herbs – Ahuva’s Blog

A Day in the Life of a New Retiree

hedge trimmed, flowers growing, It’s a lovely day in the neighborhood

THEY all assured me I’d be amazed at how full my day would be. THEY said I’d be too busy to be bored. I was skeptical but retired anyway. 🙂 What do you know? THEY were correct. What THEY did not make clear, however, was WHAT would be keeping me busy.

the great lettuce experiment – only one of the 4 I’ve planted is thriving

I do not consider myself to be overly concerned with clean & neat. I don’t like messes, dirt and trash bother me and I clean that up fairly quickly. But I’ve never been one to worry that much about dusting, or washing walls or cleaning windows. I used to KNOW myself very well. I LOVED wearing high heels, kinky shoes, exercising in the “no pain, no gain” fashion. The last few years have had me facing a redefinition of self. 🙂 I can walk into DSW and NOT find shoes that I neeeeeeed. I think the last time I wore heels was for New Year’s Eve. I have a wedding to attend in November – I’ll wear them again then. I have long since stopped pretending I’m going to sign up for boot camp. I started doing yoga before covid and I just went back to an in-person class last night (Yay! I LOVED it). Just stretching and holding in yoga was more than enough pain/gain for me. I’m not even all that interested in walking around town taking photos each day.

What AM I doing? Maintenance. *laughing* I’m doing all these actions that in the good-old-get-to-work days would never have pinged on my radar. Now when I notice something, I deal with it. I went to put an exhaust fan in the window the other day. Put it in, plugged it in, turned it on. Noticed it was filthy. Normally I’d have thought “ugh” and gone on my way. No, the new retired Ahuva looked at that and thought ” I wonder if I could clean that.” (Who IS this person???) I turned it off, took it outside, started trying to brush the accumulated dust and grit off. That didn’t work so I got a screw driver and took it apart. Ended up hosing down part of it, hand washing the rest. Nice clean fan into the window. One hour of my day accounted for.

All of my days are like that now. They start with me walking my garden, checking to see if anything served as a midnight snack for critters, seeing if anything looks like it needs help, if any new flowers have opened. Feed the cat (sometimes she gets fed first). Do my 2 online crossword puzzles. Then I notice things. Maybe I noticed something a day or so ago and attend to that. Maybe I see it then.

dill, savory, thai basil, basil, flat parsley, curley parsley – and is that zinnia that snuck in back there??

Today as I went to walk out the door to check the garden I noticed how dirty the storm door was (too cold for me today – I closed the screens and saw the glass). I went and got the Windex, paper towels and a small stool (so I could reach the top) and cleaned the inside and the outside of the door. Did you know that storm doors have little ledges on them where dirt accumulates? I cleaned those too. 30 minutes accounted for.

i”m getting very impatient waiting for the summer flowers to bloom. I started so early in April, it feels like July to me now

The window cleaning was impromptu. Today’s planned activities were to try to figure out why/where the cat’s water fountain was leaking. It flooded the floor the other day. Took it apart, dried everything, put it in the sink, dried the drain stopper and put it in the sink, filled the fountain and waited to see if water appeared. If so, then the fountain has a leak. If not, it means we had it unbalanced where it was. It leaked. Aha! Now to do it again, but remove the reservoir and see if it’s the bottom part that has some leak or if it’s the reservoir. Water on the drain stopper. Somewhere there must be a hairline crack or flaw invisible to the naked eye. I was hoping to save the $55 to buy a new one but oh well, $55 is worth not flooding the kitchen. 🙂

yep, definitely water on the stopper. do you think the bottom of that blue cylinder unscrews to put a new filter in there?

Today’s schedule also included figuring out the whole-house water filter. I know how to divert the water away from the filter so I can remove it and change the filter. I forgot yesterday that I needed a bucket underneath when I remove the filter because there is going to be water anyway. Oops. Got a little wet. I took a picture of what I thought was the water filter but then couldn’t find anything online that looked like the picture. I think *maybe* there is a filter nested inside the tube that was in the outer tube. But the cap is soooo tight and I’m not sure so I called and left a message for my plumber. “Dumb User Question time”. I didn’t replace the unit so if I don’t hear from him I’m going to take it to a big box store and ask there.

I still have no idea what the green thing is in the center of the photo. dahlias to its right and front. if it hasn’t flowered by the time the dahlias flower it’s a goner 🙂

Today’s schedule also has “reorganize the garage”. Yesterday my husband and I began tackling the hoarders’ haven that is our basement (all the “stuff” from the attic and 2nd floor). There are 4 destinations for “stuff”: keep, give away, shred, throw out. We have reluctantly (realistically?) decided to get rid of the vast majority of our books, many of which have been on bookshelves in the attic for years. If we’ve not read them in decades, it’s unlikely we’ll read/need them in the future. Books are heavy. We need to box them in smaller containers to lift them. I’ll need some place to put them until we’re all done. That means back to the garage to rearrange everything left there, and set up tables, the way I did last year. We’ll move the boxes of books and “give away” out there until we are ready to go. Thank goodness today is cold (okay, *I* think it’s cold, I’m sure there are others who feel 70 is a fine temperature) so working in the garage will not be unbearable.

I love tropicals. The mandevilla seems very happy too. and look at the yellow curry plant!

Other days have seen me changing the light on the stove. Thank goodness I blogged about that ages ago so that I could remember how it’s done! I shredded a lot of paper yesterday (uncovered during the foray into hoarders’ haven). I’ve been IRONING. 🙂 Since we still haven’t bought furniture, and I’m still using our bedroom as my office (and my office as our bedroom), I brought the ironing board upstairs. Somehow ironing is much more pleasant when I’m on the 2nd floor surrounded by open windows and fresh air than it is in the basement next to the dryer. 🙂

weed-free driveway!! but it’s still obvious that I need to do some repairs. only on the edges – i want it permeable. the insurance company and i disagree about that. 🙂 the “new people” who buy our house can deal with replacing the driveway

I spent 3 mornings weeding the driveway. I trimmed the hedge. I found a handyman to finish my deck and do my other carpentry. If it works out, I have a lot more for him as well. 🙂 I find broken things and fix them when I find them. The curious thing about all of this is that it does not feel burdensome. No, it’s a source of great satisfaction. My “spirit animal” is a border collie, I believe I’ve mentioned that in the past. I’m not going to the office, but I’m still “doing” most of the day. I do take time to read, cuddle BC, enjoy iced coffee. I’m not going to the office but I am being creative and thinking: many of the things I’m doing require me to plan the best approach, to contemplate options. And don’t forget my crossword puzzles. 🙂

view from the porch, early morning, a great place to enjoy my morning coffee

I didn’t envision my days in retirement to be like this. To be honest, I had no idea what my days would be like – I couldn’t envision it at all. 🙂 Probably why it took me so darn long to retire. But this life is working out for me. I still have long-range plans for doing volunteer work, training a therapy dog. Cleaning the basement and getting the carpentry done is necessary in order for us to get a kitten for BC. (I wonder if she will consider a kitten ‘necessary”).

When I describe a day in the life of this retiree the word that comes to mind is “savor” (okay, Honour – savour). I have time to savor life. Breathe the air. Smell the roses. Love the cat. Be in the moment. I like it.

I thought the cannas were going to be 3-4 feet tall. I’m hoping the bronze-leaved ones will grow that tall

Today’s Planned Activities

a very happy Brunnera macrophilla ‘Jack Frost’. thankfully the deer don’t appear to appreciate it

Isn’t that the way cruise ships and resorts talk about the day’s events? 🙂 Perhaps I should view retirement as one long cruise. *laughing* As If.

plants that wintered over – dianthus and something. i thought it was vinca. but maybe not.

I’m still transitioning from career-life to retirement-life. Still don’t miss the job at all. 🙂 Isn’t that wonderful? I really don’t think about the work or the people. And that IS a relief because despite my long, 3-month transitioning while employed, I was concerned that I’d miss it. Nope. Cross that one off the list.

happy chives, with lemon balm to the right, and probably lots of dianthus or maybe verbena as well

Yesterday was about getting new eye glasses and meeting with my financial advisor. I find it both interesting and comforting that the projected monthly cash flow we drew up in January is still fairly accurate here in May. Even with the unexpected expenses (car deductible for having the car hit at the concert, having to pay 4 months of CMS medicare payments to start, and other expenses like that) we’ve managed to modify our extravagant, thoughtless ways and stay on course. 🙂 Kudos to us!!!! I’m still not 100% sure that “this” is all going to “work out” but at least my inner 6-year old has stopped screaming daily. As a matter of fact, I treated myself to a gardening present.

first clematis and alium flowers, lots more buds

Last year I had to devise a see-through fence to keep my flowers safe from the deer. We have rabbits, ground hogs, skunks and possums as well, all of whom seem to think that my garden is the local buffet. To be fair, not just my garden but I only worry about mine. I had a very healthy pot of echinacea that wintered over wonderfully. I moved it to the side of the house in a sunny spot. Yesterday I noticed something had bitten the tops off of everything there. 😦 One of today’s activities will be to toss some netting over that pot.

I’d like to grow more vegetables and/or herbs without having to worry about spraying hot pepper or chili over them. The afternoon sun is on the driveway side of the house, which means I have nowhere to plant there. So I treated myself to a 2nd raised bed (2nd because a few years ago my brother-in-law built me one out of some leftover wood he had). I couldn’t resist Home Depot when I saw this raised bed. It was almost everything I wanted (it doesn’t have wheels) including a trellis back AND it was 20% off. That trellis back means I can attach netting or screening to it and drape it over the plants to protect them from the Hungries.

doesn’t this look great??? wonder what it will look like when I try to build it. 🙂

Unfortunately the garden bed does NOT come assembled. 😦 That is something I will have to do (unless by some miracle the person who is SUPPOSED to be replacing boards on the deck actually shows up this week). The box came yesterday. Today’s adventures will include unpacking it and seeing if it’s easy to assemble (pre-drilled holes and such) or if I’m going to need “Someone with Tools”. In either case I’m actually very excited to have this for this year. 🙂

my poor willow. 😦 i really loved this bush – white & pink & green

Other chores involve cutting down my poor willow bush. 😦 I don’t know what happened to it. It was fine last year. But this spring it’s dead. No question about it – I gave it a few weeks to see if it was merely ill or slow but no, it’s definitely not coming back. I don’t know what happened to it. We had such a mild winter. That might be the answer – maybe cold winters kill off whatever killed off my willow. I also lost a small Japanese maple tree in my back yard. That was a cutting from my tree in the front of the house, before it starting failing and we pulled it. Taking that down is much less pressing as it’s not as large and it’s in an out-of-the-way spot.

The plants I’m growing from seed are doing very well for the most part. You can see that there are a few empty containers. I wanted to move them outdoors last weekend, let them get used to real life and light. This past weekend was 3 days of rain and this week the temperature is 10 degrees below normal (in the 50s, not the 60s) so I’ve not moved them yet. I’m not 100% sure those containers would drain properly in heavy rain.

My rudebeckia laciniata hortensia is coming back, as is the anise hyssop. I don’t know why the rudbeckia does not spread more. I’ve dug up and pulled out everything that is not that, trying to leave it room to spread. RLH just wants to head towards the sidewalk. I also seem to be inundated with lots of white snake root, which is a weed I don’t want (you can see at least 2 of them in the photo below). I seem to only have 2 anise hyssops coming back and I’m fairly certain I had 3 originally (pushed up against the barrier at the bottom of the photo – again – why do they grow THAT direction???). I ordered 2 more this year from my favorite online garden shop – Heritage Flower Farm.

i had to undo the screen this morning and shove 2 health RLH plants back into the enclosure. look at all that empty room I’ve made for them. and they want the sidewalk.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about native NJ plants and invasive perennials. I went to a seminar at the library and they listed some nurseries that specialize in NJ plants. I’m hoping I can get to one of them this weekend. Every year I try to get more perennials planted. The reasoning is two-fold. I’d prefer not to keep spending hundreds of dollars every spring buying plants. I’d also like to minimize how much bending and clearing and planting I need to do. I will probably keep buying tropicals to put in the big planters I use to line my front walk, but it would be helpful if most of the permanent beds were perennials.

that maybe vinca, dusty miller, dianthus, curry plant (top), sage (far right)

Under the heading of “can’t beat ’em, join ’em”, I’ve given up on trying to have creeping thyme between the front bed and the lawn. It didn’t seem to work as I hoped. This year I am digging up the little violet plants from the beds and planting them in the lawn in front of the bed. I don’t care about grass. The only saving grace about grass is I don’t have to care for it the way I do flowers. 🙂 I also took one of the clover plants and stuck that there as well. That’s another “weed” that seems to have inundated one of my garden beds. Let’s see how well it thrives when I WANT it to grow and spread. 🙂

Winterized

I spend a lot of time showing you my garden and yard. Then comes the winter and it all gets shut down and put away. (Okay, I notice in these pictures I’ve not finished putting things away from the front porch.) It requires a lot of effort on my part to dump pots, and protect vines and move things about so that I can call in the professional yard service to do the “fall cleanup”. They always do more than I expect/want, in that they pull out all of my fencing. It annoys me but I’m also grateful that they do, because it WILL be easier to plant in the spring. After, that is, I go through the effort of putting back the metal fences that *I* consider to be permanent. The yard DOES look better without fences around barren lots.

Herbs and plants piled up on the porch – no pots sitting on anything still alive 🙂

Last winter was so warm that easily half of my planters came back to life when I moved them out to the front walk. I thought about buying a very small greenhouse to encourage that to happen again this winter. It turns out that there is more to a greenhouse than simply glass walls and roof. Until I figure out what I’d want to do for a heat source I’m going to pile up the planters on the front porch as I’ve always done. I’ve also decided against digging up my canna lilies this year. It was an interesting experiment last year, and it did work, but it also had some minor inconveniences. I find that this year I’m not as gung-ho to dig them up and prepare them to live in my basement coal bin. They’ll winter over in the ground or they (most likely) won’t.

I don’t know why the succulents seem to flower more once I bring them inside. You’d think that being outside with true sunlight all day would be more nourishing than 10 hours under a grow light. They’ve only been inside for a few weeks, and already several of them are putting up flowers. The palm trees always start out as if they will do okay, and then by spring they are in terrible condition and I end up buying new ones anyway. 🙂 This year I’m using 2 grow lights on them, and the lamps are positioned closer than in prior years. They may still fail because BC has decided that they are perfect for chewing. Now a greenhouse (with heat) would be the perfect place to store the palms!

The grow lamps cast a pink light in the photos, but not so much to the naked eye

From the Garden to the Counter

The spider wort has taken over the porch border garden. Once I have a decent weather weekend I will go forth and do battle.

I’ve cut back a lot this year on growing edibles. In the past I’ve gotten carried away with all sorts of herbs and we almost never used some of them. There are others, like lemon balm, that we almost never use but since it’s thriving and happy it got to stay. 🙂 I have one cherry tomato plant and one red pepper (sweet) plant. I don’t think I have any other vegetable attempts.

parsely, dill, arugula, romaine, leaf lettuce

I was making some salads for us to enjoy in the intermittent hot weather. Aside: it’s been as crazy here as in other places in the world. For example: Wednesday it was 91 degrees in the afternoon. Saturday morning it was 41. Memorial day we did finally edge up into the 70s, but only late in the afternoon before it then started cooling down again. Here we are on Friday – HUMID and in the 70s and we’re due for thunderstorms (heads up, Honour). They are promising 80s on Saturday and – oh hallelujah! – 90s on Sunday. I’ve been sooooo COLD. Back to the salads! There are 3 types of lettuce: arugula, red leaf, and romaine. They were for my tossed salad. The dill and parsley were for the chickpea salad. Yummy!

Ready to cook. Fire pit at the ready, also 2 propane heaters if needed.

The Memorial Day weekend was, as I said, VERY cold and VERY rainy on Saturday and Sunday. Monday things finally started to dry and warm up. We had TEN PEOPLE on the deck for BBQ dinner. It was GLORIOUS! We’d not been together since Feb 2, 2020. So much hugging and smiling and laughing!! It was wonderful to be back together again. I got to show off my latest acquisition for the deck – my new ice cooler. 🙂 My sister and I had gone to an Antiques & Collectibles show back in April. This Italian ice cart caught my eye, caught my sense of humor, and I thought it would be perfect on the deck. When my husband texted back to say he AGREED, the deal was done. 🙂 He keeps saying “we’ll get a lot of use out of it” and I keep laughing and saying “oh my it is so kitsch that it is art and I LOVE it”. Seriously – it gives me such joy. I smile every time I see it. And yes – it is useful. It holds A LOT of ice. Deceptively so. We had 3 bags of ice in it for the BBQ and it looked paltry. But our drinks were cold!

No need for shade. We did light the firepit at dusk and it put out a good amount of heat and a LOT of beauty.

I Think This Is A First

Look! Purple flowers!!! I’ve had vinca vines many times in the past. I like having them trailing down from hanging pots, swaying with the breezes. I like them in my big planters lined on the front walk, ‘connecting’ lawn to flower. In all that time, however, I don’t think I have ever had them flower. I’m guessing that is because I usually don’t buy them until sometime in May, which might be past their flowering time. This year life continues to be ‘different’. No – this has nothing to do with the pandemic. This is about the seasons.

Dusty miller, vinca, mint, jasmine, and other stuff. dianthus???

The past winter was very mild. Other than some crazy cold days in February, it wasn’t that cold. I have been amazed at how many of my plants wintered over on the porch. Even my rosemary, which doesn’t make it onto the porch, survived. And thrived. Usually it hangs in there until February, then one night it will throw up its metaphorical arms and die. Not this year. I have all sorts of things coming back, which is great! What’s not so great is that for many of them I have no idea what they are. 🙂 Ah, the perennial question: Are they weeds or are they flowers?

dianthus? thyme, sage (ignore the little sign – it’s sage, not savory), vinca

Some things are recognizable- jasmine, vinca, dusty miller. The herbs: lemon thyme, sage, rosemary, oregano, chives, lemon balm. LOTS of mint. I think the dianthus is back. But there is a lot of green that I’m not recognizing.

Amazingly healthy rosemary, mint, and green stuff.

I cropped the photos so you don’t see the 2 huge bags of potting soil and the huge bag of top soil. I’ve been buying more planters and pots. 🙂 I bought seeds again this year, knowing even as I did so that last year’s didn’t work all that well. Actually, my cosmos and zinnias did – I sowed them directly into the beds. I’m going to try again with radishes. I was unable to resist picking up 2 Romaine plants. 🙂 I really need a “support group” but I want the one that tells me what I’m doing is natural and healthy, not the one that tries to help me quit.

Obligatory cat photo. 🙂 You can actually see her little face for a change because of the sun!

Tucking the Plants In

I indulged in lots of succulents, some ivy for the backyard, English thyme and another echinacea (I hope it is orange)

We had no snow this winter. Our temperatures swing from the 70sF to the 40sF. I was sure we were done with worrying about the plants. I’m so ready to start tossing seeds in the big pots and to pot the succulents I bought. I also bought some more thyme – English thyme. The thyme that wintered over is lemon thyme. I thought that this past weekend was going to be a garden day.

covered herbs in pots — all the herbs on the walk are tucked in for the night. I figured the mint was fine since it had wintered over out there.

The past weekend wasn’t too bad weather-wise. It was the weekdays after that had the bad forecast. Winds of up to 60 mph were predicted for Monday, along with driving rain. Tuesday was supposed to have temps in the 50s. Wednesday night had frost warnings – temperatures 30-35F. Excuse me???? We had NO winter and now in mid APRIL we have FROST warnings? So annoying!!!!! Well, I’d already moved the pots down off the porch, so I figured I’d better cover them. The succulents and time and ivy on the porch were probably fine, but as long as I had the plastic out, I covered them as well. Everyone made it through the night with no trouble. I don’t think it got below freezing. I left them all uncovered last night when the temps were in the low 40s, and I think maybe the cactus that had orange flowers may have been unhappy. Time will tell.
Oh rats. Just heard a forecast for Tuesday night: 30-35. NO!!!!!

covered succulents — probably totally unnecessary but I covered the plants on the porch as well

Life During The Pause

The very first signs of life in the garden

Life has gotten incredibly surreal, hasn’t it? I’ve wanted to come here and chat, but I’ve had writer’s block. There is so very much I want to say, but I have rules for myself about what I post. I have a lot of unpublished posts as well, the kind of thing where I was venting about something specific, and writing it out was sufficient venting. I have half-written posts that even I don’t know where I was intending to go. Then there are the zillions of posts I’ve written in my head. It seems odd that there is so much to say, so much happening, yet I can’t get the words out.

tulips and clover — Beautiful tulips from Washington state

I miss writing here. Writing tends to make me focus on things that give me pleasure. Reality is a mixed bag, after all. I took a look around the house – oh em gee all you can DO is look around the HOUSE now, right??? – to see what repairs needed doing that maybe I could do. I’m watching TV with my husband and we are having serious in-depth conversations about synthetic life forms (AI, androids, et al). I went out into the garden this weekend, into the sunshine, and took pictures of my plants, hoping that would spur me on. Yay for my garden because it really helps to keep me centered. The only other thing that can calm me down these days when I start freaking about viruses and politics and “end of the world as we know it” is to listen to NY Governor Andrew Cuomo give his daily press briefings. He’s so calm, articulate, smart, good-looking, reasonable. He calls this stay-at-home situation “The Pause”. I love that term. I live in NJ but I tune in for the NY update every day. If I can’t catch it live I watch the replay later. *smile* Governor Murphy is doing a good job, but he’s no Cuomo. My coworker, who plays for the distaff team, told me that even she has a crush on Gov Cuomo. She explained that we are part of the great Cuomosexual awakening. *grin* I LOVE that term, too. But Gov Cuomo only speaks for an hour or less so my garden is the more reliable tranquilizer. When it finally stops raining. It WILL stop raining, right?

container garden 2020 — Herbs that wintered over

I found a picture I took a few weeks ago, when the first signs of flowers were starting to appear. That was so long ago. Or maybe it was last week? Because when we are all working from home, and not going out, well, every day blurs into the next into the one before and none of us seem to know what day it is. (Another reason to love Gov Cuomo – he starts his press conferences saying such things as Happy Tuesday!, and then I KNOW what day it is and can check to see what meetings I have scheduled.)

peony and iris — My yellow peony on the right, some of the iris in the back left, grasses in the upper right, and I believe that is my False Starwort returning there in the middle!

Two weekends ago it was warm and sunny and beautiful and we were all required to stay home and avoid unnecessary travel. I spent several hours doing garden cleanup. I didn’t have the money last fall to hire the service that usually does my fall/winter cleanup. That means that there are lots and lots of dead leaves matted among last year’s stalks and fencing. I needed to cut down the grasses and the dead peony stalks and pull up the dead goldenrod stalks. Five yard bags of debris. And that was only the front garden and the rudbeckia garden. I still have the porch garden and along the driveway and along the side of the house to clean. Ugh.

return of the rudbeckia — Some of the rudbeckia laciniata hortensia. It makes me crazy. I planted so many plants last year. There is a huge bare spot where they should be. 😦 I have ordered 8 more

We had such a mild winter this year in central NJ. The only snow we had was in December and it was less than 2 inches and melted by the end of the day. That was it. I don’t think we even had 4 days in a row of sub-freezing temperatures. All of that means that much of my container garden wintered over and has come back green and healthy. Not only herbs, but I believe I have verbena coming back in one of the pots as well. Something that is not an herb is doing quite well. I know that canna lilies, which I absolutely adore, need to be dug up and the bulbs stored in a garage or basement or something. I never do that (by that time of the year I am totally sick of gardening). I indulge myself come spring and buy new ones. I am wondering if any of them will have wintered over and come back. The problem I foresee is that I have NO idea what a canna lily sprout looks like. What if it is coming back and I think it’s a weed and pull it? That rationale could get me to skip weeding my garden until what – end of June maybe? 🙂 That’s quite appealing.

the marjoram and cilantro a few weeks ago. Both are looking much greener and fuller.

I took the containers off the porch and put them out in the sun and the rain, lining the walk. There are some canna lilies in one of those pot as well. I’d save so much money if some of those came back. As it is, I’m going to save a lot on my herbs. I have healthy rosemary, sage, lemon thyme, cilantro, curly parsley, lemon balm, mint, sorrel, chives, oregano, and marjoram (note the use of the Oxford comma). The marjoram is not in the picture – it’s sitting on the front steps. There is basil in the picture but that is cheating – I bought them at the grocery store. 🙂 I LOVE the smell of basil – it cheers me right up!

a visiting possum — A visitor back in February. I actually think he may have been injured (seemed to maybe be dragging a hind leg?) but he was quite active. Never saw him again. Was quite surprised to see him once

Longing Fir a Flavor

Douglas Fir Martini — Doesn’t it look like perfection?

Or, “When Determination Becomes Obsession“

I was born in New Jersey, raised in New Jersey, lived here all my life with the exception of college. I am indeed a Jersey girl. But sometimes the laws governing this state make me crazy. I’ve run into it with regulation preventing our family doctor from writing a proper prescription for my son, and I’ve come up against the laws preventing me from buying alcohol.

I was reading the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago and there was an article about replacements for eggnog (a truly repellent drink). There were recipes and pictures and one in particular caught my attention. I was reading the print version which had many pictures and recipes, but I see that the online link (assuming it will work for you) comes up with the very same cocktail that caught my fancy – Shaken and Firred (adapted from Heidi Smart of Hood River Distillers, Hood River, Oregon). The picture all by itself is enticing – cool, simple, herbal. When I read the recipe, I was determined to try this drink.

1 oz vodka
1 oz Clear Creek Douglas Fir Brandy
1/4 oz dry vermouth
Add these to an ice-filled shaker, shake and strain into a martini glass rimmed with sugar and garnished with a sprig of rosemary.

Delicious, right???? I sent my husband an email and asked him to call our 3 preferred liquor stores and see if they had the Douglas Fir brandy. I wasn’t expecting that they would, but I thought we’d try the simple approach first. They did not have it and only one offered to obtain it for us. I stopped in that store a day or so later and left my name and number for someone to call me back so I could order (the cashier could not do that). Never heard back. Okay, not a show stopper. I was out with a friend and asked her if she had a high-end liquor store near her that might carry the Douglas Fir brandy. We got out our smart phones and began calling about. Nope, none of the stores near there carried it and none offered to help order. Fine, be that way. When I got home I went online to order it. I found a distributor, placed an order, got a confirming email and was quite pleased.
Douglas Fir brandy

The next morning I received an email from the distributor telling me they were out of stock and couldn’t fill the order. So I tried a different distributor, at twice the price (old joke from my Treasury of Jewish Folklore: 6 kopeks? Sam down the street is selling fish for 3 kopeks! So why don’t you buy from Sam? Because Sam is out of fish. When *I* am out of fish, *I* sell it for 3 kopeks also!). These folks told me right up front – we’re sorry – we cannot ship liquor to NJ. Not really a surprise – I was pretty sure that was true and had been quite surprised when my order had gone through the night before.

Now, however, it was becoming more than wanting to try this drink. Now it was becoming a matter of ‘oh yeah, you think you are so smart you can STOP me from getting what I WANT???’ Time to be creative. I contacted my son and told him to look for it at his stores (because I could see that there WERE stores in Phoenix that carried the Douglas Fir brandy). Then I thought I’d never see it if I left it up to him so I went online again to order it SENT to him and then he could mail it to me. *smile* I’m so clever. Not. Apparently it could not be shipped directly to Arizona either. All the Phoenix stores were out of stock and the nearest store with stock was in Washington. A long drive from Tempe. So now I’m really ticked. This is beyond amusing – I am GOING TO GET THIS BRANDY. Big gun time. I contacted my friend Tess who LIVES in Oregon. Hah! I’ll get someone to walk up and buy a bottle directly and mail it to me.

I contacted Tess (who thought at first I was a spammer because I foolishly used FB messaging instead of simply texting). Once I proved my bona fides (by sending her a photo of the cauliflower ornament in my sukkah) we ended up having a long phone conversation, catching up with our lives. She promised to get me information. The next morning I had an email from her. It supplied the NJ distributor for Clear Creek, the contact’s name, his cell phone, and the fact that he still had 7 cases left. *laughing* We should take that information to the local liquor store and have them order it. I was traveling on business but my husband did indeed take the information to the store. They said they were placing an order that day and they would add the brandy to the order. On Friday my husband went to retrieve our treasure – 2 bottles of Clear Creek Douglas Fir brandy. They’d ordered 4 bottles and we took 2. *laughing* We hadn’t even TASTED it yet.

Looks like white pine to me, no point chopping my neighbor’s tree

That night was the big unveiling! Once I’d fed the cats (you remember them, right? black cat, gray cat, white cat), my time was mine. I went outside and cut some fresh rosemary. I rimmed the martini glass with sugar. I assembled the ingredients. I filled the shaker, shook and strained. Placed the rosemary on the glass. BEAUTIFUL!!! I took a sip. Well. Not exactly what I was expecting. 🙂

I’d wondered about the taste when I opened the bottle of brandy. It didn’t really SMELL very much like fir. The drink really didn’t taste much like fir either. It wasn’t bad, mind you, it simply wasn’t the herbally flavor I was imagining. My husband and I discussed it, dissected it. We thought that perhaps substituting genepys des alpes for the vermouth might get it closer to herbs and trees. That was last night’s experiment. Still not matching my desire. My husband wants to mix it with chambord, but I want a green drink, not a pink drink. I want herbs, not fruit. I tried soaking rosemary in a little bit of simple syrup and added that. It might have worked had I given it more time – there really was no rosemary taste. Now I’m looking for rosemary bitters, I see that such a thing exists. I want an herbal, plant flavor. Any suggestions for a recipe?

artificial arrangement — my artificial winter arrangement 🙂

What to Eat When It’s Just Too Hot

coleslaw At last, summer is here. In NJ that means the 3 Hs – Hazy, Hot, Humid. Hot is fine with me. Hazy is tolerable although not preferred. Humid is only good when the temperature is below 85. Above that – we all melt. I guess I am truly aging. There was a time when the humidity didn’t really bother me all that much. Now even I, child of the hot sunshine, find that hot & humid is uncomfortable.

I was working from home last week for several reasons. I had a lot of meetings and if I work from home, I don’t need to use a headset – I can use the laptop speakers instead. chickpea salad After a few hours, any headset is annoying. The company office is air-conditioned of course. And while many are perfectly comfortable with that, I am always freezing if the sun is not beating on the windows there. It was not – it was rainy and hazy on the non-rain days. There were some other good reasons to work from home as well, but those 2 top the list.

Working from home means that I can get up and walk about between calls. I can do chores during my usual commute time, and during lunch. I was possessed by the salad genie and for 2 days I created summer salads. Three of them could be made without any heat, and for the 2 that needed some cooking, I turned on the fans and dealt with it. 🙂 When I rested on the 3rd day I had a fresh green tossed salad, lentil salad, chickpea salad, coleslaw, and a pesto pasta with broccoli.

It’s always fun to watch the food creations come into being, but it was even better because I could walk out to the front garden and clip whatever herbs and lettuce I needed. pesto pasta salad My brother-in-law gave me the simplest most tasty recipe for coleslaw: shredded lettuce & carrots, mayonnaise, white balsamic vinegar, garlic powder, and basil. I like my coleslaw dry, not wet. I find that 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise mixed with the vinegar is enough sauce for me. I walked out to the garden and clipped 3 types of basil to add to the mix, instead of using dried basil. It was delicious. I know it was because my husband devoured nearly all of it within 2 days. 🙂 (He doesn’t seem to care for the lentils. That’s fine – I LOVE the lentils.)

I used the basil, dill, lettuce, lemon balm, and parsley fresh from the garden as well. Fresh herbs definitely make the flavors pop. Lentil salad We have a farmers’ market every week in town, so we went up to the market and got fresh onions, fresh garlic, cucumbers, tomatoes, bread and pickles. I had a chance to use the salad bowls I’d made many, many years ago when I was still “doing pottery”. They seemed the perfect touch. Dinner was a delicious stuffed bread with fresh veggies and salads. A perfect summer meal when it’s just too humidly hot.

Seeing is Believing

front gardenwith curly grass
Yesterday I walked about in my bare feet, toes digging into the still-wet earth. The last week has been wonderful for my psyche – the plants are coming back!!!! I walk out each day and simply STARE at the green leaves and the yellow and purple crocuses. I have things coming up where I know I planted something new last year. what is this? Unfortunately, the little sign is gone so I’m not sure WHAT it might be. I have other long-loved perennials pushing through as well. I know what they are by where they are, because I don’t always recognize the new growth. Last year I planted the curly grass (you can see it in the top picture) and it made it through the winter. I’m a little sorry I put it where I did, because there is typically a large planter in front of that spot so most people won’t see it unless they are looking at it directly.

lemon thyme wintered over It’s also exciting to see how many of my herbs wintered over. In one of the pots I have either lemon balm coming back, or sorrel. Or maybe it’s a weed. *grin* I’m waiting to see. It also appears that both the bay and the rosemary might have made it through the winter as well. I usually lose both of those and have to buy new ones, but they are both still fragrant and supple, even if I’m not seeing new green yet. I can always hope. 🙂 The photos show the lemon thyme, sage and chives that most definitely wintered over.

The crocuses pushed through and the daffodils are all showing buds. I had more poppies but I do not have much luck with them. I’ve planted them several times yet they don’t seem to thrive. There’s only one showing at the moment. I noticed the Monkshood is coming up along the driveway. I try not to plant poisonous plants, but I ordered these last year anyway. yellow crocuses It was such a mild winter that I’m wondering if my canna lilies might come back. They never have in the past, so I’m not really expecting them this year either, but there does seem to be something happening in that general region.

Two weeks ago I needed more reassurance that spring would really get here. As I mentioned in the last post, I’d bought some bulbs and tubers. I also placed an order with my favorite online nursery, Heritage Flower Farm. I’ve mentioned before that I ADORE Rudbeckia laciniata var. hortensia, or as they are in the vernacular, the outhouse plant. *grin* Insult them if you wish, but they are gorgeous and a group of them tall and proud in the summer sunshine is a sight to behold.

sage wintered over When I’m ordering plants I try now to stick to perennials. I’m trying to save both dollars and my energy. If it’s going in the ground, I want a perennial. I’ll put the annuals in the big pots. I always want to find flowers for the pollinators – trying to grow native plants. I have very little area that is full sun, so I need plants that will also tolerate shade. And I like tall, bushy, wild-looking plants. Some people do color-themes, but I like a riot of color. Every time I say to myself that yellow is my favorite flower color, I realize that I love orange too, and there’s a lot to be said for red, and you need white to bring out the contrast, and purple picks up the colors in my awnings, and blue is spectacular. You can see why I have LOTS of colors. They are all the best. 🙂

here come the poppies The rest of my current order from Heritage includes Agastache foeniculum Anise hyssop, Asclepias tuberosa Butterfly weed, and Boltonia asteroides False starwort, Bolton’s aster. The Butterfly weed is to encourage the monarch butterflies that still exist in our area, and it grows 2-3 feet tall. The hyssop blooms later in summer and is blue, when a lot of my late summer is orange and yellow. It grows 3-5 feet and does not require full sun AND the deer don’t like it. Given how often I’ve come home and found a handful of deer grazing on my neighbor’s lawn, I try to find things they DON’T like Chives wintered over (and hide the things they do like behind those). The Bolton’s Aster is new for me. I was intrigued by the description and height (6′): “cloud of profuse, spectacular small white daisies cover this 6 foot tall Midwestern native. Exceptional because it flowers in fall”. I’m not sure yet where to plant this. I think I may need to dig up some more of my lawn. 🙂

Soon. Soon. Soon. Digging in the dirt, removing the debris and weeds, preparing the beds. Soon.