Today is Iris Day and this one is about to pop open. I have a love/hate relationship with that flower-- so glorious and then, frankly, a pain in the neck for the rest of the year, hogging up garden space and always needing to be divided. But, that one week of bloom makes it worthwhile.
Happy Mother's Day weekend, hope you enjoy some time with your family flock.
My new friend, who shows up on the deck every afternoon at the same time. Begging the question, who trained whom?
I was at Target yesterday and everything in the garden section was already on clearance sale. Talk about rushing the seasons--if you haven't bought outdoor furniture by Memorial Day, you're out of luck at Target. Maybe they were getting the section ready for back-to-school.
Anyway, I scored this pretty terracotta pot at 40% off. I'll try and transplant a root bound dwarf snake plant (Sansevieria Trifasciata.)
We got spoiled by a string of bright sunny days-- the last few have been chilly and grey. Depressing, really. The furnace is running again this morning. The marine overcast finally burned off yesterday about 5 pm when I was outside cooking dinner.
Whole chicken thighs on the grill are so good, if done right. If you scorch them like steak, the fat turns to unhealthy charcoal, instead of dripping "harmlessly" off into the bottom of grill. Ha. But worth the mess. Speaking of slowing down, it takes about an hour.
Another one of those NYT "quick and easy" recipes.
There's always a bag of frozen potstickers in our freezer and I had some kale on hand, which I don't usually buy. Kale is bitter, and raw in salads, so tough! People often grind it up for green smoothies. Yes, yes, healthy and all that.
I thought this turned out OK- crispy dumplings with the soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger and garlic balancing the bitterness. John, not big on any cooked greens, took one minuscule fleck of kale. The main dish was meatless Monday stir fry tofu and vegetables.
The Carlton orchard looks like a lush Garden of Eden from the abundant irrigation. The big question is, will there be any fruit?
Unfortunately, a late frost damaged the blossoms a few weeks ago, which will reduce the yield significantly. So it goes.
It wouldn't be the Garden of Eden without one. That's Millie checking out a RUBBER snake, I guess part of her education to rural life. Snakes are a fact of life in that area, including rattlesnakes, which they can expect to see every summer on the farm. So it goes.
In a different world, we went to a mostly Mozart symphony yesterday and heard the Clarinet Concerto in A Major. Mozart adored the clarinet (and so do I.)
We're enjoying beautiful warm weather and no lasting damage from the Friday night water mishap. The hall carpet is (slowly) drying out. And there's a silver lining to every cloud-- it looks considerably cleaner after all the blotting up. Not so the white towels.
I often go down to the basement bedroom when I can't sleep. It's cooler and considerably quieter than upstairs, where the fridge hums a few steps from the bed, and random noises on the street. John could sleep though a major earthquake (more on that in a minute.)
Anyway, I listen to my sleep podcasts like "Get Sleepy" and "Lights Out Library" where a soothing voice tells a long boring story or reads a topic from Wiki. It usually works.
About 1 am last night, almost ready to drift off, I heard a sudden sound like 100 toilets flushing. Well, I know every little creak and groan this old house makes. I ran out of the bedroom and found water pouring down on the carpet from the recessed ceiling light fixtures.
Long story short, the plastic fitting on the upstairs toilet water supply line had suddenly burst (more like exploded) and water was gushing onto the bathroom floor and into the hall. Then right through the floor into the basement. We have good water pressure here (thank you very much.)
I woke John from a dead sleep. Could he have slept through the roaring noise until morning? What a gift.
Fortunately, he knew what to do and the toilet turn off valve worked. That's the type of thing that tends to break at the worst possible time in old houses. When the water stopped, there was much sopping up with every clean towel in the house. And little sleep.
Well, we truly dodged a bullet. As they say, never underestimate the power of water. If this had happened while we were away, it would have destroyed the entire house. The upstairs floor and downstairs ceiling might have collapsed and the basement filled up with water.
An early trip to Home Depot for a few inexpensive parts, and all is fixed now. Crisis averted, thanks to insomnia and John's skill with basic plumbing.
