Sealed

Friday was glorious!  The sky was brilliant blue.  The grass was green and lush (and mowed).  The sun was warm.  The breeze was lovely.

I just couldn't wait to run outside and play!

While it was still too early to commit tender plants (veg & annuals) to garden beds, there must be SOMEthing I could get on with.

And get on with it I did.  Click the can for details.

Good news ... Bad news ... and more Good news

Some good news.  The H.F.Young clematis I transplanted last March has not only taken, but taken off!  It took it all last year to reach the top of the trellis, but it made it up within weeks this year.  Now it's covered with buds and blooms and looks terrific against the backdrop of a pink rhody.

The weather continues nice so I'm always running out in the morning without much more than coffee.  My bad. Now  I make batches of my quickie breakfast wedges.  CLICK HERE to catch the recipe.

Speaking of food, I've just harvested another batch from the veg bed and updated the onion crop.  CLICK HERE for pics and info.


Okay, enough of all this GOOD news.  Let's get to the nitty gritty.  Things did not go well last week and I was so stressed out that it's taken a trunkload of shrub therapy to bring me back to some semblance of calm.  *whine*

<=== Click the pic for the BAD news.


And now -  for the final installment of the BAD news click ===> A HAPPY ENDING.

Hoop hoop hooray

CLICK PIC for full story

Since Spring of 2009, I've made extensive use of my large driveway hoop house and the 2 table top hoopsters for protecting early plants and seedlings from inclement weather and too much sun.

But I found it cumbersome and, sometimes, downright restrictive, trying to keep everything within the frame, moving plants toward the center when they got too tall for the edges, reaching through a jungle to get to small plants in the back, etc. etc.

I've been using one of the tabletop hoopsters since March 11 when that ersatz 'summer' visited Ohio.  Since late April lots more basement plants have joined the fray.  May looks like summer again.  So I wanted to try something else.

Click the pic for the crazy solution.

May-haps? or May-hem? We'll see.

April was much much colder than March.  March was so warm that my heating bill looked like something from July!

April froze a lot.  Just yesterday the bird bath was iced over.  Yesterday was sunny, though bright, blustery and cool.  This morning was cold and wind and rain and I wished I had my gloves when I ran out for errands.

But by noon, omigosh, it was hot!  And humid.  And uncomfortable - in that 180 turn that Ma Nature is fond of these days.  So I checked the long-range and gee.  Our last frost date is traditionally May 18.  But these temps are June temps, mostly.  The 10th may dip low enough to frost - maybe.

Otherwise -- tra la, it's May (well, close enough for government work!).


So I have done something, rather rash.  I usually keep the leaky front bay window taped up with plastic well into May (especially LAST May, brrrr!).  But I was seduced by the warmth, the sunshine, and accuweather to get on with this annual chore.

I peeled off the plastic.  I hate it.  I hate it. I hate it.  The view through it is probably like looking through a cataract.

But look!  Now everything is bright and clear and shiny!  Yay!   :-D

Okay, accuweather, I peeled off all the used tape, threw it away and stored the plastic wrap in a box for October.  I'm ready for summer, so -- you better not be messing with me...! 

*pant*  Gosh, it's even too hot for jeans.  I'm switching to shorts.  Oh dear.  Suddenly I'm bang  into another seasonal chore.  Now where did I leave that razor.... ;-/

P.S. Here's some other (less racy)  seasonal news.
Click the pic for the latest on the basement plants.

The dire deed is done

Broken Blaze maple

Click pic for full story

For the full story on the tree removal, click on the pic of the stump.

In other happier tree news, the front crabapple that had been trimmed and shaped last June was completely covered with blooms this past month.

Now, thanks to the bees and other pollinators, it looks like there's going to be a bumper crop of fruit this year.

Lovely!  I've been without crabapple jelly for FAR too long!

Tech treat

This weekend BD and I ran up to Hartville to check out the new store opening of Hartville Hardware.  We also shopped at Beiler's for a load of fresh fruit and veg.  After many days of mild weather (great for outside projects) the temps PLUNGED from high 70s to daytime temps of just above freezing!  Wow.  Weather whiplash!  So Saturday was a perfect day to be inside at the stores, and I bought some cool stuff for the KITCHEN.  After shopping we enjoyed a late lunch at a local Chinese place.  Yum!

The outing itself was fun.  But wait until you see what other delights BD had in store for me.

His roommate (SS) recently bought a new iPad2.  And guess who's the lucky recipient of his old iPad1?   Guess.  Go ahead.  GUESS! 

Yeehaw.  C'est MOI!!   :-D  Oh my heart!  Talk about a TREAT!  The left side of my brain lit up like a halogen bulb.  (SS - did you feel a disturbance in the Force when I opened the box?  I sure did.)

And the timing of this gift (weather wise) -- just perfect.  Cold and rainy and there's even some snow in the forecast.  It's supposed to be lousy outside until the middle of the week.  (Yay?)

BD helped me set it up and showed me how to buy/download APPS from the Apple APP store and made sure I was good to go.  After he left that evening, I downloaded a couple of free games, just so I could learn how to use the iPad.  Before I knew it, I'd played ANGRY BIRDs for, um, (really?  is this right?) about 4 hours.  LOL  Huh.  Well, like Berlitz language lessons, full IMMERSION is the best way to learn.  Right?  RIGHT?  ;-D

Anywho, Sunday I downloaded a DOCTOR WHO game and Iost another day to .... training.  (Yeah.  I'm going with that.  Training!)

Oh, look.  I can also download a READER APP for the iPad.  Oh dear....

Meanwhile - winds are roaring from the NW - gusting up to 50mph +.  It's not looking good out there right now.... :-(

Luckily, there were things to do down in the (shhhh) Secret Plant Lab.  ;-D

I'm PINE-ing for Earth Day

As you know, Sunday, April 22nd, is Earth Day.  Since I celebrate Earth Day 24x7x365 here at the Sanctuary, I don't usually mark the 22nd in any special way.

But this year Earth Day came looking for me.  :-D

All this week our township allowed residents to drop off used electronics, batteries, small household appliances, computers, CD & DVDs, media players, etc.  Yay.  I had a bucket of household batteries that Mom and I saved up for a couple of years and were looking for an easy way to recycle them.  I was off to save the planet....

While I was unloading at the depot, I asked if they knew where I could recycle a couple of boxfulls of used video tapes (not on their published 'approved' list).  She went and checked and, lucky me, she said THEY would accept them.  Excellent.  I told her I'd run home and be right back.

As I headed for the car she asked, "Do you want a tree?"  Hello?  Tree?  Because of Earth Day the township was giving away baby white pine trees.  Well, boy yes!  Please!  She fished out 2 and handed them to me.  "Nobody is taking any," she said.  "Everyone says they would rather take down trees than plant them."  How sad.  I told her I'd plant every one she gave me so... one thing led to another and yours truly brought home 14 pine tree starts.

Not letting any grass grow under my feet, I hightailed out to the back yard by the golf course and marked out 2 additional arcs for 9 of the newbies.  Since they were bare rooted, I merely sliced a deep divot into the sod, inserted the tree, then heeled it in with the divot.  Presto.  Future privacy forest.

In the end I still have 5 more trees (the smallest of the lot).  I figure I'll just pot these up for summer,  and see how they do.

By Fall, if they are doing well, I may have determined where to put them.  Gosh.  Sure wish I could just go and plant them in some neighbor's yards.  But they are too busy (even as I type) cutting down even more trees (too much mess to deal with).   Oh for crying out loud, people.  Go live in an apartment and leave houses with nice lots to folks who aren't paranoid about nature.  *sheesh*

Happy Earth Day.