Some Things Have to be Done

I had plans to go downstairs and sew those pants I cut out at work the other day--and I might get to them yet--but it was alluringly cool outside so I went out just to weed around the raspberries.  Yeah, try to stop weeding when all along the top of the retaining wall a sea of weeds are waving at you.  I got about a quarter done, then pulled and cut the maple trees that had seeded themselves in the rock wall alongside the house, and weeded on the renters' side of the back of the house.  Evidently I wasn't clear that they need to take care of that but they don't and they haven't and now they've got a little baby so I guess it's my job after all.  By then I was one giant sweat so I dumped the weeds from my tarp in the back corner of the property and came in for lunch.  But the rest of the weeds were out there thumbing their noses at me so I girded my loins and went back into battle.  It probably took a little over two hours to get the whole thing done.  There are some plants that aren't weeds on our half of the wall and there's one plant I have no idea what it is but there's a bunch of it at the opposite end from the raspberries.  It has tiny red violet flowers and nice leaves so, since the definition of a weed is a plant growing where you don't want it to, I declared this not-a-weed and left it.  Less weeding, more greenery; it's a good thing.  I even avoided getting stung by any of the nettles I pulled out.  Yay, me!



All of the tomato plants have tomatoes on them and the butternut squash is starting to vine.  I am so pleased with how the garden is growing and how it looks.  I'm so glad I decided to jump in and try this gardening method.  Next year'll be even better.  Plus, no weeds!
 

I'm impatient for the blueberries to start ripening.  Every day they're a little less green, a little more pink and blue.  I hope I wrote down the varieties I planted (I probably did, I should check my old gardening notebook) because two of the bushes have big berries and one has little ones.  I don't care, I just want them to ripen so I can eat them.  All.  Myself.





I cast on Pink Pussycat Hat #2 last night, this time using 2 circular needles.  I'd forgotten about that method of knitting in the round until the Bay Lakes Knitting Guild picnic 10 days ago where one of the members was knitting a sock that way.  It took me a couple tries to remember to drop one needle and pick up the other one but now I think I've got it.  Three strands of yarn and size 15 needles goes fast.

 


Dad's roses are blooming away and the coleus is happy too.  I just love the different colored leaves, don't you?  They're so pretty they don't need flowers and, to be honest, coleus flowers are nothing to write home about.








June 25--Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret, A Wedding Portrait at the Photographer's Studio.  The 'til death do you part' part wasn't supposed to happen on the wedding day.  Mark woke up, turned to watch Courtney sleep only to find her dead eyes staring at him through a milky film.  "Yaaaah," he said as he backed out of the bed.  He fumbled with the bedside phone unable to tear his eyes away from his late bride to look at the keys.  He managed to press the "0" somehow.  A calm voice said, "Front desk.  How can I help you?"  He stammered, "Wife. Dead. Help," before dropping the receiver and backing to the door into the hall.  He fumbled the security latch open and tried to yank the door open three times before remembering to turn the bolt.  Just before the door closed behind him he realized that he was naked and snaked an arm through to grab a robe to cover himself.  By then he heard the elevator ding and footsteps pounding down the hall toward him.  He slid down the wall beside the door thinking that this had to be the shortest marriage in history.

I think that makes up for not having the energy to write the night before, don't you?  Oh, want to have an instant headache?  Six months from today is Christmas Day.  I know, right?

Now I have to go figure out what to do with a marinated chicken breast.  I'm trying to decide if I want to fire up the grill for a pound of chicken or just slice it and cook it in a skillet.  Hm, I just thought of dicing up a bit of onion and defrosting a half pound of sauteed mushrooms, then cooking the chicken slices in there and adding the marinade.  There, decision made.  Durwood's peeling and cutting up a cho-cho squash (aka chayote) and some carrots so supper is solved.  Peace, out.
--Barbara