Today...

I did a leeeeettle bit of something and a whooooole lot of nothing...

Since the MACRO portions of the gardens are complete, it was finally time to focus on the micro, as these are the last few details I need to complete before the weather gets hotter and I lose interest in all things garden-ey.

I planted a few sedums, sempervivium (hens and chicks), and creeping thyme in the chicken coop walkway (that was the little bit, as the plants are *teeny tiny*):

Lookin' gooooood

I also raked as much of the nepeta out of the much neglected front gardens as I could (they're the oldest and most well established, and always seem to be overlooked. Must be because there's a swamp up there, complete with scads of mosquitoes, which dims my enthusiasm a wee little bit...).

And so LORRY BE, HALLELUJAH-- stick a fork in me, I think I'm done!

The boys are sleeping in the tipi tonight, hope the skeeters don't drain em dry by morning:

And here's a little something, just for funs:

Ride 'em, CharlieCat! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee

p.s. all trips for the weekend are OFF, boo. But it looks like dd is trying to wrangle me into a trip to the motherland (Kenosha) to visit her friend. It sounds like she lives in the vicinity of the finest dining in K-Town, the Spot (!), where greazy cheezeburgers with extra pickles and grilled onions await us. The neighborhood around the Spot is fantastic, too, so between the historic downtown area with it's amazing architecture and the gigantic cemetary, I'm hoping we can get some walking in, and maybe with Ms Maggie, who could use a little city walking for a change. I hear that the Farmer's Market is up and running, so I might just get my market fix, after all:-)

Grandmere asked a few weeks ago, too, if I could take some photos of the tree planted in Isetts Park when my Grandfather died, so that'll be a nice segueway as well; I don't think Grace has been to her VERY OWN park before (we used to tell kids that it was our park when we were little-- what a bunch of snot faces we were!) I myself haven't been there in manymany years, I probably won't even recognize it.

And if we stay long enough, it would be nice to score a patio spot at Villa D Carlo's and do some quality people watching. We had a great time riding our motorcycles there about this time last year; probably one of the best family trips of the year, and by far the simplest:-)

Sooooooooo, if you see a wistful mom roaming the streets of Kenosha with an unruly puppy and three teenagers doing their best to look disaffected and bored, wave hello; as a country girl lost in the city, I'll try my very hardest not to look too wierded out-- I promise.

Madison?

OhhhhhKayyyyyyy... who wants to go to Madison with me tomorrow? I have a hankerin' not only to visit this super cool store I've been blog stalking for over a year:
http://glitterworkshop.com/dish/

but to stuff myself on fantastic foreign foods (Thai on Willy St, Nepalese on State St, that African joint by the capital, French food, rah rah rah!). I also like Frieda's on State, but their food is only so-so-- but any place that paints larger than life reproductions of Frieda Kahlo paintings on the walls is my kind of spot, I just won't delve much further than their extensive margarita and tequila menu... wheeeeeeeeee!

I'm feeling antsy and a need to wander; must be my sassy new haircut that the sweet young girl tried to talk me out of... even Ms. Gracy pant's friends were like, "what's up with your HAIR, Grace's mommy?".
Well, truth be told, girlies, Grace's mommy needs to get her groove on, so get used to it, 'cause she's about ready to jump out her very own skin with Spring Fever and is in search of some adventure, even if it is only of the shopping and eating kind (must be why I'm broke and FAT, according to my "Health Risk Assessment" I had to do at work yesterday. Broke I can deal with, but FAT?! Egads-- nothing I can't fix, tho, with the help of my friend Ann Louise Gittleman). Maybe if I took a lovely stroll or ride on the Madison bike trail after my snacking, I'd be less likely to be a pudgy liability to my employer, tee hee).
Anyhoodle.

If ya'll are up for a trip, let me know-- I'll drive and EVERYTHING... but with the Farmer's Market being open these days, mebbe Saturday would be better anyhow.
Either way-- fun people who can actually get together and do stuff, where are youuuuuuuuuuu?
This is sortof my new 'do; dark brown with bright red streaks. Fiesty!

Viva La Menstruacion!

Ok, just when you think the world is altogether too dull, you stumble upon something really entertaining:
www.vivalamenstruacion.com/
And I am sooooo bummed, 'cause the one I want is all sold out:-(

On a side note, I have been researching tattoo artists, not necessarily because I want one, just 'cause I apparenty have little else of substance to do since I haven't been able to sleep lately.

I've noticed that there is a distinct difference between the work that's done in Austin and what we have going on here in the Midwest. I'd say that down south the quality of art is much better, with much less dark lines and more complex use of colors. Here, most of what I've seen are traditional, old style stuff you'd expect to see on a sailor or a scary drunken biker/satan worshipper type.

Here's a wee sample of what I like:

http://www.southsidetattoos.com/Noska.htm
http://www.reztattoo.com/tina.html
http://tattooedladyhistory.vox.com/

This one is actually from the midwest; too bad I can't see it better:-)

Today We Planted:

Elliot, brigatta, spartan blueberries (early, midseason, and late berries; hope they pollinate ok~).
Bok Choi, napa cabbage, chiogga beets. Lavender (two varieties), tarragon, sage, transplanted a stella d oro daylily, more garlic, some runner beans to climb on the chicken coop, datura (two varities), eight arbor vitae, 2 black spruce, and 3 dogwoods.
On Saturday, we tilled the chicken coop pen/yard, and spent the day broadcasting mounds of rich compost all over the property, which was stinky but oddly satisfying...
And then we planted:
squashes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, chard (the rainbow variety) some stargazer lilies that were on clearance (my favorite), a couple specimen lilies for fun (arum corunatum and ismene hymenocallis), thyme, majoram, rosemary, and a few other things... I also finally got around to digging up the bee balm out of my coop garden and got it all planted out in the prairie where it belongs.

I'm sore, and sunburned, and couldn't be happier with how everything looks.
Spring! I hope it lasts and lasts...

Medusa's

I spent an all too brief part of my day on the streets of Chicago trying to revisit one of the best parts of my teenage years, and CRAP! I could squint and briefly put it all together, the sights, the sounds, perhaps the location-- and then...
it was gone.

I have dim recollections of the times I spent hanging out in Chicago, riding the El trains, drinking and peeing in alleyways with street people and teen prostitutes, wandering the streets of Boy's town and blowing my mind at Medusa's. Why, when I spent so many days, hours wandering a place, can't I remember it, picture it, figure out where it was?

Sadly, wonderfully, it was to be the most interesting and formative times I'd experience in my life (in retrospect); nothing has come close in my travels near and far. I've been to many *strange* places and circumstances since, but none have been remotely as fantastic.
Having used up my quota for cool at so early an age, I've spent the balance of my years as a bored cynic, doomed to wander the dregs of humdrum Summerfest crowds in dismay, looking for a glimmer of the beautiful strangeness I was so briefly a part of... bummer.
No photos exist, no one remembers it, I have no contact with old friends who took me there-- more chapters of my life that have no witnesses, more places from my past that have been erased from the face of the planet, without a trace.
Ah! Melancholy...
But here's a snippet I found, something to remind me of the 3rd floor video room where we'd take a break from dancing, drink an Orangina and smoke cigarettes, and make out with a guy (or two). I can still hear the echos of feet on the old wooden floors, the smell of the smoke from stinky clove and tobacco cigarettes, the deep vibration in your head and gut of the music coming at you from all angles, the excitement of being somewhere so odd:

Horrifically blasphemous, I know, fo shizzle why it took so long for me to give God and church a try...
p.s. I discovered that there is a WORLD out there this weekend... a world that finds me witty and funny and likes me as much as I like it back. I am both amazed and overwhelmed with the knowledge of such-- I wonder if it missed me?

Spring Gardens 2008 (and Mother's Day Gifts!)

Ahhhh, what the heck; now that I'm feeling like the clever girl who can imbed Flickr slideshows, I can't help but post one more, just 'cause I can (and cause it was such a hairy pain in the arse to figure it out, I now have a massive ache in my head):

Maple Syrup 2008

I FINALLY got around to posting the photos for our maple syrup making adventure (fiasco), a trial only to be compared with the one I faced trying to figure out how to post a Flickr slideshow (egads! and I could never tell you how I did it, I have no clue..)

Old Greg? WTF...

This is by far the weirdest thing I've seen in long time. I think I like the singing the best... "Mangina"? It's completely horrible and entertaining all at the same time, much like the "funky ball o tits from outer space".

Here's a deleted scene, just for funs:

Week From the Bowels of Satan:

All my recent bragging about my stress free life surely has angered the powers that be, and as such I have endured a fairly sucky week, the likes of which I hope to never revisit.
Last week it was cranky co workers, and this week it was a reillumination of the horrors of compulsory education, "Private School Edition", where I learned that even if you throw large sums of cash at a problem, it can still come 'round and bite you in the ass.
Try having a heated, serious phone discussion with the idiot on the other line that you will be consuming his balls for breakfast if he doesn't fix the problems his stupidity and laziness created-- *NOW*, while a doctor or two looks over your shoulder. Talk about stressful, especially since I've just recently gotten out of the soup at work.
And joy! The powerlessness that immersion in the middle class brings... makes you feel all warm and cozy inside that a whole class of people feel you and your offspring are disposable. But even the downtrodden can be well connected, as my friend discovered today. I may be a nobody (100% by choice) in our microscopic little town, but my people are dedicated somebodies somwhere else, even if most of them are gone and I spent a lifetime distancing myself from them.
But you never really know your worth until an organization (like the Catholic Church, par example) fixes it's gaze upon you and declares you inconsequential, and then demands payment for their trouble ($1000 to be exact). Ohwell. Let's just hope that I can get myself and dd out of this sans too much drama and controversy, and without hiring a lawyer and/or calling the papers. Man! It's just like being in high school *myself* again, which is about the very last thing I'd ever have wanted to do.

Kombucha!

I've been brewing my own Kombucha tea (KT) lately, after becoming infatuated with it a couple months ago.

There's something strangely appealing and repellant about it's urine like appearance, sour taste, and ooglie stuff on the bottom with the booger-y boojum on the top..... mmmmmmmmmm.

(just be sure you don't drink the booger thing, aka "scoby", by mistake. It's like coughing up something nasty and chunky and then swallowing it back down-- epecially if it gets stuck 1/2 way... **shudder**)

I got instructions from the 'net and made my own from a bottle of store bought KT, and was pretty darn surprised when it actually worked and didn't make me ill-- wahoo! (which is a clear indication that my standards are far too low when I get excited that I don't poison myself...)

I've been making it in 1/2 to 1 gallon batches ever since and always wound up a bottle or 2 short before the next batch was done, so when I saw a 2.5 gallon crock at Goodwill, I snatched it up. Score! Now I'll be able to do a continuous infusion, which I hear is how you make the best, most healthful brew. http://www.happyherbalist.com/continuous_brewing.htm

Since the scoby (="symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast") thingamahoobie is a living organism and has been known to actually CLIMB OUT of the jar, I can't help but wonder if someday it will ooze it's way out in search of fleshier fare than green tea and sugar, and someone will find me one day in a gob of gooze:

Suckier things have happened...