…and I ran the pond vac, which is a back-breaking sort of thing: you have to wait 20 seconds for it to void the collection chamber and come on again, and when it starts, the tip of the wand drops 2″, which can bring it down among pebbles (insta-clog!) or the water lilies if you don’t pose for it like a pool player over a cue and brace the thing so it won’t dip…
I have cleaned the pond filter about 12 times today, sometimes 2x in 30 minutes, as we stir up the bottom with the hose and let the filter catch the crud. I’m soaked and tired.
The tiller hit the sprinkling system again, this time involving a line under one of Jane’s favorite roses. That had to be moved and replanted, and the bush is heavily about-to-bloom. That meant digging, that threw the lower back out again—the si-lok belt got it back in, thank goodness: walking around with it is helpful. And we got the new rhody planted, the climbing hydrangea planted, and some of our ground cover divvied up and replanted. That’s spreading nicely, quadrupling its reach in one year.
The rhodies are blooming. I replanted my potted outdoor bamboo–again. We should be past freezes now. The dogwood out front is trying to bloom; the magnolia looks happy. I have yet to brace the contorted birch, which is twisting the wrong way. And then I’m going to have to turn that compost heap, all 14 yards of it.
But! since an actual though gross supper last night, I had energy and I could work. Dead-on about the diet having gone too far…I’m going to switch us to Chinese/Japanese when I get the scales and the rice cooker. I think I can do something proper with that.
Happy, happy. I’m looking forward to something that I can cook instead of boil.
Hrm. I had an actual and entirely delightful but too big Burmese protein platter lunch yesterday and didn’t want any dinner. Now, however, after a pretty tough day at work I’m more shagged out than usual.
Perhaps I should have choked down something at dinner time anyway. I am not usually this wiped even if I do spend the whole day running running running…
Expect same tomorrow, but am trying to stay awake until suppertime…er… make that through suppertime.
I’m wondering if the improved diet will affect the thyroid levels. I myself am hypothyroid and have been for quite a while. It’s still hard to lose the weight I would lose, but I don’t stonewall quite as much as the period of time I was choking down one small meal a day. I hope that everything improves.
I have a scale in my kitchen too, a recent purchase, and have actually quite enjoyed being able to actually measure an ounce of cheese for a snack rather than estimating and getting frustrated.
And I cannot wait until I am out of an apartment and into a place where I can plant things. I’m quite enjoying living vicariously through your gardening.
If you can tolerate asparagus and garlic have you tried chives? So many varieties available and easy to grow your own which eliminates contamination from the pesticides and such.
chives being related to onions, I doubt that either CJ or Jane can eat them. Jane is seriously allergic to onions, and they don’t do CJ’s system any good. So, when we get there for Shejicon, as long as whatever restaurant we happen to be at didn’t slather the onions with mustard, mayonnaise, or some other ungodly condiment, I’ll take them. (Serious about the mustard, it makes me vomit).
I have to get my cherry (no pun intended) trees in the ground. I bought them yesterday at Lowes, two different varieties, but definitely compatible for cross pollination. I wonder if the bees will like them. I also bought some perennials, such as poppies, spivina(?), phlox, some sweet basil, more plum tomatoes, and of course, catnip!
Now, I have to figure out where to plant the trees, then the flowers……I am not a landscaper. I also have mammoth girasol sunflowers I want to plant, and I think I know where I want those.
I’m partial to reduction sauces, myself. 😉
Oooh, you wicked person!
Hurray for the supper!
The garden work inventory makes me tired. I have garden work to do, and it’s not happening, or not very much.
Joe, I’d forgotten, you have bees, don’t you? I’m sure they’ll like the cherries. The wild ones in my neighborhood mobbed the numerous wild plums back in early spring, and the blackberries (also in the rose family) are blooming now and have a good number. And some of those are MINE, my brand new hive. I am quite fascinated with them, and I dearly wish the hive had a glass side.
Wow! Gonna go for Japanese and/or Chinese this trip, eh? That’s nice… although, I have to say I did Not enjoy the supermarket sushi I tried this last year. Ew. They shouldn’t do that to rice. At least I would die happy from eating alkaloid-rich green sauce.. it’s probably spicy… love me that El Maguey’s Green Sauce… or maybe minty like julep… or those odd sauces they come up with every now and again, like mint sauce for chicken. It’s odd… Oops… babbling again. Sigh. I am not an airhead… but my ADHD makes it seem that way! Really. (plucks out gray hair and stares at it excitedly)
Okay, Hello Sailor, CJ! My mother and I dearly love your books, especially the Foreigner/First Contact Series. She loves Banichi, and the Aishid, and of course everyone; I do as well. Bren is hilarious. You just want to hold him. Poor thing. We really wanted to tape a deoxyribonucleic acid-keyed proximity water bomb to Barb though, if only to scare her out of annoying Bren for the first few books. Lord that woman. Hee hee! What do you think of fan fiction based on y our works? Oh dear; I’m going off topic aren’t I? oh I’m sorry!!!! Hello everyone! Hugs and Love from a fellow fan! Kisses to Jane’s back.
Hi there!
Well, supermarket sushi is usually pretty tired stuff. But it’s a lot like sushi, so if you didn’t like the sticky-rice, or the seaweed wrap, or carrot/cucumber, you’re probably not going to like other sushi, or sashimi. I was pretty iffy the first time I was faced with raw fish, but decided I like it, particularly with wasabi. There are a few sushi/sashimi items I don’t like, headed by eel. I really hate eel, probably for the reason I hate fresh-water fish. And I’ve had raw octopus without blinking. But not eel. Ugh.
I eat my sushi with a bit of ginger on top of it (rather than using it as a palate cleanser), and dipped in soy sauce with HUGE amounts of wasabi mixed in. Talk about clearing your sinuses! Of course, that’s not how they eat it in Japan, as it kind of destroys the delicate flavor of the fish and veggies.
I have to echo everything CJ said about supermarket sushi — it’s generally close enough to the real thing that if you hated it, you won’t like it anywhere else either, although a good Japanese restaurant can make sushi several orders of magnitude better than anything you’re going to get in a plastic package.
And — god — eel is horrible. HORRIBLE. I’d eat the squid again first if I had to, although that wasn’t a pleasure either. (Fishy rubber bands! Yum!)
You know, I’d probably better get some work done before I/T reports me for spending all day on this site…
Then again:
Supermarket
Sushi
California Roll
… sigh.
I was so in hopes of liking it. — is a Japanophile–
California Roll is pretty boring, actually. If you can stomach the idea of raw salmon, try that instead. Tuna is generally pretty safe too, in terms of having a mild flavor. It took months for my friends to persuade me to try raw fish, but I became a convert after one meal at a Japanese restaurant. Try saki maki, if you have a Japanese restaurant in the area (raw salmon). It’s a good introduction.
My mother has a lot of mysterious/similar problems to you two… mayhap if she gets on here you three could discuss the possibilities?
or maybe everyone else? we could start a subtopic! WOOT okay will stop typing now.
Have you ever tried bottled onion juice for flavoring? I see it on market shelves occasionally and wonder about it…from what I have read on labels you only need drops to get flavor. On the other hand using a little wasabi or horseradish might be a good substitute….. just a thought 😉
Alas, I’m the person who for a while couldn’t even have catsup because of the onion content. It’s better now, but I fear that that would be condensed suicide.
@Abigail, I just looked up on the Ohio State University Bee Lab’s website. You are indeed correct, the bees will love cherry blossoms (sakura in Japanese) for both pollen and nectar. I don’t know how long it will take before the trees are really ready to blossom, they’re only about 3/4″ at the base right now.
@brensgirlFriday, depending on the sushi, I’ll eat it. I’m not a big fan of the dried fish stuck in a bunch of rice all wrapped up in a cone of seaweed. I do like the tuna, I can eat the crab (it’s cooked) as is the octopus, and the ika, which is also cooked. I don’t normally eat salmon, unless you disguise it, or force it down me. The rest of the stuff is negotiable, although I can’t eat a lot of wasabe – bad experience with horseradish once.
Joe, you should get a few flowers off new cherry trees—they’re past bloom this year, but next, should keep the bees very happy. Another plant bees seem to love is lupine, and strawberries, and any fruit tree. For some reason, bumblebees particularly like the lupine: they’ll all over it! Not to mention blooming clover.
ohhh Lupine is nice. Hello Joe ,everyone! My mother is obsessed with purple and pink though. I like Blue Angel anchusa, and anything ELSE that’s blue. Or black. Or green. Or red. Or peach! mmm. She loves her mums. but they usually don’t stay the winter nowadays… we had one of our lovely red Gerberas come back a few times, and even reseed, possibly; das was gut. I guess chrysanthemums just don’t like it in Missouri anymore,m what with all the odd rain and weather fluctuation of late.
Oh, and Lutia (seems to be an annual, where I we live; sigh) brings hummingbirds! so plant a bunch if ya want the little hummers. And ginormous zinnias seem to really attract the goldfinches… cute! They eat the flower heads. So nice! Also, we had a few Baltimore Orioles in our driveway tree… they were very pleasant to watch. Who else has had a lot of birds?
@joekc6nlx re Where to put the cherry trees: Like other fruit trees, they need sun. I’d start with that, then consider 1) NOT on top of the septic system or the well, 2) a place where you can see them from a favorite window, and 3) avoid places that put your driveway, walk, or patio between the trees and the beehives… 🙂
My husband loves sushi and sashimi. I however can’t bear to eat anything that once lived in water (this generally includes seaweed, but I can handle it most days). I love japanese food when other proteins are involved, however. Growing up we had several japanese foreign exchange students who introduced us to the at-home cooking (rather than the festival-type foods you find in restaurants). We eat japanese and chinese (and indian) food fairly often in our household.
As to cherry trees…I love cherry trees. When I am in a position to plant I want to plant a weeping cherry. So beautiful.
Unfortunately, in our climate, nothing requiring a cold snap, or temperatures below 60 degrees, fares well. I envy those of you who have apricots, plums, peaches, apples, cherries and other blossoming trees. The blooming trees we have around here are a whole different bunch of animals.
I know! In south Florida (hate it, moving back to Seattle first chance I get), the best we get is key lime trees, which is nice for pies of course, and iced tea flavoring, and the occasional cooking duty, but not just eating. And there’s only so much citrus you can eat anyway before the acid does your tummy in.
You might find a recipe for Pork Adobo, which is basically cooking in the marinade.
You can make a rubber tire edible by cooking it this way.
I have a good recipe for lentil, corn, and squash chili. It does have tomato and corn in it, so it might not be a perfect fit, but it is pretty tasty even without peppers. I can not handle peppers in any form: not bell peppers, not spicy hot peppers, I even have problems with too much black pepper, although that’s mostly just the taste.
I finally got the cherry trees in the ground. I’m worried about one of them, as the burlap bag that holds the root ball together was completely rotted away at the bottom and the whole thing fell apart as I took the tree out of the pot. I immediately gathered as much of the potting soil in the hole and shaped it into a mound and placed the roots on top of that mound, then backfilled with the soil I’d dug out. The other cherry tree is about 50 feet away to the east, and while the prevailing winds are from the south and or the west, there are thousands of small flying insects at my farm that will visit both trees, and will cross-pollinate both of them. Another great reason for having honey bees. I also planted Iceland poppies, some yarrow, some catnip, and some phlox, plus a couple of Veronica spicata “Royal Candles”, a couple of Roma tomatoes, and some basil. I don’t know how the herb garden will flourish, if at all, but I’m trying.
Iceland poppies! Beautiful! I tend to love the smaller delicate flowers anyway – I actually prefer the wild tulips to the huge cultivated varieties, particularly tulipa clusiana or tulips bakeri (the Lilac Wonder variety is remarkable!).