke down and bought the old man a really cool poker machine...he can play for hours and never come up for air! His birthday is next month, so it as the perfect present for him...and for me too! When it came in the mail, I took it out and set it up for him and he's been such a good boy for the last few days, ding, ding, ding! Beats the hell out of listening to him curse the tv set and has very melodic sound effects! Way worth the price!

Well, thought I'd update my blog some, and now that I have, I'd better get to fixing some supper soup...those poker players get real hungry you know!

Sundays, Year 3, Week 12

Where does the time go? There is one more day of January, then February will begin! I've been dealing with winter pretty well so far...some days better than others, but isn't that the way life is? One thing for sure, it doesn't pay to worry about it, worrying doesn't change a thing except maybe add a few new wrinkles to your brow!

Mother Nature offered us a few warm and lovely days, a lot more of the snow has melted. Don't worry, there is still a lot of it in piles everywhere! I walked around the yard yesterday and was able to walk on dirt most of the way, although, when I tried to go all the way around the little house, the drifts were blocking me from a complete circle. I didn't even try to go all around the big house because when I check for daily mail, the drifts hardly melted at all. This time of year, by the time the sun hits that area, there's no heat left in it. That's actually a pretty good description of life in your late 60s, there's no heat left in it! Good thing we were all such hotties when we were young, because now we're just cool and sagging. I shudder to think what I would look like if I didn't get my daily exercise, surely things would be dragging on the ground behind me! Life is a challenge at times, but it's certainly better than the alternative!

Apparently, the snowfall in the mountains has been prodigious too, because a newspaper article this morning said the drought might be over. I don't let that keep me from planning my gardening projects this year, because I work hard to conserve water anyway. I never waste a drop of it on purpose, but it's nice to hear that the prairie will be healthier this summer! That's always good for the wildlife and the vegetation they depend on.

Toward evening, a new storm is supposed to move in, so who knows what tomorrow will look like! One thing for sure, we are whittling winter away, and spring always follows winter, so that is always good. Keep warm and try to occupy your body and mind with something new each day so you don't become stale...that is what we call living in Wyoming. Suits me!

Sundays, Year 3, Week 10

It has been a few weeks since I last posted, so I've got a little catching up to do! Tomorrow is my daughter-in-law's birthday, so bright and early, I will text her a happy birthday message. She is young enough to still like birthdays, I hope...I'm sure her hubby will take her out for a special dinner and a little fun. Birthdays are just life's reminders that time here is not endless so you have to make the best of each day.

Since winter began, we have been holding on by the skin of our teeth here in Rock Springs...some days it seems to be unending! For the past few days though, it has been warm enough to melt a lot of the snow that has been dumped on us by Mother Nature in a fit of spite. She must have felt a tad bit guilty about it and is making amends by gracing us with this respite of lovely warming days. I looked out over the yard today, and there are still 2 to 3 foot drifts of snow in many places, so it has a long way to go to be bare earth again. The dwarf spruce trees in front of the house were half buried, but now the snow has receded some. The small birds have been using them for shelter from the wind so the trees have such a lovely purpose...definitely necessary!

Miss kitty has been happy to sit on the back steps for a while each day when the sunshine is hitting them, the rest of the time, she naps by the window. Luckily, the bird poop seems to make the snow under the tree which holds their feeder melt faster, so it has receded a lot! I bought a bag of kitty litter, the clay based kind, to sprinkle where I walk back and forth to the little house to get bird seed. It works better than ice melting salt and makes it easier to walk on the ice. I tread very carefully so I don't land on my big, old butt. I've got ample padding, but still don't care to slip and fall!

I've lost count of the number of seed catalogs mailed to me this year, the stack is at least 14 inches high, though. I don't need too many new ones this year, but I do enjoy browsing them and seeing all the lovely pictures of flowers and veggies. I'm hoping to try a few new things this year, don't know what yet, but that decision will come a little closer to planting time. At this point, all I can do is dream and plan, until the time is right.

I guess that's it for this time, winter has dulled my brain. Stay warm and dry!