March 20: Frost Warning

I woke this morning to pounding rain.  It was dark enough out the window that I simply rolled over and went right back to sleep.  When I rose at 8:30, it was windy and sunny.  Through the kitchen window, I saw brilliant blue skies.  I wondered if I'd dreamed the rain, so I asked John, "Did I hear rain this morning?"  "You sure did! And it was no light shower either."  

You couldn't tell it had rained when I went out the front door to gather the limbs that the wind has pruned from the Faith tree all winter.   The ground was dry enough that I felt no dampness at all.  I didn't see a puddle anywhere.  Only the damp corner of the front patio revealed any real evidence of rain.  That and the full water buckets under the eaves.

I gathered a full wagonload of limbs and twigs.  I threatened John if he dared pick up any more limbs and toss them into the flower bed about the Faith tree.  That little space has the potential to be something truly lovely but between John tossing limbs into it, the doggone dog digging things up in the flower bed, and children who insist on balance walking around the tree on the border stones, it pretty much looks like crap.  I bemoaned the fact that each Spring for the past 15 years I have renewed my efforts and cleaned it up and kept it weed free and someone or some dog will come along and make it all worth nothing.   Hate to admit that colored my mood a dark gray and made me snappy when John came outdoors to see what I was up to.

After I'd rested a bit and had a bottle of water, I started on the patio.  What a terrible mess it is.  Today I used the old rake to sweep up two piles of leaves, bits I'd deadheaded, random bits of trash that has blown up on the patio, etc.  What was left behind was the second bit of evidence that it had rained this morning.  Long dark, muddy and wet tracks.   I shall have to hose the whole thing off.  It was far too cool today to even think I might do that.

Completely random thought here: I said I had a bottle of water.  What I mean is that I took a bottle of water and poured it into a glass to drink.  The bottle is just a handy receptacle for me to chill and measure my water in, as far as I am concerned.  But the app I'm using for weight loss will repeatedly tell me about how superior a REUSA BLE water bottle is.   I don't like drinking from anything that isn't glass.  I do REUSE my water bottles.  They just were meant for recycling not necessarily for reusing.  

When we are out, if I have no water with me, then I will buy a bottle of water, and then I will wash it in the dishwasher and I use it, if it is from a good quality bottle.  That ultra flimsy can't open without dispersing half the contents onto your person while removing the lid sort of bottle is not the kind I buy.

I sat on the patio for a few moments contemplating the empty pots and wondering what I want to plant this year.  I noted that the Hybrid tea roses I planted a couple of summers ago have done remarkably well.  I'd like to have more.  I definitely love having herbs.  So yes, to more of those.  Basil has been a difficult thing for me to grow over the last few years.  Way back years and years ago, I had basil seeds from Rhonda that I think she might have taken from her own plants.  That basil was so prolific, long lasting and lovely, and would even self-seed and return.  

Eventually those plants died out, I couldn't find the seeds I'd saved of them, and so I started to buy basil seeds and basil plants.  None of them have done more than create a spindly browning sort of plant.  I'm going to try to get some heirloom type basil and see how that does.

I have two oregano plants returning (or clumps), I have a few scraggly chives, a stunted sage...I don't know if the mint is going to return or not.  Definitely would be happy to have more of all those.  I don't like thyme.  It's pretty enough but the taste for me is not pleasant and I won't bother trying to grow any more.

I've got Phlox and Guara returning both of which are truly lovely.  I had Dusty Miller that lasted through several years but this winter it died, and I don't think it's going to return.  I definitely want more.  Coleus is always a favorite of mine because there are so many varieties and colors.  I'd love to start snapdragons growing.  I have seeds.  They do really well, or at least they have in the past and they often reseed and return, too.

I try hard each year to have lovely petunias, but the new varieties tend to die off rather quickly, especially in the heat no matter how much you deadhead, pinch back and water.  The old-fashioned variety are the winners, but they get scraggly very quickly, though they do smell wonderful.

Anyway, I gave up thinking because just as I have done now, I began to get overwhelmed by all the choices and wondering what I have seeds to plant (snapdragons for sure, possibly impatiens, marigolds, a few zinnias) and what I've space to plant in pots.

I came indoors to make bread, throw together a lunch that wasn't on the menu because I couldn't stand the thought of anything I'd planned.  Ditto for supper.  I don't know just what we'll have but I do need to decide and shortly because I try to eat by 5:30 so I can end my fast shortly after I wake.  I've found that the easiest for me.  And yes, I am all about the easy things when it comes to this.   Give me a moment to go rummage and see what we might have on hand and if it's frozen get it ready to cook...

I decided to pull some pork chops from the freezer (good thing too...these were dated July 24).  We'll have stuffing, and a mix of broccoli and cauliflower.  Most likely there will be cheese involved on those.  That sounds better than a repeat of chicken or the soup we had last night.  Tomorrow night we'll likely have more of the chicken in some form or another.  

About the soup last night, it was good enough.  I mixed black and kidney beans, 1 chopped potato, a can of tomatoes, 1 chipotle pepper in adobo, 2 tbsps. tomato paste, shredded zucchini, chopped onion, yellow bell pepper, beef broth, Worcestershire, oregano and chili powder.  I added all of the leftover roast (about 2 cups).   It was okay.  It needed something acidic.  Between the beans which I often find are bland and potato I just didn't feel it had enough oomph, but it definitely was not salt that it needed.  Katie thought the zucchini and pepper added sweetness, and that perhaps the tomatoes lacked acidity, so she added some vinegar to it when she got here.  I realized I'd forgotten garlic, so I added that, and I did add more broth when I found Katie was coming to dinner.  

I ate my supper before they did because I just didn't want to postpone starting my fast.  I didn't taste the newly re-seasoned version, but everyone said it was good.  I put two quarts of soup in the freezer last night when it had cooled.  

I went out this afternoon, after checking the weather and seeing a frost warning, and cut white and yellow iris for a vase.  I refreshed my mantel which I will show you all here in a moment, going with blue, white, green, and yellow.  I never even went out to the shed, just used what I had right here in the living room and dining room already.  I just shift things around and change the look.

I didn't go out to the shed because I found it hard going to walk across the back yard to the iris.  The ground is so covered with limbs and sweet gum tree seed pods that footing is uncertain.  And in the iris bed, I discovered that something is tunneling and making dens under the roots which is also makes the soft ground there feel unsafe.  My knee kept grinding as my weight would shift and I decided that I'd had enough once my vase was full.  Were it not for the frost warning, I wouldn't have gone out this afternoon to get them.  The purple ones will be coming on here in a few weeks, after the white ones have finished blooming and then there will be a second flush of yellow ones that are different from these.  Perhaps this year the deep maroon ones that Angela sent me will bloom, though it's only been a year or so that they were planted.  It usually takes a bit longer to see blooms once your transfer Iris.

That's more than enough for today. 

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