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One of Those Weeks

Time to indulge in some old-school blog kvetching. Because it’s just been one of those weeks.

Last weekend, a big snowstorm was predicted for Sunday. Sunday is usually our grocery shopping day — kind of a holdover from our years of dating, before we moved in together, when we’d both go to the store in Aaron’s car and buy separate groceries at the same time. It just works out best that way now — he does grocery shopping while I stay home and do laundry while Connor naps (hopefully).

At any rate, with all that snow coming on Super Bowl Sunday, we decided to switch up our normal routine and do shopping early. We are creatures of habit in a big way (despite craving some difference in the routine sometimes, which is funny), so that really threw us off.

Then we got the predicted foot of snow, and my work was cancelled for Monday, and Aaron called off, too, after he had to snowblow the driveway twice on Sunday and one more time on Monday. Connor’s appointment with the Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor was cancelled due to the snow emergency, and his preschool was closed. I guess the upshot of the snow day was getting to revisit some old family favorite recipes, since we normally go out at least once for lunch or dinner.

Wednesdays are always a “Daddy Day,” where Connor doesn’t go to preschool and stays home with Aaron. On those days, Aaron sorely needs Connor to take a nap, since he needs one, too. He didn’t really get much of one, thanks to Connor’s near-nap-strike and resultant Very Late Nap, so add another tally mark to the Crappy Week list.

Also, our Amazon stuff didn’t get delivered on Wednesday because the UPS truck got stuck across the street about the time I got home from work, and I guess he decided to just call it a day once he got unstuck.

gutterAaron called me at work on Thursday afternoon, which he only does if something epic is happening. He had been in the kitchen and “heard a sound like the end of the world,” then looked out the window to see that the second-floor gutter had been ripped off the house by ice. Fantastic. We talked it out — he was a little freaked, and rightly so — and he started a claim with our homeowner’s insurance after we hung up.

I’m pretty sure the falling ice damaged my Japanese maple, but I won’t know for sure until the thaw.

But wait, there’s more!  Continue reading →

bloom day 2 Comments

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day: January 2015

I always forget what USDA Zone I’m in, and I have to look it up, because I’m right on the border of 6a/6b. Technically, I’m in Zone 6a (Average Minimum Temperature -10F to -5F), but a mile and a half east of my house is a pocket of Zone 6b that borders Lake Erie. So, we’ll call it 6a/6b.

At any rate, everything outside is sleeping under a (relatively) fresh blanket of snow. As I mentioned last month, a few plants are evergreen, like the yucca and the yews and the arborvitae (of course) and the lamiums and pachysandra (under all the snow), but nothing is in bloom. For that, we look indoors.

About two weeks ago, on a balmy 36-degree day, I cut some forsythia branches for forcing. Today, they’re unfurling their cheery yellow blooms in my dining room.

Forsythia

 

Even the small lower branches that I removed from the larger ones and decided to force in a much smaller container are now brightening up my kitchen windowsill! (I wasn’t sure how that would work out.)

Small Forsythia

 

The Christmas poinsettia is still looking mighty nice. I accidentally killed last year’s poinsettia by following some instructions I found online to help it properly go dormant, wake back up, get bushy, and turn red again at the right time. I’m considering just treating this one like a regular houseplant like my in-laws used to do, and not putting it in dormancy in the garage or drastically cutting it back. I’ve been giving it deep drinks of water every other day or so, and hitting it with the mister, and it seems to be pretty happy.

Poinsettia

 

While my grape hyacinths (muscari) and pink hyacinths haven’t bloomed yet, most of them seem to be faring well so far. I have four small containers of bulbs forcing in gravel and water; some foliage is wiltier than others, but I’ve only had a couple of bulbs completely fail to thrive. (Not bad, considering that I dug them up from what will soon be my herb garden, and just left the bulbs sitting in an old plastic pot in the garage for a few months.)

This was my first attempt at forcing bulbs, so now I have an idea of what containers work best, how close together to place the bulbs, when to start them (earlier than I thought!), and where in my house to keep them. (A dark spot in the unheated sunroom is OK until the outside temps get below freezing; then the basement is a good spot, as long as I remember to water them…)

Muscari (Grape Hyacinth)

 

I’m so grateful for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day! It keeps me from pining for the days of Spring and making grandiose plans that I may or may not manage to fulfill. Instead, I can focus on having blooms every month of the year!