Saturday in the Garden | I am THE WORST Gardener

OUTSIDE

So this happened this week.

My seedlings are in an out of the way room of the house  and I sometimes forget about them for a couple days at a time.  I am a HORRIBLE gardener.  This time around I forgot about them for several days and even though I thought I had left them the last time with the lights and heating pads off, no, they were on.  I gave them all a thorough drink and crossed my fingers.  Thankfully most of them bounced back...

So disaster was mostly averted though I know the taste of some vegetables can be affected by an episode of water stress etc.... Carrots for example.  This is also a good argument for investing in a timer for the lights and heating pads.  It's a dangerous thing relying on my focus and memory.

The only other news on the garden front is that my sugar snap peas have come up.  They take so long to germinate that I get anxious waiting for them.  Last year was a banner year for the peas and I'm hoping for another good season.

LIFE

When Spring rolls around, some people get the urge to deep clean and purge.  I apparently get the urge to add more furry critters to my household.  I've been hankering after adding a couple of bunnies but this week, I even started dreaming of getting a cat.  What is wrong with me?  I am not a cat person!  I also know that my life would be simpler and cheaper without out adding any more fur balls but the yearning is strong at the moment.  I need to channel it into cleaning and purging!

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching 

Last night I decided I was in a better place to start watching The 100 again.  I watched the first 7 or so episodes a few weeks back,  I liked it a lot but I was super busy and stressed with work and the show is ....intense and surprisingly dark ....and I needed something lighter.  This show.  Man, it is so good.  It continually surprises me, I love the characters, I love the narrative.  It's totally wackadoodle and I love that.  There are a couple of really kick ass female characters who pretty much rule, both literally and figuratively.  I'm totally addicted.  If you are unfamiliar, it is a science fiction show that follows a group of 100 teenagers that are sent back down to Earth from a rotting space station 100 years after a nuclear plague made the surface radioactive.  It's based on a series of books, as is everything that is awesome.

Reading

Finished Last Week: 

• The Gods of Gotham (Timothy Wilde #1) by Lyndsay Faye: A historic mystery-thriller set in 1800s New York about the start of a police force.  
• Six-Gun Snow White by Cathrynne M. Valente:  A novella re-telling of the Snow White fairy-tale in a U.S. Frontier setting.
• Murder in Little Italy (Gaslight Mysteries # 8) by Victoria Thompson: This is a light and enjoyable (for me) historical mystery series set in turn of the century New York.  This series continues to be entertaining and I am liking some of these later volumes more than the earlier ones. 
• Longbourn by Jo Baker: A story set in parallel to Pride and Prejudice from the perspective of the servants of the Bennet's estate Longbourn.  I loved it!

Currently Reading:

• One Magic Square by Lolo Houbein: A gardening book about maximizing food production in a small space.  An ARC from Netgalley (though I think it's an older title).   
• Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones: A stand alone novel I ran across at the local used book store knowing nothing about it except that it was by Diana Wynne Jones:0).  It is taking its time to get going so I hope it picks up the pace soon, simply because that's what I'm in the mood for now. It has an awesome atmosphere, though, that is really sticking with me.  It's been  month since I picked this book up so I'm offically DNFing.  
• The Round House by Louise Erdrich:  I started this in D.C. on my kindle and it pretty immediately sucked me in despite the brutality of the subject matter (violent rape against a minority).  
• The Incarnations by Susan Barker: I heard about this book on the All The Books podcast and it sounded really interesting.  Follows the lives of two soul-mates through several re-incarnated lives in China.  
• Whose Body? (Lord Peter Whimsy #1) by Dorothy L. Sayers:  The first volume in a classic mystery series.  Being a little ways in I feel like I may have read (or perhaps watched) it before. 

Added to the TBR:

This is a list of books that I have added to my Goodreads TBR list this week.  It helps to burn the books I want to read a little more firmly into my mind, maybe get them on some other folks TBRs and gives me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

• Iron Cast by Destiny Soria: This is not to be release until October and was featured on The Book Smuggler's On the Radar series.  It sounds like a fun mash up of fantasy and Historical Fiction and I love a good mash up.  
• The Royal Wulff Murders (Sean Strahan #1) by Keith McCafferty:  I was intrigued by this mystery series that takes place in Montana's famous fly-fishing.  Nice review by Notes from a Readerholic. 
• Just One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St. Mary's #1) by Jodi Taylor: Mostly I just really like the title but I am also always up for a time travel stories.  Found on Mogsy's Book Haul at The Bibliosanctum.

Blogging 

On the BLOG LAST WEEK:

• TUESDAY: REVIEW | Stars Above by Marissa Meyer.  Beinga hardcore Lunartic, I really enjoyed revisiting that world.  3 out of 5 stars.
• THURSDAY: REVIEW | The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.  I love this lovely and sad story based on a Russian folk tale.  4 out of 5 stars.

That's all for this fine second day of April.  I hope none of you had to endure any major April Fools and are taking it easy this weekend!

Saturdays in the Garden - Autumn Invasion

October 24, 2015

OUTSIDE

We finally got some rain this week after a relentlessly sunny and spectacular early October.  I don't know if you can see in the above header picture but I have a few sugar snap pea plants on the left that are racing against the onset of too-cold weather to produce a few peas.  Every day I am in nail-biting suspense when I check the plants to see how close they are, lol.  There is one pod that will hopefully plump up in time and about 6 blooms.  Ahhhh...the agony of snap pea vs. Iowa Fall.

Oh baby sugar snap, grow with all your might!

You may also notice that there is a pile of empty pots and such scattered about my patio.  The biggest item on my to do list is to clean out my tiny garage so that I can squeeze in all the pots and the grill and other outdoor stuff.  I clean the garage every fall and by the next fall it is again stuffed full of things. I don't know where they all come from!  I'm procrastinating doing it though it usually feels really good once everything is tucked away for the winter.  It's a fall ritual that is dreaded and satisfactory all at once.

Finally, I had a little bit of fun zoning out at work watching a Box Elder Bug navigate my desk.  It's the time of year when many kinds of wildlife find their way into buildings looking for a comfy place to spend the winter.  I've been called upon to remove two baby Brown Snakes (Storeria dekayi) from the office in the last 2 weeks.  They were pretty much the most adorable snakes ever, only about 6 inches long and smaller around then a pencil.  I hope they find a good hibernaculum outside.  Even the Box Elder bug was pretty fun to watch as it explored my desk in a way that you or I might explore the moon.  For a while he traveled along my monitor cord like he'd finally found a nice smooth trail.

LIFE

Next week is going to be a doozy at work.  Super busy, nerve-wracking and demanding.  So I find myself feeling like I really need to make this weekend count, lol.  I'm not even sure what that means.  I believe I just want to end the weekend fully refreshed, relaxed and at peace ready to tackle the week with a clear and calm mind.  Ummmm.... I think it will take more than a weekend for that!  I think I had a clear and calm mind once, 17 years ago on a Tuesday:0). Maybe.  Anyway, I am tackling this by getting my errands out of the way early and leaving the rest of the weekend open for.... whatever.  While I don't want to spend the weekend in hard labor I think being productive (like cleaning out the garage and putting some things away) will actually help me feel ready for the week.  Also getting the house clean and as organized as possible.  We'll see...

So my question is, what do you do to prepare for an especially crazy week?  Anything specific you like to do or is it just business as usual around your house?  

LISTENING, WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Listening
I haven't really made much progress reading BUT I have been in a very intense podcast mood of late.  I have a couple more to recommend if podcasts are a thing you like:

• Kumail Nanjiani's The XFiles Files:  I am a huge X-Phile and this podcast warms the cockles of my huge fangirl heart.  Nanjiani is apparently a semi well-known comic? But more importantly he's a huge geek fan boy of the X files and has guests on with him to discuss select episodes.  I LOVE it!
• Rum, Rebels and Ratbags: This is a show about the more colorful side of Australian history, which considering that the proper side of Australia's history is already pretty colorful, this show is fascinating and fun if you like history at all. 
• Welcome to Night Vale:  I know, I know! I am WAY late to this party and I did give the show a shot about a year ago and didn't get into it.  This time It clicked. *shrugs*  A fictional radio broadcast from the strange town of Night Vale which is beset by many weird and eerie happenings.

Watching 
Still enjoying a re-watch of Murdoch Mysteries leading up to two newer seasons I have not seen.  The first two seasons of this show are totally delightful.  Season three is a bit irritating but I still really like it.

Reading
Still struggling a bit in a reading slump as a result of some particularly severe reading-related moodiness.

Finished Last Week:

Nothing, though I am about 20 pages away from finishing the Victoria Thompson book listed below.

Currently Reading:

• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: So maybe some day I'll pick this up again?  Until then it will sit here on the currently read and look encouraging.
• The Founding (The Morland Dynasty #1) by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles: This is the first book in a series that follows a single British family through numerous generations into modern times.  This first book takes place in the early 15th century.  This is such a fascinating idea and I have high hopes but I have to say the characters in this first book are shallow and are doing nothing for me.
• Of Noble Birth by Brenda Novak:  Despite the presence of pirates it is not making me happy mostly because of deficient humor and boring main characters. 
• Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey: Space Opera!
• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling:  Continuing my re-read of the series!
• Murder on Mulberry Bend by Victoria Thompson:  Book 5 in the Gaslight Mystery series. It's still fulfilling my cozy mystery craving.
• The Providence Rider by Robert McCammon: This is another favorite historical mystery series that is definitely NOT cozy and is set in colonial era New York.
• Beastly Bones by William Ritter: The follow up to Jackaby which I read and loved earlier this year!

Added to the TBR:

This is kind of a new thing I may try, listing books that get added to my Goodreads TBR list each week.  Maybe it will help burn them into my mind a little bit better, get them on some other folks TBRs and it will give me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

• A Quiet Life in the Country (The Lady Hardcastle Mysteries #1) by T.E. Kinsey: Historical British Mystery = I am ALL over it.  Turn of the 20th century. 
• Crow Mountain by Lucy Inglis:  Interesting looking mystery that takes place in Montana.  Not sure where I heard of this one. 
• White Cat (Curse Workers #1) by Holly Black:  After I posted my review of The Darkest Part of the Forest earlier this week this series got recommended to me all over the place.  
• Illusions of Fate by Kiersten White:  Described as Downton Abby meets Cassandra Clare.  I'm pretty down for that.
• The Corpse with the Silver Tongue (Cait Morgan #1) by Cathy Ace:  This is yet another historical mystery series that I read about on the blog Hidden Staircase.  The reviews for the series look mixed but it still sounded appealing enough to try.
• Blood Ties (Blood War Chronicles #1) by Quincy J. Allen:  Weird Western. I'm in.
• Bats of the Republic by Zachary Thomas Dodson:  Saw a review on River City Reading.  It looks like a fascinating and creative mix of historical fiction and Sci-Fi/dystopian fiction.
• Wolf by Wolf  (Wolf by Wolf #1) by Ryan Graudin: I can't remember where I heard of this book but it is YA and an alternate history set in a 1956 Europe after Germany has won World War II.
  
• Lost Stars by Claudia Gray: A YA Star Wars book which looks pretty fun and like it might be an okay place to dip a toe into the Star Wars books.  I learned of this one in a convoluted way by someone else I don't know thanking Mogsy from Bibliosanctum on Twitter for recommending it. 
• The Tea Rose (The Tea Rose #1) by Jennifer Donnelly:  More historical fiction.  It is kind of apparent where my reading mood is leaning.

Blogging 

On the BLOG LAST WEEK:

SUNDAY: Review of The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black.  I liked it!
TUESDAY: Top Ten Tuesday:  Wishes for the Book Genie.
THURSDAY:  Mini Reviews | Middle-Grade Mayhem: Cathrynne Valente, Maryrose Wood, Michael Ende.  These are some mini reviews for the first book in The Fairyland series by Valente, three of the books in The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series by Maryrose Wood, and The Neverending Story by Michael Ende.

On the BLOG NEXT WEEK:

SUNDAY:  A book review TBD
TUESDAY:  This week's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is a Halloween freebie.  Not super excited about this topic so may just be a a book review TBD. 
THURSDAY: A book review TBD.

That's it for me.  I hope everyone has a lovely week ahead of them!

Saturdays in the Garden - Screw Ennui

OUTSIDE

It's October!  There is a LOT that goes on in the garden this month and it can, in fact, be a little stressful especially if you live somewhere that winter can come on anytime and is miserably cold and snowy.  Like Iowa.  The A Way to Garden blog does a great monthly garden chores post. I particularly love the number one item on her list:

1. Leave especially ornamental or wildlife-friendly plants standing. Don’t act as if you’re vacuuming the living room; clean up beds tactically for maximum enjoyment by you and the birds.

Most garden to do lists for preparing for winter will encourage the gleeful removal of all dead vegetation.  It is certainly important to do this for any diseased plants but for everything else? As long as you're not too type A? Just leave it until spring.  There are so many living things that use that dead and dormant vegetation to get through the winter and many of them may even be helpful to you come next garden season (like loads of beneficial insects). Just leave it. And take the time you saved to go have a piece of cake to console yourself that winter is coming.

So what's going on here?  We've had some chilly nights but no frost yet so I'm still harvesting some tomatoes, peppers, a last few green beans and some gargantuan carrots!  I finally grew normal sized carrots! It's a garden miracle!  I need to harvest and process the kale and chard for storing as there is a good crop of those.  There are even a couple of plants still flowering - marigolds and a pretty aster that I don't know the name of and have no idea where it came from. Those are the best kinds of plants.  I'm hoping that some radishes and sugar snap peas I planted in early August will bear fruit but I think I will run out of time.  Finally I need to start thinking about planting my garlic and have pulled out a few of the bigger heads from the harvest for re-planting.

LIFE

Though I'm afraid to jinx it by mentioning it, I think I am coming out of a mild case of depression that's been plaguing me the last 3-4 months or so.  It hasn't been debilitating, I've just been unmotivated and uninterested in almost everything.  The word that keeps coming to mind is Ennui which is French and pretentious but in my mind it seems to perfectly encapsulate the mixture of boredom and mild despair I've been feeling lately.  Listlessness and just wishing something, anything, would happen. The change in season has helped as has being home again.  I've also decided that while I need to continue my work towards some of my longer term goals, I also need to bring some activity and excitement into the short term.  One thing I'd like to do is start doing some traveling again.  I love to travel and never do it anymore mostly because of cost and it being hard to get away from work.  Well screw all that.  Life's too short.  I'm not going to be irresponsible but it also doesn't make a whole lot of sense to put things off.  Honestly I'm not sure I shouldn't feel lucky to have such first world "problems". 

So are you a cheerful personality who never has an attack of the doldrums or do you wrestle occasionally with periods of lower spirits that seem to come out of nowhere?  What usually pulls you out of it if anything?    Finally, If you could travel somewhere and were trying to go easy on the pocketbook where would you go?


WATCHING, READING, and BLOGGING

Watching

I finished up my binge watch of Longmire Season 4 last weekend and was....super disappointed.  I haven't really wanted to watch anything since as if all TV has been tainted by unmet expectations:0).

Some friends and I had a girls night last night and one of the women's husbands very kindly picked out a few movies for us to watch.  We picked Serena (2014) which he pitched as a romance.  Ummm..... I guess it's a romance if highly dysfunctional relationships in depression era North Carolina are your thing?  Despite a pretty stellar cast (Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Toby Stephens, Rhys Ifans) it was terrible.  The nicest thing I can say about it, is that it was a perfect movie to watch and tear apart with friends!

Reading 

Finished Last Week:

•  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling:  On the downhill portion of my Harry Potter re-read.  I think this book is going to be the one about which my opinion changes the most from first to second read. 

Currently Reading:

• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: So maybe some day I'll pick this up again?  Until then it will sit here on the currently read and look encouraging.
• The Founding (The Morland Dynasty #1) by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles: This is the first book in a series that follows a single British family through numerous generations into modern times.  This first book takes place in the early 15th century.  This is such a fascinating idea and I have high hopes but I have to say the characters in this first book are shallow and are doing nothing for me.
• Of Noble Birth by Brenda Novak:  Despite the presence of pirates it is not making me happy mostly because of deficient humor and boring main characters. 
• Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey: Space Opera!
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik: I think this book may be suffering under the influence of too much hype.  I like it thus far (about 1/4 in I'd guess) but I don't feel gushy about it and am definitely not craving it.
• The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater:  The second book in the Raven Cycle which focuses a bit more on the character of Ronan.

Blogging 

On the BLOG LAST WEEK:

I posted stuff - go me!

TUESDAY:  Review of Unfinished Business by Anne-Marie Slaughter  I really liked this book about modern feminism and work culture.
WEDNESDAY: Review of Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor I loved this YA book about a young witch in Nigeria.

 

On the BLOG NEXT WEEK:

SUNDAY:  Re-read thoughts about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire plus re-watch of the movie.
TUESDAY:  This week's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is all about quitting which seems a bit of a downer.  I'll either post on this OR I may post a book review of one of the 25 books I have as a backlog because one of the things I want to quit is procrastinating writing reviews!
THURSDAY:  This week's Tough Traveling topic is Creative Cursing which is awesome but since this is the kind of detail I NEVER remember about a book (though two TV shows and one book come immediately to mind) I may just have to enjoy everyone elses' lists.  Join in if you have some ideas - its a fun meme hosted by Fantasy Review Barn.

Saturdays in the Garden - I'm Off to Hunt Butterflies

OUTSIDE

Well I haven't taken a single picture this week and don't feel like I've spent any time outside at all really.  Not truly outside. I took some time this morning and cleaned up the garden; removing the dead sugar snap, tomato and zucchini plants and pulling some weeds.  I also went ahead and planted some more sugar snap pea and radish seeds in the spaces where I pulled things just to see if I could get a fall crop.

Harvesting has been mostly of cucumbers, green beans, blueberries and the Juliet tomatoes.  With the tomatoes I don't have enough yet for any canning and they're not very good just slicing and eating.  I don't really have time to process them because life is about to get very hectic for the next 6 weeks - I likely shouldn't have planted them this year.  Ah well.

LIFE

As I alluded to above, I am headed out to do field research for the next six weeks or so.  I'm looking forward to it but also nervous because it makes life super complicated.  I'll be spending most of my time hiking around here:

I head off tomorrow and I'm pretty well prepared.  I'm stocked up on books, the dogs have been groomed and are ready to stay in rentals, and the car has had an oil change and some tender loving care.  Bring it on!

WATCHING, READING, and BLOGGING

Watching
I've been desultorily (awesome word alert!) watching Avatar: The Last Airbender for the 478th time.  It's nice to have on in the background while I futz around with other stuff.  I've come to the realization that as much as I just want to universally love everything about this show, Season 3 does disappoint me more than a little bit.  I need to move on to Korra but I can't deal with Aang being dead. 

Reading

Finished Last Week:

• In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker:  Immortal cyborgs in Elizabethan England!  Despite an awesome premise that is fairly well executed, the characters did not draw me into this one.

Currently Reading:

• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: So maybe some day I'll pick this up again?  Until then it will sit here on the currently read and look encouraging.
• The Founding (The Morland Dynasty #1) by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles: This is the first book in a series that follows a single British family through numerous generations into modern times.  This first book takes place in the early 15th century.  This is such a fascinating idea and I have high hopes but I have to say the characters in this first book are shallow and are doing nothing for me.  This book is officially on hold at the moment but I'll get back to it one day soon. 
• World After by Susan Ee: The second book in the Penryn and the End of Days series.  It's super grim - grimmer than book one - and I'm loving it.  What is wrong with me? Almost done with this one.
• The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater: I am almost done with this and so far I have really loved it but I am so worried about what the series has in store for all the characters!
• Of Noble Birth by Brenda Novak: I may DNF this one.  Despite the presence of pirates it is not making me happy mostly because of deficient humor and boring main characters. 
• Doctor Who: The Monsters Inside by Stephen Cole:  My other two device audio books (Of Noble Birth and The Founding) are not doing it for me so Doctor Who it is!
• Skin Game by Jim Butcher (Dresden Files #15):  This will officially catch me up with the Dresden Files series.  I'm a little sad there will be no more.

On the BLOG LAST WEEK:

SUNDAY: LONGMIRE - the second part of season 2. The fourth in a series of obsessive posts about this show.  Sorry. When will season 4 come out???
TUESDAY: Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I've read many books by.  Meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
WEDNESDAY: RE-READ | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
THURSDAY: Tough Traveling: Forbidden Love. A fun meme hosted by Fantasy Review Barn to explore all the beloved tropes of the SFF genre.

On the BLOG NEXT WEEK

SUNDAY: Fifth Longmire post featuring the second half of season 2.
TUESDAY: Review of Hostage Taker by Stefanie Pintoff

***The Blog is going to be on semi-hiatus for the next few weeks.  As far as I can tell I won't have reliable access to the internet during that time.  I'm hoping to write and schedule a few more book reviews but I don't expect to be able to participate in any memes. I guess we'll see.***