Whut?

Whut?, originally uploaded by Margo and George.

This is what I get when I try to do simple domestic things, like, laundry (these are actually bathmats trying to dry hung over the laundry basket). He gives me that funny look, but honestly I only knew he was in there because I saw the basket moving around on its own. You'd wonder what was going on too, wouldn't you?

Life with cat.

snoot prints!

snoot prints!, originally uploaded by Margo and George.

Tuesday morning I came out to check on the containers outside my window, only to find everything tipped over, dug through, and generally in disarray. Some nocturnal visitors tipped over all my container plants, deciding apparently that the dirt smelled like it might have something good to eat hidden/buried therein. Nope! Just seeds! But the visitor vandals left their funny little noseprints in the mud for me to find in the morning. Critters! I'm pretty sure it's the family of skunks, though; mumma and two babies, that have a den about ten feet away under a hosta plant by the channelized brook. I was able to put things in some order after work, so the damage was more superficial than I'd expected, given how it appeared at first. All is well.

bean bed

bean bed, originally uploaded by Margo and George.

at least the beans are tolerating all the rain... so far.

A return to the humble container garden

the humble container garden, originally uploaded by Margo and George.

So, as apparently the rest of the country endures a heat wave, my part of the country has had a month straight of rain. No, seriously: I can count the days of non-rain (note that I do not say 'sun!') on one hand. So, in desperation, after the weeks straight of rain, mist, and outright pelting downpours, I'm giving myself a backup container garden. We'll see... but I'm hoping the pots will at least be above the flood and drain away a little of all the rain. I've already broken out the little white fairy lights in order to give them a boost of sunshine in spite of rainy days (hooray for outdoor xmas lights from the local maulgreens...)

So, the big bag up in the corner isn't mine - it simply appeared mysteriously one day. The mingy air conditioner is mine (not by choice; it was there when I moved in, and you can see it's installed into the wall from the days when people that that was a great idea). From the left is a tiny pot of cat-grass re-growing after himself chewed it down; then some beans (tricolor variety pack of goodness); then some radicchio, and in the same pot in case they don't sprout, a few radish seeds; then a batch of spinach; then in the lower green container I put some swiss chard (a colored variety pack); in the larger pot are "carnival colors" carrots, and in the difficult-to-see clear plastic container a hopeful planting of hot peppers. over to the right in the blue container are some rosemary, pineapple mint and thai basil; I planted some nasturtium seeds just to see if they'll fill out the pot. In the green pot above is a volunteer cucumber from the garden. In the 'strawberry pot' is a combination of basil and some chioggia beet seeds that I'm hoping will be friends.

And now, I have to go back to praying for a moderate amount of sunshine. Just a little from time to time to keep the plants from rotting, y'know?

a nestful of cute

a nestful, originally uploaded by Margo and George.

Last weekend I got a wonderful surprise outside my window - literally a few feet outside my window, hidden in the upper branches of a large rhododendron shrub: a nestful of baby robins was fledging, and were being encouraged out of the nest by the parent robins. Terribly cute, and funny - one by one they leaped out to land on a too-thin branch, wobbled and fluttered, and plopped to the ground before fluttering their way upward into a more stable branch, to catch their breath I suppose.

gratuitous purple

purple, originally uploaded by Margo and George.

After a grey spring, it was a real refresher to see these in a garden at the Smithsonian. It'll be another week though, before my oriental poppy deigns to bloom...

Vacation...

Veronica, originally uploaded by Margo and George.

and then shortly thereafter, I headed out of town for a long weekend. I visited DC on my way south; stopping in to visit a few favorite museums - the Sackler /Freer Gallery of Asian Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the gardens surrounding the Smithsonian castle complex. In spite of foggy, overcast weather, I had a nice visit to the capitol. Lots of flower macro photos up on my flickr site. I eventually wound up at a spring festival down in South Carolina. Lovely, quiet, restful. Enough said. Driving back north was nothing but rain, unfortunately, so it wasn't much of a scenic trip. So much for the Shenandoahs...another time I'll have to make a trip down there to camp and hike the AT on that stretch.

...after much digging

after much digging, originally uploaded by Margo and George.

this is how the first bed looked. I planted my early stuff here on April 15: lettuces and greens, radishes, beets, and nasturtium, peas and cilantro. As you can see, it was dark before I was finished.

Overheard while weeding...

So, I arrived in the cooler, later part of the day to do some much-needed weeding now that we aren't living with rain all the time (although a t-storm was supposedly imminent, and I did have several things to plant)... guess what I overheard while weeding? Being gardeners you'll appreciate this one.

So, we're at more than capacity at our community garden. Opening day we had 130 plots free, and volunteer clearing efforts on that day freed up an additional 5 plots that hadn't been in use in decades. (Woot! Woot! especially to those wielding heavy tools to clear; I was just cutting & pulling the smaller stuff.) Happy increases aside, that still apparently left 15 wait-list folks wanting. Hopefully we'll be able to accommodate a few more folks as plots get cleared out. I'm just glad people are jumping in and gardening.

So, there had been a much-neglected plot next to ours, and it was just a rock bed. Hardpan and rocks. In the interim while I was away, apparently a woman had adopted said plot, and I may say, had done a miraculous clearing job - possibly working solo, too, according to the Duchess. At least that's how it's appeared. We could just have missed the appearance of helpers. At any rate a herculean clearing job in order to make the plot workable, set up raised beds, and a fence, and (!) a gate with a nice lock (always advisable - gardeners aren't the only ones who visit the plots. Sad, but true.) At any rate, an astounding amount of work considering; when I arrived today I could see several beds well-established and they were working a couple more, with husband and kids at work too. Now, this is the funny part: so I'm busy weeding, and appropos of nothing, a piping 5 or 6 year old voice, in exasperated tones, declaims "Mummy! Do you even realize how much work this is???"

...wait for it...there's more...

Proving herself the truly patient soul this woman must be, she actually responded kindly - "Mmm, yes, dear, I certainly do." What an understatement. My back hurts in sympathy just thinking about all the digging and rock cultivating.

I really tried to stifle my guffaw, for mom's sake, but all I could think was how truly exhausting it must be sometimes to be mom.

Then again, I was the odd child who actually enjoyed weeding because it meant i could pick a snack while I worked. No, seriously. Odd, I know. I've said other memorably ridiculous things that I still have to live down. My personal favorite has to be a toss-up between "I can't eat that, it's DEAD!" and "He hit me back first!!!"

Nonetheless, it provided my evening chuckle, and that's all I needed. Just sharing.

And on that note, it's time for me to do the post-garden tick-check, and hit the shower. Photos to follow later...

the Cute Patrol

0502091106, originally uploaded by Margo and George.

...or, how I'm continuing to postpone putting up a decent catch-up post...

I was down in SC for a festival over the weekend. We lucked out with great weather, and I chatted with someone who was carrying around the cutest little kittens - maybe 10 weeks old? These little guys were looking for a home (which each of them found by the end of the weekend. I don't know who adopted them, I just remember the girl carrying them around updated me.) The festival was relaxed; a nice event. My cabin was cozy - a small wooden structure with a porch, that was originally constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps back in the early 30s. Sadly, the interior had been graffiti'ed to death by decades of teenagers attending summer camp there. Some of them, amazingly, left behind their snail mail address (?!) - it's a little baffling to me but what can I say. I'm still sorting out the photos, and will update from the beginning once I get straightened out.

...more later...