Sunday, April 11, 2010

Spring Flowers!

Hello Folks!

I hope everyone is having the same beautiful weather we've had this weekend. It's been WONDERFUL. Hubby spent the majority of the weekend working on his car. Actually, he spent all day Saturday underneath his car, yelling and cursing because he couldn't get a couple dowels out of the block of the engine. (If you understand what that means, more power to you.) He ended up going to Lowe's at 8:30 last night to buy a welder, and proudly came out of the garage about 10:00pm with both dowels (to which he'd welded threaded rods) in his hands. He has been in a MUCH better mood today. I haven't heard any noise coming from the garage all day, except for the noise of the air compressor.

So during all of this, I decided to start planting flowers. I'm pretty confident that Old Man Winter has departed for the year, so I took a trip to the nursery this afternoon to get started on my favorite Spring activity: planting flowers. Now, just to clarify, my idea of "planting flowers" is that I go buy them, and watch my husband plant them. That is FUN. However, my husband has spent the good part of the last 2 months under his car (a '69 GTO, by the way), putting in a new transmission, among other projects. The Big Car Show is in May in Ocean City, MD, and for the 2nd year in a row, he has taken on Big Project at the last minute. (Last year, he installed a new rear suspension or brakes, or both, or something.)

So needless to say, I bought lots of plants and had to come home and plant them myself. Not quite as much fun, but still rewarding. Assuming they do not die. So here are some photos of the things that are blooming in my yard right now. Some were bought today, others were planted last year.

This is the "Cheddar Pink" Dianthus that I bought and planted today. Sort of a grassy plant with pinkish/purplish blooms.
 This here is one of my winter pansies that I planted last fall. It'll probably be getting too warm for it soon.
 One of two Bleeding Hearts - this one is unique in color, sort of a lime green foliage.
 Closeup of the Bleeding Heart blooms. So pretty!

 This one is called Diamond Frost. Planted this weekend.
 Bleeding Heart #2, planted last year.
Bugs Eye View of the blooms. 
And finally, this is my Topsy Turvey tomato plant! I'll keep you updated on how this thing works - I've never grown a vegetable in my life, so if this works, I'll be amazed!

Friday, April 9, 2010

"Julie and Julia "by Julie Powell - Book Review

Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Funniest book I've read in a long time! I love a memoir, and this was no exception. Julie Powell will have you laughing out loud at every turn of the page.

At 29 years old, Julie is feeling the stress of a dead-end secretarial job, and the tick-tock of her biological clock - a clock that doesn't seem to have a snooze button. She needs a distraction. So she decides to make every recipe from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" within the next year. As she puts it, "365 days, 536 recipes". She finds her inner chef, and also finds herself.

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