Existing Gardens

I have found a couple of little perennial gardens on the property.

There is one along the side of the patio turning the corner at the house and continuing just past the air conditioner.    One tulip bloomed and two others were trampled.  There is a big hosta that should be divided, some variety of  Pulmonaria, and one perennial that we had at the apartment that sort of looks like a cactus when it starts to come up.

There is a hosta garden in front of the trees by the creek.  It's kind of random and I'm not sure I like it.  I may relocate those plants to the back section of the yard in the more shaded areas.

Along the side of the garage I have found what I think are peonies, hosta, and some that sort of looks like a miniature rose bush.

Forsythia Picture

It's beautiful, but it's huge.  Within the next couple of days I'll start pruning out the branches that didn't bloom.  Later, once the blooms start to go, I'll cut it down a bit. 

The tree behind the section towards the front of the house was placed there on purpose.  Now I need to figure out what kind of tree it is before I take the chainsaw to it.

Spring Discoveries

There are violets along the foundation on the creek side of the house.

There is 14 foot tall forsythia along the creek embankment from the front corner of the house.  This is a proper use of forsythia but it's very overgrown.  I'm going to cut a lot of it back this week and try to train it more down towards the creek.  The Duckie and I may be making a spring forsythia wreath for the porch.

I think there are random tulips bordering the patio.

Spring Thaw

The news papers said that Cortland has the worst flooding in 30 years.  If this is almost the worst we'll have to deal with, we got really lucky with our house.

The front corner of my house is about four feet from the creek embankment for Otter Creek... aka, the creek that floods.  My father lives a few streets away and about a half a block from the creek.  My Mom lives about seven blocks further up the creek from Dad and she's about five houses from the same creek.

The results of the flooding?

Mom had 10 inches of ground water in her basement from the high watertable.

Dad's basement was a little damp in spots but he had ducks swimming down his street.

I had a spectacular view of the creek.  That's it.  No water in the basement, no flooding in the street.

Speaking of Walls

I may have smashed my thumb a couple of times trying to drive things into the walls with a hammer.

My daughter wanted me to play "fix the floor" with her using her pretend tools.  I asked which were my tools.  She handed me a hammer and a potmitt.  "Here, wear this so you don't hurt your thumb."

Hard Walls

We received a Home Depot gift card for Christmas.  On New Year's Eve day, I went to spend it. I bought six different kinds of screws, anchors, hooks, and tape to try for hanging stuff on the downstairs walls.

For pictures with wire backs the 3M Command hangers are perfect.  I've been using the regular hooks but I see now they have ones with sticky tab backs and nail fronts.  Those might work for some of the other hanger styles my pictures have.

Last night I tried the Bulldog Concrete Hanger and it worked like a charm.  I think the small spikes are too short to bend but with the three together you can hang up to 15 pounds with the small one I bought.

Now to find some way to hang things from the ceiling.  I put the Duckie's mobil up with just a 3M command strip and a prayer.

Winter Farm Share

This winter we're once again participating in a local, organic CSA.  I pick up our weekly share every Thursday at a little natural grocery store near campus.

This week we received:

Acorn Squash
Hakurei turnip greens
Leeks
Baby Bok Choy
Parsley
Red Russian Kale
Beets
Potatoes
Carrots
Onions
Garlic


The squash and beets went to my Dad as well as some of the potatoes, carrots, and onions.  We're formally sharing this year instead of me just dropping off vegetables that I can't possibly use.

So... this makes cooking an adventure!

Today we're having golden winter soup which uses the leeks and some of the potatoes.  Tomorrow is chicken and vegetable stir fry which will use garlic, carrots, onions, and the bok choy.  Thursday is an Asian stew which is more of the same.  Thursday we're having soy glazed fish with zucchini and the beet greens.  Friday, in a nod to my husband, we're having totally normal stuffed peppers with beef.