Monday Musings - April 18, 2010

Dear Dress,


You beat me. I recognize defeat when I encounter it. Fortunately I do know when to quit and try another battle plan when faced with such a powerful adversary. So you won. I lost. I will learn to deal with it.


Frustrated,


Mrs. Sister

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Dear Simplicity,


Thank you for coming to my rescue. Although I altered you, you took the design modifications well. I think we could make this work.


With admiration and not nearly as overwhelmed,


Mrs. Sister

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Dear Dreams,


Now this is really getting old. Just when I get used to dreams of a certain sort you go and change things up on me. Columbus, Ohio? Goiter? Puck and Oberon from A Midsummer's Night Dream? But the part that actually concerns me was looking into the mirror and not recognizing myself anymore. 


Maybe tonight you can take the night off, okay? 


Very sleepily yours,


Mrs. 5th

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Dear Garden,


I guess we did most of the hard work last year. You were actually quite easy on us this go around. I look forward to you producing a bumper crop of: tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, red bell peppers, spinach and cayenne. Oh, and I haven't forgotten about you herbs as well. I thank you Sage, Rosemary, Thyme, and Oregano, for your glorious and triumphant return from dormancy. Please welcome Basil and Dill to the mix. Let's have a flavorful summer, shall we?


With muddy knees,


A green thumbed 5th

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Dear Bethany,

I am so pleased you had a wonderful time at prom and that your dance card was full. You and your friends are quite lovely indeed. 

Love always,

Mama 5th

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Dear Followers,


It is crunch time in the Sister house:  major costume designing going on, end of grade testing, extra hours at work, 2 major recertifications to study for, a camping trip to plan, a trip back to Kansas to organize, in addition to normal daily activities of cooking, cleaning, schooling and carpooling! Please be patient with me if I am not posting as much as I would like. Thank you for understanding.


Yours always,


Forever 5th


P.S. I noticed that after not posting for 2 days a follower was lost. I am sorry for that but real life must carry on as well. 

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Monday Awards Show

My gratefulness goes out to Jingle, at Jingle's Rally, for thinking enough of me to give me not one, but two awards. 

1st, the "Most Popular Poet Award":

and 2nd, "The Most Productive Poet Award":

I humbly accept these. They are very meaningful to me as it is validation for the direction my blog has gone these past few months. I will display them with pride within my side banner. Thank you so very much Jingle! 

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I am still calling for guest posts for my Sacred Sunday series. If there is something sacred to you, be it your faith, your family, your calling, your writing, etc... please consider becoming a guest blogger! Just drop me a note to the email located on my profile page. Thanks!

Mutant Veggie Discovered in Sister Garden

This just in: 2 extremely large, mutant zucchini were found lurking in the Sister garden early Saturday morning. A shocked 5th Sister was heard mumbling, "I've never seen anything quite like this!" Mr. Sister, who found the 2nd giant squash simply stated, "I thought 5th was just trying to see how big the thing would actually get."

The zucchini weighed in at approximately 2 lbs each and are awaiting their fate.

The Completed Deck and Garden Update

I just realized that I never posted a completed deck/screen porch photo! I still have a few things that need to be finished (staining the door which was only recently installed, stain a few panels that needed replacing due to warping and cleaning/clearing up the corner where the hoses are presently parked.) All in all we are quite pleased.

News flash: The garden is growing! That's saying a lot since, other than herbs in containers, we have never gardened before. The tomato plants have little flowering buds on them. The corn is coming up quite nicely and the carrots have started to make their presence known. I don't think the cucumbers, zucchini, watermelon and honey dew will fare well but I could be wrong. Should I be "staking" them, too, I wonder? We will have an overabundance of peppers I do believe (3 each of green, yellow, red, jalapeno and banana). Mr. Sister added the "fence" to keep critters at bay. So far so good!

To my followers who also happen to be gardeners, any and all advice is welcome by this novice!

Sunday Garden Update

Funny story:

Poor Mr. Sister broke his back clearing the plot of land for our pending garden.

No, that's not the funny part.

As I removed the big grassy clods of dirt, I would "save" the worms I found by throwing them back into the garden plot. They're beneficial to the garden, right? When we were thoroughly worn out we stopped for the day and went inside. Mr. Sister went back out to check on our work and spied a flock of birds devouring all of the worms I worked so diligently "saving".

Go figure.

Garden Party?

Mr. Sister and I decided we want a garden this year.

Last year I had experimented with an herbal container garden that was a resounding success! I loved my summer herbs and had enough to dry and store to last us through the winter months. My only failure was cilantro. It just wouldn't grow. I tried to grow them from seed. They would get about 3-4 inches high then die. This year I am planting actual cilantro plants. Hopefully they will fare much better. I did learn that they don't like "hot" roots so I will put them in partial shade. Another sort of failure was my dill...it did very well at first but went to seed awfully fast. I haven't figured out what I did wrong but will try again this year.

While at the nursery, Mr. Sister and I picked up 6 tomato plants, 6 cucumber plants, 5 slats of peppers...3 plants each of green bell, red bell, yellow bell, jalapeno and banana - probably overkill. We also picked up 3 cantaloupe and 3 watermelon plants. My son was quite upset that we chose his most despised veggies. He decided to pick up his own packets of seeds: giant pumpkin, corn and carrot. I don't mind as I will use this as the final/hands on phase of his botany class for the year. I'm also considering planting onion and garlic but will have to wait and see if we have enough space.

In addition to the fruits and veggies we also picked up our favorite herbs. My rosemary didn't make it through the winter so this year I purchased a big bushel of a plant. My sage and my oregano are having a hard time coming back so I purchased a couple of small plants of each. And, of course, I will be planting lots of basil as this is the herb we use most often. I picked up 3 healthy basil plants and will also be sowing some basil seeds, too. Fortunately my thyme is growing like gangbusters. Last year, I was talked into planting lavender. It never flowered and I had no idea how to use the leaves so out it went...I need the container and the space for the herbs we do use!

Upon our arrival home we took some leftover lumber and built a 12ft x 8ft raised bed (8 inches high). Shopping and building took up the bulk of the day. Our plans today include digging up the grass, roto-tilling the bed and, hopefully, getting the plants into the ground.

Anyway, here is where we have so far in our collection (the marigolds will be planted with the tomatoes to try and keep the critters at bay):

And this is our raised bed...It may not be pretty but here's hoping it will do the trick.

I am sure the rabbits, and other suburban wildlife, are really excited for us to move forward on this project. Any tips and helpful hints are always welcome by this novice gardener!