A Lovely Wedding

This weekend we went to Sweet Husband's cousin's wedding. I may be a little biased because I had so much fun hanging out with the littlest flower girl (aka Adorable Baby Niece), but I think it was one of the nicer weddings I've been to in a while. Very traditional, but sweet and spontaneous at the same time.

Unfortunately, I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked because I forgot to change the camera batteries, but here's a sampling at least.


Sweet Husband and I helping to entertain Adorable Baby Niece before the ceremony.


Adorable Baby Niece taking shelter from the rain outside the church. It rained hard all through the ceremony and reception, but, although it made getting around a bit more difficult, it made the church seem all that much more cozy.


The wedding cake. Multi-talented Sister-In-Law (mother of Adorable Baby Niece) made it, and it looked and tasted wonderful.


And here are the Bride and Groom cutting the cake. The stained glass windows and molded ceilings in the Timmons Ballroom (where the reception was) were such a perfect backdrop. And, of course, the Bride and Groom were beautiful and happy.


These buckets hung on the pews at the church and then doubled as centerpieces for the reception. Very pretty.

(Hopefully Not) Jinxed

Normally, I love Gwyn Mellinger's columns, but if it frosts tonight I'll never forgive her. Last week she wrote this article--"Beware of late-April frosts when planting in Kansas". Can you guess what there is a danger of tonight?

She jinxed us! And she's so gosh-darned logical about it too.

"[H]ot-weather crops nearly always catch up with those planted a week or two earlier. In mid-June it will be impossible, all things being equal, to tell the difference between a tomato planted April 20 and one planted May 5."

It may be true, but that's far too sensible. How anyone can be so patient is beyond me.

In closing...

Please don't frost on my tomatoes.
Please don't frost on my tomatoes.
Please don't frost on my tomatoes.

On Elevators

Yeah, I know, it's a little weird, but it's really cold and rainy out so just go with me....

I think one of the elevators at work is possessed. Truly. Earlier today I pushed the button to make it stop at my floor. When it arrived the doors opened, and just as I moved towards them they slammed shut. I pushed the button again, and again they opened and shut. Open, shut. Open, shut. For a second I thought about sticking my hand in quickly to trigger the safety mechanism that keeps the doors open, but then I caught myself--not a good idea! Eventually, the other elevator stopped and I got onto it instead.

(And to head off questions, yes, I could have taken the stairs. But the stairs are actually more scary than the elevator. Because of Stupid Terrorists they have to remain locked, and, while I do have a key, I've been warned that the keys don't always work well. As very few people take the stairs, if I got locked in I could be stuck for awhile.)

But this whole exchange got me thinking--elevators are really kind of a strange device. You get into them in one place, and, without any real expendeture of time or energy, you get off in another. You're moving, but you're staying in one place. It's kind of like when you bring a small animal home from the pet store. It's in one place, it's dark for awhile, and then it's in a completely different place.

If you want to learn all about elevators, check out this site. I won't reiterate here, but it certainly has more information than I ever wanted to know.

*Sigh* I hope the sun comes back soon.

Friday Field Trip--Capitol Dome Tour

Nice Carpool Gal and I have started trying to walk a bit at lunch. It gets us away from our desks, and it's helping me learn a bit of the geography of Topeka. (Like where the yummy chocolate store is!)

Early last week we were on such a walk when Nice Carpool Gal noticed there were people on top of the Capitol building. She said she thought it would be fun to go up there someday, like for a special occasion or something. A few hours later, I was sitting back at my desk working when an email popped up. Nice Carpool Gal had done a little research and discovered that anyone could go to the top of the Capitol Dome. In fact they have several tours a day.

A field trip was clearly in order. So we made a reservation, and, along with two other friends, we traveled the trecherous path to the top.


This is the Capitol dome from the outside as we walked up.*

And here's a shot from the first floor up at the dome. The ceiling that you can see in this picture is the inner dome. It basically ends where the green copper starts on the outside of the building. To get to the top of the building we had to go further up.

This is from the stairway that we took to get above the inner dome. It runs in a huge spiral around the edge of the domes.

This was the last stairway that led to the top. Yes, it was high! I'm not terribly afraid of heights, but my grip on the handrails was pretty tight as we walked up. The stairway felt sturdy, but it still seemed to just be kind of floating in the air. It really wasn't connected to much!

And at last we reached the top. Well, this isn't us on the top, but it's where we were, all 296 steps up.

As much as I'm not a fan of Topeka, there are some cool things to see there. We have a few more field trips in the works, so hopefully I'll have more to post about soon!

(*Sweet Husband needed the camera that day to take pictures of his work, so these pictures are courtesy of Nice Carpool Gal.)

Hail

Moe ran outside to eat the pieces. Porter hid from the scary noise. Sweet Husband cussed profusely at the damage it was doing to our cars. And I, as usual, ran to grab the camera.

(Next morning update--Not only did the hail beat the hell out of my vegetables, it broke our lights outside as well. And I can't even talk about our cars yet--it hurts my heart.)

A Mission

There are no coincidences.

After getting everything tucked into the planter yesterday, I started thinking how nice it would be if I had a little spot to plant some pumpkins. Last fall I had the greatest time cooking pumpkins, and it would be ever-so-much more fun to be able to cook my own. I kept mulling over how it could be done, and gradually it has turned into one of, what Sweet Husband calls, my missions.

On another such mission we spent a perfectly beautiful Saturday going from store to store looking for a mortar and pestle. 3 hours, 7 stores. I take these seriously.

While still thinking, I spent the afternoon reading a book I picked up on a whim when Nice Carpool Gal and I went to the--surprisingly nice--library in Topeka for lunch the other day. The book, "Urban Gardener" is a compilation of newspaper colums written by Elspeth Thompson--isn't that the most wonderful name--for the London Sunday Telegraph in the late '90s.

In her first columns, Elspeth had only a small balcony garden, but she quickly gets an "allotment" and goes to work. It took me a few pages to figure out that an allotment is what we would call a plot in a community garden. As the columns progress Elspeth and her sister transform the allotment from weedy wilderness to a respectable little vegetable garden...complete with pumpkins.

*Light bulb*

Lawrence--this wonderful haven of hippies that it is--has at least two community gardens that I am aware of. One appears to be fairly well kept, but I'm not sure if one can just go in and claim a plot. The other is very overgrown. I've heard from several sources that anyone who wants a plot is free to go in and take it with the caveat that anyone who wants to go in and take vegetables from that plot is free to do so also.

Clearly more research is warranted, but maybe....

Rain and Thunder

Garden 5.0

As I was potting and repotting and planting today I realized that this is the fifth clearly separate incarnation of a garden at this house. Five separate arrangements in less than two years. Yikes! But I'm sure I've learned something or other along the way. If nothing else I've learned how to garden in a small space with dogs--containers!

At any rate, today I filled the last spot in the big planter with Hidatsa Shield Figure Beans. I also went ahead and caged the tomatoes and peppers. As I was literally wedging the cages in I momentarily started to doubt the wisdom of Mr. Mel Bartholemew (of Square Foot Gardening fame). One tomato per square foot seems awfully tight now that the cages are up to denote the full size the tomatoes will be. But then I remembered that Nice Father-In-Law had his tomatoes on something close to a square foot plan last year and they did well, so hopefully all will be well with mine also.

I also went to Sunrise and got herbs for my spare pots. I got some small starts of Munstead Lavendar, Oregano Thyme, Curry and Bronze Fennel. I'm trying to keep experimenting (as well as go easy on my budget) so I decided to try a few plants from seed.

I planted Alaska Nasturtiums around the bases of my tomatoes by the door, Italian Pesto Basil, Fine Leaf Chives, Dukat Leafy Dill, and Cilantro.


In the interest of continual greens, I planted a big pot of Apollo Arugula. I also got a Silky Asclepias for outside the backdoor. I was intending to plant Marigolds there, but I saw a sign at the nursery that said Monarch Butterflies are drawn to Asclepias so I thought it's be fun to try.



I made room for the Marigolds in an old hanging basket, instead.

Oh, and I almost forgot, I planted some strawberries too.

Phew! What a busy day!

Reality and Virtual Reality

These are two of Sweet Husband's projects. One is a picture of a real object, the other is a computer rendering--the object itself doesn't exist. Can you tell which is which? Leave your guess in a comment if you'd like, and I'll post the answer in a few days.

You Say Tomato....

After work last night I snuck into Sunrise just before closing and got tomatoes.

Lots of tomatoes.

I was planning two--maybe three. I came home with five. My eyes are bigger than my planter box.

Unfortunately, someone got to the Midgets before I did. The Sunrise Lady (as opposed to Older Sunrise Man or Younger Sunrise Man) said that mice nibled up her seeds before they could grow. I think she could sense my concern, however, because she immediately said she had planted new ones and they'd be ready in a few weeks. For a brief moment I considered offering her the day services of the Wee Welshman to scare the mice away, but then I realized, Moe chasing mice would do more damage to baby Midgets than mice alone ever could.

At any rate, I saved a spot for them, and got tons of cool heirlooms to boot.



Starting at the top left and working clockwise, I planted Hillbilly Potato, Amana Orange, Cherokee Purple, and Aunt Ruby's German Green.

I was planning to plant flowers in the two pots by the door where the roses lived last year, but hey--flowers are for sissies, real women plant tomatoes.

So I put a Yellow Pear to the right side, and the Midget (assuming the mice at Sunrise cooperate) will get the space on the left.

Oh, and I planted some peppers too--a Jimmy Nardello Sweet Italian Frying Pepper and a Mandarin Bell Pepper.

Proud Parent of a Canine Good Citizen

I almost lost him when we were doing the "walking through a crowd" exercise, but he was awesome on the "stay" and "come".

Our little Moe-Moe-head is officially an AKC Canine Good Citizen!

The Map

If I were a bit more clever I would have the little "Map" cartoon character from "Dora the Explorer" bouncing all over the screen, singing, "I'm the map! I'm the map! I'm the MAP!" As it is, this took more phinagling than I'm willing to admit to, but it's much better than the numbers.

Greens!

"In the past, when your mother was with child, she developed an unusual appetite. She took one look at my beautiful garden and told your father that what she wanted more than anything in the world was

Greens, greens
and nothing but greens--
Parsley, peppers, cabbages and celery,
Asparagus and watercress and
Fiddleferns and lettuce!

He said, "All right,"
But it wasn't, quite,
'Cause I caught him in the autumn
In my garden one night!
He was robbing me,
Raping me,
Rooting through my rutabaga,
Raiding my arugula and
Ripping up my rampion
(My champion! My favorite!)
I should have laid a spell on him
Right there,
Could have changed him into stone
Or a dog or a chair...

But I let him have the rampion-
I'd lots to spare.
In return, however,
I said, "Fair is fair:
You can let me have the baby
That your wife will bear.

And we'll call it square."*

For the record--just in case it should coincidentally happen--I'm not to the point of giving the pups to a witch to lock up in a tall tower to get some, but goodness I'm enjoying munching on my baby spring greens!

(*From Into the Woods a Sondheim musical.)

More Planting

Saturday evening I recruited Sweet Sister to help me plant s'more.

We put 9 Envy Soybeans in 08. I couldn't find a reference for the proper spacing of square foot soybeans, but I figured it would be easier to have a few too many to start and then pull them up later.

We also planted 2 Picnic Watermelon seeds in 09. I know I won't have room for both of those, but I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket (i.e. all my faith in one seed) so one will have to come up once it becomes evident that one is growing better.

Along the fence we sprinkled in a mix of Clark's Heavenly Blue and Scarlett O'Hara Morning Glories. I was just going to plant the Clarks because they were so beautiful last year, but the name Scarlett O'Hara caught my whimsy.

Lastly we hodge-podged in some Mammoth Gray Sunflower seeds in the same spot as last year. This is about the same time I planted them last year--although the warm weather makes it seem much later--so hopefully these will do as well.

Happy Easter!

Ahh, Easter eggs--those festive symbols of fertility, those sunny spots of Spring, those root causes of age-old sibling feuds.

Ingenuity

I'm always complaining that I don't have as much space as I'd like. Obviously I'm not as creative as the people who live in this house 'round the block from us.

These hay bales have been out since the fall, and from the hot boxes that were on top I would guess there were some early seed starts or cool season crops. I haven't been able to catch the gardener outside to discuss what he's planting for summer, but it looks like it's a little bit of a lot of things including some climbers. Very cool.

Lilacs Blooming At Twilight

I was driving with the car windows open the other day, when all of a sudden I caught a huge whiff of lilac from a hedge of it that had bloomed and was warming in the sun. This lilac is across the street from our house. The tops of it are just starting to bloom, and they smell incredible.

Lilac is such a classic flower, I thought there had to be some sort of story or myth associated with it. I was right. Lilac is in the genus Syringa. The word Syringa comes from the Greek word for "pipe." Because of the lilac's pithy stems, two early names for it were "pipe tree" and "blow stem." Both allude to the Greek myth in which the nymph Syrinx, pursued by the god Pan, turns herself into marsh reeds, which Pan then joins and uses as his flute, or panpipe. (From marthastewart.com)

"No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater...

...than central air."*

We finally cracked tonight and turned it on. I wouldn't have given in, but Sweet Husband reminded me that Nice Family is coming this weekend and might appreciate not having to sleep in the furnace that is our upstairs with no air on. And you know, making Sweet Husband and the pups suffer is one thing, but since we're having guests . . . .

And it's really hot!

(*From "Dogma" 1999, Directed by Kevin Smith--very funny if you have a sense of humor about religion.)

My Heart Wants To Be In Italy

My very good friend C.C. (now commonly known by her grown-up name--Christina) just sent me a link to pictures from her Spring Break trip to Italy.

Oh to have been a little mouse in her pocket!

Sniffing the Good Stuff

I was walking down the block to get some lunch today when I remembered another reason why Spring is so wonderful--the smells! Newly mown grass warming in the sun, freshly blooming tulips, about a hundred different kinds of flowering trees--not to mention the plain and simple Spring breeze.

Makes me want to have a picnic on the front lawn.

First Planted Things

I finished filling my new raised bed with soil this morning, and even got a few things planted. I've divided up the bed into 12 square foot sections. For reference, I'm numbering them like this, when I face the bed coming out of our house:

12, 11, 10, 09, 08, 07
01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06

Today I just started some cool season stuff. It took a large amount of will power not to bring home a few of the beautiful baby tomato seedlings that are already out in nice neat little rows at the nursery, but hopefully in a few weeks....

This is what I planted:

2 Leeks in 07
9 Onion sets in the rest of 07 and the top of 06
8 Oxheart Carrots in the bottom of 06
1 Packet of California Spicy Greens mix (Arugula, Endive, Mizuna, Red Mustard) in 05

I also planted some "Red Norland" potatoes in the Grow Box. I found that it didn't work well for tomatoes last year because I couldn't keep slugs out of it, so I drilled some holes in the bottom and made it into a regular planter.

Eh, and I almost forgot--the joy of gardening with a wee terrier.

Future Site of a Square Foot Garden

I have 12 square feet. Now to decide what to plant....

Day of Trees

My calendar today says "Day of Trees (KOR)". To the nearest I can guess, I think that means today is the Day of Trees in Korea.

If you feel like celebrating, this is how easy it is to plant a tree. A year ago, on a whim, I sent a very small donation to the Arbor Day Foundation. They sent me back twelve sticks with roots. I only had a place to plant one, so I stuck it in a pot where it lived all of last summer. I didn't want to bring it inside for the winter, and I knew it didn't have a very good chance of surviving outside in a pot, so I literally stuck it into the ground. I may have watered it a few times, but other than that I left it to fend for itself.

And here you can see -- well, if you can see it, it's still kind of a stick -- my little tree has survived the winter and put out new buds and leaves.

Twins

After trying numerous plants in the mucky little spot under our kitchen window, I decided we'd give this a shot. It's a compact version of Forsythia called Forsythia Sunrise.

They're supposedly "very forgiving". Between the dogs and the clay they'll have to be.

A Spot I Could've Loved

Sweet Husband and I went to look at a house for rent yesterday. It was out in the country on top of a windy little hill. But not a bare hill. It had trees--beautiful, old, gorgeous trees. There was a little stone wall that enclosed the yard, and you could see the lake in the distance. Under a particularly big, old, brambly tree there was a little stone bench that looked like it had been there since time began.

The house itself was an old stone school. The outside was great.

Unfortunately the inside...not so much. Watery basement, rusty bathtub, olive green refridgerator. It broke my heart.

I wonder if I could pay the man rent and live there in a tent.

Daff-o-dilly Pretty Part 2

These are Nice Mother-In-Law's daffodils. I knew that there was a type of daff that was all white, but I don't think I'd ever seen any up close and personal. I think I like them better than the yellow ones.

Don't get me wrong, the yellows are beautiful in the spring. But somehow--even though the white ones aren't as showy--I think they win.

A Nest 'o' Eggs

We were in the 'burg this weekend and Nice Sister-And-Brother-In-Law asked us to bring the pups and go for a walk in the park with them and Adorable Baby Niece. Aside from many trips down slide for Baby Niece and some good "meeting a friendly stranger" training for Moe-Moe head, we also saw this little nest'o'goose eggs.

Truly, I've always been a little afraid of geese. One time when we were little, nice cousins and I were paddleboating and a goose climbed up on the back of our boat. Every since then, I've just not been into them.

And I know the eggs are going to grow into big, scary geese, but somehow they were still OK.