20 June 2015

Time

There is an ebb and flow to my life and my moods. I miss Jack terribly, but for awhile I am fine, productive, the house is clean, the garden is groomed. And then I slip into endless hours of Netflix (the possessive demon that it is) and sitting on the couch, thinking thoughts all morning long instead of getting out of bed and attending to my chores before work. On those mornings it's all I can do to get up so that I'll be to work on time, let alone actually get something done around the house first. At least, when I am in these lower times, I still have work and roller derby to keep me busy.

The house is looking better than it did before, though. I've started a new system where I draw cards and tackle a few housekeeping tasks every day so that I stay on top of it. Well, I haven't stayed entirely on top of the tasks, but I've been managing to do a halfway decent job of it and catching up when I can (on derby days it's really difficult since I've so little time at home). Heck - I actually mopped the kitchen floor last night, and that's been needed for probably more than a month now! The cleaning is coming along, but the tidying is where I'm having a harder time keeping my focus. I've got so many different piles going in the bedroom right now that it's taking up a quarter of the room! I'm trying to finish tidying the living room (I started yesterday) and dust it (I pulled that card this morning...), then maybe tidy the mud room (I pulled that card, too). But that "tidy bedroom" card will probably not truly get tackled until the weekend. Although I did start today by tidying my overcrowded nightstand before I got out of bed (may as well be useful if I can't seem to get out of there...). I just keep chipping away at it all. It's a big thing, keeping a two-bedroom house with a 1/4-acre yard, veggie garden and flower garden all by yourself.

In the meantime, I'm working on trying to be more friendly with my normal-seeming neighbors. I just met the one in the nice house next door this evening - seems like an okay guy, said I could borrow his weed-whacker if I wanted. I might take him up on that, since it'll be awhile before I can afford my own. Too many other things I want to get that are higher on the priority list. Like a washing machine. I think next week I'd like to get a washing machine from the used appliance shop in town.

And in the meantime, the days barrel onward. Work is going well, derby continues to be kick-my-butt fun, and that paper chain on the living room wall gets shorter and shorter every day. None of it is touching the floor anymore. Jack will be home before I know it.

Until next time...

13 June 2015

My! How my garden grows!

The weeds are all over the empty spaces, and I am learning to use a hoe to dig them up to the roots far faster than my fingers can. Thank goodness for mothers and their sound advice. This week I cleared out space and planted bean sprouts, swiss chard seeds, and carrot seeds... lots of carrot seeds. Jack LOVES carrots. Well, he loves juicing carrots... anyhow, I figured I'd give them a try. If they all come up, great, if only a few do, that's fine as well. I'm going to walk up to the Dutch Gardener today and see about buying some more starts - both of the squashes I bought from him and planted a couple weeks ago have blossomed and are growing little squashes on them now! Hooray!

I think the climate here is particularly suited to growing salads, as the kale and the cabbages are doing better than anything else.

Anyhow, here's some pictures I snapped on my phone this morning (I'd accidentally left my camera at work).
Arugula and Cilantro blossoms - I've been waiting for the seeds for two months now...

Cherry tomato and garlic.

Delicata Squash starting to develop! :)

Green cabbage - this one has two heads, what luck!

One of the four Russian Red Kale plants.

Peas! These are really taking off, but not using the trellis as much as I expected.

Beautiful red cabbage!

From left to right: Roma Tomato, Red Onions, and Black Prince Heirloom Tomato (I don't think that one has grown a bit since I planted it...)

Zucchini on the left and Hubbard Squash on the right. Both are starting to develop squashes, too.