Catching up

Hello, I'm still here. As usual, blogging has fallen to the bottom of my list. But here's a few random tidbits from life to catch you up.

I got involved with my sorority alumni group here. Based on my experience with the group in Georgia, I thought it would just be going to movies, meeting up for drinks and dinner, etc. Basically, a way to have a social life in a new city. Not so with this group. Eight of us just organized and hosted what turned out to be a huge event (almost 400 people) for chapters in our region. I ran around like a crazy person on Saturday keeping the event going. While I enjoyed helping out, I was reminded that event planning is not my thing. But if you ever need to hire an event planner, ask if they were in a sorority because those girls are organized, creative and efficient. I also came back with more sorority stuff than I need at this point in my life.

I finished Beth Moore's James study. I hope to have a real post on that soon.

I am also very close to being done with the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts and definitely plan to blog about it. It is a fascinating book especially if you are interested in the introvert/extrovert dynamic.

I just have one more week of GRE class, and I take the exam three weeks from Friday. I am just ready to have this behind me.

And one more thing that's almost done: The semester! Just three more weeks. Now that I know I'm staying, I am ready for this semester to end and hit reset on everything. It's been a rough few weeks, and I'm ready for the switchover. The end of the semester also means I'm that much closer to my trip to Ireland and London. 

The garden has been tilled, though I don't get any credit for that. I'm going to pick out plants and get them in the ground next weekend. A groundhog and three deer were in my yard this evening, so even if I can keep the plants alive, keeping the critters out is going to be a challenge.

And remember this post? Yeah, it actually worked, so I've been pretty distracted lately if you can't tell. He also gets the credit for tilling the garden and allowing me to cancel my lawn service.

Perhaps a garden

Spring has been in full swing here for a few weeks now. I am very grateful for the mild winter and the warm weather and long days we're having now. Though I'm slightly concerned that if it's 90 degrees in April, it's going to be miserable here in July. But regardless...

In a rental house, spring is when you discover things like bulbs that were planted by the tenants before you and the amount of weeds covering the yard. I also discovered that someone before me had a garden in the back yard:

So I am considering planting my own. No, this is not a delayed April Fool's joke. I know I couldn't even keep herbs alive in a window box last year, and I'm definitely wary.

But I'm told the soil in my backyard is good and anything would grow in it. I am suddenly surrounded by some expert gardeners, and someone is willing to help me.

I don't need a big garden with a lot of stuff, but it'd be nice to have my own supply of zucchini and tomatoes and maybe some basil. More to come on this, I'm sure...

Raccoon update and a garden

I've been afraid to actually write this because I thought I might be jinxing it, but it's been more than a week and I feel like it's true: The raccoon and her babies are gone. I haven't heard any scratching in a long time and there have been no sightings. I'll probably never know if she left on her own or because of the chemical they used. I laughed pretty hard when I saw the new Allstate commercial; I think it wraps up the whole saga pretty well.

Even in the midst of the raccoon saga, I really love the apartment I have. But one of the things you notice is that the when the house was renovated the money was spent on the inside, not the outside, which I do appreciate. However, I almost chickened out when I saw the porch that looks like it could fall off at any moment, and the backyard seemed to be where lawn tools came to die. The porch is still in bad shape, though I see it as charming instead of ghetto now. But the backyard has been transformed into an actual garden with beautiful flowers and a variety of vegetables -- tomatoes, squash, broccoli, cucumbers. A few pictures:

Of course this was transformed without any help from me. The guy who takes care of the house did all the work, and it is pretty amazing. I can enjoy it from my back deck and not feel like I live in the city. This week I noticed that several of the vegetables were ripe for picking, but no one seemed to be harvesting anything from the garden. Despite the story of the little red hen playing in my head all week, on Sunday night I broke down and picked a tomato to put on my pizza. I'm hoping to get some in my share this week, so I'm not tempted to "borrow" anymore!

I think I'm actually looking forward to this week, even though it will be busy at work, I have some fun things planned in the evenings and for the weekend.

Herb garden

First of all, it is spring, and there are beautiful tulips all over town. I am loving seeing everything in bloom and the warm weather is amazing.

Back to the topic of this post. I’ve never had much of a green thumb or even really cared that much about keeping a plant alive to begin with. When I moved into my dorm room, my mom bought me a plant, apparently to make it seem a little less like a freshman dorm room. It was dead a week later, and I let it sit on a shelf for the rest of the year before throwing it out just before I moved out.

But one of my favorite recipes is my mom’s tomato basil soup (I’ll post the recipe soon), which of course requires basil. Buying basil at the grocery store is not cheap, and I never used it all before it went bad, you’ll notice that that is a theme for me. So when I was in Georgia, I decided to grow some basil on my small porch. And it was amazing. It actually grew, and even when it looked dead, I could water it and it would come back to life. Nothing I did or didn’t do killed it.

Not long after I moved I set up my pot with basil on my deck and expected immediate growth. Since it was actually outside I figured the rain would water it for me, and I wouldn’t have to think about it. But my placement was a bit off because I actually had the pot underneath the roof overhang and gutters, so it got little to no water. And it was pretty much in the shade 90% of the time, which didn’t help the situation either. After an incident with the leaf blower, there was no chance of bringing this basil back to life.

This spring I have decided to take a new approach and bought a planter that would hang over the railing of the deck in the sun and be free to get some rain. 

Saturday is market day in my town (add that to the list of reasons why I love living here), and I headed over this weekend to pick up some herbs. 

I expanded my selection from just basil and bought some rosemary, thyme and parsley. Assuming I can keep them alive, I will have a selection of fresh herbs to add to my dishes.

Do you have a herb garden? And is there anything I should know about growing the rosemary, parsley or thyme?