right now

right now

May 1, 2011

My energy's back, with pics to prove it!

The weekend started off with hosting a spur of the moment sleepover for Loch and his friend from school.  I wish I could they could donate some of their energy to us grownups, I was exhausted just watching them!

After dinner we lit a fire for roasting marshmallows.  Finn and his buddy T were included too, of course!


Just what they need, sugar...


We spent most of the evening watching them run around with swords, water guns, jumping off the fort with boxing gloves on and other dangerous boy activities.  As much as we really needed cocktails by then, we held off in case we needed to make a trip to the E.R.!

Hubby then set up the tent for them... this didn't last long however, they were telling scary stories and ended up inside.


Saturday morning we took a trip out to my favorite nursery way out in the sticks, but the drive is so worth it, they have thousands of native plants and hard to find stuff.  Both the kids were a little whiny from their late night, but they made it through.
Finn holding one of my new hollyhocks!
  

Hollyhocks are something I've always wanted to grow, but never wanted to wait, kind of like asparagus & rhubarb LOL - but I saw these and had to have them.

Loch's looking a little sleepover-hungover this morning, don't you think?


Oh, and I hired a gardener...


Ha ha, just kidding!  That's hubby finally getting after the hugely overgrown prostrate rosemary hedge.  Loads of dead stuff was cut away from underneath, I can't wait to burn it in the fire pit, it always smells so good.  I was also able to plant all 120 little flowers & herbs that had been started in flats outdoors, not sure if they will all make it through the dog/kid traffic, that's why I started so many.

The harvest this weekend was more lettuces - 


and TWO little spears of Piricicaba broccoli!  We may not get any more than this since it's getting ready to bolt in the heat already.  Broccoli does much better in the fall here than spring it seems.


While the kids ate pizza (store bought, yuk!) for sleepover night, we had salad!


I never get sick of salad the way I do squash, zucchini and the like.  I could eat salad with every meal and be happy.

This morning I looked for a tank top to garden in and maybe get a little sun to no avail, apparently I ruined them all last year, so I had to get a little redneck again - yep I just cut the sleeves off a t-shirt!  I've never done this before but it felt kind of liberating!


Brace yourself for what's coming next...I'm a murderer!


Above are my blackberries, below are my raspberries.  They are on either side of my split-rail fence garden.


And now they are....GONE!


I know this might seem crazy to some of you, but here's the deal... we have got to start getting away from so much high maintenance looking things and start integrating a lot more "pretty" into the garden since we are hoping to sell in a few years when the market bounces (hopefully) back.  In the unfortunate event that we would have to do a military transfer, not be able to sell and have to rent our place out, can you imagine what would happen if things like raspberry canes were left to the charge of the average non-gardener?  I shudder to think what the yard and garden would look like.  So on each side will now be my hollyhocks!  Hubby also built a few trellises for me today and I transplanted some of my pot-bound clematis to climb on the teepees we placed there.  I'm hoping it will look a little more like a cottage garden and a little less like a "garden at all costs" garden LOL, you probably know what I mean, space is a premium - you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes!

Please forgive me for ripping out perfectly good berries - it's for my future sanity!


All that's left tonight is to make dinner, 3 more loads of laundry, get the kids into bed and collapse.  I hate admitting that I'm addicted to a tv show, but I am - and will be watching Army Wives tonight after everything settles down, I can't wait! Hope you all had productive weekends or at least the sun is shining and finally warming up your northern gardens - you all know who you are :)

17 comments:

  1. Nope. No sunshine or warming of the gardens here. Over an inch of rain yesterday. Today very gray, windy (brrr!) and 38 degrees. But no snow! :o)

    Love the pic of you proudly wearing your redneck "Minnesota" shirt. Go, Girl! And you can do whatever you d~mn well please in your own garden. I applaud you for thinking ahead and being ready for come what may.

    You have no idea how long we up here in the still frozen tundra sit and stare at the luscious green-ness of your pictures. Sigh.

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  2. Wow, you were busy. Want'a come over to Oregon and lend some muscles. I have a guilty pleasure with TV show's too, I watch Glee AND American Idol. Love the t-shirt/tank top!

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  3. It has been sunny and beautiful all weekend here. Today is my husband and my 21st wedding anniversary so I'm not doing anything but enjoying the sunshine.
    I can totally understand why you ripped out those berry bushes. We have a lilac that suckers like crazy and I'm ready to rip it out and get a suckerless variety. I'll wait until after it flowers and then rip it out.
    Your boys looked like they had a blast!

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  4. Murderer! Some of us would kill for your berries! LOL

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  5. Hey, Sparkless . . . Happy 21st anniversary! Glad you had a nice weather-wise weekend for it. I could use some of that sunshine you soaked up today. I think my skin has turned as white and unhealthy looking as a snake's belly. (Are snakes' bellies white? Nah, I don't think so. Forget the analogy.)

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  6. You may think you ripped out those bushes. They'll be back....

    The man here keeps ripping them out of the woods and they keep right on coming back. They're tenacious.

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  7. Haha to Ribbit's comment. You are most certainly a murderer... but I get it. I keep dreaming of places to put berries, but can't decide, don't want to wait, and we, too, don't know if we'll be selling in a few years anyway.

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  8. I never thought you were low energy.... What a weekend!
    We finally had a warm, sunny day here- well warm as in almost 60. But I was able to get in all the rest of the early garden. Woo hoo!
    And, of course, even though I was wearing a sweatshirt, I managed to get a sunburn on my face. But it was SO worth it!!
    Judy

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  9. Mama Pea, your weather has been the absolute pits the past couple of weeks... apparently Mother Nature didn't get the memo! And that's funny, I never thought I'd see "redneck" and "Minnesota" in the same sentence LOL!
    ***
    Ruth, I'm glad I'm not alone! I'll out Mama Pea too, I think it's "Dancing with the Stars" that she's hooked on, she'll correct me if not LOL!
    ***
    Sparkless, Happy Anniversary! Glad you got to see the sun...

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  10. Ribbit, that's for sure! That's why we started way ahead of time, and we are armed with the "flame thrower" weed torch when the evicted tenants show up again! They were already popping up all over my raised beds, so theres canes in with the peas, lettuces, etc!
    ***
    Megan, they are a big commitment, it's like a pet! Once we are in our "forever home" I'll be back to planting all kinds of stuff again :)
    ***
    Judy, I don't know what the deal was, but for the past 2 weeks I have really been feeling "ick"! Didn't want to do a darn thing, I'm so glad it appears to be back to normal, for now anyways. Yay for 60! It was a beautiful 70 here today, lots around here want 80's and 90's but it would be perfect for me if it stayed below 75 always:)

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  11. Yay, yay, Dancing with the Stars! Guilty as charged. Nobody better get in my way at 7 o'clock Monday nights!! (We only get the four national channels so I don't have a lot of choice of many shows to get hooked on. Just as well.)

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  12. I knew it! :) I personally don't much care for reality shows, BUT that one is one that I will watch! It's too bad that the new seasons seem to be full of "celebrities" that I don't know, I think I'm just getting old and out of touch - but you KNOW I was rooting for Florence Henderson that one year LOL

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  13. Yes, warm weather gardening today...finally! Probably short lived though, 45 mph winds predicted for tomorrow :-(

    Arrrgggg...you plant murderer! I wish you lived by me, I'd have found a home for them! I do feel your pain though, and I'm also trying to incorporate more flowers into my veggie garden. I'm driving my husband crazy with all the food planting around here. He's really a lawn person. He thinks a trip to the grocery store is so much smarter then breaking ones back in a garden. I try to convince him I'm having fun, he's not buying it.

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  14. Love the fire pit-Wish I could post a picture of my new one. nummy looking salad and nice shirt."you can take the gal out of MN, but you can't take MN. out of the gal"

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  15. Gran, you and I are sure getting the winds! Aw, I'm sure Mr. Granny is teasing, he knows you love it PLUS it keeps you spry and healthy so you can continue to put up with him, right? That's what I tell my hubby :)

    Judy, congrats on your new fire pit, they are so nice! You are right, I may be a redneck now, but 'taint nobody takin' the Minnesota outta the girl!

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  16. I can't wait until Jonathan is old enough to have a camp out (or at least attempt)...one of the things I never got to do growing up.

    Holy heck, I've never seen rosemary that big! I've yet to be able to overwinter rosemary here so I always have to start from scratch every spring. Yes, smoking rosemary smell really good. I need to get myself one of those fire pits.

    Sorry to here about your berries. Hopefully your arms didn't get too beat up from the thorns when you dug them up.

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  17. Thomas, it's a lot of fun, I even do it with the boys when hubby is deployed! Our rosemary is definitely hardy here, we have hedges of it - I know it's one thing I will definitely miss when I move back up north! My berries were mostly thornless, so it wasn't too bad.

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