Thanks to a very clever identification of our blurry weed picture by Josh, I have now determined that our main garden weed (aside from grass) is Portulaca Oleracea or Pursline. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portulaca_oleracea)
Unfortunately, wikipedia also indicates that it is edible! Not only edible, but nutritious, and a source of Omega 3 fatty acids.
So, I have inadvertently thrown out over 10 gallons of our most productive vegetable!
Well, something to keep in mind for next year.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Adventures in gardening
Being able to walk out to your backyard and pick something fresh to eat is just an amazing concept to me. I love that we have been pretty succesful on our first year of gardening.
Then we prepared the spot where we wanted to plant the garden by digging up all the overgrown stuff that was there, turning over the dirt and covering it with a garbage bag.
Our poor little seedlings waited so long to be planted, they got very big in their little cups.
We finally got them in the ground in early june.
Then we watched as many of them died. We planted more plants where the old ones died. The plants that survived where the tomatoes, tomatillos, cubanelle peppers, and basil. We started off with, well, much much more than that. Here is what it looks like now.
Overgrown and full of weeds. I don't think we did too bad of a job though.
We also had some volunteers sprout up. We have some melon/squash like plants that are doing well that came up from some seeds from the compost. We also had some chard like greens that came up that must have been planted there a long, long time ago.
What started out as a seed is now a thriving plant that provides food for us. Simply wonderful!
We started out way back in February where we sprouted some seeds on our window sil.
Then we prepared the spot where we wanted to plant the garden by digging up all the overgrown stuff that was there, turning over the dirt and covering it with a garbage bag.
Our poor little seedlings waited so long to be planted, they got very big in their little cups.
We finally got them in the ground in early june.
Then we watched as many of them died. We planted more plants where the old ones died. The plants that survived where the tomatoes, tomatillos, cubanelle peppers, and basil. We started off with, well, much much more than that. Here is what it looks like now.
Overgrown and full of weeds. I don't think we did too bad of a job though.
We also had some volunteers sprout up. We have some melon/squash like plants that are doing well that came up from some seeds from the compost. We also had some chard like greens that came up that must have been planted there a long, long time ago.
What started out as a seed is now a thriving plant that provides food for us. Simply wonderful!
The reason
Some of the readers of this blog may be wondering where we've been lately. Well, we have mostly been up to our ears in our guest bathroom renovation. To give you a taste as to how it is coming, here is what it currently looks like.
Well, technically right at this very moment they are in there working on putting the tub in which means plumbing and going under the house and all sorts of other things I am not at all comfortable with. Not much in there at this point to even give you a clue that it is or should be a bathroom.
But, I am really excited to have a nice new bathroom. We are going with lovely white subway tile which I have always loved. The accent tiles are this great mix of glass and onyx tiles that mimic the subway pattern. The floor is a nice warm neutral that looks great next to the hardwoods coming off the hallway.
Honestly, the thing I am most excited about is our new dual flush toilet! Is that sad? It is going to be such an improvement over our old toilet that just ran and ran all day and all night. We couldn't get in there to fix it because there was absolutely no room between the top of the toilet and the bottom on of the counter top. Not a very smart installation. But this new one will also use half the water of your normal toilet on your normal 'liquid' flush and get rid of everything better than your average if you need something a little stronger. What a brilliant idea!
Well, technically right at this very moment they are in there working on putting the tub in which means plumbing and going under the house and all sorts of other things I am not at all comfortable with. Not much in there at this point to even give you a clue that it is or should be a bathroom.
But, I am really excited to have a nice new bathroom. We are going with lovely white subway tile which I have always loved. The accent tiles are this great mix of glass and onyx tiles that mimic the subway pattern. The floor is a nice warm neutral that looks great next to the hardwoods coming off the hallway.
Honestly, the thing I am most excited about is our new dual flush toilet! Is that sad? It is going to be such an improvement over our old toilet that just ran and ran all day and all night. We couldn't get in there to fix it because there was absolutely no room between the top of the toilet and the bottom on of the counter top. Not a very smart installation. But this new one will also use half the water of your normal toilet on your normal 'liquid' flush and get rid of everything better than your average if you need something a little stronger. What a brilliant idea!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Paint Your Wagon
I am full of ideas lately, but sadly not too many useful house ideas. First it was castle dreams, now I can't stop thinking about getting a little travel trailer and fixing it up. I don't even really want it for travel, I just like the idea of using our RV parking pad to create a little getaway cozy nook. I remember when I was a kid I had a friend whose parents had a tent trailer that we could play in. It was always so fun to go out there and have this whole separate world. We spent hours in there despite it being so hot and musty inside. So I have been looking for old funky retro mini travel trailers for a while now. Airstream trailers are beautiful but surprisingly expensive! Then today I saw this while browsing for home design stuff:
If that is not the cutest most fun thing I have ever seen today then I don't know what is! You can find the rest of the pictures at desiretoinspire
I still think the travel trailer route would be better for me since it seems like these wagons need to be built from scratch and I think I am more of a re-haber than a builder.
Okay, okay so you may be thinking to yourself "What is your problem? You have this whole house to decorate and fix up and you want to start a whole NEW project??" But I think my problem is that I am still completely overwhelmed with this whole house project. There is just so so so much to do! But I will keep trying to stay focused on the task at hand and not be distracted by colorful and cute things. Maybe some day...
If that is not the cutest most fun thing I have ever seen today then I don't know what is! You can find the rest of the pictures at desiretoinspire
I still think the travel trailer route would be better for me since it seems like these wagons need to be built from scratch and I think I am more of a re-haber than a builder.
Okay, okay so you may be thinking to yourself "What is your problem? You have this whole house to decorate and fix up and you want to start a whole NEW project??" But I think my problem is that I am still completely overwhelmed with this whole house project. There is just so so so much to do! But I will keep trying to stay focused on the task at hand and not be distracted by colorful and cute things. Maybe some day...
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Castle dreams
Upon returning from our viewing of the new Harry Potter, we were reminded about how much we the contributors for this old blog would like to live in a castle. I don't know how you can watch those movies and NOT want to run away to England and sleep in a big canopy bed with a nice fire maybe a couple dogs laying at your feet keeping you warm. In any case, the Hogwarts castle is loosely based on Alnwick castle. Here is a picture - isn't it loverly?
It's not just the exterior that we like, but the interior. For me, I long to have a room much like Slughorn's office with two tufted sofas facing each other with a cozy rug and a roaring fire in between. I could only find one screen shot from the scene, its not the best.
There's Ron recovering from his near-death experience! Yikes!
It's not just the exterior that we like, but the interior. For me, I long to have a room much like Slughorn's office with two tufted sofas facing each other with a cozy rug and a roaring fire in between. I could only find one screen shot from the scene, its not the best.
There's Ron recovering from his near-death experience! Yikes!In any case, this got me shopping for tufted leather sofas online, where I discovered Horchow, which has the most fabulously extravagant and beautiful things I have ever seen.
Not sure where this post was supposed to go . . . oh well. Until we move away to France or someplace similar to live in the castle of our dreams we will be here sleeping in good ole Rosemont. Well I will be sleeping, I am pretty sure Mr. House said he was going to stay up all night reading the book. . . Night!
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