How Does Your Garden Grow?

A few days of mild weather here have gotten me outside, and thinking about this summer's garden.  I have never planned much.  I just filled pots with what I like, and tucked things into the existing garden where I could find a spot.

I have a lot of bulbs and "Spring" plantings - bulbs, 2 peonies, a large rosebush - already in the garden.   The peonies have already been moved once - and survived.  It is my understanding that once established, they will live practically forever, but don't like to be transplanted.  The bulbs are the real problem.   Their foliage takes up so much room, and by the time it dies down, it's well into the heat of summer and too late to plant anything there.   I need to measure my little patch.   My guess it's about 8 feet wide, by 12 feet long. (oval) Perhaps that book about 'square-foot gardening' would be a good investment? 

I also want to try some companion planting  this year, and along with home-made 'natural' sprays, to try to battle some of the bug problems I had last year.   Abigail has gotten spoiled and turns her nose (? beak?) up at anything but layer mash and scratch grain.   I'm hoping once she gets some outside time in a temporary enclosure, she will develop a taste for greens and bugs.  I would be happy to feed her some Japanese beetles, but the tomato hornworms are just too yucky for me to handle!

Keeping in mind what did well last year, what did not, what I will still grow in pots, and what I want to move into the garden, I will go through my saved seed soon, and supplement with some store-bought ones.   I would like to try "Kamo" eggplant, but I can only find it here, and I don't know if I want to order enough other stuff from them to make it worth-while. 

I also want to be sure to add more flowers. Nasturtiums and French Marigolds are a natural in the garden, since they repel so many pests, but I am eager for color in general after such a gray and white loooooooong winter.   I was raking and digging a little last night (smoothing out the heaps of compost) and spotted a few bulbs just barely beginning to peek up from the earth.   Spring is coming!!!    

Promised photos

WHOO-HOO!  I'm up and going again.  After my last post, I did something (?) to the computer that locked it up, and it has taken all this time - and the help of the IT guys at work - for me to get it straightened out.

The last time, I said I would post pictures of some of the gifts I've been given lately:

A lovely red transferware plate, and some silverplate flatware - 2 serving spoons, a regular tablespoon, and a fish knife I will use for butter or party spreads.  I think the flatware might be hotel 'silver.'  The serving spoons are engraved with the initial S.

Jan and Mary also gave me:

More transferware - this time a "breakfast" cup (larger than a coffee cup) with saucer, and a sterling teaspoon with hand-engraving on it to add to my collection. The bunny in the photo is Orion, to give perspective. 'Rion is a teensy guy. I thought I might show him, but I need to weigh him to see if he will make senior weight. The new doe is the same size he is at almost seven months, and she is only three months.

What!! New doe, you say! Yes, here she is, Redelman's R792.

'Just one more, a potential mate for 'Rion - IF anyone expresses interest.   I think she is going to be a big girl.  I hope she grows into those ears!   Even a Mini Rex novice like me can see that she has got some ears on her.  Right now they don't exceed the maximum.  I bought her with the thought of showing her, but we'll have to see if this is just an awkward stage, and if she will even out in time.  She is a sweetheart, and I think I'm going to call her Juliet.   Since I got her at Valentine's Day time, I wanted a romantic name, and Juliet fills the bill.

NONE of the other buns wanted their picture taken, but I got a few so-so ones.

This is Holly - clipped about 3 weeks ago.   She is snuggling with her 'blankie.'  A couple of weeks ago I put an old bath towel in each of the French Angora girl's cages.   Holly wuvs her blankie - to the point that if I so much as touch it, she growls, lunges and shows her teeth.  If I scold her,  she wimpers.  She just doesn't want me to take it away - even to wash it.

  

You can see me trying to hold Niko still - and his expression says 'you're no fun at all!"   I couldn't get a side shot.  He was exploring too fast!   I plan to clip him this week.  That will be all my "clip' buns done.  I think I'm discovering that Ivy is a 'plucker' - at least partially.  I've only clipped her once since I got her, but I've been able to pluck her some.  She was so determined not to have her photo taken, she backed into the darkest corner of her cage, and since she is in the 'bottom bunk,' it was too dark, and a yucky picture. 

Truffle looks miserable, but it has nothing to do with being clipped last week.  By the time they have been in full coat for a while, they all love getting that hot old coat off.  He just doesn't want me to reach in and take

him out of his cage.  His infected eye - the one looking dolefully at the camera - is all healed up now.

When they've just been clipped, they look like aliens - after seeing a giant puff-ball for a while, when clipped they suddenly have what looks like a tiny body, and an enormous head.  Truffle is smaller than my other Angoras, but here he is just backed up in a corner.

Well, all caught up now!  Until next time, from Wren Cottage......

The Kindness of Friends .....

My lack of posting was not only a result of having nothing much to write about in the depths of winter, but my computer was slowly.....sinking....into.....the.....sunset.  It was given to me by a friend, and I was very grateful for it!  But, over the last weeks and months, it was giving up the ghost.  I have become pretty good at using the computer tools to find errors and clear them, but there was no stopping this creeping demise.  I couldn't get to my Yahoo e-mail or Groups.  Then I couldn't sign in to my blog to read or post - I could only read the ones showing on the main page- and I have lots of others. A new security system at work blocked me from most everything I could still reach at home. Recently I found myself sighing and saying "Oh Lord, please help me to get a new computer..."

This week I had lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in ages, and in making those plans to get together, she said they were looking for a new home for their old computer, and would I be interested in it?   It's not new, but a significant upgrade from the one I had.  I have fired it up today and I'm learning my way around.  Hopefully, I will be able to post pictures from home soon! Hallelujah!  Thank you, Anne!

Besides the computer, another friend  - who turned me on to auctions -  has given me some transferware (which you know I love) and a couple of pieces of old silverplate flatware I had admired, for helping her with some computer stuff.  Photos coming soon!

Friends have shared their bounty with me over time (my original computer monitor was given to me) but recently the blessings have been so sweet.  I appreciate them all.  Thank you Lord, for the kindness of friends.

Poor Truffle ....

He has an eye infection.   I hoped it was a scratch or other irritation like a piece of hay chaff caught, but after a couple of days of trying to doctor him myself, it wasn't any worse, but it wasn't any better, either, so we went off to the Vet last night.   He says it is pasteurella.   Given all the things it could have been, some involving surgery, that doesn't seem so bad.   The Vet checked him all over for abscesses, blocked tear ducts, runny nose, everything, but the goopy red eye seems to be the only thing he has.   We went home with an oral antibiotic (hmmmmm...how does one "pill' a rabbit, exactly?) and another antibiotic ointment to put in his eye.   They were all very impressed at the office, having never seen a French Angora (except the Vet) at how beautiful they are.  Truffle accepted the gushing with modesty.

Truffle wasn't up to having a new picture taken for this post, but otherwise has been a trouper.  He has been very good for me, and so good at the Vet's while we mess about with his eye.  He seems to know I'm helping him, and acts relieved when I soak the stuff off his eye and flush it with sterile saline.   One good thing about working in a hospital is they drill hygiene into you.  I'm practically washing my hands off  before and after I touch Truffle, and I'm keeping an eye on the other animals.  I think I read somewhere cats can get this too?

Another thing I have been appreciating, especially with this unusually tough winter we've been having, is how glad I am that all my animals are inside the house!  It's not only a relief for me not to have to 'suit up' to go out in the cold and ice, but I can monitor them better and no frozen water or dropping pans!    This urban farming thing has a few advantages!

Computer woes

My Christmas was a quiet time, as it is most years, and I've come to really like it.  No stress, no mad shopping at the mall, no deadlines, no pressure.  Just time spent with some friends, good food, Christmas eve candlelight service, and lots of quality time with the pets at home.  

In the meantime though, I've been having trouble with my computer lately, and it's getting worse.   I can get to most things, like my blog, Yahoo for e-mail, but when I click to open, or read e-mail or blog comments, I get the message "this page is not available at this time....."   I've checked my settings, defragged and run scan disk for errors several times, but it's to no effect.  I think the computer is.just.too.old.   I shouldn't complain, since I didn't have to pay for it.  It was a hand-me-down from a friend.  

So, I haven't been able to send e-mail from home, enter new posts on the blog, comment on others' blogs.  (I can still  read them if I go there directly from the search engine, but not the 'reading list' on my blog) or send our standard Amazon gift cards to each other to my siblings for Christmas.  I've gotten messages on several sites that soon they will no longer support my browser, and I have tried to upgrade (Firefox,etc) but they always say what I have can't support it.   The budget won't support a buying new one, so I will have to do what I can on my work lunch hours.

Ahhhhh, technology.

It was fun having several days at home with the pets.  Abigail is breaking out of broody mode and becoming more interactive. She gave Ciaran a warning peck when he got too near the open door of her cage.   Ciaran is feeling the cold, and wants to sleep under the covers with me at night.   After nearly two years, Michu has gotten so brave she comes downstairs mornings and evenings - but still sleeps upstairs.  After claiming a
new' chair I bought at the auction, she has started to share.  Ciaran is the only one who muscles his way in when she is already there, though.  So sweet to see them sleeping all in a tangle. 

I got Holly out of her cage (always a traumatic event for her) this weekend and when I settled her in my lap and stroked her for about an hour, I think she would have let me do that forever.   Holly and I are coming to an understanding.  She is still a drama queen, but she has begun to understand I am not out to kill or attack her every time I stick my hand in her cage.  When she sees me stroking and paying attention to the other buns, she either starts flinging her toys out, if the door is open, or she flops over on her side with a big sigh, and stares accusingly at me.  Drama queen.  

All of the buns are more mellow in the winter when hormones aren't raging.  I've gotten all three of the Mini Rex to lay on their back and go into the 'bunny trance,' while I rub their belly, and Truffle will too, if I hold him 'just the right way.'

Niko and Ivy, the two buns in the 'bottom bunks' just love letting themselves out of their cage for some playtime when I leave their door open - and then putting themselves back in when they are tired (although their outings are not at the same time).  They do NOT want me to take them out or put them back in though.   Niko loves to visit 'Rion, my Mini Rex buck, whose cage is just at the right height for sitting up, putting his paws on the ledge, and saying hello.   It's soooo cute.  'Rion seems to like his visits,  but I'm not going to risk letting them out together.

But then I have to go back to work........thank you, Lord, that I have a job to go to!  

It's a good time of the year for it

I realized recently that I have been pretty much living on soup for several weeks now.  I love soup. Soup and good crusty bread is my idea of a great cold weather meal.  But this began when a month ago, I got a cold......that never left.  I think it really was a cold in the beginning, but has morphed into bronchitis and a sinus infection.  Soup sounded really good with all that going on, so during this time I have made all kinds of soup, and really enjoyed this simple but good food.

One of my favorites during this time has been a basic turkey-vegetable recipe I made with some turkey stock I made and froze at Thanksgiving.  I sauted lots of onions and garlic in olive oil until soft, added the stock and veggies, then minced some of my homegrown/canned jalapenos and added them.  It was wonderfully spicy - good for keeping those sinus passages open - and chock-full of of vitamins.

An easy-easy soup I like all the time, starts with basic potato soup.  I steam or simmer cauliflower, broccoli, or brussels sprouts (or a combination) until very tender, then mash them and add them to the soup.  It adds thickness and nutrition, especially with a handful of shredded cheese stirred into the hot soup.

I found a recipe for hot-and-sour soup (my favorite when eating at a chinese restaurant) but haven't tried making that at home yet.   It may be a while because we have a combo of ice/snow and slush on the ground that makes anything other than necessary travel - to and from work - unthinkable.  So I will wait to go out to buy some of the exotic ingredients it takes.

Do you have a cold-weather soup recipe that is a favorite?

Earth stood hard as iron .......

......... water like a stone.   Familiar lyrics from "In the Deep Midwinter, " and very descriptive of the conditions here, only it isn't even winter yet, much less 'mid.'   We had a couple of inches of snow here last weekend that are still hanging on, because it's so coooooold! 

Not much farming goes on at an urban farm in the winter.   I still haul bunny poo out - 5 gallon buckets at a time - and dump it on the garden, but I quit composting when it started getting so cold.  I know it should still be able to 'cook,' in the winter, but mine is such a haphazard pile, I doubted it would do that for me. 

I've upped my diligence about filling the bird feeder - and don't mind other critters that share in the dropped seed.  Last winter I saw definite wild bunny tracks going from heap to heap of bunny poo - checking it out.

Abigail is still broody, the Angora bunnies are about halfway through a coat-growing cycle, the Mini Rexs are molting, and the cats are practically hibernating.   Not much going on here - farm wise.    I went to Versailles after work one day this week to pick up chicken feed, and there inside the door was a huge, black, stove (coal? wood?) giving off lovely rays of heat - just the thing when walking in from the cold.  The hiss of the stove, the homely smells of the feed, the people in coveralls coming in and out.......why do I live in the city?

I made another score at the auction last week - that as usual I did not plan to go to - a lovely old piece of transferware: 

I had said in another post that I would like to find another piece or two of brown transferware, and even though this is a LOT more elaborate in design than what I really like - it was mine for a low bid.  A blogger who seems expert in this area was nice enough to tell me the pattern when I e-mailed her.   The really exciting part is she is sure it was manufactured between 1826-40.  I don't have to have old things, and I'm usually just has happy with reproductions and Home Goods ware, but the history-lover in me was impressed with the age of this.

Lastly, thank you to Michelle , who surprised me yesterday with a package of some samples of her Shetland fiber, because I said that was one breed I had never spun.  The samples are luscious, and I can hardly wait to get to them.  I may even pull out a spindle for the occasion.   I keep telling Michelle I wish someone in this area would get into Shetlands for fine fiber, and now that I've felt her Shetland roving, I'd like that even more.

Until next time from Wren Cottage ..........