Michael and Jaspenelle

Whisperings of Autumn

Today was the first morning it truly felt like Autumn. The air had that beautiful cold crisp quality and when I went outside to get the paper I noticed the edges of the leaves of the maple were just starting to turn. The morning sky has that surreal blue hue that only seem to happen this time of year.

We usually have one more warm spell before we get our first freeze but it will not be this week. Last night’s low was 40°F (about 4°C.) I am glad my sleeping bag is rated down to 30°F for this weekend’s camping trip. With highs expected in the mid-seventies it is going to be perfect. Our group size has also increased, Sal and Rusty are coming with us! I have everything ready except the cinnamon rolls and cornbread, which I will be making today. I may make the cornbread while we are camping as I cook it in cast iron. I have never tried that before though.

In a few weeks the Apple Festival will be here, time for our little framily will head out to Harvest House in Greenbluff to celebrate the Autumn Equinox. We do it every year and it is always fun. Thinking about the harvest, we reminded our California friend the other day that it is time for her to cut back her tomatoes so that what she has will ripen. I have three huge zucchini from her garden waiting on the counter, the fresh green beans, peppers and corn are long gone.

Autumn is certainly on our doorsteps, while I love the sunny vitality of summer, the cool down always is a welcome guest.

Morning Glory

I never thought my pitiful stunted hail bitten morning glory would bloom but when I woke up this morning it has a beautiful flower smiling victoriously at me.

Parade Rose

Rosemary Plant and Tracy Holeton

The maintenance people for our townhouse complex killed my rosemary. They were out spraying the other day and apparently the don’t know the difference between weeds in ground and a potted plant on my steps. Two days later the weeds and my rosemary are completely dead.

Arg! I’m pissed! That was my most used herb.

Anyhow, Tracy Holeton… I received a package from her with an adorable baby outfit in it but there was no note with it. The return address baby outfit from her, no note or anything. The return address is to a Tracy Holeton of Unico Inc. in Franksville, WI? I don’t know any Tracys.

Anyone know who my mystery woman is?

Parade Rose Bud

Herbs and Peppers

My parsley, basil and chives have all sprouted! The parsley was the last to come up, which was expected, but it is already taller then the basil. I am waiting for secondary leaves. I am not sure if I should thin the chives, aren’t they suppose to grow in clumps? (If you cannot tell, I’ve never grown chives from seed.)

I am still waiting for my morning glories to come up outside, but its only been 10 days.

I was also chopping a yellow bell pepper for my pasta salad today. When I sliced it open it was filled with mini green bells peppers.

I had to take a picture to ask if anyone had ever cut into a pepper and had it look like this? It still tasted fine so I just finished chopping it up and tossed it all in the salad.

Speaking of peppers, I may be banning myself from browsing Taste Spotting, it makes me drool way way wayyy too much and give me bad pregnancy cravings. I found this recipe for Pimientos de Padron, which I haven’t had since I lived in Spain. I waaaaant!

Morning Glories

This is a photo of the front door of Michael and my townhouse.

I love my yellow tulips, they are so cheerful! Michael brought them home for me last week. I don’t know if I will be able to transplant them after the blooms die though. I have read mixed results of doing that as the bulbs were probably forced in a greenhouse before shipping to retailers.

Regarding the title of this post though, mornings glories. Am I asking for trouble if I plant a morning glory vine under that window? It will have a window box outside it shortly. I remember my parents having morning glories when I was growing up and they were so incredibly beautiful. However I remember them getting enormous and unruly.

So, if I plant one will it be impossible to control or will I be able to keep it on a trellis? My front door is west facing and I live in a zone 4 area by the way.

I’m not sure what else I am going to plant in that little bed yet though I like plants that I can eat (I am open to suggestions here.) I mights have a rather prolific amount of basil, parsley and chives shortly as I decided to grow them from seed. (If you are local you might be getting seedling gifts from me for awhile…)

I have a separate question too, still flower related though. What are these?:

I saw them in a raised bed in a parking lot today. They were a thick carpet of the most beautiful tiny purple flowers (the photo does not do them justice.)

I have a feeling most of my favorite flowers might be weeds…

EDIT: The purple flowers are called Creeping Phlox. Thank you for the id Aunt Ruth!

Parade Rose

Spring Fever

I have a buttermilk cinnamon raisin loaf in the oven right now and I can hardly wait for it to be done cooking. Oh my gosh it smells sooo incredibly good! T-25 minutes…

It is a glorious day outside, 45F! I have the windows cracked to let some of the fresh air goodness in. My patio windchime caught my eye this morning, the central glass piece was positively glowing in the midmorning sun. Spring fever has hit strongly and I feel the overwhelming urge to to indulge my nesting instincts, the equinox is only 22 days away! However, I promised to take it easy until this sciatic thing eases up, so sitting down I am.

Still, it is nearly impossible to stay put with all this gorgeous sunny day energy filtering into my home. I really want to get outside and garden (though it is wayyy to early in the season for that, this warm up cycle is just a tease) so I have tried to content myself with planning what I am going to do with our patio, (which is 3/4 concrete, 1/4 dirt.)

The dirt portion looks especially dejected right now, the snow has mostly melted off it revealing the few miscellaneous and mostly useless plastic pots I have out there. I see this area of our home as the biggest challenge, the soil is horrid - I can hardly call it soil. It is compact and full of gravel. It also receives very little sunlight during the day because our proximity to the next row of townhouse. Maybe 2/3 hours of morning sun and then 1.5 hours of partial shade on either side of that, so 5 hours of workable light, maybe 6… So it will most certainly be shade garden as well as very simple this year with the main focus on improving the soil. Can we say compost? Perhaps I will seed it will some prairie legumes (like Purple Prairie Clover) which fix nitrogen in the soil (improve soil quality.) I would love to grow some kind of shade loving vine on the wooden fence, not sure how much my neighbors would love me though if it turned out to be a prolific grower… I am not very well versed in shade plants (I have always been more of a vegetable gardener) so this is all a unique challenge.

As for the rest of the patio, 3 feet of the other side is taken up my Michael and my bicycles and a storage shelf, leaving about 7 square feet of concrete in the middle. Long and short term plans here remain very simple, a kettle grill, a small patio set (probably from a thrift store, I will know it when I see it!) and a few container plants.

Garden space has always been very important to me. I hate the hard edges of the city and even though Spokane is pretty green, I still feel that I am a million miles away from Mother Earth sometimes. Even the smallest gardens help me reconnect and as I nurture them, in return they nurture my soul.

Spider Mites

Poor George has spider mites… He is my little cypress tree who stays near the front door. (Yes, I name my houseplants.) I don’t know how I didn’t notice the infestation, now his branches are dry and brittle. George’s rootball is really tight in his pot so I am going to try repotting it, as well as doing the water thing (a strong water stream to the underside of the leaves will knock off/drown mites.)

I read you can cut the water 50/50 with rubbing alcohol too and spray it on the underside of the leaves to kill mites. Has anyone had any experience with that method?

Damn you spider mites.