Uncle Leona's Day Camp

4 out of 5 league nights were rained out, but....

...it seems as though the garden is plenty pleased.

I swear the tomatoes and tomatillos have grown a good 6 inches this week. You decide:

Unlike last year, I decided to stake the tomatillos. They were already starting to lean over, and the tomatoes and peppers were bound to be overrun. We'll see how these little mini-stakes handle them for now--I may change my mind.

I have two tomato blossoms at this moment, and one pepper blossom. More are sure to show up this week seeing as more rain is on the way. To top it off, I found this little bugger a couple of days ago:

Green salsa is in my sights.

Today also marked the first harvest of peas!

That's half of the harvest. The first half was eaten right off the vine. Yum. There still are a good 15-20 more on the vines that should be harvestable this week. Add that to the bounty of lettuce that just doesn't want to die, and I will not be surprised if I develop whiskers and a puffy little tail in the near future.

So far, the garden has been a lot of fun. My only issues so far have been with the cukes and squash, but I think I have figured out why they were so prone to yellowing and death. I was over watering. Ever since I backed off on the hose, the yellowing has disappeared, and the plants are looking far more healthy. I'm hopeful that the spaghetti squash I planted today (that would be the third planting) will be the last plants for the summer. I may just plant more peas later this season, though.

Those two pods were mighty tasty.

8 days of call and I'm not well

Today marks the 8th straight day of call (OK, technically only 7 because I had Wednesday off, but who's counting?) and the end of my only summer holiday duty. It has been lousy. One doctor was off all week, another (the busiest) took Monday off (the busiest day), all the parents were panicking that their kid was going to ruin their holiday weekend, one of the rugrats gave me a cold that made my sleep intolerable, and then the monthly murder by uterus arrived.

Add to that what the Cavs have been doing against Orlando, and you see what the week has been like.

But, it's almost over. Thank goodness.

Thanks to the cold and the pager, my knitting accomplishments have been a tad limited this week. I have made some progress on the February Lady Sweater:

There would be a lot more to show, but I had to rip out about an inch and a half when I first hit the place where you separate out the armholes. Turns out my ad libbing of the yarn overs didn't work with the lace pattern and the stitch counts. I blame it squarely on the beeper. But now, all is well, and I'm in the lace forever stage. For TV viewing, I started up a simple pullover:

The pattern is off of the garnstudio.com website, and the yarn was frogged from a project that's been sitting in a drawer for a while.

Like 5 years.

The yarn is Phildar's Phil Onde, which is a cotton blend that does some beautiful dark to white shading. The pullover will fade from that dark orange to white with one skein, then I have white skeins to complete the top and sleeves. It's pretty stuff. The old project just wasn't very "me," and I have developed a fine guiltless frogging technique, so I had new yarn to play with. For free! Life is good.

There may be more frogging in the future. The Chloe pullover's neckline is ticking me off. Not flattering at all. The pattern designer emailed me an updated version of the pattern. I plan on checking it out to see if the changes work for me. If not, the ball winder may have more work to do.

As for the garden, LOOK!!!

I have pea pods!! They're about an inch or so long, but they're there. I may have something to crunch on in a week or so. The rest of the garden is doing great--the lettuce is growing by the hour, I dried my second cuttings of cilantro, the tomatoes will need staking this week, and the tomatillos are blossoming all over.

Mother Nature is promising storms over the next two days. I'm keeping the fingers crossed that hail isn't part of the picture. Or strong winds. Or really heavy rain. I think I'm going to stake the tomatoes now.

The first harvest

It may seem like just an average mixed greens salad with bleu cheese, almonds, and creamy balsamic vinegrette, but to me it's the fruits of my labor, part one.

Yum!!

Ah, spring

Things are springing all over here in Leonaland; the grass is green, the trees are leaking pollen at a record pace, the ducks are back on my pool cover, and Grady is busy saving me from the wrath of the birds. The only problem at the moment is golf. For the third straight week, it has been weathered out. The sun has been shining brilliantly every day for a month, except for Wednesdays. This week looks promising...light a candle for me.

The garden is happy, happy, happy.

So far, the only casualty has been the spaghetti squash, which I replaced. The tomatoes and tomatillos are especially robust,

and then there are the peas:

The little pea tendrils are starting to really grab onto the frame (and the beads), and there are little pea blossoms starting to come out! I have also noted blossoms on the tomatillos, and there are little peppers popping out on a couple of my pepper plants. It's very exciting.

Yes, I excite easily.

Anyhow, I'll probably be partaking of a salad this week:

This stuff grows so well when a bunny isn't using it as a salad bar.

As for the recent knitting, here's the latest sweater, all done except for a little tightening up of the placket:

It's a pattern called "Chloe" from c2knits. I did send off an email to her about the pattern--hopefully she'll take my suggestions under advisement. I have calmed down since last week, so the email was very nice. It's always best not to do things when one is overly emotional and cranky. Nevertheless, I like how it turned out, especially the lace pattern:

I'll tighten up the placket a little today, then it'll probably be worn to work tomorrow. There's also a new item on the needles:

It's the start of the February Lady Sweater, which is available for free online (just Google, and you'll find it). It's a simple top down cardigan with a garter top and lace bottom. I'm using some cotton I got for sale at Elann.com, which seems to be knitting up really well. My only issue right now is with me--I'm having the toughest time trying to remember which row is the increase row. Kfb is a tough stitch to read when you're doing garter stitch!

I think I have it figured out--the buttonhole location is helping my addlepated brain. Of course, it's a lot easier to do it when you're not watching Lost. Thankfully, I have until January until that starts back up, so I should be OK.

I cheated

By 6 days. The "safe" day to plant around these parts is May 15. You'd never know this seeing the parking lots of the local nurseries. Some of the busier ones would do well to add valet parking. Bottom line, though, is I decided that today was planting day for the veggie garden. After hauling over one more wheelbarrowful of dirt from the still significant pile in my driveway, I pulled out the trowel and went to work. After about an hour....

From left to right, there are:

Acorn squash
Spaghetti squash
Pickling cucumbers
Mexican sour gherkins
Two varieties of lettuce
Cilantro
Basil
Yellow onions
Peanuts
Sugar snap peas
Baby belle peppers
Quadrata peppers
Bush cucumbers
Jalapenos
Habaneros
Hot Hungarian peppers
Tomatillos
Four varieties of tomato: two slicing, two canning

Now all they have to do is survive the wind tunnel that they're facing outside right now, then it's lots and lots of sunshine for the next three days. I give me about two weeks before I start partaking of the riches of the soil (the lettuce should be pretty big by then). And if you're wondering about my rabbit repeller...

Peas like Mardi Gras.

There has been some knitting around here also. Except for sewing in a few buttons, this one is finished:

In the past few weeks, I have seen more folks in this style of top than I have seen since the mid-70's. It was about time I sewed in the sleeves. I also have a top-down pullover that's in the works, but the pattern has pissed me off so much that I haven't been able to take a photo yet. Hopefully, when I'm done with the knit forever stage, I'll get that put up.

Word to all of you pattern designers out there: NEVER publish a pattern without a test knitter trying it out. Just a suggestion. Also, if you state your size XL will fit a range of bust sizes ending with 47", make sure the finished bust size is more than 42". Just another suggestion.

Stay tuned to find out what this pattern is.

Being patient is tough

So I now have this wonderful box of dirt. It's sunny and 60 degrees. And it's officially 13 days too early to plant the whole garden.

Even though the Weather Channel has us staying above the high 40's for the next 10 days. No frost in sight.

However, there are plants that can be planted now, so I decided to plant the garden in stages this year. Here's stage 1:

What you're looking at are onions, two types of lettuce, pea pods, basil, cilantro, and peanuts. I'm sure I'm planting the peanuts early, but Jimmy Carter wasn't here for guidance, and the plant was in the nursery right next to the onions, so I went for it. If this set of plants work, I see a big batch of Pad Thai in my future.

Before planting, however, I noticed some ominous footprints in the new dirt. I'm no Indian scout, but I have seen enough tracks in the snow to recognize rabbit.

Shit. The damn critter found the box before the plants arrived. He's not only destructive, but psychic.

So, as you see, efforts have been made to keep Bugs from destroying my lettuce. What you may not see in that first picture, though, is what I'm hoping will keep him from my peas:

Knowing my luck, he'll be sipping on a Hurricane and feasting on pea pod po boys.