73*, feels like 72*, 30 in and falling barometer, S 9 mph wind, fair
Its earth day, and I had so many plans for today but everything is getting in my way! Like today's sky view photo, for some odd reason when I try to post it here all I get is a red x. Well my plans for the day included looking for the Mink that visited our patio last night. I'd like to find out where he lives. I really should get a critter cam! I've never seen a mink before. My plans also included getting my bike out of the shed, inflating the tires and oiling everything that needs it, planting seeds, watching the one sparrow that does visit my bird feeder, and watching clouds while laying on the grass.
A stupid strep throat infection had to knock me down and ruin my day.....I've never had strep throat before. I thought I would get over this nasty cold flu thing going on that I've had for a week now. It got better but yesterday suddenly got much worse. So Mr. Hyper DRAGGED me to the clinic and I got a fargin lecture from doc that my throat looks like ground hamburger and that it WOULDN'T of gotten better without medicine. SIGH. So no work outside, no bike riding, no nothing though I did sneak out to water the greenhouse seeds and snap a couple pictures.
And here they are...My tulips are finally blooming. Aren't they great?
I think they really out did themselves this year. OK...so those aren't my tulips at all. Those are tulips outside the hospital where I work. I WISH they were mine!
All I have in the way of tulips to look at is this leftover from last year, which was nothing to brag about then, either.
Still...it's something.
I think I like the pansies better.
Oh, And Mr. Hyper thinks we really should adopt Mooch the cat, get him taken care of and snipped and all that since obviously he plans on sticking around and spraying my greenhouse!
That means he needs a real name. I'm thinking Boxcar Willie. What do you think?
I wake up reluctantly. I've had a lot of extra exercise lately between the new job and Brandi so I sleep like a log. Brandi sleeps like a log as well. When I wake she reluctantly wakes too, groaning like a person, stretching, not standing up but slithering across Mr. Hyper until she makes it to the floor, stretching as she goes, sleepy eyed. Its time for the walkie. Too many distractions outside this morning for Brandi...she gets loud and I'm afraid she'll bug the neighbors, so we throw ourselves in the car and we go to the park. We get to see some wood ducks in trees along the river and the most exciting of all (to Brandi anyway) were a couple of squirrels. With some energy used up, we come home and had our breakfasts. I go out and feed and water the cats, leaving Brandi inside then do a tour of my garden. There are daffodils coming up now, and I saw some green in my flower bed and had to take a closer look. It's my Splish Splash hardy geraniums coming up. I had forgotten about them over winter! I hope they bloom this year, I'm excited to see them, after all, I've grown them from seed. I think spring is most certainly here. The signs are everywhere!
34*, feels like 30*, 100% humidity, SSW 5 mph wind, fog
Every 6 months or so, the hospital has a book sale come in. Part of the proceeds go to the charity clinics that are part of the hospital. The books and gift items are between 60-75% off the original cover price making it a good time to buy some new books. A couple of them caught my eye right away, and so I have some new reading material filled with eye candy pictures.
Sasha has to go to the vet again. This time, she has a burst blood vessel in her ear (I think, it's swollen like a pillow). It will likely have to be drained. Mr. Hyper will have to take her into the vet's as the only appointment I could get today was in the afternoon, when I work.
Inspired by these pictures I found in a desk at work of SPD, I thought I'd take my own. These pictures are from 1970, I think. I'm sure glad we don't have to dress like that! In SPD, we get dirtied instruments from surgery. We clean them up in decontamination, getting rid of any blood, bone or other gross stuff that may be on the instruments. Some of the surgeons are REALLY messy, but most are not so bad.
Once they are cleaned, they are sent through a hot water bath, and into the clean room, where they are sorted and packaged up. This is a tray that needs to be sorted and put together nice and organized. Some trays are really complicated and heavy. This one is way beyond me yet. These trays were for a hip surgery which uses a LOT of instruments and drills. Once the tools are packaged up either in metal pans, or wrapped, they are put on a cart and sent into either a steam sterilizer, or a gas sterilizer depending on what they are. They trays and instruments are cooled then put in cabinets until they are needed for a case. Then they are put on these carts with whatever other supplies they need and sent down the little clean elevator directly to surgery. When they are done, they send the cart up the dirty elevator in decontamination and it starts all over again.
I've been pleasantly worn out the past couple of days. Not the kind of worn out that comes from sitting at a desk for 16 hour stretches at work, brain dead, wishing to be anywhere but there and then not being able to sleep. But the kind of worn feeling you get after a good day of hiking, where your body is moving, that makes you sleep like a baby come hell or high water. Its my new job. Yesterday everything started sinking in (it was only my second day but the first day had my head spinning). Now every time I close my eyes I see peons, krilies, allisis, russians, and a billion other kinds of forceps I had to learn to recognize last night along with a billion other kinds of surgical tools and set ups. I was kept busy and on my feet all night. I love it. I was right, I'm not easily going to get bored in this new department. Finally my brain and my body are enjoying the new challenge. I am NOT a desk job kinda girl. It was the same way with school for me. I was always SO BORED. I could do the work just fine, I got mainly A's and really didn't need to study, "creative" spelling being my only problem child as well as punctuation and the like, though I can read very well. When I was in 1st grade, I took a billion tests and they shuffled me off to a more advanced program where I and a few other students dissected cow eyes and studied things like light refraction. In high school I took engineering classes and I was going to graduate early but I wanted to walk with my friends at graduation so I took some extra classes with them, and was bored out of my mind. I loved my friends, but I just could not see the sense of sitting there in a desk listening to a teacher drone on about the same thing for a week or two before moving on. Some teachers understood this, two come to mind, who allowed me more of a free rein in class to read ahead, and wright essays instead of hanging back. I especially excelled in those classes and I enjoyed them and the mix of independent and guided study worked well for me. So it makes sense to me that this new job is fun and something I can truly appreciate. New co-workers are there to train me when I need answers, but at the same time, I am free to handle and learn and and experience the tools for surgery. That is just how I learn well. Everyone learns differently.
Under the grow lights I am trying to hatch my Virginia wild rose seeds now. I have one sprout as of yesterday but the rest of the seeds are proving stubborn. If I see no more sprouts by Friday, it goes back into the fridge again. Virginia roses love wet soil, more then any other rose I've learned about which is PERFECT for my front part of the yard, the swamp as I call it. I have high hopes for these and I want more then one, JUST in case they DON'T like damp soil as much as I've read about.
28*, feels like 18*, 63% humidity, NE 12 mph wind, cloudy, FLOOD WARNING
The thousand dollar dog is in big trouble. Mr. Hyper blamed the cats on getting into my ghetto grow light stand, knocking it down, eating my ferns, unpotting them, and eating most of the catnip plants soil and all. But I knew better. I was angry. I had been babying these plants, tenderly administering my love to them. I had put up barriers the cats couldn't cross to get to them and they have been working. But I did not count on Sasha to get in there and destroy it all. I have proof. Here is my evidence:
1) when Sasha's tummy is upset, she likes to eat grass. But, since she's indoors while I'm not home, she had no access to it. 2) She ATE my rubber tree plant the other day and the daylily seedlings in the ghetto grow light stand. These are plants the cats have ignored. 3) There was DIRT on close inspection this morning in her lamp shade collar.
No, this was not a case of the cats ganging up and going on a rampage. This was Mr. Hypers precious dog who can do no evil.... But I am giving her the evil eye this morning. *Sigh* I guess I don't need 10 cat nip plants anyway. I guess 3 will have to do....and maybe the pretty ferns will come back...but I'm guessing at least one is way past recovery.
In other news, I started my new job yesterday. I ran around like mad, in hyperactive sponge brain mode, trying to absorb everything I have to learn. Its great! There is so much I need to learn for this job, classes to take, surgical instruments to learn, there is no way I'm going to get brain bored here for a long time. At the end of my shift, I felt pleasantly worn and tired. Not the worn feeling of sitting at a desk all evening on the computer handing out a few supplies for patients all night, but physically, and mentally worn. It was exciting, I wanted to dive right in but I'm not sure of my place yet. This is completely new to me and I am unused to having to look to others for direction as I'm quite independent when working. And the great thing? I'll actually have weekends off and most holidays too! No more being treated like crap by co-workers. I told my former boss EXACTLY why I was leaving. And I told him why he had trouble keeping good employees. I'm not one to complain when I'm giving a task at work to do. While others drag their feet or snarl, i just DO IT. I think this is why they were taking advantage. It's a shame that those with good work ethics get walked all over, but I've drawn a line now. And anyone who crosses it from now on will face my wrath. I will never allow anyone to treat me this way again. I know they won't in this new place. I've worked hard to form a good relationship with everyone working there before the job bid came up, and the boss has her hands in the department always unlike my ex-boss who kept out of it and let a designated employee run things. Not that I need a boss over my shoulder, but it's others who need that guiding hand sometimes. Yes, I'm going to like it in my new job.
The lions have over taken the march lambs, just as I expected. Yesterday started out so nice but the temps dropped, by night it was in the twenties and we'd had sleet in the afternoon. Luckily, it didn't snow, and I can still see yellow lawns. But I know it's not over yet. I'm sure we'll get a March storm like always. Snow showers are predicted all the way through Saturday now.
I'm going to talk about me for a few minutes, mainly because I'm in a meditative mood. Contemplating the state of things, perhaps brought on by the coming spring and the new job. You see, there are two sides to the coin of Girl Gone Gardening, an that is mainly why I keep two blogs. There used to be only one main blog, but I realized there was enough material for two, and it could be easily divide between the one side and the other.
I remember, in the 4th grade, perhaps the only memory that stands out for me that year, speaking to a friend I would never see again because that was a year of change. We were standing in the play yard, near the fruitless mulberry trees that graced every generic landscape in the area, where I had broken a toe once, goofing off pretending that I could be a ballerina. We used to pretend a lot, I was an imaginative kid, pretending I was someone else, somewhere else. Anywhere but there. My best friends were a boy and another girl. Even before then, I had realized from perhaps the 1st grade on the monkey bars planning THE GREAT ESCAPE adventure with my playmates, that I never wanted to be rooted in place. I even got brave enough one time, and snuck away from the play yard and down a neighborhood street before loosing my nerve and returning to the playground. No place felt like home, even then as a child. To that other child, whom I cannot even remember the name of, I remember saying very seriously that I never wanted to grow up to live a boring life like everyone I seemed to know. Young or old. And quite seriously back, she told me I wouldn't, she was certain of it. And she spoke so seriously I believed it and so those words and that hope stayed with me through the rest of my childhood, through the remarriage of my mother and the move to my step-fathers house from my grandparents abode and to a new school where I never quite fit in, mainly because of the broken back I'd suffered which set me apart from the other students. I read a lot, about adventures. About girls who were brave and courageous and free from the restraints society tried to put upon them. I soaked it in. I learned about hiking, and the first "mountain" I sat upon in the Marin Headlands gave me hope and a thrill I had never felt before, something I was told I could never do by my mother because I was a girl, and weak and therefore should never do things like that because they were dangerous. This has all shaped me, and when I was set loose eventually from school and home which I had learned to distrust, fear, and even hate a little because I was never taken seriously, sometimes hit, and often cursed at for never being perfect and for not being the person my mother had wanted me to be. With my new found freedom I could not take my further education as seriously as I should of. There was a whole WORLD out there to know, and so little life to see it in. My adventures included backpacking, kayaking, rafting, surfing, bonfires with strangers and drum circles in the dunes where your footsteps glowed green where it was wet by the waves and jelly fish wars. Sometimes I would pack my bag and hike and hitch hike and explore. Sometimes I would meet interesting people, like the nice woman on the bus from Trinidad after I was soaking wet from a sleeper wave which had snuck up on me who invited me to spend time on their sailing boat. Sometimes I found myself with Native Americans, or in places in the redwoods nobody had ever set foot before. A few times I've found myself lost in the desert, and once I was saved by a coyote in the moonlight. Strangers gave me kindness I had never known before, and acceptance. They took me for who I was not what they wanted me to be. I was a creature of the woods, the sea and the road. I was, perhaps the first time in my life, happy. I felt as if I belonged at last. I belonged to the world. It was in this wondering that I met Mr. Hyper, and it is where the true me was split once again. The second half, is what I portray here in Girl Gone Gardening. The one trying to settle and be happy where I am. To put down roots. To be that wildflower who can adapt with time. For the most part I can pretend that I am fully here, my thoughts and energy solely on the marriage, the house and the job. But in truth, I do not think I can ever tame the wild aspect of me, like some Robert Frost poem. Sometimes I wish I did not have that wild side, that I could settle and be satisfied like anyone else. I love Mr. Hyper dearly you see and I should be happy with that. But the wild side chafes and struggles everyday, my thoughts tend to drift to the next adventure, the next day off so that I could at least for a few hours at a time be free of everything, wandering in the woods. I think if I were to ever lose this wild side, if it were possible, life would become shades of gray. I would be half alive. And though the daily struggle is sometimes difficult, I would never want to live half a live. So I plant my garden willy-nilly. There are no strait lines. No fake man made borders. Colors have to be bright and wild and so the plants have to be willing to spread and make themselves known and welcome the wild in. There are no box shaped plants, nor will there ever will be. This is my little rebellion against all that is tame and passive. This is why I hate lawn. It just goes against the very nature of what makes me tick. This is who Girl Gone Gardening is.
First, a warning: Blogger's spellcheck doesn't seem to be working right now for me. So proceed with caution if mispellings send you running for a red pen. Running with pens can lead to loss of eyes.
Ok, I admit to being a bit preoccupied latey between work, job interviewing, studying..... But this all has to do with Girl Gone Gardening's rules of life. remember 1) is live like you will be moving (no extra stuff you can't live without) 2) don't live where you are unhappy----life is just too short. And number 3....which I have always been able to follow well---- When you start hateing what you do for a living, it's time to find a new job!! (Because, once again, life is too short to do something you hate everyday). And while my job isn't a bad job, it's stopped being something I enjoy. I'm bored out of my mind with it. There is nothing more to learn there and I'm sick of the schedual--- working holidays and weekends because I'm the low woman on the totem pole. So, I have decided to shake things up a bit.
But while I wait to hear if I got the new job or not, (I'm pretty certain I did), here is an update on the growing ons of my household.
Peppermint seedlings--despite having frail roots when I transfered them into their own cells, all survived to my surprise. I'm going to have a million of them. Perhaps I'll plant them in the lawn...let them take over....wouldn't that smell fantastic when mowing? Of course, I wouldn't be able to use it for tea then, if the dog is peeing on em!!
Then there are the daylily seedlings- I lost four, which never really took off, yellowed and passed into the next life. I don't know why, but they were weak from the get go. I still have a healthy 20, despite one of the cats deciding to give them a trim. They must not of tasted very good cause they only ate the tips of a few of them. Can't say which one it is.......
Catnip is doing fine. 10 plants. I have been pinching them to make them branch so they will grow bushy. Guess who gets the pinchings? I have catnip junkies. Especially the young one, Osa who isn't so little anymore. Growing like a weed, eatting ten times more chow then I'd seen any cat eat, getting bigger then Freya with no signs of slowing the growth anytime soon. She is coming out of her shell nicely. She will be a very calm and mellow cat. I guess she's decided I'm OK and now loves to get under my feet when I'm trying to get something done but when I want to pet her otherwise she sends me on a chase first! Not the quickest cat in the world, shes one of those cats that has to sit there and 'think' about things first before deciding anything.
I couldn't resist a new violet....this one has very dark flowers. Not big flowers, but a very dark red that cought my eye at walldeath when I was there to get kitten chow. I know, shame on me!
Friday, I had a day off and took the opportunity to scrub up a few gourds that had dried enough. Most still have a ways to go before I can clean them up. I wasn't sure if the little ones would dry as they were not fully ripe when I had to pick them becasue the vine borers like that kind of gourd vine (the spiny, yellow blossomed kind as opposed to the fuzzy leaved, night blooming white flowered kind). Some have, some haven't. Wouldn't it be neat to paint a bunch of the little ones as birds and make a mobile out of them?? Of course, Osa had to nose her way into the shot.
36*, feels like 28*, 70% humidity, S 10 mph wind, fair
On a day I needed a boost, when I was feeling depressed about missing my grandmother for the holidays who passed earlier this year (may she rest in peace XOXOXOXO), I got to work a bit early. As I was downstairs an associate pulled me aside in a conspiratory voice and wished to speak with me aside a moment. About an hour later, someone else did as well. You see I have been hoping for a certain job within the hospital, one that is not only more interesting and fast paced but also higher paying--and another step up where I can get some more education under my belt and even move on higher from there. Well both these employees apparently would not mind me working with them and they had heard a spot was opening in their department. They had already told their boss nothing but good things about me and so I, feeling a wonderful boost of hope, went to go speak with her myself. I have a really good feeling about this and everyone over there in that department is putting in a good word. I tell ya, if I hadn't been in public I might of burst out in tears of happiness and gratitude. Of course I won't say anything to anyone yet (except here), but I am asking all of you to cross fingers and toes and hope that this much needed miracle happens for me. So in the course of only a few hours I have gone from being sad to feeling a bit of hope. Just for that I am thankful!
28*, feels like 18*, 90% humidity, SW 12 mph wind, cloudy, 1.5" new snow fell over night
Last night when I got home from a pretty rough night at work and a long slippery drive home, there was a package on my doorstep. Now, I was THRILLED to see this package. After all, it was the thing that kept me going last night. "Maybe there will be a package on the doorstep!," I kept telling myself. And Lo and behold, there was! This thrilled me to no end. I brought it in and opened it quickly. As you can see, I bought a nice assortment of books. Real drool material and the kicker...none of these books cost more then $4! Pinetree's books are always a great deal. I almost feel like I'm cheating them. Almost. All my seeds came except for my wintergreen and hosta hybrids mix which they were out of and the sprouting jar toppers were out too but hopefully they will come within a month because I can't use my sprouting seeds that came with the order without them and I really want to make sprouts!
The plants I ordered will be shipped between April and June (I hope April because I had ordered some potatoes and strawberries along with rhododendrons, raspberries, a grape, and cranberries). They sent me a coupon (as if I need any more encouragement to shop with them) for a couple dollars off my next order.
I bought a big bag of buckwheat to try as a cover crop. I was afraid of trying any of the perennial kinds for fear I may let something wild and hard to control into my garden. I've never used cover crop before and buckwheat sounded relatively harmless considering it can't take any frost and it doesn't take as long as others to do it's thing. Perhaps next year if using buckwheat is a success, then I will get braver and try a more nitrogen fixing green amendment.
Now and then I remember to slip my digi-camera into my purse before heading out places. So here are a few images from a normal day at work.
View From My Office Window: One of the decorated conifers in the landscaping outside:
A standoff just outside the hospital. You can't see it in the photo, but the standoff was in the laundromat in the distance and the street is blockaded. Shortly after this photo was taken a lot more police cars showed up. Just another day at work around here. Hammond's murder rate is up 67% this year...It's even higher then Gary's this year. Hammond I tell you is a poisoned place....I've said so before and I'll say so again. A dark cloud of evil exists over this city.
27*, feels like 14*, 91% humidity, ESE 17 mph wind, freezing rain, Winter Storm Warning, Snow fall 1" on ground today.
The morning started out wintry and blustery but dry. As I finally have a day off (I've worked 12 strait afternoons in a row!) I decided to pamper myself a bit today and work on hobbies. I made myself a very nice breakfast and went shopping. Christmas sales to me mean PLANTS! I have a new holiday cactus which of course dropped its buds as soon as I brought it home (rolling eyes), a new ficus which I repotted right away. It was on clearance for $1. I couldn't pass it up. It was in a tiny little plastic pot and one cutting (there were 3 originally in the pot) was dead. But it shows signs of life and I couldn't leave it to die. I also bought some bulbs. A pink amaryllis named "Vera" which is one I don't have yet, and a forcing hyacinth bulb kit which is also pink. I then took some time to go over some of my experiments this year. The apple seedlings have been tucked into the edge of the veggie garden where I hope they will actually do some growing next year. I saved the 3 strongest growing ones for this and pitched the rest.
As far as the "Hardy Cactus and Succulents" that I bought at a box store this year that were advertised as hardy, all but one looks OK so far. Sadly, my favorite one the blue agave has MUSHY leaves after the recent cold weather while everything else is as normal. Indoors I separated and repotted a few more of the African violet cuttings that were sent to me. They have really grown a lot. One has graduated to self watering pot. I think the tiny ones in front are so cute. They must be a dwarf variety. Oh and I bought a NEW one today as well....
I think it's my new favorite. I just couldn't pass this one up. Oh and I just put in an order for a few more seeds....this time from Angel Grove Tree Seeds.....
Japanese Maple atrolineare White Rugosa Rose seeds Red Rugosa Rose seeds
We had our first snow this morning. I went to bed with lots of wind and a bit of rain, and woke to flakes. They weren't sticking at all but still, it was SNOWING and on Thanksgiving. I am working today but I can be thankful for the pretty snow I see drifting outside the office window.
Mr. Hyper is thankful to be home alone with my homemade pumpkin pie. He says "Anything that tastes like this deserves a prize."
41*, feels like 36*, 70% humidity, NE 7 mph wind, Cloudy
I have to work for the holidays, so my plan this year so I don't feel completely deprived, is to have it early. I'm making my Thanksgiving dinner Sunday. I WAS going to do it today but some idiot at work came up with an excuse to have the weekend off as well as the holiday and I was called in to work today. I know it sounds like I'm harbouring sour grapes but this guy is transparent. He was told that someone else had to have a holiday this year and that he would have to work (for a change) so a few days ago he claimed to injure his knee at work. He was walking around just fine, like normal. And this guy is one of those very whinny people who can't even get a splinter without making a big deal out of it. I've had injured knees, believe me if it was as bad as he says it is, he wouldn't be putting any weight on it at all. This all just in time for the weekend and the holiday. So, once again I have no holiday and the holiday dinner I was going to have today is instead pushed to tomorrow.
OK, I can deal.........but I don't like it.
Anyway I got some things made this morning-
Cranberry sauce (See, I'm doing my best to avoid that high fructose corn syrup stuff) and pumpkin pie.
Tomorrow will be a busy cooking day for me. Turkey breast, bread, stuffing, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, etc, etc, etc.....
Yesterday as I was leaving the house with Mr. Hyper to go to work, something greeted us on our sidewalk. At first I thought it was Freya and she'd somehow slipped outside without us noticing. But I quickly realized it was a Freya relative. A half grown tabby cat that is similar in looks minus the white markings staring at me. He meowed. And meowed again. I said hello to him. (We'll call him Zeus for the time being) then tried to shoo him away. That's all we need is another cat around. Freya HATES other cats. Every time Freya sees a cat outside the window walking by she has a hissing and growling fit, trying to get at them through the window. A real terror until I go out and chase off the offending visitor. Shoo little cat. We open the door to the car to get in, and guess who hops in? Zeus. Purring and just as proud of himself as can be. Mr. Hyper picks him up and deposits him outside and we make our escape carefully so as not to run over the little guy. "He's awfully skinny, maybe I should of left some food out for him?" I said as we drove away.
Fast forward to this morning. Halloween. I let Sasha out to do her morning thing out on the grass, and the morning ritual of rolling around like a maniac on the lawn. When I call Sasha, I hear meowing in answer. From hiding, a scrawny greasy kitten comes running. He pays the dog no heed except to exchange nose sniffs and waits at the door to be let in. Oh no, you aren't coming in! I have to guard the door to let the dog in. Outside the kitten stares in through the glass. Freya, hearing his piteous little meow runs to the door and looks out. Freya and Sasha stand there looking out, tails wagging as Zeus stands out there, begging to come in. Freya meows at me. Sasha turns to look at me. Both of them pleading with me to let him in. Freya has NEVER acted so welcoming before to another feline! NO, I tell them. NO.
Zeus is so pitiful. I fill a bowl with kibbles and another with water and set it outside. He's all skin and bones. I feel sorry for him. He's so friendly. Wanted to be petted before he would eat, seeking human comfort. This makes me feel even worse, as its cold and windy outside. I make him a bed with a box and a towel in it. Something to help him if he gets cold. Sasha wants to go outside again. Zeus follows her around to the lawn and they both go potty. The kitten has the runs. Zeus follows her right back to the door and tries to get in while Freya tries to get out to meet him. It's like herding cats around here! I have to keep them apart, he seems sick, I don't want her getting sick from him. He sits on the steps, near his food and water, lays down, his paws doing that curling thing that cats do when they are happy, he slits his golden eyes at me through the window, purrs.
I have a feeling he might be here to stay. I guess a vet visit is in order....
I'm on a 10 day working stretch here at the hospital...Thursday I finally get a day off. Boy do I need it! I have house chores and garden chores that seriously need to be done. But first I have to get through tomorrow, which is Halloween.
I wanted to carve one or two of my pumpkins this morning but I couldn't. There was work on a water main today and they had shut off the water. I couldn't risk having to go to work elbow deep in pumpkin gunk and I won't have time to carve them tomorrow. Ah well, I guess I will get better use out of them anyway if I just cook them up instead! I think it would be cool to grow a 100 pounder next year for a jack o' lantern, don't you? I think I should make that my mission next year: Grow A Giant Carving Pumpkin! ( I can hear Mr. Hyper's eyes rolling!) Am I showing my geekiness again? (Don't answer that, I still have delusions of coolness).
Well I'm back to work now. I took 9 days off as they asked people to go on vacation at the hospital. They are saying at work now that the hospital may not be completely open until January and that its a real mess still. The good part of this is that its so much easier to ask for weekends off to go hiking as there are plenty of people to cover for me and I plan to take full advantage of that. The hospital's insurance is paying our wages as the hospital isn't making any money to pay us. So what did I do during the 9 days off?
I took a long bike ride.
I also did some gardening as it looks terrible with all the dead, drowned plants. I gave up trying to grow flowers in one spot and bought a dwarf Arctic blue willow to grow there that can take drowning sometimes. I harvested my gourds and pumpkins. I am pleased with the number of gourds I have. I have about 15 small round gourds, 10 yellow warty pear shaped gourds, 6 goose necks, and one birdhouse gourd. I also have 3 pumpkins off my volunteer pumpkin vine. All in all, not a bad harvest for my gourds.
I think they really out did themselves this year.
OK...so those aren't my tulips at all. Those are tulips outside the hospital where I work. I WISH they were mine!
Oh, And Mr. Hyper thinks we really should adopt Mooch the cat, get him taken care of and snipped and all that since obviously he plans on sticking around and spraying my greenhouse!
