This year I went for less. Then my new neighbor found out I was a gardening freak and plowed up the lot between our homes. She came home with a truckload of plants and moo-nure, and no intention of ever eating a tomato, unless it were a fried green one or made into salsa! She had 6 plants! I of course brought over a handful, and started a few more heirlooms as well. We planted corn, okra, beans, peas, squash, cukes, melons, gourd and tons of hot peppers! Add this to my own garden of potatoes, garlic, onions, and peas, and we had a lot of work! Good thing she likes to borrow the hoe and get weeds out of there. My own plot overgrew in a hurry, but we have rescued most of our onions and garlic now. The potatoes are also half dug up. two batches are left. We have Purple Vikings, Red Thumb fingerlings, German Butterball and La Ratte! I planted 3 kinds of onions rather than 7 this year. They didn’t get nearly as big as last year. It’s OK, though, I have learned some things about them, and also was kind of glad not to have a porch completely covered in drying, dirty bulbs! Our hops are doing well too, now in their third growing season.

I can count paintings, at least the big ones. I’ve done something like 100 since then! Sounds crazy. Have been doing a fair amount of shows, though trying to do more gallery and less outdoor shows. I have made som egreat connections and friends.

Also had major arm surgery. Gee, maybe that had something to do with not blogging. Oh wait, no I think It was Facebook! Oh, wait, I didn’t join until 9 months later.

Well, all said, the gardening is bigger than ever, the painting is keeping me busy, and I am still loving BLTs. We’re fostering a cute rescue dog, I am “part time directing” (which means full time on call for peanuts) a small artist-run gallery, and I am still in need of a bigger house! Maybe check back in two more years!

Here are some examples:

Birds of Alabama, mixed media on raw cotton canvases, 22″ x 38″ each

Two Vantages, mixed media on wood, approx 24″ x 18″ each

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)!

Today I went to the grocery store. I pulled into the diagonal parking lot and started down a one-way parking row. A car was backing up, but then it started turning around. The driver was maneuvering (very poorly) around the return buggy man and hit the car parked behind her. I could hear it. Since I was already stopped to wait on the buggy man, I was kind of in her way to leave the lot (since the row is not big enough to support two-way traffic). I motioned to the driver to roll down her window and told her she’d hit the car.

“No I didn’t!” she barked at me.

“Yes, ma’am, you did. I saw you hit it, and heard it too. You didn’t even look.”

All I could get her to do was pull around and sort of look in that direction while in her car with sunglasses on.

“Oh that can be rubbed out!” she said with a huff. I let her know that the row was meant to be exited the other way. “Well, I KNOW, but you don’t need to tell ME how to drive, young lady!”

“If you would drive in the lot as it was designed to be used, you wouldn’t have hit anyone’s car.” She continued to huff and puff and went back and forth with me. I told her I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful. “Well, it sure sounds like you are.”

“Ma’am, you are disrespecting this person’s car by leaving it with a big scratch.” It’s a pretty new Cayenne.

She then asked me if I was a good Samaritan. “I’m trying” was all I could come up with. She blew me off and left, still going the wrong way.

I realize that I can be a smart ass – I come by it honestly. But really, how are people going to learn if they never get lessons? They surely aren’t teaching themselves.

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…

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.

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.