All in a Garden Green

It appears to be spring, already. Middle of February. Been 40+ degrees during the day all week, next week doesn't look any different. The maple sap has been flowing for 2 weeks now, almost 3 weeks ahead of schedule.

I'm not ready for spring yet. We didn't even have winter. There's still snow around the house, but that won't last much longer. The driveway at work is a mudpit... I am definitely not ready for mud season.

But in two weeks the little baby plants will come in, and the greenhouse will be wonderful. R and I have some work to do in it beforehand (I'm getting a new potting table! One that's the proper height! And maybe won't collapse... that will be nice); there are a gazillion pots to put price stickers on, hooks to hang for baskets, and a little bit of re-routing of driplines, now that the tables are in a more efficient (I think) layout. Or were, till the boss moved them. "We made narrower aisles! Look how much space we have now!" he said, ever so pleased with himself. Yes, I said, except the aisles *needed* to be 4' wide, because that's how wide the gaps between the hanging basket hooks are. Despite his protests of 'oh, it'll be fine', I walked over and found the row that, were it full of baskets, would hang precisely down the middle (ie, walking space) of two tables, right at head height. I am not ducking around baskets, thankyouverymuch. I clunk my head on them quite enough as it is. I actually got him to agree with me. The tables will be moved back to the way they were. I'm the one that has to work/live up there, I'd better be able to do it efficiently and safely.

I am pretty much done with the miserable headcold; my faucet of a nose shut off on Wednesday night, but I worked from home yesterday anyway. Better to be miserable at my desk at home and not have my boss complaining at me. All set for Tourney o' Luuuv tomorrow. We head out bright and early, return late. 'Twill be a good day.

But we're tucked inside Freegate, which is delightful.

A successful afternoon of shopping. Major score: one color-changing LED ghost! :)

And a new laptop and all associated accessories for Max, who after 2 years, is again employed. Much joy!

The SNOW started around 4:30, just as we were leaving our lunch stop. It is still coming down. We're in the 6-10" range, with 1-3" more expected tomorrow, last I knew. GRUMPY.

Dear Mother Nature,

Ha ha, very funny. You can take the white crap back now. The hayride tomorrow was not expected to be a sleigh ride, thanks very much.

Love,
Maine and the rest of New England

Spring has sprung. There are springs sproinging up all over the place, with all the rain we've been getting.

I checked and re-checked the weather and the radar up till the moment I left the house this morning, in the hopes that it would change, and I could ride Giovanni to work, and not get caught in the 40mph winds and horrific thunderstorms that were forecast for my evening ride home. It was not to be. In the car I went. Sigh. Chilly afternoon, even though it was close to 65 or 70 out, there was a cool breeze. And the rain made everything soggy soggy soggy...

Though it is spring. The red-winged blackbirds are back. And almost more significantly, the ice cream shop on my way home is open! I was seriously craving a soft-serve as I left work. It is quite possible I willed them into being open. Now to use my powers for awesome and will their coffee/strawberry machine back to working order...

Tomorrow will be a day of VROOM with mylisant! This makes me very very happy! :)

Rain and wind of epic proportions last night. Lost power at the new house around midnight, still out this morning. Lost a few (already dead) trees in the backyard. Didn't see any lights or signs that people had power until nearly 20 minutes down the road. Water everywhere. Obvious flooding in a few places, but no overflowing rivers, at least on my way here.

Got to work on time, we have power here (obviously). Lost a BIG pine tree, but it didn't cause damage to anything but itself. Going to try and make it though the day, hoping the weather isn't going to be the Certain Snowy DOOM that all the radios are predicting for tonight and will still try to make it to K&Q rapier in NJ. Could be interesting. Going to make the call sometime this afternoon, depending on weather here, and there.

Thanks to those who offered advice on my issues from last Thursday... I procrastinated and I know that contributed to the little breakdown I had last night... I am talking to my boss before I leave this afternoon, we'll see how I do, and what comes of it.

I need a vacation...

Colder than the last two, but still nice. Slept in, warm and cozy.

My miniature Amaryllis 'Rapido' is blooming. So pretty, hoping it was going to be a darker red, but it's certainly prolific, and nice and small. Only 18-20" tall, with 5" flowers, rather than the full 30-36" ones that are more popular. Too much fuss and hassle with them; they fall over, pull out of their pots, are generally annoying. I think this li'l guy will work out nicely. I like the smaller flowers, too.

Went fabric shopping for The Gown of Awesomeness for Birka. Have pattern(ish), will make mockup and then go! Glad I bought a bunch of purple linen when it was on sale for the underdress. Stopped in at GailAnn Fabrics, hoping maybe to catch ninian_vesalius, but she is still sick... Feel better soon. :) Found a few fabrics that might have worked, was not quite prepared to spend $25/yd (though the black & gold large print I found would have been just about PERFECT...), and so headed to JoAnn's, and picked up black cotton velveteen, as originally planned. Also picked up a very non-period but will definitely do what I want base for the hat. Exciting. :)

Tried to order a yard of cream or white velvet (the good stuff), and was told "we don't carry that anymore". I said, I know, that's why I want to special-order it. "but we don't carry it anymore". So I can't special-order it? "nope." (I kinda thought that's what special-ordering was for... getting stuff in that you can't get in-store... but whatever.) Well... that's... Inconvenient. Not gonna buy velvet online either. Hopefully mom can get some at one of the stores down home.

1:45 PM, the first snowflakes fell. Has been snowing on and off ever since. My shopping done, I didn't have to leave again, so I washed the fabric and puttered around the apartment a bit. Cotton Velveteen is so very much improved after a nice washing. Exactly what I wanted (for what I was willing to spend...). And it's delightfully fuzzy and soft and warm after coming right out of the dryer...

In other news, I am the new A&S Mistress for Malagentia... hopefully I'll do a good job. There is something else that seems to go along with that position in the works, too. More on that later...

Met with limited success tonight, at least got some encouragement that not everything out there in our price range is a completely lost cause... Decent-sized place in Westbrook, fantastic backyard, lots of BIG trees, relative privacy. Inside not too bad. Needs paint, needs a GOOD scrubbing, kitchen was weird, but usable. Little butler-pantry-thingy is a nice touch. The roof, though, was a bit scary. We'll see what happens...

Rode the bike to meet J and N (our realtor) at the house, and then to the Province meeting afterward. All by myself. Was working myself into a good 'no... it's rush hour (it wasn't), 302 can be busy (yes... but not that bad), I don't *quite* know where I'm going (found it fine, speed limits are slow), what if I-(no, don't even think about that)' anti-pep talk, and then decided to just GO, for goodness sakes. Filled up the gas tank, just in case (120 miles on a little over 2 gallons... not bad.), and met another friendly motorcyclist at the next pump. He helped with my stupid question on how far to fill the tank... Back on the road (hrmm... tachometer isn't working. I wonder what I did there), I don't think I ticked off too many people behind me (nobody seemed to be tailgating), didn't do anything stupid (and stayed upright), and felt pretty darn good. Still felt better knowing J was behind me on the way home in the dark, especially in the big, tailgater-blocking Highlander.

Tachometer was fixed in the driveway of the house; the cable had pulled out of the engine bits it connected to. Oops. Not my fault, just needs tightening. It's handy having my own traveling mechanic. :) Also, should bring the thermal liner to my coat along if I'm going to be out at night... it's getting chilly. Fall is coming, a bit early, I think. New nice white coat is on it's way, though, with both thermal and waterproof liners. Joy!

Nothing a 10,000 BTU air conditioner can't take care of, though. A good investment, that, earlier this year. Cools off 800 sq ft over 2 floors of apartment quite nicely. Could probably take care of the basement too, but that will cool off if we turn off the dehumidifier... which would in turn make everything soggy, so I'll live with being a little warmer downstairs. At least my brain isn't melting out my ears like it was earlier.

Hot today, yesterday, day before, tomorrow, probably Friday too. We went from April straight to July. At least the plants are happy. Blooming and beautiful. Last year I had a collection of flower photographs. I haven't taken as many this year (as there haven't been nearly as many flowers yet...), but those that I have taken have been pretty good. Timing with this little bee was perfect, and I love the color and texture of the Echinacea flowerhead. Got to look at the full size photo for the full effect. It's gorgeous.

I've been wearing skirts more. I think they're cooler, and they make me feel pretty. I like feeling pretty. :) Got a new pretty pretty skirt and dress in the mail yesterday, my early birthday present to myself, paid for mostly by several garden centers around the area. Finally got all the checks in from the website I did back in May. Am happy. And pretty. Eee! Fabrics-store.com has some beautiful colors of cotton/linen blend that would make some lovely skirts, I think... I am partial to the royal purple... eee fabric.

In the last 32 days, we have had 27 days with some sort of precipitation. I think the other 5 were actually nice and sunny, and not cloudy at all, but MY GOD, CAN WE GET A BREAK ALREADY?? Seattle is drying up, because we have all the west coast's rain. This is not doing terribly wonderful things to my plants... there is not much mush, but nothing is growing much, and more and more I am grateful for the wonderfulness that is raised bed gardening. It drains and sheds water, even when the rest of the ground is completely saturated. I'm hoping my jade plant doesn't just rot and fall over, but I'm leaving it outside anyway, because at least there's a chance of higher temperatures and sunshine to dry things out a bit... Sam the tangerine is happier than I've seen him (her? dunno, never flowered, and I think citrus blossoms are hermaphroditic anyway) in a long while, all sorts of new growth. Just need some dang sunlight sometime in the next month!

Have been eating fresh peas nearly every day. They don't mind the rain. They are delicious. Once we do get some sun, everything will go nuts (hrm, I note I said exactly the same thing a week ago, still no sun), and I will have more leafy goodness than I will know what to do with, which is just fine by me. Things are getting bigger, just slooooowly. Will have Kohlrabi to harvest just in time for GNEW. Have the wild and crazy thought of putting in a few potato plants once that spot is empty, as I can't see just leaving it fallow. And I like potatoes. Maybe blue ones. I may end up growing whatever I can still find for seed potatoes, though. Not many left at this point, I don't think. Any sources, anybody? There are over 2 dozen scapes on my 'Persian Market' daylily. None on 'Bela Lugosi', but he wasn't looking real well at the end of last summer... a year of growth, then beautiful velvety wine purple blossoms next year, perhaps.

kurlon is a bit lighter in the dental department... had 2 wisdom teeth and the roots of a third tooth extracted on Friday morning. I got some shopping done, did some reading, drove around a bit, and then he socked out on the couch with Abbey's cat while glassbeetle and I worked on her spiffy new doublet. Will be done by GNEW! Nearly there, thanks to the work we did tonight. Is to be fabulous.

Have done 5 scrolls worth of gold leaf for this round of awards. I love gold! Shiny shiny shiny! Though when we are out of the old style permacoll, adjusting to something else will be interesting. The new stuff is wretched. Stays sticky for nearly 2 weeks, everything sticks to it (including tissue paper, which is not good when the gold leaf has a tissue backing), and it doesn't take embossing at all. Argh. Am painting just one AOA for GNEW, very light and swirly, and am loving it. 'Geranium' red gouache is proving to be somewhat transluscent, though, which irritates me a bit.

So ready for vacation. 3 more days of work this week, 2 days (which include training a new guy...) next week, and then 7 glorious days of not work. So looking forward to GNEW. So hoping it stops raining sometime before then, and that my foot will be fine, and that there will be much dancing and fencing. Foot is better. One more week of not stressing it out, then we test... I think dancing on Friday night will be the tell. If I can dance, I can fence. At least I won't be all ramped up and ready to go Saturday morning, get 3 bouts into the tourney, and then have to call it quits. That would upset me some. Not even gonna consider that, though. All will be well.

First of three loooong workdays is over. Pretty good day. Just got home. The rain held off until about 15 minutes ago, when it went from bright(ish) and sunny (slightly overcast) to DOOM AND DARKNESS in a matter of moments. I got in just before DOOM hit. All is well.

Highlight of the day: mylisant showed up just after lunchtime, with a giant iced coffee for me! Made me happy. :) Allowed me to survive till lunch, too... We talked plants, got her veggie garden started. Will be wonderful, I think. :)

The DOOM is getting worse. Thundery rumbles happening. I should turn off the computer. We may lose power, which means dinner in the dark, and no shower right away. Boo. Time to light candles. I will have more Stargate later, perhaps.

News from kurlon, he made it through both the track day and the first day of racing with no accidents. He and the bike are still in one piece, and I think there are some new trophies to be added to the mantelpiece (we need one of them, perhaps...)

It won't stay for long, though. This is just light, fluffy snow. That has been falling all day. Constantly. Steadily. And the flakes are getting larger.

*sigh*

About an inch? two? out there right now... my parents report this morning that they have about 6" on the ground. Radar appears that we are just about out of the initial bunch of snowy cloudcover, then a short break, then a bit more snow later, just in time for the commute.

The office, at least, has been quiet today. The guys are all out sanding (and maybe plowing by now), so it's just me and Sally and Rosie. I am ordering perennials, still thinking of Spring... Last weekend proves it's on the way, soon.