Hat trick, and a broken covenent

On Monday I visited Menard's, Lowe's, and the Home Depot, and scored at all three.  I arrive home with tomato cages, blood meal, bone meal, a Fiskars weeder, seed starting mix, and chicken wire.  Lots and lots of chicken wire. 

While I was standing in line at HD, burdened with two 50-foot rolls of the latter, the man in front of me eyed my purchase and said incredulously "You don't have rabbits, do you?"  Why, yes.  Yes I do.  "Where do you live?"  I told him the street names of the nearest major intersection.  "That's where I live.  We used to have rabbits, but they're all gone now!"  Well, they all must be over at my house, having a bunny party.

And not only are they frolicking and reproducing and leaving piles of "treats" for my dog (who, despite her Beagle heritage, has no interest in actually chasing them), those damn furry creatures have crossed the line. 


From past experience, I know what garden plants the rabbits favor and those - the snap peas, the beans, the greens - I protect.  And the rabbits still avoid things like garlic and onions. 

(I'm guessing they are leaving the parsley alone because it is right next to the chives.)  

I turned a blind eye to the decimation of the basil plants and choose not to worry about the occasional damage to the lilies.  I also have a lot of crap growing in my lawn, like clover and plantain and dandelions, so it is not like there is not already a smorgasbord for them to choose from.  But when they top a pepper plant and strip a few branches from a tomato plant, they have broken the unspoken promise from years past. 



Now my garden resembles a fortress.  Each pepper plant is surrounded by a cylinder of chicken wire, and after finding those cylinders upended one morning, the whole bed is wrapped in a mini-picket fence to hold the cylinders in place.  The tomatoes are enclosed by tomato cages lined with chicken wire.  And I have plans to build a chicken wire enclosure for an entire bed, so I can plant green beans, turnips, rutabagas, and other items that no doubt would tempt those buck-toothed rodents. 

I am guessing that one reason I am seeing more rabbits than usual is my next door neighbors are now the proud owners of two yappy dogs that have cleared their property of vermin.  It occurred to me that maybe what I need is something similar, so last night I dragged my indoor cat outside, to keep me company while I constructed chicken wire ramparts.  Fern loves to watch the rabbits from behind glass, and has occasionally exhibited an urge to escape the confines of the house in order to fulfill her genetic destiny as predator.  But last night, she freaked out and took cover in a clump of phlox and coneflower next to the patio.  I will continue to try to condition her to outdoor time.  Even if all she does is hide, maybe her scent will provide some discouragement. 

This morning, there were two rabbits sitting in the backyard.  I gave Betsy an inspired pep talk and turned her loose, but she stopped way short in order to snuff rabbit scent in the grass.  So I stepped out, to see if I could do better.  If the neighbors happened to look out their windows, they would have seen the crazy lady next door, clad in mismatched pajamas, dodging poop piles in her bare feet, while tossing a big stick at the rabbits.  (This is why I planted arborvitae.)   

The rabbits' initial reaction was one of disbelief, but after about the third time the stick landed near them (and it's not that I did not want to hurt them, I just did not want to hurt them so badly I would be forced to euthanize them), they got the idea and abandoned the backyard.  I saw them later, with another of their pals, in the front yard.  I tapped on the window and yelled, but they just stared.   

Blankly or defiantly?

And the river is rising

When I looked out the patio door this morning at the rain gauge, I was shocked to see the floater indicating over four inches of rain fell last night.  The rain gauge is located near a downspout and the gutters were overflowing, so I'm not sure how accurate that is.  The weather sites have not posted today's precipitation yet, although I think most of it fell before midnight last night.  At any rate, it is really soggy out there!

Totally Tomatoes agreed to refund my money for the paste collection.  I am still trying to nurse the poor plants back to health.  I picked off the dead foliage, so now they look like miniature palm trees.  About three-quarters of them have a chance, but there are a few that look hopeless.  We'll see.

Ordering plants online is always a gamble.  Sometimes they arrive in great shape and do well in the garden, other times I can't believe what comes out of the box.  Buying locally usually results in a higher success rate, but not always.  At any rate, now that I have gotten my feet wet with starting seeds myself, I plan to do that in the future.

The impatiens are now in the planter on the front porch.  The yellow onion sets have been planted in the garden. I also transplanted the pepper plants and one tomato in a bed that is reachable by the dog, so I dug out an old crappy mini-picket fence I have been hanging onto, to protect them.  I planted a row of Blue Lake bush beans inside the pea fence because last year the rabbits dined freely on them.  I transplanted the leggy basil plants as well, and while I have never had a problem with rabbits eating basil before, they must like that particular variety (Genovese, I believe) because half of them are gone.  I am sorely tempted to get an outdoor cat to take care of the rabbit population, but for now I will build me some fences.

Disappointment

Look what arrived in the mail:

That is my 16-plant paste sampler from Totally Tomatoes.  Not very pretty, are they?  Some of the plants don't even have leaves.  I am trying to revive them, but it may be a lost cause.  Regardless, I am asking for my money back.

In happier news, I ran up to Huntertown Gardens last Monday and purchased some white impatiens, three varieties of hens -and-chicks, a spike, and some yellow and red onion sets.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice 80-degree day, so when I get home from work, it is into the garden with me.

More pictures!

Blogger is behaving badly re photo placement.  Sometimes it places the photo where the cursor is, sometimes not.

Anyway, here are some blossoms on the Onondaga viburnum.  The outer florets are open but the center ones are just starting.

My only disappointment with this shrub is it does not produce fruit.

The cotoneaster does produce fruit, from these delicate pink blossoms.

I am contemplating moving these from the east side of the house to the west, because the bed on the east side is sandy and dry, which stresses these lovely bushes.

Years ago I planted a half dozen lily-of-the-valley, but the rabbits ate them.  A couple survived.

My SO keeps promising me more from his yard, but the transfer has yet to happen.

Maybe it is the mulch, but I get a lot of mushrooms in my yard when it rains. 

I have no idea whether they are edible, but I find them fascinating in all their variety and complexity.

I can't capture just how stunning the spring phlox are.  They spread like weeds.

Unfortunately, they get rather ratty looking once they are done blooming, but the birds like the seeds.  (A lot of work to be done in the "meadow" there!  If anyone could see into my backyard, they would probably call Neighborhood Code Enforcement to complain about the "weeds".)

In the same lavender color are the chives.

I think these are garlic chives.  Two great flavors wrapped up in one plant.

Some pictures!

As I keep saying, I am still getting used to my new camera, but so far, I like it. Here are some of the pix I have been promising:

The juniper, in situ:

The reason for their location at the southwest corner of the house is, this part of the house is exposed to the most weather, and the corner bedroom is always either too hot or too cold.

The potato patch:

 Most of my garden beds run north-south, but the new potato beds run east-west.  One problem I have already discovered is now I can't dump grass clippings at both ends of the north-south beds.  Not that that is a big deal.

Not a very good photo, but evidence that the asparagus is growing.  Those are the skinniest stalks I have ever seen.

I am really looking forward to having my own fresh asparagus in a year.  Or two.  Or three.  Only optimists plant asparagus.

Evidence that the potatoes in the potato grow bag are growing:

  

 (Please ignore the whirly birds from my neighbor's maple tree.)

Tomato and pepper seedlings, shortly after unpacking: 

We had a frost last weekend, but hopefully temps will edge up to the tomato-planting range soon.  These guys look puny in this pic, but they are growing fast.  (Those are marigolds to the right.)

And that is all for now, not because there are not more photos, but I am out of time.

There's always room for Advil

Today my SO and I worked and worked and after he went home, I worked some more.  Now my SI joint is unhappy, but we made great progress in the yard.  Photos will have to wait for another day, because I am too tired to edit them, but I want to record the latest before I forget.

• The potatoes in the grow bag are poking up through the soil.
• The asparagus is up!  Very skinny stalks.
• The tomatoes and peppers from Seed Savers Exchange arrived Thursday.  They looked kind of limp and puny, but I put them under the grow lights and gave them a good drink, and they perked right up.  The night temps are not staying above 50 degrees yet, so they will have to wait a while before being transplanted.
• I created two new garden beds and "planted" potatoes in them.  I'm using the lasagna gardening method of laying wet newspapers on lawn, spacing seed potatoes 12" apart on the newspapers, then covering it all with straw.  This was last Thursday.  Today I "planted" more potatoes, this time in an existing bed.  Why so many potatoes?  I ordered a potato "sampler" - 2.5# each of eight varieties.  (I get carried away.)
• After learning that vinegar kills dandelions, I experimented using it on Canada thistle.  The thistle amongst the garlic are a bit robust, so I cut them off and tried injecting vinegar into the hollow stems.  That was Thursday.  I checked the results today, and the stems looked burned where the vinegar came into contact, but the remaining parts of the plants look okay.  So vinegar kills on contact, not systemically.  Damn.  
• Today my SO dug the holes for the junipers, so those are in the ground.  The other newbies are still waiting their turn.
• My SO also helped me create a new bed between the tulip tree and the West Wing.  That area had never recovered from the construction, so instead of trying to turn it back into lawn, we covered it with newspapers and mulch.  I haven't decided what to plant there yet, but I might take one of the big clumps of ornamental grass in the front of the house and divide it into five or so smaller clumps and plant them along the house.  Maybe.
• I planted lettuce and radishes in a box on the patio, where the rabbits can't get them.
• I transplanted the Italian parsley into the garden, next to the rhubarb.
• The Keys of Heaven, columbine, and bleeding heart are all blooming, as are the honeysuckle vines.
• There is a wren in the wren house by the tulip tree, sparrows in the bluebird house, and a robin has built a nest in the clematis by the front door, but no one cares for the bottle house.  I'm wondering if it is in a bad location, too close to my neighbors' barking dogs.  I'll leave it there for this year, but if no one moves in, I'll relocate it next year.

And now I am going to go soak these tired bones.

Like magic

The dead rabbit that was by the electrical meter?  Gone.  Nothing remains but some patches of fur.  It's a shady spot, so I don't think the sun vaporized it.  I'm assuming a scavenger either ate in or took it to go.

Not so magically, the brush pile is gone, and in its place is a big pile of mulch.  I took the day off and my SO came over (with breakfast) and we spent a good part of the day in my neighbor's truck.

While we were in the vicinity of the biosolids location, we stopped at Franz Nursery.  I came away with two 'Wichita' blue junipers (Juniperus scopulorum) to help protect the west side of the house from the weather,

a 'Limelight' hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight') for the shady corner north of the West Wing,

two 'Big Daddy' hostas to keep the hydrangea company,

and four wintergreen holly bushes (Ilex x meserveae 'Blue Princess' and 'Blue Prince') to provide an understory to the arborvitae.

I also wanted a Prairie Fire crabapple and some redbuds, but I am put off by the prices.  I am willing to order smaller (cheaper) trees online, so maybe I will do that.

The mystery of the perch in the bottle bird house is solved:

My SO confessed.  Still no residents.

My new camera is pretty smart, so I took some pix on a windy day, to see if it could steady the subjects.  The results below are very satisfactory.

Blackhaw viburnum:

Sargent viburnum:

Chokeberry:

My only complaint about the camera is it feels too small in my hand, but I expect I will get used to that.

Robins love baths

Last winter I moved the bird bath closer to the patio door, the easier to manage it.  I meant to move it further away once it was not longer tethered to the outdoor outlet, but I'm glad I didn't.  Sitting at the table, I have a view of the bird bath visitors, usually robins splashing and dunking.  The angle between the bird bath and me is such that the birds can't see me, or at least, not very well.  Others come to visit, but the robins are the most noticeable.

The wren house is also visible from the West Wing, and yesterday a wren was checking the abode out.  But I am much more visible from there, and today I haven't seen any activity going on there.  The wrens have also expressed an interest in the bottle bird house.  Someone stuck a stick in the hole by its lip, as a roost.  At first, I thought some clever bird had done that, but realized it must have been the neighbor who gifted the thing to me.  The instructions said the roost was optional, that a roost would allow larger birds entrance.  We'll see who takes up residence.  Everyone seems to be in nest-building mode.

Another rabbit bit the dust.  It's half-eaten carcass is by the electrical meter, waiting for me to remember to remove it.  If Betsy were the culprit, it would not be half-eaten, plus I think I would have noticed the blood and fur on her.  I'm thinking an owl or a hawk.  While the bunnies are cute and interesting to watch, they do wreak havoc in the garden.

I just mowed the lawn Friday, but already it is swamped by fluffy dandelions.  Again.  I am waiting for Neighborhood Code Enforcement to show up and cite me for the 3B garden, which looks like a rampant meadow right now.  If there weren't a few remaining daffodils and the newly blooming phlox, it would be a total eyesore instead of just a weedy problem.

This has been a rainy weekend.  Every time the sun comes out and a little blue sky breaks through the gray, the weather changes about five minutes later.  It is just enough to discourage any outdoor activity.  I am taking Tuesday off, though, so maybe, just maybe we can get something done.

I was getting close to not being able to park my one car in the two-car garage, so my SO helped me clean it out yesterday.  There is still not room for two cars, but it is much better.  I still have some sorting and pitching to do.

Today I baked a rhubarb-strawberry pie, the rhubarb from my garden, the strawberries from California.  It is a family tradition that I make birthday pie for my kids.  It is also a family tradition that I overload the pie with fruit, thereby guaranteeing the smoke detector will go off once the filling starts dripping over the edge.  Today was no exception.  Good thing my SO and I brought the fans in from the garage - I needed them to clear out the smoke.

No pics today, but for those who wonder, my new camera is a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330.

Pictures!

Please bear with me while I get used to my new camera.  The photo above is saved at a lower resolution that the one below, 640 vs. 800 pixels, I believe.  I'm trying to see if there is a difference.

Those are forget-me-nots, by the way.

Below are the herbs and seedlings, taking advantage of the lovely weather.

Those pale looking things in front are leggy zinnias.  I started them too early, never got around to thinning them, forgot to feed them, and yet they are still alive.  I transplanted them into the 3B garden today, one clump of zinnias per clump of daffodils.

Unlike my previous camera, this camera is smart enough to know I want a picture of the serviceberries and not the crap in the background.

That was one of the most frustrating things with my previous camera - trying to get it to focus on the correct object.

The brush pile is home to bunnies.  The brush pile is scheduled to be removed.

Bunnies eat dandelions, but they also eat green beans.

My previous camera had a macro setting I could select.  This camera magically knows when to go into macro mode.

In case you don't recognize this shoot, it's an onion.

The garlic patch.

Both foreground and background are in focus.  Amazing.

Almost as amazing as the color of my Japanese maple.

I whisper sweet nothings as I go past.

Here are some marigold seedlings, started at the right time.

So, obviously, I have learned to upload the photos from my camera to the computer.  I'm still experimenting, though, and have much to learn.

Close enough?

There is nothing better to counteract a bad day at work than a few hours of gardening in the evening, so last night I planted the asparagus.  My experience with gardening can be summed up by remembering that sometimes, even if you do everything right, everything will turn out wrong, and vice verse, so most of the time, if you do something good enough, the results will be good enough.  Hence, the asparagus was not planted according to "best practices" but I think it will be good enough.  Also, the bed is on the north side of the shed, so will receive varying amounts of sunshine through the spring and summer, which theoretically should help extend the asparagus season for me.  We shall see.

Even though the spring average temps are about ten days ahead of time, I don't think our average last frost date is moving as much.  Last night it got down to 32.  I remembered to throw a sheet over the herbs on the porch, but the sheet shifted in the night, exposing some of the basil, which got nipped a bit.

In the garden proper, the onions are up, as are the snap peas.  The rhubarb is bolting already.  And the serviceberry looks like it will actually produce berries this year.  All hostas are present and accounted for, too.  Even the cotoneaster bushes that the rabbits chewed on look good.  This gardener is pleased.

Although my new camera arrived and I have even taken a few pics with it, I am still acclimatizing myself to its mysterious workings.  Like how to get the pics off the camera and onto the computer.

There is probably more I was going to record here, but suddenly my brain craves sleep.  'Night!

What dandelions?

The TrueGreen guy stopped by my house (uninvited) to offer me a free estimate on lawn care.  If he thinks the front yard looks bad, he should see the back!  I politely declined.

I did reduce the six potato grow bags down to one.  At least, for now.  I may start another one or two, as the season progresses.

The asparagus plants arrived on Wednesday, and I just opened the box today.  It's not that I am not enthusiastic, it is just that I should have prepared the bed last fall.  And the bed I want to use is kind of weedy.  And it seems like I always do this, jump the gun, which annoys my inner Princess Perfect.

Determined to accomplish something on my yard and garden to-do list his week, on Thursday I relocated the sedum that was living in the shadow of the asplenifolia, moving it back into the bed from whence it came.  It has grown since then, so I split it into five clumps.  It looks a little droopy, but I'm sure it will recover.  And then I moved the hostas from the tractor tire in back, the larger one going in front of the lilac bush (where daylilies used to not bloom - too shady) and the smaller one filling the hole left by the sedum.  There is a second sedum next to the sandcherry which also needs to be moved, but my back can take only so much in one evening.

And Friday, under threatening skies, I mowed both front and back.  In the process, I determined what is the problem with my Personal Pace mower:  ME.  Frankly, I simply need to empty the bag more often, as the weight of the bag is what is confusing the Personal Pace feature.  At work, we would call this an "operator error" or "training issue".

Yesterday it drizzled on and off all day, so I used that as an excuse to stay inside.  Today, I can see from the rain gauge that we receive 3/4" of rain so far this weekend.  My SO and I were hoping to start on mulch, but I'm not sure we will be doing much of anything outside today.

Time to soak these tired bones

Gardening doesn't seem like it is that hard, but after several hours wielding rake and hoe, I'm beat.

Today I planted the Yellow Stuttgarter onions (good flavor and good keepers), but only after working up the wrong bed.  I don't think I recorded what I planted where last year, because of course I would remember (and there are probably even photos on this blog to remind me, but I did not look).  After working up the one bed, I realized it was where the onions had been last year.  After working up another bed and planting the sets I realized that that was the bed I was saving for the asparagus.  Not that it can't go elsewhere, it's just I knew that particular bed had been heavily fertilized with compost last year.  And I forgot to mark the ends of the rows with gladiola bulbs, but maybe it is too early to plant them?  And I ran out of onion sets - what I purchased was good for about 40'.  I was planning on buying some more locally anyway.

I also planted the Amish Snap Peas in the pea fence.  Nothing unusual there.  So far.

Then I dragged out the potato grow bags.  All six of them.  I was not planning on using six, as some were supposed to be xmas gifts for others, but they were met with a lack of enthusiasm.  I mixed up what was left of last year's peat and a container mixture of some sort that I think I created myself and a bag of Miracle Gro potting soil and divvied it up amongst the six bags.  It didn't go far, so now I am rethinking my strategy and may just use one or two bags, maybe for "new" potatoes.

A couple of years ago my neighbor gave me a bird bottle in exchange for catsitting.  It's a ceramic nesting house that dates back to colonial days.  Today I finally hung it up, over the compost pile on the south side of the shed, where it will be protected by the neighbor's trees.  I'm curious to see what kind of bird favors it.

The hosta and coral bells that I thought did not make it through the winter survived.  Yay!

And I think that is all I have to report today.

The picture of spring

While drinking my coffee this morning in the West Wing, I looked out the window.  There was a robin in the newly budding tulip tree and beneath the tree were daffodils and a bunny in the green grass.  Looks like spring to me!

My order of asparagus plants has been delayed.  I live in Indiana but the name of my street is the same as an island in the Caribbean.  This apparently confused someone at Johnny's Selected Seeds, as I received a statement from them that my item could not be shipped outside the U.S.  I sent them an email, and if I have not heard from them by Monday, I will give them a call.

Still no luck on the camera search, but the old one is behaving now.  Here is a pic of Betsy and her snack dispenser:

Notice that the rabbit is sleeping.  Apparently, Betsy is not a creature to be feared.

Yes, Virginia, you can freeze pizza dough

A while ago I had a dream, part of which involved my baking bread.  I had seventeen (?!?) loaves rising and didn't know what to do with them.  So I decided to freeze them.  That was only one part of the dream, and the only part to stick with me.

Fast forward a few days, and I was making pizza dough.  I found a good recipe online (here), but it made enough for three 12-inch pizza crusts, way more than I wanted.  I divided the dough into four balls and froze three of them.  From what I read (also online here), the secret to freezing pizza dough is to make sure there is absolutely no air in the bag.  I did my best, and my best must have been okay, because I thawed one of those lumps of dough the other day, and it baked up just fine.

My pizza sauce consisted of canned diced tomatoes cooked with green, yellow, and red sweet peppers, onions, and fresh basil and oregano from my indoor herb patch.  For cheese, I used mozzarella, asiago, and Parmesan, the latter two grated with my cheese rasp from Lee Valley.  The first pizza I made was vegetarian, the second included pepperoni.  I can't wait to be able to use fresh vegetables from the garden.  Zucchini pizza anyone?

Up close and personal

I tried to buy a new camera today, one on sale at Target, but the store I went to didn't have any left.  The other two stores in town do have some, so maybe I will get lucky tomorrow.  Meanwhile, we shall have to make do.

Here are some closeups of my current flowers:

Yellow daffodil:

Grape hyacinth:

Pink(ish) sandcherry:

Lavender rhododendron:

Not so closeup of blue creeping phlox:

Proof that the serviceberry did not get frosted the other night:

Proof that the smoke bush lived through the winter:

Ditto the Japanese maple:

I think the only thing I lost beneath the snow was a coral bells and maybe a hosta.  Since they are on the north side of the house, I have not yet given up hope.

This past week I mowed both the front and back yards with my new mower.  I am somewhat disappointed in the Toro.  It has some new features that are improvements, but the handle is too high for my comfort (and I don't see any way to adjust it, but I will look in the user manual).  But most distressing is the Personal Pace feature.  The mower toots along on pavement, but once it hits my lumpy lawn, it slows way down, presumably thinking the resistance it feels is from me and not the ground.  I find I am pushing it.  Maybe that is adjustable as well.  Let's hope. (Ed. note:  Yes, I was able to adjust the Personal Pace speed, and now it really toots along on grass as well as pavement!)

The grass clippings went around the garlic.  And the pea fence in in situ.  The weather has been great this week, but it is supposed to get near freezing this weekend.  I don't care.  I am going to plant snap peas and maybe potatoes, which arrived today.

I ordered the potato sampler from Seed Saver's Exchange, but exactly what the send is a surprise.  Here are the varieties I received:

• Red Gold
• La Ratte
• Austrian Crescent
• Purple Viking
• Yukon Gold
• Carola
• Yellow Finn
• All Red

The only name I recognize is Yukon Gold.  Some will go into potato grow bags, and I'm not sure what to do with the rest.  It never fails - every year I get carried away with my garden order.  And the tomato plants have yet to arrive!

Inspector Gadget

We had a frost last night.  I meant to throw a sheet over the serviceberry, since it seems like every year the blossoms get killed and produce no fruit, but, well, I was tired and it got dark out and somehow it just did not get done.  This morning the shrub looks okay from the house.  We'll see how it fares.

Meanwhile, I have a couple of new gadgets for the house.  Gadget number one is a refrigerator/freezer monitor.

At the point where this photo was taken, I had installed sensor number one in the refrigerator, although I am not particularly concerned about the temps in there as every time I pull something from its shelves (which occurs multiple times a day), I can tell whether it is cold enough.  I am more interested in sensor number two, for my new freezer.  It requires lithium batteries, so did not get installed until after a trip to the store.  And when I first put it in the freezer, the monitor would not register its existence.  After I pulled the batteries from the monitor and reinstalled them, though, everyone was talking to each other.  I purchased this online at Amazon.

Gadget number two is a CO detector.

I already have a CO detector, but it takes eight (EIGHT!) AA batteries for backup, while this one uses a single 9-volt.  Also, the first CO detector was designed to be hung on the wall, its cord snaking down to an outlet with an adapter.  My cat kept rubbing against the adapter, dislodging it enough to cause the eight (EIGHT!) batteries to run down.  After a while, I moved the thing to the bathroom, which is really not a very good location for it, but the outlet was out of the cat's reach.  This new one plugs directly into the socket AND has a button on the back, so if it is dislodged from the socket, an alarm sounds.  A LOUD alarm.  This one I bought at the Home Depot.

Today is a lovely day weather-wise, but I have commitments and will have little time for outdoor pursuits.  Last night I did get the driveway and front walk edged.  And the onion sets and glad bulbs I ordered from Pinetree Garden Seeds arrived yesterday.  I'm wondering if I plant some onions next to the porch to the French doors, if that will discourage the rabbits living there.

And, in the Eccentric Neighbor Department, I find myself talking to wildlife.  Like the hawk soaring overhead yesterday while I worked in the front yard, whom I exhorted to visit my backyard because there were tasty rabbits there.  Or the bluebird I saw this morning, who I pleaded with to kick the sparrows out of the house meant for him and his kin.  So, yes, that eccentric neighbor would be me.

Scaredy dog

We are having thunder and lightening tonight, and quite the downpour.  Not to the dog's liking at all.  She is better about fireworks, but nature's light show?  Still a problem.  It is the noise she that bothers her, but she is smart enough to associate the lightening with the thunder and responds to both with drooling, panting, and trembling.  Poor critter.

What have I been up to?  Well, indoors I attached the hutch to the cabinet, and filled the cabinet with the lesser-used small kitchen appliances and dodads.  The hutch holds all my cookbooks on one shelf; still debating what to put on the other shelf.  And there is room on top as well!  One drawer has become a tape-and-tool drawer, thereby relieving some of the burden of the junk drawer.  The other drawer holds two flat plastic storage thingies I bought from Lee Valley, one with restaurant take-out menus, the other with all those loose recipes clipped from newspapers or printed from online.

I can't quite commit to doing anything substantial to reduce the amount of sunlight that pours in through the patio door in the afternoon, so I hung some sheers to at least soften all that light.  It makes a surprising difference, not only in the light level but also in the amount of heat generated by that solar infusion.

Outdoors, I have been playing in the compost.  One side of the double bin has been dug out and scattered around all the shrubs and flower beds, except for the "meadow".  I also fertilized the garlic.  And much as I hated to, I got out the RoundUp and squirted Canada thistle until I ran out of juice.  Then I bought more RoundUp.  Canada thistle is the only weed that drives me off the organic bandwagon.  I had plans to experiment with injecting vinegar into the hallow stalks, but I just don't have time to screw around.  It is not even mid-April and my yard and garden have a serious weed problem.

When I bought the RoundUp, I also purchased some marigold seeds, which were promptly planted using the Burpee seed starting kit I bought at Target a while back.  The kit came with compressed peat nuggets that, when water is added, expand into peat turds.

And the nuggets stink.  I'm glad I am not planting something I eat in them.

Our weather lately has been great - warm and sunny - which has caused anything that flowers early to simply POP.  Colder temps are on the way, though.  I hope everything survives.  Sorry about the quality of these pics - my camera seems to be dying.

Naturalized daffodils in the "meadow".  I may lift and divide them this fall, as they are becoming quite thick.

The rhododendron, which I nurture with coffee grounds.

The smoke bush survived the winter!  Also, newbie pink hyacinth.  There are pink grape hyacinth here as well, but too small to see.  Also, note the forsythia behind the fence.  Gorgeous this year!

Close up of the pink hyacinth.  You can almost smell them!

Grape hyacinth are like weeds.  Not only do the bulbs multiply, but the flowers produce seed.