Yesterday's Job

Due to inclement spirit the business of Monday will be reassigned to today.  If there are trends on Tuesday, I am not aware of them this week.

The objective of the day is to find a place to set up my plant trays.  Dan was very accommodating to my mood and took me out of the house to look at shelves.  I went with red eyes and sunglasses and as is always inevitable we ran into neighbors.  

There were no shelves better than the ones that are here in my back yard, so the excursion became a getaway.  Who gets a getaway to Home Depot?  Exhilarating. I came home with resolve to work it out, but it was raining outside and the temp had dropped considerably so the job was left for today. I set an alarm to get to it early and I'm outta here.

The aluminum shelf I needed was covered with pots and containers with 'stuff' for plant keeping on it.  All of my bonsai pots were there with two bonsai plants that I started last summer.  All of them were full of water that had frozen including my bonsai lilac bush.  The only pot that cracked was the bonsai.  It will have to be replaced this spring.  Fortunately, I have an identical pot.  

Tip:  always bring ceramic pots inside in the winter or dump the soil out of them because the freezing soil will crack the pot every time.  I have a bunch of pots in the garage because I didn't want to empty all of them last fall.  I knew they would freeze and break.  The two that were left outside all winter are broken.

I spent the rest of the morning cleaning up the shelves and cleaning up the conservatory where I would put it.  There was a lot of clean up from the cat box, spilled water and tons of dead leaves on the floor.

The beginning.

I now have to dig out my plant lights and hook them up under the top shelf.  The light from the window is good light but seedlings need more light to grow properly and not tall and spindly.  

Those little sprouts are now good sized and need the flat turned each day to give them some exercise as they head to the light.  Notice the leeks are springing out of the ground today.  They will be 4" high in a day or two.  The pepper seed will need heat to sprout so I must get the lights on them asap.

Leaning toward the light

Newborn Leeks

So Cute!

It is so fun to watch them pop out of the ground.  I love it.

The next flat will be lettuce and other greens that can thrive in the cooler weather and can be transplanted outside early. It is exciting to think about gardening again.  It never gets old. From the time the seed catalogs come in the mail to the first planting outdoors--it is heaven.  

HAPPY PLANTING

BLOG'nGRAM

 

This Cracks Me Up

My day cracked about mid-afternoon.  Everything got scrambled.  

So have a little chocolate on me.  

BTW:  I ate all the good ones.

Don't let the Goombahs eat you!

HAPPY MAKING OMELETS

BLOG'nGRAM

Monday--Getting Organized Day

Happy President's Day

Gotta Get Organized!  I use Mondays for planning and organization.  It is time to get out the old schedule and start again.

Organization is a personal thing.  It doesn't always work to download someones wonderful Organizational Charts unless the one you use is not working for you.  Still, this should be used as a guideline to see what works for you. Because of this constant quest to find the perfect plan, I stumbled upon a good New Year's jump start called "The Cure" on a blog that I follow called Apartment Therapy.  See at The Cure and enjoy.

I respect and admire a person who is organized and shares their knowledge with others.  However, if you are an organized personality type, you have probably already found your own niche.  If you are unorganized, then try different methods to help to get on the ball, and don't feel bad if they fail. Ya gotta find what works for you and keep tweaking it until it fits.  

With that said, I have my own organization style that I developed when I was a young wife with babies.  I picked a room for each weekday and concentrated on cleaning that room only.  Days late in the week were set aside for bathroom then the living room on the last day of the weekday so these rooms were always clean on the weekend. That plan worked great when I had a 900 sq. ft. home.

As my family grew, my homes grew, but I still kept the basic plan, moving around the house each day cleaning up the weekly messes, dusting, vacuuming, clean fingerprints, etc. Soon the children were able they shared in the cleaning. On Saturday mornings during school days, they were assigned a room with a list of basic cleaning tasks.  Help is good. The daily cleaning was put on hold and the time was used for other endeavors like laundry, shopping, menu making and bill paying. Bigger is better, but much more work.

This program, however, leaves no plan for deep cleaning.  The fallback was always the ancient ritual of Spring Cleaning.  That is a lot of work.

Now the nest is empty, I have a big home with five bedroom, three bathrooms, two family rooms, a dining room, laundry room, conservatory and no one to help.  It makes one room cleaning per day just a little impractical. "The Cure" above is a four week program that covers the house (a small apartment size house) deep cleaning most of the deep stuff. 

I was unable to start on New Year's weekend due to impending surgery, but it can be done anytime.  I tried last week, but was not quite ready for the rigorous work. (It is not that hard, but combining my exercise goals with this plan was too much.) I will try again this week.  The beginning is not overwhelming.  The plan can be started any weekend and redone as needed, like cleaning a second floor or basement.

Now that's a lot of blathering.  I am thankful for Monday.  It is a great day to start over.

HAPPY HOLIDAY


BLOG'nGRAM



  

Trending On Tuesday -- Booties

Booties are trending this year.  They have been around for a long time, but this year they have gained popularity.  They come in classy, casual and extreme.  For a good overview of styles go to overstock.com for a great variety of booties.  Some are totally laughable.  



I would label these casual, dressy, outrageous and pretty. (I like the blue one.) The crazy one defies the word bootie--especially if it means a small boot.  Like to wear these out in the snow?

Studio 5 had a segment on wearing booties. Check out Studio 5--Style File: All About Booties.  It tells how to wear booties, what sox to wear, what to wear with a skirt.

Example:  When wearing skinny stretch jeans tuck them into the booties.  Otherwise, roll up the pant twice for slim jeans of jeans material and straight leg jeans.
Never wear white bootie sox that can be seen from the top.  Use black or match the bootie. 

With skirts use tights that pull a color out of the skirt or match the bootie color. Also bare legs are acceptable, but personally, I think it looks like a broken up line with a shorter skirt, bare leg then bootie. I really UNLIKE. Always match the style of skirt with style of bootie.  Pleated and lace should have a dressy bootie, and casual skirts with casual bootie.  

Over 40's beware of crazy styles in clothing and bootie together.  Be age aware.

Ready, set, go.  Get them while the style lasts.  Just buy one pair; you don't need to change your whole shoe wardrobe.  Not that any of us would. Could be gone next year, but who knows?

HAPPY FEET


BLOG'nGRAM

Monday's Plants

Monday has been my plant day forever.  It was assigned to Mondays on one of my first daily planners and has stayed. This is the day I always water all of my plants.  Always Monday.  Never forgotten (don't believe that one) but still I try to keep it my sacred  plant day.  If you do that, your plants will not be dying all the time.  That is how I keep mine alive.

Today I finally sat down to order my seeds.  Seed catalogs start arriving in December, just before Christmas.  I love to spend holiday hours going through them and wishing for Spring.  Just looking at all that green stuff is enough to raise your spirits.  I get a variety of catalogs even though I don't order every year and never order from some of them. 

 My favorite is Pinetree Garden Seeds.  They are small garden friendly with smaller packets and smaller prices than other catalogs.  That is what they started out to be, but I notice the prices have climbed in the last few years and are not always the best price.  I just like their products.  The last few years I buy my seeds at Walmart--some for 10 to 20 cents.  I just plant more seeds per row and seldom have problems.  I stay with Pinetree for different varieties that I prefer and cannot find in store bought seed packets.  

I have a long list of seeds to buy, but I won't get them all at once.  I need to get the ones that should be planted early in pots like leeks and lettuces.  Leeks needed to be started earlier than this so they are large enough to put in the ground in April or May.  I buy a variety that has a shorter to harvest time because the larger ones take over 130 days.  Anything over 85 days is pushing it if you have an early fall.  They will be okay in the ground for months, but won't grow any bigger. I do love leeks in many of my soups instead of onion. Lancelot is a variety that is ready in 100 days and that is doable here with an Indian Summer (heating back up after a frost).  

For Lettuce, I like Pinetree's mix.  I gives a lot of different loose leaf varieties and not all Black Seeded Simpson.  I like a really red variety, Red Velvet, and a butter head variety that has a short time frame like Tom Thumb.  Over 50 days is pushing it for lettuce unless you plants starts in flats early, early.  From seed they will probably bolt when the temperature gets into the 80's, even 70's.  They like it cold.  

That's what I plan to do tonight, place my first order of spring planting and early starting seed like tomatoes, kale, peppers, okra and eggplant (if I grow it.)  pinetree@superseeds.com

My Amaryllis is beautiful today.  Jenifer gave it to me for Christmas and I didn't get it planted until sometime in January.  They always do better for me after Christmas, but never seem to hit Valentine's Day.  Here is my February pre-Valentine.

 Different shots.  Notice the second bud on the left.  It will keep on giving for a long time.  Thanks Jenny.

HAPPY GARDEN WISHES

BLOG'nGRAM

Snowy Day Part II

It snowed all day.  Cottonwood Heights took second place for the most snow at 23 inches, but it continued to snow after last night's news.  It's a marshmallow world outside.

Back patio with poor bending apple tree.

Can you see the stump from last year's dead cottonwood tree.  It has not been carved into art yet.  Behind it is another dead tree.  This is my pine tree out front that I grew from a sapling given to me on the first Earth Day.  It is over 25 years old.  Now it has succumbed to a pine borer.




Yesterday I misnamed the day.  It was a snowy day and not a "snow day".  12 inches of snow and schools were in session.   Beat that Maryland.  Today 24+ inches of snow and I saw children going to school.  We are tough in Utah.  RRRoar!

Here is some more pix:

My front yard forest.

Three Gumdrop Pots.  (Under the deck)

Getting Deeper!

Draped with snow.

You can't get much better than this (if you ski).  Eat your heart out.  Hibernation is my idea of enjoying this much snow.  Too icy, too slippery, too dangerous for us old people.

At least we have stairs to the chicken coop now so I don't have to slide down the hill or fall on my fanny after feeding the chickens.  I am not a deer, not sure-footed at all on snow/ice.

Enjoy the weather where you are.  Remember what we get on Monday comes to you on Wednesday, my children in Illinois and Indiana and you get lake effect snow, too.  Thursday, Maryland.  

HAPPY SNOW SHOVELING

BLOG'nGRAM

Winter Has Arrived

At long last.  Winter.  Not that I love it that much.  I had to walk to the bank this morning because we have a foot of snow on our driveway and Dan ran out of gas in the snowblower.  It was taking a lot of work to get down to the driveway/sidewalk because the snow was so wet.  Be Warned:  this storm is on it's way East.

By the way, it is still snowing.

My herb pot on the front porch.  

Deeper than my dogs.

 Remember when the snow was higher than Koco?  It is not quite that deep yet, but it is higher than my little miniature poodle dogs.  They won't go outside for a picture.

Winter Wonderland!

All the bushes are bent to the ground.

Looks like more than a foot on this pot.

Merry Christmas!

HAPPY WINTER SHOPPING

BLOG'nGRAM