Bec's Happybox

Things that are Pink

The cherry blossoms are pretty much done for the year.  I always find this slightly depressing, even though the apple blossoms are a nice consolation prize.  The elation of those weeks when everything is blooming...boy it can't be beat.  Behold, the roundest bunch of blossoms in the universe.  These are not from my tree, they're from a tree in Cherry Blossom Central, AKA James Bay.

These next two are from my tree, and were taken while I was having a little nighttime sitting-high-up-in-the-cherry-tree-time, an activity I highly recommend. 

This one is of my neighbours' tree, taken during a nighttime lying-on-my-back-on-my-neighbours'-wet-lawn session, another thing I find quite enjoyable. 

And now for some of the pink consolation prizes that will still be around, even after the cherries have stopped blooming.  Consolation prize number one: pink tulips.

Swooon, right?  Or how about these pink rhodos?

I was reading a garden book the other day and I came across the phrase "unsightly hodgepodge".  I realized today that my garden may qualify as an unsightly hodgepodge!  It is not simple, well-designed, or elegant.  It has all sorts of colours with no thought given to the overall plan.  But who cares when you have pink bleeding hearts?

This plant is really my baby this year, because when I planted it last year, it died immediately, and I was very sad and never expected to see it again.  But there it was a couple of months ago, poking out of the ground with insistence.  Now I won't have to twist Tobias' arm into letting me buy and plant a couple more this year.  He is not a happy camper when I buy (relatively) expensive plants and then kill them. 

Even pink things that are dying are nice, as evidenced by this little carpet of pink created by my camellia bush.

The aforementioned apple blossoms are pinkish, moreso before they've opened. 

Now I can't claim to have grown my new sparring boots, but I plan to do a lot of good work with them.  What do you think?  Intimidating?  Would you want to be kicked in the head with these boots?

Now there was one last thing that I wanted to include in this roundup of all things pink, but I just looked out the window and it's not there right now.  So watch this space for a pink thing that I promise will delight you.  Well, I guess if you hate pink, it may not.  Hint: it is not a pink bird.  Wouldn't that be something?

Kitchen inspiration, lack thereof

Last night I made steak bearnaise for dinner because a) I found a great steak at the grocery store which was marked both ORGANIC (green label) and REDUCED (red label) and b) the tarragon that Tobias is growing in his herb garden is crying out to be used, and what better way to use it than in a fatty, fatty sauce which one pours over a nice grilled hunk of red meat? 

Now I used to make steak bearnaise once every couple of months or so, and I didn't think it was a huge hassle.  But last night it took me forever.  Even just remembering where I keep the chervil and the tarragon vinegar was a chore.  I felt like a stranger in my own kitchen.  Which really hammers home the fact that I have not been doing much innovative cooking lately.  Cooking,  yes, because I have to feed all these people every day, but innovative cooking, no.  Nothing different or new.  I've resorted to burgers about once a week over the summer, and I don't mean interesting burgers either, just cheese, ketchup,  and mustard. 

The 100 new recipes category on this blog is feeling very neglected. 

Part of the reason I haven't felt like putting much thought into meals is because taking care of M'hijo can be all-encompassing.  I mentioned recently that he likes to go outside around the dinner-prep hour, which means that once I do get back in the kitchen, I'm in a rush to get something on the table.  The freedom to cook for an extended period and alone is a luxury I don't get much of these days.  Last night while I whisked the (half-pound!!) of butter into the bearnaise, Tobias held a tired and cranky M'hijo and eventually let him have a little cry in his crib.  It made the sauce seem not worth it.  (Luckily, this passed, and once we ate it, it was very, very worth it.)

The other thing that's hindered my enthusiasm is the season.  It sounds blasphemous to say it, but I'm really over summer food right now.  It's still hot out, but I don't want to eat barbecue, fresh, cheery salads, berry desserts, or anything cold, especially cold soups.  Insalata caprese I don't mind, and good thing, because Tobias' cherry tomatoes are still coming on strong and I have to eat my fair share (about a gazillion pounds). 

But other than tomatoes, summer food doesn't appeal.  What I do feel like is some chicken curry, pork stew, risotto, red cabbage.  Fall food = comfort food. 

So, I expect to stay in culinary limbo land for a few weeks while the weather is too warm to really justify cassoulet, but I just can't bring myself to eat anymore potato salad.  After that, we'll be on vacation anyway, and I'll be learning a whole new kind of cooking then: RV cooking. 

Here's one thing that does inspire me: Sahsez' pumpkins happen to be in the same patch with some sage that I planted a couple of years ago.  When I saw the two side by side, I instantly thought "Pumpkin ravioli with sage butter! Mmmm!"  So you see my tastebuds are really ready for some colder temperatures. 

The male has arrived

I know everyone is going to be just thrilled beyond belief to hear today's good news: the male downy has finally visited the feeder!  Isn't that wonderful?

(Okay, so probably I am the only one who cares about this, but lucky for me I control the content here.  Hooray!)

We've had a female downy woodpecker visiting our suet feeder for the last couple of  weeks.  Actually, I first saw her there the day after I bought a new type of food for the feeder.  So then I was all "Oh, that was a good idea buying that Cherry Treat, look, we've already attracted a new species with it!"  But then I realized I hadn't actually put the Cherry Treat in the feeder yet, and it was still the same old Peanut Treat that the downy had come for, so nevermind. 

She is about twice as big as all the other birds who use the feeder, so it's pretty easy to tell when she's around.  The feeder is on the back porch, and I usually leave the kitchen window open so when the downy arrives, with her huge chirps, I can hear her, even in the bedroom. 

She is pretty skittish though, so I haven't gone out onto the porch and watched her from there.  The chickadees, nuthatches and bushtits are so tame that I can get within a couple of feet of them and they hardly seem to notice.  But the female downy won't even let me open the kitchen door before she flits off. 

Anyway, I've been wondering when her partner was going to show up, and hoping it was soon since males are prettier to look at than females.  Then this morning I spotted him high up in a tree in the yard, and thought today might be the day.   And it was! 

He is even more skittish than the female, though, and flew off when I closed the cutlery drawer too loudly in the kitchen, so no photo ops yet.  But if you're interested, check out this video on Alan's Birdcam Blog of a female downy feeding a juvenile.  Aside from the feeding part, this video exactly recreates what's going on at my porch feeder. 

Outdoorsman

M'hijo is a pretty cheerful baby, but there are times when he gets cranky for no reason.  Lately he's
been doing a less traumatic version of the witching hour.  When he was a newborn, he got
inexplicably cranky at around 4pm every day, or was it 5?  I can't remember exactly but he would
get very upset and need total attention from me, handily just when I should have been getting
dinner together! 

The last couple of weeks he's been doing the same thing, on a smaller scale (newborns are
way more dramatic) and the only thing for it is to take him outside.  Nothing you can do inside,
short of maybe reading him some books or nursing him, is going to appease.  But if I take him
out of doors, he's immediately happy.  He'll sit on the grass and coo and contemplate the universe
forever.  When he was younger I worried about him eating grass and sucking on sticks, but now I don't.

Even if he does munch down the odd blade, he doesn't choke on anything anymore, so I'm not
concerned. 

The great thing about this is that it gives me time to water and do some gardening every day. 
My mom says "That boy is a good Mexican" about his fascination with running water.  I don't know
what this has to do with his Mexican heritage, but I'll take it! 

If I'm wrapped up with inside activities, I might not get around to watering or deadheading, or
weeding, or what have you, every day, especially in August, but with M'hijo insisting on going outside
in the late afternoon, I get to putter to my heart's content. 

Last Day of Spring Garden Update

A big part of why I haven't been blogging much lately is that the garden is taking up lots of my time.  It's ramping down a bit now that the weeds are somewhat under control, the fertilizing is done for the time being, and we've imposed a moratorium on planting.  It's mostly just watering and light weeding now.  But what takes up the most time is the touring.  At this time of year, I don't let a day pass without a careful inspection tour of both the front and back gardens.  If I do, I might miss a day lily blooming, or let a slug get a strawberry before I notice it's ready.  Or I might not have known that the jack-in-the-pulpits finally opened this morning.

There are at least a half dozen more blooms on that plant.  It's going to be fun watching them open over the next month or so.

As you can tell by my banner image, lilies are my favourite flowers.  Last year, I was whining about a deadline in my numerical methods class and the prof said "Well, I might be a bit more sympathetic if you hadn't had a full three weeks to work on this assignment."

I looked at him incredulously and replied, "Yes, three weeks during lily season!"

That was bollocks though, because the lilies take the least work of any flower in the yard.   All I have to do is keep a mental note of where they are in the yard (we have about a dozen scattered all over) so that I don't yank them out by mistake.  I don't feed or water them.  I weed a bit, but only if I feel like it.  They will bloom if I don't weed around them. 

This is probably part of why I like them.  I like low-maintenance humans too.  Friendships that require a lot of upkeep don't last long with me.  I end up resenting the other person too much.  Sort of the way I resent the roses.  The amount of thought that goes into their care is so much more than any other plant we have.  It never seems worth all the pruning, drip-watering, feeding, garlic planting, and just general fretting.  I'm hoping once they're all better established this nonsense will stop.  I was ready to pack it all in last week.  But then two big pink beauties opened up and, well, maybe it's worth it after all. 

Like the lilies, the bell flowers require next to nothing from me.  All I have to do is make sure to show everyone what their greenery looks like around mid-spring to make sure no one weeds them.  One of my biggest problems as a novice gardener is weeding things I later realize I shouldn't have.  Like foxglove.  And, (SOB!), poppies.  I don't want to talk about the poppies.  It wasn't until I saw the plant at the nursery, for eight bucks, that I realized that I had yanked out the flower that I most wished was growing in my yard. 

The cutest thing in the garden right now has to be the grapes.  They are so teeny.

Macro shot:

Micro shot:

The daisies have seemed ready to burst for weeks, but they still haven't.  The feverfew more than makes up for the daisies' timidity.

Sassy's little people have been fiddling and boozing late into the night lately and haven't been taking much care of their yard.  They did some renos, adding a window, but it wasn't very well installed.  If they're not careful, they're going to negatively impact property values around here and raise the ire of their neighbours.  The fir tree is already getting a bit pissed off. 

Finally, the biggest surprise in the garden for me is the rejuvenation of my old, pathetic mint plant.  I've had the same mint plant in the same pot for four or five years, and it's never given me much yield.  One batch of mint salsa for lamb chops decimates it for months.  Tobias asked if he could transplant it into his new herb garden.  I was skeptical but let him do it.  It was the right choice.  The mint has never been happier and it's actually behaving like a proper mint plant, threatening to impede the growth of all the other herbs.  I'm so proud of it. 

As for the two bird families we hosted this spring, the nuthatches have left, but the bloody house sparrows are still around.  Thank heavens their loud babies flew away several weeks ago.  But Pinta and Perman, as Sahsez named the mom and dad, show no signs of leaving.  In fact, Pinta keeps bringing more and more buildling material into the birdhouse.  Does she have MORE eggs in there?  I want to evict these guys, because they are so aggressive to any other birds that visit the yard.  Chickadees, warblers, bushtits, and towhees all land in the sparrows' tree, and all are threatened loudly until they leave. 

The nuthatches, despite their size (teeny), can also be very rude.  When the nuthatch dad got stressed, such as when Blackberry was attempting to reach the nest, he made an amazing amount of noise.  I once saw him harrass and bully a towhee (about three times his size) until the towhee finally left the yard.  Perman (male house sparrow) gave him a hand in this as well. 

Nice to see that cooperation between the backyard bird families, but I'd just as soon not have sparrows next year.  I'd like to make the door to the birdhouse smaller to try to attract tree swallows instead.  That is, if Perman and Pinta ever move on.  They seem to get more and more settled with each passing day. 

Things that are Growing

M'hijo, Obviously

Ever since I posted about how he hadn't done anything yet, he started doing things.  He now grabs everything in sight, all the time.  If I put his soother in my mouth, he will take it out of my mouth and put it into his mouth.  He grabs my face to gives me kisses.  He grabs toys and stuffed animals and pens;  people's hair and earrings; blankets.  And everything goes in his mouth.  My dad likes to nod his head sagely and say "Oral obsession." 

And look, he can even stand now!  (Not really). 

Miracle Gro (TM) Basil

As I was telling Jessie, I have little luck growing basil.  I have killed more basil plants than I care to admit.  Yet I keep buying new ones, in the hopes that somehow, magically, my luck will improve.  Last week, I started a little experiment.  I planted two basil plants in terracotta pots on my kitchen windowsill, putting Miracle Gro in just one of the pots.  After a week, they look remarkably different.  I will now put some Miracle Gro in the ones I planted outside.  (As you see, I am not an organic gardener).

The sparrow babies

I first realized that the sparrow babies had hatched when I hit my head on the birdhouse last Thursday and they starting chirping their cute, teeny little chirps.  I made everyone stand under the house and listen to them.  Like M'hijo, whose adorable gurgling and cooing has morphed into a sometimes-annoying shriek, the baby sparrows now fill the backyard with a cacophony that can be very distracting!  Especially if one is cramming for a book club meeting in 48 hours.   

The grass

I swear my lawn requires a minimum of twice-weekly cutting this time of year.  Unfortunately, it doesn't get twice-weekly cutting.  So when we do cut it, it takes forever, and the result in not so good.  My neighbour honestly believes that women are incapable of properly cutting grass, which is false, but he might be right about weedeating.  I recently tried my hand at it, and I suck.  I did the worst hack job on the edging in the front yard, and I am afraid to take the weedeater to the back, which is so much prettier.  Damn grass. 

And one thing that is Shrinking: ME!

Today I reached my pre-pregnancy weight.  Oh happy day.  Now for some clothes shopping. 

Bec to Backyard Birds: I've got your number

I went Bolen a few days ago to look through the bird books and try to figure out what type of birds are nesting in my nearly-dead cherry tree this spring.  This is the third such trip I've made and so far I've had no luck in determining the breed (is breed the right word?).  Finally, in the most recent search, I found them.