Larocque and Roll

Gardens October 31, 2007

This week so far, I’ve been both very productive and very distracted. Productive in that on Sunday, I managed to get my front garden and back yard cleaned up.

You can see how oddly spaced the hostas were. Next year, I’m chopping all of them up into quarters, planting some around the deck in the back, leaving two in the front, and giving the rest away. The irises are also huge - I’m leaving one there and giving the other away. Then I’ll take half the shasta daisies from the back and put them in here, along with some cosmos, black-eyed susans, and other plants to be recruited later.

It’s kind of hard to see, but there’s another hosta plant at the back. It’s also pretty big, but not as big as the ones in the front; that one only needs to be cut in half. There’s also another iris beside it, and this one is bigger than the two in the front, so it’s getting divided too.

I don’t have much to say about this shot, except that the lavender plants are moving to the other side of the yard next year, where they’ll get more sun.

Other than that, it’s been hard to stay on track. I find myself starting something, forgetting what I was doing, wandering off to see what’s going on in other parts of the library, and then remembering what I was doing in the middle of doing something else. I haven’t had as much coffee as I normally drink lately, for reasons that aren’t important. It’s not the only reason I’m not mentally alert, but I like to blame in on that.

To top this all off, I’ve been having stressful dreams lately. They include:

~ Going to write a French exam, except I didn’t make it to the last class, so I borrowed someone’s notes. Starting to study, then realizing the exam was in half an hour, dropping the notes all over, not being able to find my car keys, and then finding the car keys, only to see my father pulling out of the driveway with my car.
~ Going to London with my sister, except we don’t have plane tickets or hotel reservations (we’re going to buy them when we get to the airport). I don’t have luggage or clothes to pack, so I’m frantically running around the mall to get some. Getting caught in a traffic jam, and missing all the flights to London.
~ Going to a restaurant with a friend (Hi Steve!) but all the tables are full or still piled with dishes. Finally finding a table, only to notice he’s been stealing food off other tables and the waiters are so angry that they won’t take my order, so I go hungry.
~ Going to visit a cousin [1], who’s working in Afghanistan (!!!). It’s as bad as the news reports say it is; we leave, only to find out that an hour after we left, my cousin was killed in a bombing. After this one, I wake up in tears.

It’s to the point I’m almost afraid to fall asleep and see what my brain is going to throw at me this time.

And just like that, I’ve forgtten where I was going with this post. Typical of me for this week. Sheesh!

[1] Oddly enough, after the previous dream, it was my cousin Stephen.

May’s Read Books June 3, 2007

I haven’t been all that good a blogger lately. I blame it on the fact I now have a real backyard all to myself! With real gardens! And I can plant things in it! And it needs to be weeded! A lot, in fact! But! Plants and flowers! Wow! [1] Most evenings, I come home after work, acknowledge the existence of the cat, get changed into my grubby gardening clothes, and spend an hour or so out there. When I come inside, I eat, and then collapse on the nearest flat surface until it’s time to haul myself upstairs and collapse onto the flat surface that is my bed. Long story wrapped up - the blog has fallen to the wayside for the moment, along with other leisure activities like “housekeeping” [2] and “laundry” [3]. Also, I haven’t had a whole weekend to myself in weeks, and it’s going to be weeks until I do [4].

Reading this over again, I thought it sounds like I might be creatively and mentally drained by now; oddly, the opposite is true. I have three or four simultaneous knitting projects on the needles at the moment, including two pair of socks [6], a scarf and two baby projects. Then there’s the whole garden thing - already I’m making notes on what’s working and what isn’t for next year [7]. I also did some home decorating-type things - I set up what I like to call my “outer sanctum” in my porch for those (eventual) Saturday mornings to sit and drink coffee and read, or evenings to drink gin and tonics and read.

Finally, May was the month where I almost as many books in five weeks as I had all year so far.

~ Jeffery Moore, The Memory Artist (8)
A heartbreaking book about synthanesia and Alzheimer’s. It’s told from different perspectives, as if reading a journal compiled by the doctor who is studying the mother (Alzheimer’s) and the son (synthanesia); the doctor is a pompous ass, and the five protagonists as his lab rats, who succeed anyways.

~ Sarah Waters, Fingersmith (7)
At the first surprise plot twist, I had the strongest feeling of deja vu - I’d either read this book before, or I’d read a similar one in the past few years, before I started keeping track of what I read (this is year three). Very Victorian, very gothic, and pretty good.

~ Alexander McCall Smith, No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (8)
Okay, okay - I finally succumbed to the pressure of just about everyone, and was pleased to find I actually liked this one. Plain, simple, few distractions.

~ Tanya Huff, Smoke and Mirrors (7.5) and Smoke and Ashes (7.5)
A few years ago at a convention where I got to meet her and sign a book of hers I’d just bought [8]. She’s a lovely person, funny as hell, and I would read the phone book if she wrote it. These two are a continuation of the Henry Fitzroy/Blood series (so far there are three in this series.)

~ Stephanie Meyers, Twilight (7)
For a while, I was on a vampire tear. I thought the protagonist was naive and kind of dense, and the whole thing was repetitive [9]; still, I was disappointed when I finished this book.

~ Sam Enthoven, The Black Tattoo (3)
If you read this book, you won’t need ever read any classic British sci-fi/fantasy books because this one does a great job of borrowing bits and pieces from all of them.

~ Tanya Huff, Long Hot Summoning (6)
The last in the Keeper Chronicles, and the one that drags on at the end.

~ Fiona Patton, The Golden Sword (6)
Didn’t care much for the protagonist, but it was one of those fantasy books you don’t need to have read the three previous books in the series to know what’s going on.

~ Anthony Bidulka, Amuse Bouche (6.5)
Given that the title hints at a possible foodie angle, I was disappointed that it wasn’t about crime in the kitchen world. It was a fairly solid book once I got past that, a bit predictable, yet well-paced.

[1] And, with that, I officially use up my quota of exclamation marks for the month.
[2] Lordy, you should see the cat hair everywhere… on the other hand, maybe not…
[3] My flimsy excuse for this is I like to hang it on the clothes line instead of using the drier, so there has to be enough daylight left for me to do it.
[4] A single day here and there, but nothing so decadent as two! whole! days! [5]
[5] Aaaand now I start on next month’s quota of exclamation marks.
[6] Normally, I’m lucky if I can focus on one at a time.
[7] i.e. working: snapdragons as a border, the begonias; not working: planting the impatience too early, the bleeding hearts in their current spot - move them to the front next spring because now they’re almost completely hidden by The Hosta That Ate My Garden and The Iris That’s Helping It.
[8] It was also the same convention where I got to stand in line for four hours to get Neil Gaiman to autograph a couple of books for me. It was the best four hours ever, and I still swoon when I hear him do readings.
[9] “I love you!” “I love you too, but you should be scared of me! Grrr!” “I know! But I still love you!” “I love you too, but…” etc.

You need to see this April 25, 2007

Rather than write a lengthy treatise about what I’ve been up to (short story: busy at work, busy at home) I have pictures to share with you that hopefully capture some of what I’ve been doing lately.

The weather has been spectacular lately, which has given me a chance to play in my garden. Last week, I got to play the game every new homeowner gets to play in the spring - Weed or Plant?

Weed, I think. I can’t remember what was there in the fall.

Easy! Plant - irises! And they’ve doubled in size since I took the picture.

The tulips in the back are finally starting to bloom.

These are going to be sunflowers, once they start growing.

On Saturday night, I looked out my back door and saw this.

I thought, How the hell did Bing get past me when I went outside? Turning to go get a can of cat food to lure him back in, I tripped over the real Bing. Since then, I’ve learned this guy’s name is Chicklet, and he belongs to the house around the corner.

The hat is a hatband away from being finished.

The yarn is splity and twisty, and I wouldn’t use it again. For anyone thinking of making this hat, I’d suggest you go with something comparable instead of the recommended yarn. Also, I’m thinking of adapting it to make a baby hat. (To my sister: calm down, not for you!)

And, I got new glasses!

I love them! (Please don’t ask me what that expression on my face is. It’s not quite a smile, not quite a wince of pain. It may actually be both.)

The only thing missing is a picture of the heap o’ papers on my desk at work. It’s almost the end of the month, with all its associated administrivia (statistics, board reports, timesheets, etc.) I’m also working on a presentation I’m doing at a conference next month on all the fantastic technology projects we’re doing at the library. In all honesty, some of them are pretty cool and I should share them with you someday.

General updates December 4, 2004

Natty Boho isn’t dead. One leaf is gone, another is clinging to life, and the little buds in the center are brown, but the other leaves are doing well. Maybe I didn’t kill him.

I haven’t mention the cursed Amazon order in a while. That’s because it’s been moved from “Available” to “Preorder” so it’s not coming right away. I got the inevitable email around the beginning of November, but held off bemoaning it.

No WIPs for November, because I didn’t start anything new, and hardly worked on anything left over from October.

It gets better… well, not really November 12, 2004

I think I killed Natty Boho.

(Natty Boho is my African violet. He’s named after the beer in Drawing Blood.)

I’ve had him for a few months now, and he’s been doing pretty good. I watered him once a month, and ignored him the rest of the time. He, in turn, didn’t die on me. Like Spike, the ornamental pepper plant did (a month). Like the unnamed miniature rose (less than a week - I think it was on its way out when I bought it.) Like the Newton Pulsifiers (I through IV), all ivy plants. And all the nameless other plants who’ve fallen vicitm to my black thumb.

Natty was different. He didn’t die. He was happy on my bookshelf, out of direct sunlight, like the little information spike in the pot said. I would walk by and smile, knowing that I had finally met a plant who wouldn’t leave me like the others did.

But something went horribly wrong. I think I overwatered him last week. The last time I’d watered him was before Thanksgiving (so, last month), and all I’d really done was wave a glass of water in his general direction. I thought that this month, maybe I’d give my dear Natty a little extra to make up for last month. Alas, I think I overdid it.

His little leaves are limp and weak. One stalk is already dead, and there’s another that isn’t doing so well. The stuff I thought was new growth is pale green and fading fast. I’ve put Natty on the table in the dining area in the hopes that being in the sun will perk him up a bit. However, I’m afraid it’s too late….

Natty, I’m so sorry!