Anal retentive

I'm growing Italian vegatables.



Cleaning out the pantry split pea soup. With green Garbonzos! Most delicious. It will clean out your colon too.

Ill-gotten goods

Stolen plant materials from my walks with Preston. Cheaper than buying from the store. AND I know they'd grow well in my area.



Stolen rocks from my parents' backyard. Cheaper than buying from the store. AND I know they'd grow well in my area.

Hillside terracing

Goodbye nasty ivy. I hate ivy. Ivy is evil.



Hello terraced levels. When I bought the house, I did not realize the property slopes. 'Twas a jungle covering all the dirt.

Digging out

I finally unearthed my patio table underneath years of crap. And I even set the table! I can dine alfresco again!



Front yard planting bed extension has been moved up in schedule due to the overabundance of mulch. I will use every last bit of this mulch if it kills me.



Mulching Day 2. Neck deep in mulch. Finally, cleared a path to my front door. Mulch overdose. So tired.

Swimming in mulch

Preston is leaving a note at the neighborhood doggie bulletin board.



I'm in mulch heaven. I want to jump in and roll around in it.



Mulching the front yard. Woo Hoo!



Holy crap! I mulched nearly the front yard and didn't even make a dent in the mulch pile. It's going to be ages before I can park in this driveway again.

Curtains

Kermit gets a brain.



Before. Trees alive.



After. Trees dead. Now the entire neighborhood can see me shower. I should consider installing window treatments in the bathroom. (That is correct. There are no curtains in my bathroom- or the entire first floor in fact.)



I am so jealous at the professional strength wood chipper. They are so much manlier than I. I think I'll go buy a Hummer SUV now.



My never ending quest to clean out the pantry. Friday night roast chicken with assorted veggies I found in the back of the refrigerator.

Thorns a plenty

Lazy rainy day today. My thumb hurts from repotting cactus, and shin battered and bruised from banging on a giant flowerpot. Easy quick-fix dinner tonight. No marinades, no weird contraptions. Only one pan. The crispy fried capers and artichokes were delicious.

Pulling ivy

More ivy pulled out by hand. I hate ivy. HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE ivy. If only ivy was edible. I think I need goats.



I opened up the box the lily pad plant came in. And inside was a teeny tiny itsy bitsy wittle plant. I was expecting at least something walnut sized. But gumball sized? This is ridiculous. What are they trying to pull?

It's toast

My superhuman strength snapped the garden spade in half. I am manly.



Baby plants now get wheeled outside during the day for some rays. Much better use of the old microwave cart than last year- when the microwave cart was at the bottom of the pool.



After much cussing and pulling and tugging of ivy, passion fruit vine is in the ground and about to colonize the fence by Professor Higgen's garage. I hate ivy.



Green coffee grounds. Smells like mold.



Like panning for gold.



Getting darker. Still smells like mold.



Hhhmmm... this is taking forever... let's crank up the heat, shall we?



Oh Lordy! Too much. Too much. Call the fire department.



Home roasted coffee beans. No longer smelling of mold.

Trials and tribble-lations

I planted Tribbles! I hope they multiply quickly.



PeeNees now growing.
Soon to be planted.
Leaves are showing.
Tired, I panted.



Back of refrigerator stir-fry. With mystery sauces.

Baby steps

Hannah sends her Chinese New Year's greetings. That's my girl!



Baby vegatables sunning themselves on a ninety degree day in February. Let's all burn some more fossil fuels to celebrate.



Tropical strawberry guava tree finally planted. The farm is progressing nicely.



Tier two in progress. Progress!



Baby panda socks in celebration of Chinese New Year.

Bloody O.J.

Assorted lavendar cuttings stolen from the neighborhood during Preston's walkies. We venture quite far for some of these. Some are not expected to survive, but hopefully I'll get some freebies.



Pink azalea is in bloom today.



My fingers are pink from juicing blood oranges. It looks like I murdered someone even though I keep washing my hands like Lady MacBeth. The new juicer works great! Some people say the juice dribbles down their short little arms. But I have not experienced such problem even after juicing half a gallon's worth of blood oranges. Some people must not be following directions. And by some people, I mean Nancy.

The babes

Giant baby head.



New mouldings tacked on. One has to question the sanity of replacing all the perfectly good window and door trim in this room. But they didn't match. So now they do. And I have to patch and repaint again. Sigh. Why do I do this to myself?



The greenhouse window gets new matching frames and a bamboo base made from flooring leftovers. Angles are easier this time. It must be because I slanted them 225 degrees instead of 45 degrees. Hee Hee.



Meet my Valentines day dates.

Digging for gold

Golden showers are $10.99. What a bargain!



Old trim ripped out. Spray foam squirted in. Ready to accept new trim.



This room has a history of obnoxious paint colors.



Makeshift clamping mechanism. This MDF stuff is hard to work with. Great because it's indestructable, but nearly impossible to nail without an industrial strength nail gun. There may be an industrial strength nail gun in my future.

Icing

Nancy's delicious un-birthday cake. But it's not all that it seems to be. The back of the cake is actually open and the insides of it hollow from my eating the cake before I got the chance to take a decent picture. So you must marvel at the structural integrity of the cake. Such rich decadent chocolate double layered cake. Each bite requires an entire glass of milk to wash it down. Whole milk.



Fuzzy fungus that's growing in my compost bin today. I think this is how they make Hostess sno-balls.



Extreme close up of a pink flowered variety of rosemary that's blooming today. Totally appropriate as I had a nice lunch with my old friend Rosemary this afternoon.



Replacement papaya tree. The previous tenant turned into mush during the ice storm. Let's hope we don't have anymore frost or ice or snow.