Monday, April 20, 2009

Monday Miscellanea

Let no one think that real gardening is a bucolic and meditative occupation. It is an insatiable passion, like everything else to which a man gives his heart. ~Karel Čapek, The Gardener's Year, translated by M. and R. Weatherall, 1931

The family "thing" yesterday exhausted me. For whatever reason, those things are terribly stressful for me. DD had a FABULOUS time, though, and I'd attend for that reason if no other.

My talk with the voles apparently stirred them up as I found two new holes in the gardens in front of my house and they got one of my crocus bulbs (thus far, they'd limited themselves to the greens). Going to make Vitamin D peanut butter balls and drop them down the holes, I guess. Frustrating.

We had a wild turkey at the bird feeders yesterday. Cracked me up. One of my tube feeders hangs a little low and if the turkey stretched her neck a bit, she could eat from it. Of course, she pecked so hard it would swing pretty violently, but she figured it out. It always amazes me how big wild turkeys are AND how smart, considering how incredibly stupid domestic turkeys can be. I imagine she'll be back as this is her second visit that I've noticed (though the first time, she only ate off the ground).

DH saw a bluebird yesterday, too. They are so gorgeous. Made me think about getting mealworms to put out to see if I can attract more. I really love the colorful birds, but they are more difficult to attract. Last year I had a pair of Orioles, but had to keep half an orange on my feeders constantly. I think I'll put out hummingbird feeders this year.

I've been struggling to write the past week -- I just sit and stare at the computer and nothing comes. It's driving me batty. Going to try a couple tricks (going to write the first scene of "Drive me Crazy" from Zach's POV just for grins, for instance) and see if I can't get the juices flowing again.

I planted cucumber, squash and tomato seeds a couple days ago and have them in my spare bedroom (which gets nice, full sun). I should have done it all a little earlier, but just keep forgetting. DD bought seeds for purple and orange striped carrots that we're going to plant outside this week. She asked if there is a way to keep the swallowtails from laying their eggs on the greens because we can't bring those inside (the greens die), so I am going to have to rig some sort of netting to discourage that. It's not as though we don't have plenty of parsley, rue and dill in the garden! Silly bugs.

A friend mentioned that she'd heard there is an invasive plant locally that looks like milkweed but is actually toxic to monarch butterflies. I've tried to find information about it online, but haven't been able to. If anyone out there has heard, I'd sure love more information.

DD turns TEN this Friday. We're going to celebrate a day early (because DH is fishing on Friday and DD wants to go). I have a couple of surprises in store for her. I think it will be a good day. I can't believe she's ten. Where does the time go?

I was notified that our next year's curriculum was shipped and it made my heart go pitty-pat. Why do I get so excited to receive the new stuff? We're trying a new curriculae next year as I wasn't thrilled with what we used this year. We enrolled DD in the Abeka DVD Academy. She'll watch a DVD every day with a teacher giving the lesson and then do the work in her work books. The lesson plan is already done (yay) and I'll have all the tools I need to help her, too. Hopefully she'll respond well to this.

That's enough rambling for now. I still have nearly half an hour to try to write something before I have to wake up the house! Have a great Monday.

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Your Sunglasses Say You're an Artist



You are clever, unique, and a total nonconformist.

Your sense of fashion is based on your own personal creativity.



You need to be shaded from the mundane parts of life.

You feel sunniest when you can express yourself freely and without judgment.



Okay.

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10 comments:

Ceri Hebert said...

Your Sunglasses Say You're a Realist
You are down to earth, stable, and practical.
You see the world as it is. You accept facts easily.

You need to be shaded from overly dramatic and problem prone people.
You feel sunniest when things are calm and peaceful
The first part, not so much.

I've had a hard writing week too. 334 words. ack. This week will be better.

My DS will be 10 this year, but not 'til December. Can't believe how fast time flies. He's my "baby" and it's so hard to see him going further from that. But he's still a sweetie. He'll be fishing on Friday as well with DH. This weekend when we were digging our garden he was collecting worms.

Have a good day!

Sarita Leone said...

Sending good writing thoughts your way! :)

Dru said...

Good luck with your writing today.

Your Sunglasses Say You're an Artist Have a great Monday.

groovyoldlady said...

Oy...new curriculum.

I'm in the oh-joy-we're-almost-done-with-school-for-the-year-and-can-play-all-the-time mode. I absolutely canNOT get excited about curriculum until the end of July or so.

Next year we'll be adding in typing and a foreign language, so it should be quite interesting!

No voles here, but I have some serious weed issues that I need to deal with.

So, today: weeds? or dirty bathrooms?

Such a hard choice.

Tori Lennox said...

I'm an Artist too. :)

The new curriculum sounds interesting.

Melissa McClone said...

Sounds like spring has sprung out there!

A woman in my co-op uses the Abeka DVD curriculum and swears by it. She has a full-time job at home and says it works great! Good luck with it!

Jennifer Shirk said...

Aww...happy birthday to the dd! Mine had a birthday recently too. She seems so "old", which only means I'm old. LOL!

Brandy said...

I've heard good things about Abeka through the years. We tried the curriculum you had this year a few years ago and Daughter didn't do well with it at all. We use Seton now and am very happy with it. Although, I won't be ordering my curriculum until the end of July! *G*
Sorry to hear about the voles.
My Daughter turns 14 on Sunday. I hope your Daughter enjoys her surprises this week.

Re the quiz I'm a realist. Yeah. *g*

I hope you have a great day!

Keri Mikulski said...

What a beautiful time of year for a birthday. :) Happy Birthday, DD!

Anonymous said...

LOL Love the "Voles of Doom" :)
We put in salad seedlings the other day -- and they were eaten by snails, overnight.
I think I'll borrow the neighbors chickens for a while...!
Nice blog by the way, I enjoyed browsing. :)