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Here it is cold and rainy and blergggghhh (that's a fancy technical weather term, don't try and understand) but spring is trying! Really!
Cherry trees on my walk into my office.
A little robin who is all like, "I migrated for this? WTF?"
Speaking of birdies, my fat jar was full of leftover fat in the fridge, so I made suet the other day since the weather was turning cold and I'm trying to make my backyard the most bangin'est birdy hangout around.
Start with melting leftover fat in a saucepan until it liquefies completely.
Stir in natural peanut butter, cornmeal, rolled oats, leftover nuts if you have them (but they are so daggone expensive, who can afford this?), dried fruit, and cheap birdseed. I bought some birdseed at Acme that the birds completely shunned, but they have wolfed it down if I include it in suet. Mix thoroughly, then cool and package.
Package?
Yes, in these - leftover berry containers
Just line them with plastic wrap or wax paper (so the suet doesn't leak out of the holes in the bottom) fill them with suet,
wrap the plastic wrap over the suet, and snap the container shut. I usually stick mine in the freezer until I'm ready to use them. This container makes them the perfect size and shape for any standard suet cage.
Remember my post about my backyard flooding issue and the rain gardens? While trying to find out more about local native plants, I stumbled across a state-sponsored website with a "Backyard Wildlife Habitat" program. They have a checklist of requirements for your backyard (native plants, no fertilizer or pesticide, rain barrel, compost bin, etc.) all of which we meet, except that they ask that you have a rain garden to manage runoff from your yard. Yes!! They will even send someone out from the Cooperative Extension to survey your backyard and discuss plantings with you. The Mister is already bemoaning the fate of this individual, who I may very well talk into a coma :-)
Yes, I KNOW it was in retrograde, no mistaking that fact yesterday. Yesterday was a day of a whole bunch of little things going wrong, things you feel bad complaining about when there are worse things in the world, like earthquakes and hunger and Snooki. But equally frustrating, nonetheless.
First my bitchy aunt who swings by once a month made an appearance. Then we were out of soy milk for my coffee, so I had to have cows milk which tastes awful to me. Every single outfit I put on either looked like I was a broken-down hooker or like I had rolled in the donation bin at Salvation Army and come out with anything that stuck to me on. (no offense to Salvation Army) I got to work and realized something that I was supposed to arrange last week had totally slipped my mind, and straightaway got railed at by my boss. My boss is Chinese - he is a very nice man, but hygiene is not high on his list of priorities. He routinely comes out of his office (which smells so bad I avoid going in there at all costs) with food in his mouth and talks to me, which is one of my pet peeves. I am working with one of his grad students to plan an event we are holding in a few days, and yesterday we made a sight visit to meet with the conference staff. "We can go in my car" he said.
Oh please no. No, no, no.
It looked innocent enough from the outside - your standard minivan. Then the door slid open ... wood. Why was there random pieces of wood in his car? And then ... stains. Stains everywhere. Food everywhere. I fought down a gag and mentally reminded myself I made it through 13 hours of labor, I can make it through a 10 minute car ride. I got in while trying desperately to avoid touching any surfaces, pulled my coat around me and perched gingerly on the edge of the seat. Goddess help me, I refused to put on a seat belt to avoid yet another filth-covered surface.
Then I spotted it. I pulled out my phone and texted my friend, who knows about Dirty Boss:
"In ***'s car and there's a FUCKING DIRTY BRA ON THE FLOOR!!!"
She, being a compassionate individual, texted back that I made her day, then reminded me that it was conceivable that him and his equally dirty wife had knocked boots in this very car. Gag.
Somehow I made it through the meeting and the car ride back, and the minute I got out of the car decided that us being broke notwithstanding, I was treating myself to an overpriced Cosi salad. As I reminded the Mister when I called him to relay my ordeal, I may have just contracted meningitis and this may very well be my last meal.
Of course I ran into two faculty on my way back into the building who absolutely had to stop me and talk (hello douchenozzles - I am lowly staff and I do have a limited lunch break) then finally, FINALLY made it back to my desk.
Pandora Adele station on ... fancy crusty bread .... water bottle full ... and my salad. My beautiful, yummy salad - wait. What the hell?!?!!
They forgot my dressing.
I'm stopping for wine on the way home.
It was one of those moments you just look at someone and think, "Who ARE you?"
The Mister and I were watching TV after the kids went to bed the other night and catching up. I was telling him about a woman in one of my online mom's groups who's husband should be shot, period. This woman works full time and also takes care of her entire house by herself, takes care of both kids, volunteers - you name it. Her husband works, comes home, and sits on the couch. Every weekend (and sometimes during the week) he goes out with his drinkin' buddies and stays out late. She says the last time she got out of the house on a weekend was her sister's birthday, which she had to ASK PERMISSION TO ATTEND, and before she left she had to cook a full meal, feed the kids, bathe them and get them ready for bed so this dork could just look at them at some point and say, "Go to bed".
The thing that got to me most about her story was this - her mother told her "As long as he has a job and he doesn't hit you, you can't complain"
Bull. Fucking. Shit.
Since the Mister is the antithesis of this loser, I was expecting him to be as horrified about this as I was. When I had finished ranting he said, "Well, if that's what she's grown up with then she doesn't expect any different. You forget women haven't been liberated that long."
"Ummm, women got the right to vote in the 20's, and the womens lib. movement was in the 70's. You're saying it's acceptable that we're being treated like doormats, STILL, 30 years later?"
"I'm just saying that some women are okay with it. It's not the norm yet."
"So it will be okay if our girls marry someone who treats them like this?"
"No, of course not. Of course I want better for them. Sometimes, though, it's just the way it is"
NononononononononoNONONONO!!!
I fumed for the rest of the night. I could not believe he wasn't as outraged as I was. I couldn't believe the minute the doctor said "It's a girl" his outlook had not changed. We talked about it when he called me this morning and we're still butting head over it - he says I'm taking sides in a non-existent argument, I say he is perpetuating this fuckery and he needs to change his way of thinking. I even dragged the "S" word into it, and I stand by it. It took one person who was NOT a slave to see slavery as an evil and wrong practice to start to change the world's thinking on it. And I say it takes men not afraid to say that treating a woman like a second-class citizen is absolutely reprehensible. The quote that kept floating back to me was one of my favorites, by Anais Nin:
"I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naive or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman."
I say it takes a lion of a man to love a strong woman. Expect to see more of this on my guest post on Willow's blog tomorrow, at Confessions Of A Country Witch.
Seriously, Mother Nature? You and I have always been such friends. I particularly enjoy your summer thunderstorms and the hush of snow falling. But frost? After my hyacinths have bloomed? And what is that white stuff drifting across the forecast for Sunday?
Poor hyacinths. They no likey the frost.
In happier news, remember my little chickadee I scored at Goodwill, and the other birdies I was kicking myself for not picking up?
Ta-da! The pileated woodpecker and blue jay were there yesterday. When I got home I decided to look the company up and see what other birds they made - I want a cardinal, since they always remind me of my Grammom. I cannot find a listing for the company anywhere (it is called On Nature's Wing), but I did find a cardinal that was listed for $20! Mine were $3 a pop!! Here are close ups:
Here is my spring altar. I use my windowsill over my kitchen sink, as you can see the sun rises through it every morning. Also here are an antler that Zacky found in the woods, the photo cube of our family Mooch had to do for school that I love, some shells and rocks in a little basket, my mini African violet, my novena candle, and a beautiful amber colored wineglass I found at Salvation Army for 25 cents. In it is one of my first hyacinth blooms.
Nydia is incredibly talented, a link to her Etsy shop is on her blog, Bringing Up Salamanders , and today one of her bee-yo-tiful key rings is the giveaway on Confessions Of A Country Witch!
Here it is, but don't get your heart set on it because it is MINE!!!
Are you following Willow yet? If not, get on that!
I thought I'd show you all the beginnings of spring in our neck of the woods.
These mini daffodils are unfortunately right where the new garden will go, so they will have to be moved. Those are oriental lillies coming up behind them.
Our magnolia is getting ready to bloom! Yeah!!
Buds are out on both hydrangeas.
New bud, old bloom.
My lamb's ears are sprouting up again. These get huge in the summer, with purple flower spikes that the bees love.
Hyacinths are starting to bloom - these are interspersed with iris, and I can't WAIT until they bloom this year. They are transplants from my mom's house, and it takes iris a year of being transplanted to re-bloom.
And since Colleen reminded me, my To Do list is getting two items crossed off!
This is the girls' little outdoor bench. I sanded and stained it, then coated all the wrought iron with Rustoleum. Ta-daa!!!
And here is my little lilac bush in its new location, where it gets much more sun. I love lilacs ... I may get another one to put next to it (Shhh, don't tell Mister)
Everything I have read about transplanting lilacs says to never do it in the spring, wait until fall to avoid them getting dried out. Well our yard is verrrrrry wet, so I moved it and went out a day later and it was happy as could be and covered in buds. So there.
Speaking of my very wet yard,
One of my favorite blogs in the blogosphere, Octoberfarm, features all of Jaz' amazing thrift store finds, and I thought I'd take a cue and show off a few of my most recent purchases. All were bought at Goodwill - the Mister says I have an addiction - but I love that I can get my shopping fix for under $10.
A little mini chiminea, with it's own stand. This was $3. I may try to burn some incense in here with a little bit of self-starting charcoal, or just find a pretty candle for it.
Cool little candle holder, $2.
This little bird was $3, and it's tiny but beautiful. They also had a blue jay, a pileated woodpecker, and a robin - but this one was my favorite. I'm hoping there are some left come payday so I can go pick some more up!
Speaking of payday ... we all go through financial crunches, and due to having to have some work done on our car, paying off a loan, etc. we are without a lot of extra cash right now. I'm taking this as an opportunity to remind myself to consume less and use more.
I really wanted to blow out eggs and make quiche with the girls the other day, but I got home to 3 eggs and I didn't feel like going out for more, so I improvised.
I defrosted two chicken breasts (we buy them in bulk at BJ's) and marinated them in leftover buttermilk and rosemary snipped off my hedge.
After about an hour I preheated the oven to 350, then took the chicken breasts and cut a slit in them, then stuffed them with baby spinach and mozzarella. Then I coated them in panko bread crumbs and crushed a clove of garlic over each.
I baked them for around an hour. They came out really, really good - although if you use as much garlic as I did, be warned - it was intense!
Speaking of the eggs that didn't get blown out, I did dig out previous years' eggs and put together my little wreath.
I started with a grapevine wreath I got at Goodwill for $1 a long time ago, which I had glued these little pods onto to look like flowers. This was one of those projects that sounded good in my head, but I didn't like the way it turned out - so I had stuck it in the garage and forgot about it, until I thought of the wreath-egg project.
I used a hot glue gun to attach the eggs.
When I attached the first few I thought, "Meh" but I love the way it turned out. It's hanging on our front door, with our hyacinths blooming in the beds on either side.
This egg we dyed last year by laying a fern leaf on it, wrapping it in old pantyhose, and boiling it in a pot with onion skins. I love this effect!
Be well.
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