My little plot – plans for life, art, & gardening
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BLTuesdays
We’re welcoming summer as it brings al kinds of goodies to the table, namely tomatoes. Started a new dinner night, called BLTuesdays. I don’t eat a lot of meat during the normal course of a week, but the last 3 weeks have included bacon! Of course, we have tried out some different recipes on off nights, but having friends over to partake of BLTuesdays has been really fun!
We’ve made the typical BLT sandwich, with additions like mustard, dill and basil (for weirdos like me). The tomatoes mostly have come from a local greenhouse (Black Jack) since the outdoor ones are just blooming here in north central alabama.
We went out for a birthday and had fried green tomato BLT’s at the J Clyde. Yummy, but can’t wait to make my own…
The next recipe we tried was adapted form Alton Brown’s “TBL Panzanella” which is awesome to say the least. I didn’t use as much of the drippings as called for, because I want to enjoy BLTuesdays with a little less guilt. Most of our ingredients have been pretty local. At least the bread is baked locally, anyway (Continental Bakery). The bacon has been from a company in Tuscaloosa (Zeigler), and and my baby basil has been supplemented by some I got form the local farmer’s market. I grow my own lettuces, which is always a great thing to have and inspires many salads!
This week’s BLT was just the two of use, and I made BLTomritos: 2 eggs, my freshly grown onion, dill, tomato, bacon, lettuce, a grate of black pepper and cheddar all wrapped in a tortilla. YUM!
I’ve been encouraging everyone I know to eat a BLT. Use whatever bacon suits you- local, tofu, turkey…. just make a BLT with a real local tomato, preferably from no more than a state away if you’re still waiting.
We’ll be having BLTuesdays til Novemer if things work out right!
Thanks to Lesley for taking most of these photos (the last one was mine)!
art is my busy life
I had a break from any blog-type recreation preceding my big art show (at Magic City Art Connection). The show was a success, and I have still been getting a number of calls and emails for work. Yay! I sold a lot of pieces that were barely recorded – a fleeting existence in my life. But I’m very proud that they have grown up so fast and moved into their adult art lives.
Once I recovered form the 3 day weekend of art selling, I started volunteering at a local art studio for special children and adults. I have been there twice, and it is very fun. I also started rescuing dogs from the street- well, only one was willing to be rescued so far, and he was returned home safe and sound.
The big project that I had to put on hold and have just been back at is my veggie garden. We doubled the size of it from about 10x 15 to about 10X 30 or 40 feet. I am not sure of the dimensions, but it’s huge and curvy. It’s already got lots of salad items, onions, garlic, volunteer tomatoes, and flowers; next will be the addition of tomatoes and peppers and herbs I have been growing from seed. I planted variety of interesting sunflowers earlier this week- I hope they sprout soon!
So, I’d better get to my studio. Paints are calling me! And I hope we have time to brew up our Anchor Steam beer soon…
flaunting in the flora
I am pleased as can be about the sexytime being had in the backyard garden!
We “rescued” a large quantity of ladybugs from certain death at my grandmother’s rural, unoccupied home on our day off about two weeks ago. There were nearly one thousand of them swarming in the corner of the screened in porch, unable to escape. The door was no where nearby. We tried guiding them out, but they seemed destined to wind up as crackling dry shells n the floor like so many before them. That is, until I had the bright idea to bring out the vacuum!
We emptied several canister’s worth of lady bugs into the yard, with instructions to NOT reenter to porch. Several were forced into a large zip bag which I brough home and relased into my flower beds, where aphids were feasting on sweet, tender growth, also known as my roses (which are already covered in new buds). I haven’t seen too many in the past coulpe days. Just lots of hot ladybug action. The males even wiggle frantically at some point (don’t want to know if that’s a climax)! I felt dirty taking their pictures.
Grubs
I went out this afternoon with every intention of planting carrots, chard, and some lettuce seeds. Somehow I wound up with a wheelbarrow full of bermuda grass runners and jackson’s vine rhizomes. Seems like I’ll never get rid of them all, but I had to dig this stuff out before going any further into my 2008 garden plantings. Just had to!
I raked back the mulch and worked down a 20 or so foot patch of garden pulling up yards and yards of wanna be vines and lawn. Uncovered some great soil to work back into the beds (herbs, asparagus, sugar peas). Found about 20 grubs while I was doing all this. I know they are ugly, but what they do is far worse than they look. They want to eat the roots of my plants: veggies, roses, and grass alike. And then they would mature in to Japanese Beetles no less, further devouring my roses. Sluggishly flying around like kamikazee planes while munching up my beautiful buds.
I squished them all. Unfortunately, one squished a little later than I expected – right on my face and neck (ugh!) – staining my t-shirt. That’s what work clothes are for I suppose.
Score-
me: 20
grubs: 1
Not bad.
