Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Sunday notes


The grackles have descended on us. They are thick in the trees and the ground is black with them and they are noisy and loud and impossible to photograph. The least movement and the whole flock rises up as one and moves to a different tree or patch of ground.


I did something today that I swore I would never do, am against doing. I topped one of my crepe myrtles. Some people do it every year so that the trees look like poodle tails but it is stressful for the tree. I did it though because this particular crepe myrtle has been steadily taken over by a moss/lichen and it was killing the tree so my hope is it will come out fresh and I will be able to control the lichen. As usual I didn't take a before picture.





I headed off the the grocery store to get all the ingredients for the 6 broccoli and cauliflower recipes I had saved. I was only planning to cook one of each because we didn't plant that much but I didn't know which ones I would do so I prepared for all of them. I didn't realize it was Super Bowl Sunday til I got there and the aisles were crowded with everyone dodging everyone with dazed and confused expressions of their faces. Check out was quick though as the store had all the registers open.

Got the potatoes planted. I had enough for three rows in the small raised bed. I'd take a picture but all you would see is dirt.

Grandgirl Robin, who will be 16 this month, came out with her folks today. She found the brand new box of sidewalk chalk I bought over a year ago and put it to good use. Then she helped me make the cauliflower casserole.


And then I did a broccoli casserole. The two dishes are getting divvied up into containers and put in the freezer.


Well, my four days of self imposed exile are over. I never did get to the little model I'm working on as there was so much to do in the yard. Still is.




12 comments:

  1. You make me feel like a slacker, Ellen! I desperately need to get out in the yard and do a lot of trimming.

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    1. well, I don't have chickens and I don't make bread so I think we're pretty even.

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  2. I saw a box of sidewalk chalk in the drawer of the hall chest we brought over. I must get it out for the little girls across the street. They have a whole street at their command.

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  3. I actually had to water a bed of bulbs yesterday. So little moisture they weren't up yet. My little dock in the lake isn't lit up at night again. I was so proud when I got it working. I'm wondering if a squirrel didn't do something to it. Not my favorite thing to do in the garden.

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  4. We gardeners call it crepe murder of the crepe myrtle. I admit that I have to prune mine as it is in the center of a flower bed (stupid place I know) and throws too much shade.

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  5. Fun that you got to spend time with your granddaughter.

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  6. I do very little or no gardening (except throwing away the decorative cabbages and kale planted in October) during the winter months. Like a bear, I go into hibernation. We do cut down the Crepe Myrtle bushes in the fall and they always grow large again in the summer and bloom beautifully. We don't touch the Crepe Myrtle trees, though, but this year, Mother Nature has done her own pruning on one.

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  7. Making pasta with cauliflower tonight. I make a oriental flavored salad with either either or both

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  8. I kind of like a mossy crape myrtle, but I'm sure it's probably not good for the plant!

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  9. I'm not crazy about severe pruning either, but sometimes we need to cut a few toes order to save the foot. In the case of the tree, one must be happy that they will possibly grow back... not the case with toes *cough*.

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  10. The landscapers around here are in full steam ahead mode. Our poor crepe myrtles are getting the treatment. I do think yours will come back, though. They're among the most resilient trees I know. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as Grandma used to say. I've seen them cut to the ground and still come back.

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  11. I think that maybe there are crepe myrtles at the new house. I'm no tree whisperer, so it's hard to tell with no leaves, but the trunks look right. I sure hope that's what they are because I love them.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.