I'm The Garden Lady

 

Earlier this year, in the spring, I started volunteering with the Garden Committee at the school by our house. I finally was able to get a routine going, I was able to keep the house clean, get all the kids gathered together and actually had a handle on life, which seems pretty odd after living through a pandemic where nothing was together. 

The ladies that I volunteer with are fantastic and one is done after this spring. I'm going to volunteer myself to be garden chair because now I actually have time and it's something that I want to do. I really like how satisfying it is teaching the kids something about plants. 

In any case, last week one full grade actually got to go on a field trip to the local Arboretum and the kids all planted garlic cloves. This is interesting because garlic is supposed to be planted in the fall AND in the ground. Our garden is closed down and it's done for the season - we planted our garlic in the beds already. And there's snow on the ground!

The teachers asked if we could get the grow lights out so of course I said yes. I decided to organize the cart and get the little cloves under the lights. I have them timed for about 8 hours per day. I'll move that up to 10 hours per day either tomorrow or Wednesday, I think. I'm going to send the kids home with their sprouted garlic cloves the day before they leave for Winter Break. I found some bags and then I'll tie them up with some nice ribbon so it looks like a little gift for their parents. And instructions are also always handy when it comes to plants!

Como Conservatory

I LOVE the Como Zoo & Conservatory in the winter time. Especially the Conservatory.

I love the plants, the flower show they have, the humidity levels. The smell of the Spice room. It's amazing. And such a reprieve from the snow and cold outside. 

Last year we saw mini pumpkins on a stick and so even though I don't have a green house, I put them in pots and the plants are growing - slowly but surely! This year the marigolds and chrysanthemums are GORGEOUS. I really like these Fireball Marigolds and I may have to hunt down some seeds!

So many mums to look at.

And ornamental cabbages and kales. 

And houseplants. And aloes. And everything.

 

Dog Wash Is In Use

It's officially winter. The boots are in use. Snow is on the ground!

 

Addition is Almost Done

Half the trim was installed yesterday. Today the plumbers and electricians are here. Siding was dropped off in the driveway yesterday and so they should be here today. 

No more window above my kitchen sink! Although now our kitchen looks super crappy compared to the new portion. At some point we'll have to do something about it. I really want an undermount sink to be able to scrub and clean really well but also - I'm in love with butcher block, with an undermount sink that might not be possible because I really don't want mold or water damage. I may have to do some research and figure out something new to dream about. 

I still need to touch up some stain on the shelf and add a coat of polycrylic to prevent water damage and save the stain. And then do trim touch ups and fill in some nail holes. I still need to do some detail touch up in the basement from last year so I'm just going to do it all at the same time. With the kids in school, I can plan to dedicate a day to just doing this so I'm pretty excited.

We're so close to done! I'm so happy!

 

Halloween Haul

Originally we all had costumes from Jurassic Park. Alan Grant, Ellie Satler (me), and 2 dinos - the kids. I decided to make the most of all of our costumes and so I signed us up for a Halloween Party at our local nature center. About a 1/3 of the way into the night, Simone was like "OH HELL NO. I CAN'T SEE TO WALK" and so her costume came off. Her face didn't stick out like Quentin's did and she just couldn't see through the plastic window and we decided to scrap the dino costume for her. And we really try to do family costumes but this year just didn't come all the way through.

Phil even joined in as the sacrificial lamb. Led on a leash. I wish we could have had a cage drop like in the movie but we weren't quite prepared. HA. 

And this was only half the candy! I can't believe that the younger kids went further than the older ones. They had so much fun. It was a great Halloween this year!

 

Happy Halloween

 

We Had a Mud Storm

Just a couple nights ago we had a mud storm in the middle of the night. It was the STRANGEST thing I've ever seen besides a green sky after a tornado. I thought I heard really hard rain - and we just got a new roof so I was a little concerned. 

Woke up in the morning and EVERYTHING outside was covered in a fresh layer of mud.

Apparently what had happened was a dust storm blew in from Kansas and the moisture in the atmosphere grabbed all the dust that was in the air on the way down to earth and that's how you get a mud storm. So gross. I still need to wash my car. 

We're also in a drought and it just hasn't rained enough for anything these days. So that's a little concerning going into the later fall season. Some of the trees dropped their leaves extremely early and were just done with the season already (which I completely understand!). I'm not sure what this will do to the growing season next spring or what will happen to new growth or if anything will be stunted. I suppose we shall see. To help in this drought I've only bagged MAYBE 6 bags of leaves - all extras that don't fit into my composter and keep blowing in from the neighbor's yards. My plan is not to even remove them in the spring and use them all as mulch. I'll have to use a pitchfork to turn them all into the dirt but we'll get there eventually and I know the earth could use a little more love and care.

With construction being done in maybe another 10-12 days, I also have to reseed and put straw all over the backyard to keep the dust down because it's too late for sod. We'll only be able to water for maybe another couple weeks and that's just not enough time to get the sod roots to grow into the sandy soil. So I'm going to do my best to get grass seed down so it can get watered and then go dormant over the winter with straw to keep down the mud and dust and hopefully grow. Whatever it is that we do, I'd really rather not do sod, instead I'd rather do a whole yard of raised beds for vegetables but the kids and Bimmer want grass to play soccer. 

Happy Wednesday!

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Get in the Halloween Spirit

 

In the past few years I've really tried to get into the seasonal mood by reading books that feel cozy and inspirational - but not inspirational as in a weird sense - more like getting myself inspired to decorate or feel like it's "spooky" at night for Halloween. I found Cackle on a Halloween reads inspiration list, I think it was from Barnes & Noble. Normally there's so many lists for winter and Christmas reading that it's so easy to find books - but the wait lists are ridiculously long starting about this time of year. I decided to search out some Halloween reads. I have an Anne Rice book in my pile that I'm going to read after I finish my current book (The Sentence by Louise Erdrich).

On with the story - Cackle was ok. I think I'd give it 4 stars as long as you keep your expectations to making sure it just gets you inspired to read more books or to watch Halloween or spooky movies. The storyline is cheesy typical - young woman has horrible break up with boyfriend (with whom she had hoped she would eventually marry), she moves to a new city to start over, etc... The one thing that I really liked, surprisingly was that this wasn't an immediate romance novel. Instead it really followed how Annie became herself and how she learned how to not lose herself to other people and to not give and give and give, in turn emptying her bucket and not having enough left for herself.

I wish there would have been more storyline about the high schooler who would have lunch in Annie's classroom on the regular. I wanted more dialogue and more of a relationship between the two - because this becomes important at the end of the book and frankly, it doesn't seem like the author put in as much effort as she could with this relationship. I feel like this could have been a better storyline in the book and it could have gone a little deeper. The character admits she wasn't as great of a teacher as she could have been - but this admission by the character doesn't make up for the author's lack of writing about her character's teaching ability or style. Instead the author focused that part on the relationships that Annie had with other teacher characters and frankly, I think those could have been cut from the book without harming much of the plotline.

I always enjoy when authors go deeper into the personalities of the main character, especially when the character has self-reflected. I think for me, the author painting the picture of self-reflection is fantastic because you can relate to the story a little more, maybe relate to the character a little more. And the self-reflection aspect is really great in that you as a reader get to know that characters better even if the plotline is a little cheesy or not quite there. Going deeper into character's personalities always makes books better - even if maybe you don't like that character (think Gone Girl, I wanted to throw that book against the wall, I hated the story and characters so much, the writing was AWESOME that it made me have those feelings). I'm happy with the character writing and the depth in which the author goes.

Annie makes a new friend in the new town where she lives. Clearly from the title of the book, you can infer that this is a book about witches. Annie becomes friends with the town witch. And Annie enjoys her new friendship - learning about herself and how to be a better friend by the end of the book too.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and it quite inspired me to get more Halloween books from the library and gobble up all the spooky things I can find. I hope that if you read it, it inspires you too!

Wordless Wednesday