plants

Spring… So Far

I’m making scalloped potatoes tonight. I looked at a few recipes to get the general idea so I wouldn’t have them too wet or dry. Didn’t really reach a consensus on that so I went for the DIY plan. I added a can of Green Pea soup, mainly because it was too sweet tasting to have as soup on it’s own. It might be great mixed with milk and potatoes and some preserved garlic. Salt and pepper too. I thought about cheese but I haven’t used it in awhile and, of course, it’s gotten greenish. Why does that modern cheese that looks and tastes more like plastic than cheese, get mouldy?

So the dinner (scalloped potatoes) are in the oven. Should be about an hour of cooking time. I will give them a few check points along the way. It will be a real massive mess to clean up if that milk cooks up and floods out inside the oven. I’ve got it covered with silver foil. Some said to cover it and some said not to. I decided to cover it based on the lack of plastic cheese on top.

Graham phoned to remind me he is coming out tomorrow. Which I knew. He asked me to remind him cause he is getting the snow tires off the car and then he wants to help clean the house around before Mother comes home. She is leaving on Wednesday she said today in email or Facebook, one or the other. I have let the cleaning slide a bit. Mainly because I really just don’t like it. There are a lot of tomorrows if you keep waiting for tomorrow. But, it’s not terrible. I do live here after all. I’ve got the kitchen and bathroom cleaned. The only things I’ve left are dusting related. Clutter too, but I’ll swoop up everything tonight.

I’ve got the nice box the new computer came in and I will be able to pile a lot in there and closet it away. I wish I had gotten more done this winter, as far as the clutter. If I really got through most of it I’d likely be dumping more out than I’d keep. I can’t just dump it out without checking it though. All those bags are cases of closet tidying – times I’ve stuffed everything into a bag even though some of it is important. There is just too much paperwork to deal with in the modern world.

I almost forgot… it’s raining a slushy snow out there and has been all day. But, I have to go out and rescue Mom’s damn plants. Graham put them all outside a few days ago. Mom said to do it. I said not to. I said it was still not warm enough and there was a good chance they would all be zapped. But, Graham put them out there anyway. He has a clutter phobia I think. Not an actual phobia but as close as you can get to an actual fear without really having a phobia. Anyway, now I’m the one who has to go out into the cold rain and find something in the garage (not my favourite place) to cover the damned plants. I know she is going to tell me most of them are dead again this year. It sounds evil to wish death on plants but I almost do. All winter they fill the laundry room and then in spring I’m the plant murderer, no matter what I do or don’t do.

Anyway, everyone has their thing. My Mom’s thing is plants. So, I do water them and I don’t whack them out of the way over winter. Even in Spring when they start growing and do start getting in the way. It’s not the plants fault. They just grow where they’re put.

Pond Snails

All the goldfish survived the winter. I was tossing in a bit of fish food and watching them when I noticed a snail in the pond too. How it got there I have no idea. I read that they came come when you buy pond plants. But, we haven’t bought any plants except for one last summer. I counted at least five snails when I looked for them. I don’t know what kind they are or if I should get rid of some, how many are too many? Anyway, interesting to find them living in the pond. If they are purely scavengers they are welcome, tons of dead leaves in the pond for them to feast on. But, if they eat the fresh growth we will have a problem. There are only two waterlilys in our pond and one is pretty sensitive. Anyway, will see how the new tenant works out. I took a photo, if anyone knows what kind of snail it is let me know.

(As always you can click on the photo to see it bigger).

Here Lies….

I should be working on a fixer upper template or adding titles to my new batch of photos on Flickr but I’m not. I did catch up on some things, including reading a few of the blogs I especially like. Still several more to read. I also found a new one to visit, That Canadian Girl .

Getting to work on the template. I had an interesting suspect but the Flock browser had a melt down and the download died a horrible death.

We had a drive on Monday/ Tuesday, heading in the direction of Kincardine, Ontario and wandering around on the way there and back. One town (I don’t remember which) had a little side garden with a sign like a tombstone in the plants. It said, “Here lies the last dog who crapped on our lawn.” I thought it was clever and it appealed to my sense of humour. It may seem nasty to the dog lovers… I’m just not one of them.

I've Been Thinking Green Tonight

I was at an Interview Skills Workshop this afternoon. One of the interesting things I can remember was about researching the company before the interview. I already knew about the researching part but two new things were researching the competitors and researching market and industry trends. I think I already knew those too but had forgotten them. Funny how your brain stops stopping on a dime once you get old-ish.

We had to write four interview questions. One was something you would ask if you were the interviewer. The second was something you hate to answer when you are interviewed. The third was something illegal to be asked, such as demographic information. The fourth was something unusual/ wacky just to throw people off. I asked, “Is it ethical to flush goldfish?”

So your question for the day… is it ethical to flush goldfish? I mean not just the dead ones or those barely living. What about all those goldfish which are flushed just cause people are tired of watching them do nothing but float around, puff out their cheeks and poop. Excitement is not a goldfish.

Two interesting issues in the news lately: banning cell phones from schools and banning plastic grocery store bags from cities entirely.

On the cell phone thing I am comfortable with them being banned or at least restricted. Do we really need to tell everyone we are on the bus and thinking about stopping to get milk on the way home? Is that really important communication? No. People talking about boring stuff on the bus should be banned. If you can’t talk about something interesting just shut up or get off the bus and bore someone walking home.

Also, it is possible all that boring and useless cell phone use has begun killing off the bees. Think about your last call. Was it worth killing a bee for? Of course, it’s not just the bees. Bees are essential for pollinating plants. Next time you want to eat something from the plant world consider the bee who let the plants have sex so they could make little plants so you could eat them. Now, how do you feel about killing bees and causing plants to lose all the excitement they really have. It’s not like they can just walk over to another plant and buy them a drink.

As to the plastic bags… I wonder what will happen to everyone working so hard to make all those bags now. What about the oil producing countries who will see their income lost due to plastic bag banning. To each action there is a reaction. Yes, it’s good for the environment not to have those bags blowing in the wind but someone else will suffer for it. Wildlife won’t get stuck in bag handles. How will they amuse themselves? People won’t have a lifetime free supply of small sized garbage bags. I even have a garbage can thing which was created just to use those plastic grocery bags, the handles slip over the slots in the side of the can. What about that! What about the person who created that idea and patented it? They are going to be out of a vast fortune. That hardly seems fair.

Still, I do think the plastic grocery bags should go. It isn’t an easy decision for me. I have considered how I will need to buy an even bigger purse to hold all my non-flimsy (yet still some form of plastic) grocery bags. I have a nice one from M&M Meats which they gave me for free last time I shopped there and bought a ton of frozen stuff. I will have to get at least one more of those I think. However, it is a struggle to get even one folded and smushed up into my purse along with all the other necessary junk I cart around everyday. Something else will have to be sacrificed if I am going to fit in two of those. Don’t think that will be an easy choice to make. Or, that I only need to bring bags when I’m going grocery shopping. I never know when I will end up picking up a few things, along the way home or as I see a store when I am out wandering around doing important and vital things. I will always need to keep at least one bag in my purse for non-planned grocery shopping.

Yet, I put the environment first. If the plastic bags are banned here in Toronto I will manage… somehow. It’s for the turtles after all. Think of the turtles who have to live with those blasted bags sinking down into the wetlands once they blow away in some parking lot or other. Those bags never compost, they just stick around forever. The poor turtles have to live with them longest since none of the frogs and fish and other creatures live long enough to really care. So, if they ban grocery bags in your area, think of the turtles who you’ll be making very happy.

Out To Barrie

We are making cabbage rolls and stuffed peppers today. I need to go out and get saurkraut to add to the mix, soon. We took garden pictures. She asked for pictures of some plants which I hadn’t really noticed when I was taking the pictures on my own yesterday. Nice to be out there with Mom in the garden. Nice that I can be the “photographer”.

Later, when the rolls are done she thought we would go out to Barrie. I think I will bring along the camera. But, I don’t know if I will actually take any pictures. There is always that intimidation factor when you bring out your camera. Not so much worrying about if people will cringe at the site of a camera but worrying if I will. As Skye wrote about her train adventure. It’s different when someone is watching you. She was worried about stranger danger. But, for me, I worry more about feeling like a goof out there with a camera. I admit, I think about myself, not others.

Still, maybe I will get a few nice pictures of something or other. If I keep this up I will have a photoblog instead of a useless woman rambling on about nothing blog. Which would be better. Not that you actually have a vote. This blog is no democracy. 😉

Red Roses from My Brother's Garden


I took masses of pictures with the digital camera this afternoon. A ton from my Mother’s garden and another ton from my brother’s garden but of all of them only one showed up on the camera. I am pretty sure it’s me that goofed. I should have double clicked or held the button down longer. Now that it’s too late (not that I can’t retake most of them tomorrow) I remember (kind of) reading that in the camera instructions. So, all I have for all those excellently framed and composed shots is one picture of red roses which I took in my brother’s backyard. I used Picasa to get them from the camera to the computer and that seemed to work out fine. I’m quite sure it’s just my oen goof up that did in the others. It’s too bad cause some of the fancy plants in my Mother’s garden will not be in bloom tomorrow. They are often a one day event.