Good morning, Everyone!

After several years retirement living on wheels, I bought a house on a large lot, going to learn to garden in my dotage, doing it backwards I guess, no surprise there. Galveston island offers opportunity to grow most anything.

I’d like a fence, can one grow an edible one? Fruit trees, shrubs? Looking for suggestions.

You could espalier some fruit trees against a fence.

Morning KarenM and Pups

I used the digging fork and loosened up soil in parts of the raised beds. My attention was focused on getting peas and spinach planted. Just starting everything outside from seed. Soil temps are 55 degrees early in the morning before the sun warms it even more for the day.

My afternoon project is getting a solar powered electric fence installed. It is not going to be a very aesthetic garden feature, but hopefully I will have a few more leafy greens for us and the deer will stick to native plants outside of my vegetable patch.

I don’t have a yard but that apple cake looks wonderful.
Good morning!

Good morning, nonquixote and Margaret!

Would you like a large slice?

Mmmm, I’d love a slice of that delicious looking cake. Looks like a cake that would be good a la mode too. :)

Well, we have some virtual ice cream, too!

Though I don’t have a yard, I’m a bit of a balcony gardener. I collected some bluebonnet seeds last year and I planted them recently, I made sure they got cold this winter but I’m not sure they’ll come up. Alan tells me that defeats the spirit of “wildflowers” but the joke’s on him since it’s so dry this year. I’ll have bluebonnets and he won’t.

I wonder where the rest of the regular cast is….

Morning. Haven’t even begun to think about gardening but the weather’s getting nice and yard cleanup is set to begin. That’s as far as we’ll go for now.

Maybe they stayed up all night watching the budget drama.

Here is what espaliered fruit trees look like: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=espalier+fruit+trees&aq=1&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=espalier

That might be it. I just read on McClatchy that they reached some sort of agreement last night, but only after cutting a lot more from the budget. I hope Planned Parenthood was not part of those cuts.

Sleeping in a bit I suppose. I almost did myself.

We have a lot of cleanup to do, too, after all of those storms this winter.

I promised myself I wouldn’t sleep in this morning.

No but womens health clinics in DC were the way I understand it. It’s beyond me how any woman could vote GOP. I’ve felt that way for some time but it’s gotten much worse lately. And that revenue is raised locally! It has nothing to do at all with the federal deficit.

We always manage to plow up part of the yard too. Dirty mess, but the ground’s still too soft to do much.

I don’t get it, either… how can they betray their own gender like that?

Okay, enough about politics! Let’s chat about more uplifting matters…

I guess it’s the same sort of foolishness that drives working class people of both sexes to vote GOP, despite all evidence that they are voting against their own interests. The country has gone collectively insane. My fried Anne and I were lamenting that yesterday morning.

Deal!

No plowing here, the ground is too sloped in the side and not enough to plow, in any case.

Did anyone look at my slide show of growing things? I put a knitted afghan square in there, too, since the fiddle-head ferns are not coming up yet.

From what I read and saw clips of, the Dem women were quite convincing when they came out and actually fought for women’s rights and the repub women were dismal failures when they couldn’t defend their position. Doesn’t this tell them something? Fight for fairness. We keep letting these whackos spout all this hateful nonsense and no one on our side comes out fighting.

The woman who started the flower beds around this old farm house years ago, knew what she was doing. There are healthy ferns on the north side, hostas on the east and west and a ton of other plants and flowers I don’t know much about. But that was over forty years ago and I am unable to figure out how she found the time manage the flowers. Areas that used to have sun are shaded by thirty foot trees. I have been marking and identifying things as they bloom and trying to fashion some pleasing visual effects as I learn what is what. Beautiful rock walls are overgrown and I only have so much time.

Oops…sorry. I’ll talk uplifting. Getting ready for vacation and picked up a few books. I have them in the trunk of my car so I don’t read them before I leave.

I just put my Santa slipper socks back on. My daughter’s family’s pets gave them to me this past Christmas. They’re pretty funny looking, but they are very warm, so I’m still wearing them.

Sometime, I’ll take a picture of them, so you can all see them.

Would any of those books be interesting to us?

Just what I am looking for, thanks, K

It’s not gardening but its very exciting to me. A lot of people have thought for a while now that life producing planets are more likely to exist around low mass stars than around larger, brighter ones. M class stars are usually more stable and always much longer lived than others, not to mention being way more common, (M class stars are thought to make up about 76 percent of all stars). Certainly it would be much easier to photograph planets around dimmer stars than really bright ones. The problem is, those small, red ones are way hard to see from Earth. But now there is a new technique for locating them, which means that telescopes can be trained on them now that they know where to look. Remember, Gliese581 is a spectral class M3V and has a minimum of 4 planets and possibly 6 including at least one in the habitable zone. This is an exciting time for exoplanet astronomy.

Astronomers have come up with a new way of identifying close, faint stars with NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer satellite. The technique should help in the hunt for planets that lie beyond our solar system, because nearby, hard-to-see stars could very well be home to the easiest-to-see alien planets.

It would be a lovely fence, Joel, if you decide to do something like that.

That’s pretty exciting, Margaret, though I doubt I will be alive long enough to see us populating extra-galaxy planets.

I did! I love those enormous old oaks in your neighborhood. They remind me of where I grew up.

No. Nor will I or perhaps anybody alive today.

Our neighborhood has a wonderful tree canopy. Another time, I’ll take some photos around the neighborhood and make a slide show of the trees.

There’s also a very, very old sycamore, that used to be overshadowing a small house, but the borough turned it into a park. They believe that tree dates from when William Penn was here. It’s absolutely amazing!

Hmmm…I don’t know. I bought ‘The King’s Speech’ (thought I’d read it before the dvd comes out, ‘The Family’ by Mario Puzo about the Borgias (new Showtime series that I’d like more info on), a Janet Evanovich book (cuz she always makes me laugh), ‘The Hot Zone’ (a great book that I already read but lost my copy, so picked one up at the library), and a true-crime book by Ann Rule.

I’m glad Spring has finally sprung in your neck of the woods. Looks like it’s going to be way hot and dry here this summer. Yuck.

All of those sound interesting to me. I used to read some of Ann Rule’s books, but it’s been awhile since I have. The last one was probably about when Tom Capano killed the scheduling secretary for the governor of Delaware. I kept reading about that trial online… it was pretty prurient. Hardly uplifting. ;~)

I’ve only ever read one book by Janet Evanovich, but it was pretty entertaining. My sister has been trying to collect all of her books.

I’m more of a Dorothy Sayers fan… truth be told, I have a bit of a crush on Lord Peter Wimsey.

Here it is usually humid and muggy in the summer time.

That’s what I like about older neighborhoods. Newer developments always raze every tree on the land and then plant new ones, (sometimes), and it leaves them looking so sterile and artificial. The neighborhood I grew up in started life shortly after the Civil War around a train station that was the halfway point between Houston, (Harrisburg then), and Galveston. There were plenty of old Mighty Oaks and Elms and others that had been around long enough to reach full maturity. There was a wooded area immediately behind it and screening the view of Houstopolis from us. It’s quite urbanized now but when I was growing up, it was still very rural.

Pennsylvania still has a lot of woods… and where we live, there are lots of woods nearby.

Lots of wildlife, too, deer, woodchucks, racoons, owls, and large numbers of birds making a racket in the trees.

Paul and I just bought two new birdhouses, one of natural wood and one that I had to paint.

The Tom Capano book is the one I picked up. Saw a bit of it on TV and turned it off quickly and decided to read the book first.
I came ‘this close’ to buying a used paperback copy of ‘Don Quixote, USA’ on Amazon. It’s a book I read a condensed version of when I was a kid. Very good, as I remember. Well I didn’t act fast enough and now it’s gone. The only copies left are about $60. Anyone remember that book?

If I were to buy a Sayers book, which one would you recommend?

Yep, we had lots and lots of wildlife too when I was little. Deer, rabbits, tortoises, red eared turtles, snapping turtles, raccoons, skunks, armadillos, possums, squirrels, even some bobcats and rattlesnakes. Then there were the domesticated ones and the livestock. More than once my dad had to honk the horn several times to get in and out of the driveway around the cattle that used to graze our yard. They’re all gone now though, except for the squirrels. It’s very sad.

That Capano trial was a real doozy! All kinds of dirty linen was aired in public. Ai yai yaiiiii!!!

My favorites are the ones that include Harriet Vane, a love interest for Wimsey:

Strong Poison (where they first meet)
Have His Carcase (where Wimsey helps to solve a mysterious murder)
Gaudy Night (where Harriet finally understands how she feels about Wimsey)
Busmans Honeymoon was also pretty entertaining.

I’ve read a lot of the others, too, but those four are my favorites and you can watch them via Netflix, or on YouTube.

The videos are greatly simplified. No one could have filmed everything that Sayers wrote in her books. That would have required too much time.

Margaret, I’ve never made a Jewish Apple Cake, but I could buy one and send it to you, if you like. The ice cream, probably not.

I know… we have really taken over the natural habitats of so much wildlife.

That’s sweet but I’m sure I can find a recipe or buy one locally. :)

Don’t you have a birthday coming up soon?

There is a good mix of old orchards, farm woodlots, farm fields, meadows and natural areas where I live. In thinking a bit about the flowers here, the wild flowers that bloom each year are great. There are carpets of may flowers (wood violets?) and trilliums. There are huge beds of blood root that bloom and fade, early. The wooded part of this property is full of native lady slippers. Just awesome.

I’m working on another square for the service project afghan. This one has a garter stitch border and the interior is double seed stitch.

I haven’t decided yet, whether to add some additional texture to it.

Took a quick look at LLN earlier, any news about Suzanne’s grandchild?

I read all of the Anne of Green Gable series when I was much younger. Your area sounds a lot like where she moved when she was adopted. I just loved all of the descriptions of nature in those books.

In fact, I sometimes listen to them at librivox.org while I’m knitting. My favorite reader there is Karen Savage. She is really good at modulating her voice for the different characters. I listen to her read Jane Austen, too.

I didn’t know she was expecting one, but I do love her posts and often re-post them on FB, giving her credit, of course.

Wow! Good memory. Yep, I have my birthday in May.

morning, all, just got up since I was watching the govvie not shutdown last night. btw, my Kid got an award for saving this gov more than $1 mil last year, he was not at all disturbed by the prospect of a few days off – but those cherry blossom paraders would have been too disappointed.

There was an update from Lurk at Late Night just before I went to bed and that’s all I know.

I have periwinkles in the lawn, violets and garlic too.

That’s pretty amazing, Ruth! Your child must be awfully prescient.

I love that periwinkle color!

I guess a lot of folks stayed up last night, wondering if the govt was going to shut down. I can’t do that anymore. It takes too much out of me to stay up that late. I sound like a fuddy-duddy, but I’m usually horizontal by 9:30, even if I am not yet asleep.

It’s because I often wake up in the middle of the night and it takes me awhile to get back to sleep.

He prosecutes fraud, no end of activity there. And I love the blues, all of them.

Prosecuting fraud… well, there certainly can’t be too much of that going on right now.

I like to think it cuts down the number of fokes parading around with teabags on their noses.

When I retire, I would like to start at the Gulf Coast and move slowly nothward so as to enjoy a continuous month or two of the first hard blush of spring.

Good morning!

Duranta “Amethyst Rain” or “Sweet Memories” or “Sweet Dreams”

Banana trees

Ginger

Passion Vine

Night-blooming Jasmine

These all grow well along the coast.

Me too! But nothing matches bluebonnets for this gal.

Be right back… I’m hungry! I just picked up a banana and pina colada yogurt.

Morning, oldgold!

That would be fun!

Pretty! Did you take that photo, Margaret?

Drove north from FL at spring break when I was in college just outside of Boston, that was a trip – from oleander to snow.

At 10:00 I have to put some butternut squash into the oven to roast. Our creativity circle is meeting today… we always have wonderful food. The group is all women, with an occasional visit from a husband. And everyone works on great projects, too!

Bluebonnets are blooming here today, and I will be driving up to north Dallas in a bit. Have a coin show I’m going to visit, looking for some estimates on a few rare coins, one is Indianhead penny, great condition, 1900.

Nope. Copied it out of wikipedia. I don’t own a digital camera except my phone one and it’s way lame. One of these days when I’m solvent again I’d like to have one.

Thanks Margaret, I’m hope we’ll be informed by someone in the know.

Too bad it’s been so dry! I’m thinking about going out I-10 for a bit and then maybe up 71 tomorrow morning to look at the wildflowers.

These gatherings feed our souls.

Have realized I’m a veggie nut, the two rounds of turnip green sprouts from my garden are great pleasures I’ve enjoyed. Of course, I throw in lots of seed, then when I pull the extras, have the baby sprouts for meals.

Thanks for the morning chat! As usual, I’ll be back and forth for a bit as I get started on my day. I hope all of you have the best possible weekend. :)

Well, take a picnic with you!

And the bluebonnets are blooming here now, not in huge numbers, and I saw some evening primrose along the driveway when I went to the mailbox this week, never saw them there before. Of course, I let the grass/weed/wildflowers grow until around Easter.

G’Morning all, Finally saw a couple of spots of plentiful BlBonnets…but way outta the way.

Looks like Tiger Woods may be making a bit of a come back…

Ive been sick a few days…cold, etc. Not at all fun.

I’m from Wilmington, Delaware, home of Tom Campano. Rule’s book is a good read. Of course, I couldn’t put it down, knowing every corner of that town. What a story!

Morning Ruth, my garden garlic is all up about an inch tall, my raspberry canes all appear to just be pushing buds and in good shape. The other reason for the electric fence I mentioned above is the deer will start massive pruning of those canes at any time now without preventive measures. Stresses them so much they don’t have energy to produce fruit.

Margaret, Mr. LS and I went to see bluebonnets at a place I think was called Devil’s Backbone..I can’t remember, but it was absolutely spectacular…you drive a loop and there are literally millions and millions of them everywhere, and you can see them from on top of a hill and it looks like a blue river. I’m still trying to figure out where it was…I’ll try to google it. I think it was off 281 or 71.

So sorry to hear you’re having an early cold season. I get sniffly when the privet hedge gets going, and have lots of it here in my windbreak.

Get some Zicam (zinc lozenges). They’re really good for the immune system. I recommend Zicam’s rapid-melt cherry flavor. They melt fairly quickly and you can take them every three hours.

Paul tried them and they helped him to get over a cold he caught while I was away last fall. I had to make him buy the lozenges, though.

Seeing bluebonnets – a whole field full at Lake Texoma. My father did the land purchase for the lake, (a govvie) and always liked to take us there.

Oooh! Now there’s an idea! Thanks Karen.

It’s wetter just a bit east of us. I think the lower end of 71 will have plenty of Bluebonnets and paintbrushes.

I’ll be right back… I’m going to put that squash in a bit earlier.

Deviled eggs are really good for a picnic!

We have a very maroon clover too.

Thanks…can give that a try. No fun…

This is the place for the amazing bluebonnets:

Directions To Willow City Loop:

From Austin, take 290 West to Fredericksburg. From there, go 12 miles north on Highway 16, then right on FM 1323. Go about two miles to Willow City; the Loop begins there.

Mornin’, Karen, pups

…he really hates any kind of change

Getting rid of grass is a good thing. No watering, no fertilizing and no mowing. Change for the better.

You shoulda seen 183 in 2005! A very wet year and instead of green with patches of blue, the pastures were blue with patches of green. Absolutely gorgeous.

Please remember Lady Bird Johnson planted the wildflowers along the roadsides, she was tops.

So gorgeous…not too much going on right here (Driftwood)…I wish it would rain…

And last year was also spectacular…

Oh yeah. I know exactly where that is. I wish the Kerrville Folk Fest was a month earlier. That way it’s both cooler and the wildflowers are still out.

Zeriscaping is my favorite method. IOW, if it needs watering, it better go grow where it’s wet.

Good to hear. Looking forward to reading it.

It was, yep!

So true..I saw a documentary on PBS the other night about wildflowers…they really are amazing, and she was amazing.

Hi SD. Pix on the way this afternoon.

She did some wonderful things for us. I think of Lady Bird whenever the flowers are blooming along the highways. Even got to visit her wildflower center in Austin a few years back, wonderful stuff.

In fact, they are on the way right now.

Thanks for hosting us KarenM.

I’m out the door in a few minutes. We are expecting rain after midnight and occasional rain the next two days. I am sowing a few more seeds and getting going on my fence project. I have an appointment to power till some compost into a garden for a neighbor.

Wishing a great upcoming week for everyone.

My second round of seeds for spinach and turnips went in already. Of course, here it gets too hot for most lettuces and greens really soon.

Think of how she would be demonized by the Republicans for spending money on beautification these days. They have no souls.

She was too well acquainted with the soulless, there in tv land in Austin, and still did what she could for us all.

Have a great day, nonquixote!

Yeah, I am surprised they didn’t add that to their “riders”….morons.

Okay! The squash is in the oven. Now I can eat my yogurt.

Oh, they have souls all right… money-grubbing souls!

Does anyone know if that Planned Parenthood rider was still in the budget bill?

Now I have a major craving for deviled eggs!!

O-U-T.

It’s not..but this was just another continuance..for a week..then stuffs really gonna hit the fan..

Planned Parenthood is still being funded.

I’m off now, to get the pennies sold

Thank the goddesses!

Be sure to add some pickles or relish!

Oh, good grief! I can hardly stand it. If we were in those negotiations, we would be playing hardball!

And Ive got my Zicam….thanks. Expecting to feel better;)

Had to answer the phone. Long time friend found dead last night. Just saw him 2 days ago. In his late forties. Whoa, Nellie.

Gonna go check out a long haired tortie later. 5 years old. She’s at her 3rd rescue org and been at PetsMart and other places a number of times. Nobody wants her. Right up my alley.

It might take a few days, but next time, start them as soon as you get symptoms.

Do you think your cats will accept her?

Don’t go to TD Bank, they keep 6% of your money!

SD, So sorry about your friend…what a shock. Maybe you have a new cat friend in your future. I hope the trip and visit go well…we can introduce tortie to Angela….

Thanks…yeah, I saw that part….missed it by “this” much. But still hoping.

My credit union charges $2.50 for loose coin. No charge for wrapped coins.

They’ll still work. Somebody here turned me on to them last year.

That’s good to hear….have really felt lousy.

A friend of mine posted Glenn Campbell singing “These Days” on her FB page. She said that Jackson Browne wrote this song when he was just 16!

Paul had been sick for some days when we bought them for him, and he was feeling better in less than a week. They’re really, really great. I love the cherry flavored ones.

[sigh...] I’d love to hang out here longer, but I have to take a shower and wash my hair… it really needs it. A friend is picking me up around 11:30… I’ll check back in here after I get cleaned up.

Those are the ones I got. *g*

Thank you to Every One who dropped in today… I’ll be back in about 15 minutes, maybe 20.

Sorry about your friend SD but woohoo for the tortie.

Funny but I’m as nervous as a whore in church. I’m used to them finding me.

It’s fate. She did find you. Just through surrogates.

True, but I’m still nervous. *g*

How about nervous as a “john” in church, just to even things up a bit.

Woohoo for the tortie! S/he couldn’t pick a better two legged.

I’m cleaned up now, but I still have to dry my hair.

Sorry to hear about your friend, SD… will there be a memorial service or a viewing that you can attend?

Aren’t they great! I love cherry-flavored anything, but especially when I don’t feel well.

I have to go cut up that squash now… and season it.

No details yet but I’ll sure go when they have it. Lost a number of peeps who are way younger than me in the last 10 years.

*g*

((((hug))))

You must have a wonderful constitution. What’s your secret?

I can’t speak for him but after serving in a combat role in Vietnam, I imagine that’s toughened him up.

I think it’s my Granma’s genes. She lived to be 96. Smoked Camel straights into her 60s when she switched to Kent filters. Cooked and ate southern food, heavy on the fat content, all her life. Slim woman who took no guff from anybody.

That helped shape the person I am but I don’t think it did anything for my being healthy.

That’s great that you inherited your grandma’s genes. I hope I inherited my nana’s genes, too. She lived to be 93. Walked every day, volunteered at her retirement home and was healthy until the last few months of her life.

Checking back to see if SD has a new roomie…Guess we will find out….