So, week of vacation at home, day two.
Where to start? Well, I got up earlier this morning. That was good and boded well. I fixed some tea (Twinings English Breakfast, and I’ll need more to get through the week) and had rather a lot of toast. Kind of on the Douglas Adams model of procrastinating, except that where he took serial baths, I made, um, more than two slices of toast. With butter and Vegit.
Some time later, I wandered out to the garage and swept it out a little, looking over our junk and figuring out what can be thrown out. And did a little weeding in the front, and worked over the compost bin in the back, getting it re-started for the season. Poked around, put some yard wasted in a bag, and nattered with the Chemlawn guy when he showed up. According to him: need to prune out the suckers from the one tree. Okay, I’ll do that later. Oh, and the lawn service guy called with a quote for taking out the Bush of Death.
Not the one in Washington, this is the one on the front corner of our lot. It’s a big stickery hawthorny sort of thing with a bunch of ugly junipers. I want the whole thing gone and pristine for putting in a new bed with a nice something or other. Probably a Japanese maple.
Okay, enough of working outside, so I came in to dink around more. Lunch. Drink more tea. Eat a very weird kind of soy-cheese on my sandwich. Well, it’s a cheese-like substance. Oddly tasteless. Tastelessly odd. It’s a glamorous life.
Tea break. TV break. Dink break. God, the pressure to perform is immense, but I accomplish all three.
Then it’s time to go to the grocery store and spend a lot of money on food, because we’re out of all the stuff that gets thrown in when we decide “what’rewegonnahavefordinner? Whatchagotinthefridge?” I had a shopping list (otherwise known as a “Chopin Liszt”) but I made some executive decisions and added on some stuff.
The two basil plants and one rosemary plant were optional and probably overpriced, but the nursery place was closed and I wanted to get some kitchen herbs started. Bought a lot of other stuff – entrees for 3 meals and some extra veggies for a nice salad. We don’t eat enough veggies or fruits, and I’ve been trying to do better with that. Not to the point of climbing the gay food pyramid, but I’ve been trying.
However, we can’t entirely wean ourselves of junk food, so I bought healthy junk food. Plus some English pub ale and some really gingery ginger ale. The lady at the seafood counter chatted me up while I was buying some tilapia and offered to add seasoning or marinade for free. Score! I always forget about that option. This time it was a lemon-garlic one that was actually quite yummy and even a little spicy. So we had that for dinner, along with some probably-overpriced Sam Choy brand seasoned rice and what turned out to be the best salad I’ve ever made.
Huh. Salad. That is so not like me.
It was the little wee tomatoes that did it – really sweet and full of flavor. They’d be awesome with fresh mozzarella, olive oil, and fresh basil. And as it happens, I’ve got two freshly potted basil plants, and a nice rosemary plant, too.
The first year here, I tried a little gardening – my friend Debbie came out for a visit, and we went to the big nursery up in Palatine and brought home tons of herbs, pots, bedding plants, and stuff like that. I actually really got into the rosemary plants – the flavor was amazing on grilled food if you skewered the meat with rosemary spears. But they didn’t survive the winter, and most of the other herbs didn’t survive the second winter. This year, I’m going to give herb gardening another shot, because I’ve really missed the scent of herbs. I still have a big clump of chives that needs to be cut back – it’s set some starts so I’m going to re-pot those for an indoor clump.
Tomorrow’s my day to go back to the nursery place and pick up about 6 bags of mulch – I think that’s all I’ll be able to get in the RAV – and whatever other bedding plants they have available. I have to do some groundwork in all the beds – add compost, add dirt to raise the levels, and mulch. I’m tired of blah beds. At least I’ll have tons of compost in a few weeks.
Isn’t the glamor of my existence exhausting? Yes. I knew you would smile knowingly.
I already talked about how last year I didn’t do anything outside. This year, I will. It’s about time.
