Compost Happens

 My Sunday morning started off with a fine compost delivery! 

 It was a nice hot batch.  Look at the steam rising off of it.

Some of the compost got stuck in the corner, so the delivery driver helped scoop and shovel it out, while My Pirate supervised. 

This is what 7.5 yards of fine compost looks like in my driveway.  I have my work cut out for me this next month.  What on earth am I going to do with all of this, you ask?  I top dress my beds  and Victory Garden with two to three inches of compost every other year, to help my garden thrive. 

As I was taking pictures of the compost heap, a white haired gentleman out walking his aging poodle said with a dry laugh, "I see a whole pile of Aleve (pain reliever) there.  That’s what I see!" 

As he walked off chuckling to himself,  a blue mini van whipped up and a lady exclaimed with a smile, “Oh my!  You have a fun day ahead of you!  We’re doing it too on a smaller scale at our house.  You inspire us.”

Aleve and inspiration, that about sums it up.  Compost makes me and my garden happy.  Plus I get entertained by my neighbors' comments.  My spring training is underway.  If you need to reach me, you can find me out in the garden spreading compost.  And if you need some compost, I'm happy to share.

living poetry

Let yourself become living poetry. ~Rumi 

Sipping Chocolate

Today, my friend Cindy and I wrapped up our morning of plant shopping with a flight of sipping chocolate at Cacao.  The trio of flavors were dark chocolate, cinnamon, and spicy.  We both agreed that the cinnamon was our favorite...but that didn't stop us from enjoying the other two samples.

Then we explored the chocolate shop and I asked the clerk about chocolate.  He took me on a tour of his favorite chocolates.  I sampled a chocolate with bark pulp in it and it was fascinating.  I couldn't put my finger on the flavor until he described the last note of flavor as the astringency of walnuts. An accurate assessment.

 

As we finished sampling chocolate and picked out our purchases, a lovely euphoria washed over me. I splurged on a French chocolate bar and then we headed back home.   

My Victory Garden

Frog Prince on his kale throne

I hesitated for two years on building my Victory Garden because I was concerned that it would stick out like a sore thumb in my neighborhood of lawns and foundation plantings.  And it does. But I watched a growing outbreak of vegetable gardens the following year in my neighborhood.  Several neighbors have even mimicked the three raised beds in their front yards with varying results and follow through.  Everyone has an opinion to share on it.  Last year, the neighborhood association (surprisingly) gave me a thank you card for my nice yard, so it appears that the neighborhood has adjusted to my Victory Garden.

The parking strip is cleared and ready.

In the spring of 2009, I tore out my hell strip plantings and put in raised beds for a vegetable garden.  I stained green fir boards and we assembled the beds with deck screws.  When we laid them out front, I thought that they looked like coffins.  Ack!  

But, the raised beds looked better once we filled them with old compost from my two year old compost heap and I added the trellises. Each bed is 3 1/2 feet wide by fifteen feet long with brick pathways placed in-between. 

To answer the most common question that I receive--I found the trellises at 

Bi-Mart six years ago and I paid a total of $75 for them.

I filled the raised beds with herbs, vegetables, and flowers.

The Miscreants threw the trellis tops into the road, so we reattached the tops with gorilla glue

 and screws.  

I momentarily panicked when the gas company cut up the road to put in a new line.  But the guys placed sheets of plywood up against the garden to protect it from the dust.  I almost blew kisses at them.  

The garden filled in and we feasted.

We feasted on zucchini,

 6 kinds of eggplant,

scarlet runner beans,

 and 20 kinds of tomatoes.  Anyone who stopped to ask about the garden was handed tomatoes and cucumbers.  We just couldn't keep up with them.

Then, in the fall we cleared the beds.  

Only to start back up the next spring!

Victory Garden in spring of 2012 I'm so grateful that we built our Victory Garden.

cardoon

A Day Early

St. Pat's Meltdown

Every year, I make corned beef and cabbage to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.  And every year, I forget how long it takes to cook and we eat dinner after 8 o’clock at night.  My Pirate overlooks my silly tradition because I always make plenty for leftovers.  The day after St. Patrick’s Day is when our true feasting begins. 

We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day yesterday, unknowingly a whole day early, and it turned out great, because we started the real holiday with fantastic leftovers. I made a last minute creation that I call the St. Pat’s Meltdown.  We sipped our strong coffee while I fried eggs and toasted the leftover buttermilk biscuits topped with corned beef and cheese.  I slid it together in less than five minutes and we enjoyed our corned beef early (for the first time ever) on St. Patrick’s Day.  Cheers to you!

May your thoughts be as glad as the shamrocks. May your heart be as light as a song. May each day bring you bright, happy hours. That stay with you all the year long.  

St. Pat's Meltdown 

2 buttermilk biscuits—or substitute your favorite bread

1 pat of butter

left over corned beef, approximately 1 handful, rough chop

cheese, grated—I used extra sharp cheddar and gruyere

2 fried eggs seasoned with salt, pepper, and red cayenne

Turn your broiler on high.  Cut biscuits in half and spread butter on them.  Then, place the biscuits on a cookie sheet.  Heat the cut up corned beef briefly in the microwave. Mine took 30 seconds.  Then mound the corned beef on the bottom half of the biscuits.  Sprinkle the grated cheese on top.  Place under the red-hot broiler and watch the cheese melt.  Mine took about 2 minutes to melt.  Slide a fried egg on top of the melted goodness.  Serve.