Today was one of those days where there isn't a word in the English language that adequately describes how beautiful it was. Breezy, sunny, and a perfect 75°. I call them Robert Spaulding's Wife days. I was able to keep the doors and windows open all day and get some much needed fresh air into this house.
Before I get into today's news, I wanted to show you this:
I joined the third color into my Demeter Fade hat last night, and am plugging away at it. I really wish I'd taken a photo of her sample, just to have a reference. Even so, I think mine is looking pretty good.
Yarn: Jem Luxe Fibers
Colorway: Demeter Fade Minis
Pattern: I'm making it up as I go
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm
OK, moving right along. I got up this morning and went to the store to get my weekly shopping done. I'm telling you, early Saturday morning is the best time to go. There is hardly anyone up in that Walmart.
As is my custom, the first place I went was into the garden center, and as I expected, they didn't have any flower pots, so I was unable to get a smaller pot for Gloria. I thought about putting her into one of the temporary pots that you get when you buy plants, but I decided to wait until after Christmas to try to repot her. when they start putting the gardening stuff back out. That's the recommended time frame anyway, so it'll be for the best.
They actually had a couple of Christmas cacti with the pale cream blooms, and I thought about buying one, but didn't. Maybe if Gloria finally succumbs to my ill treatment of her, I'll get one next year. What they didn't have was any more rosemary plants. They'd had some last week, and I started to get one, but didn't. Now, I wish I had, because they apparently sold them, or they died.
No matter. After asking Grok, I discovered that you can in fact, propagate rosemary from a cutting. As soon as I got home, that's exactly what I did. I took a cutting and put it into a seed starting pot.
I plan on keeping it inside the house over the winter, and if it works, by spring it ought to have enough root structure that I can plant it in my outside bed, right along side the plant from which I took the cutting.
The last thing I bought -- from the garden center, I mean -- was a couple more bags of dirt, which was enough to fill up the last of my raised beds.
They've taken the freeze out of our forecast, at least for the time being. They were predicting upper 20s by Thanksgiving. Now they're saying mid 30s. That being said, I took a chance and planted my French Tarragon into that spot.
I was able to get it out of its pot in a solid chunk of soil, with minimal disturbance to the roots, so hopefully it'll do OK. I think I'll probably cover it with a bucket anyway before that frost, just to be on the safe side. I'll also have to remember to bring my plants in from the back porch before I go to Cody and Brennan's house.
Heh, I was just thinking that one nice thing about not hosting Thanksgiving is not having to get the house company clean. I can leave it everyday clean all the way up until Christmas now.
Speaking of predictions, that five straight days of rain they were talking about has all gone around us. It's rained to the north. It's rained to the south, but we haven't gotten anything but a drizzle. I checked my bucket this morning, and the bottom wasn't even damp. I only know it rained at all because I heard it hitting the leaves when I shut the door before going to bed. They're still saying we'll have a better chance for rain Monday night into Tuesday. I hope it comes through this time. We're still in drought conditions and desperately need it.
But I digress...
I'm going to try to get the plastic barrier stuff I bought put into the oregano/tarragon bed sometime soon, but in the meantime, I remembered I had this stuff.
It's supposed to be to spray on your furniture to discourage cats from scratching, so I thought heck, maybe it'll also discourage her from peeing in my garden beds. It's made from water, lemon oil, and eucalyptus oil so it ought to be safe for my plants. Even so, I tried to avoid spraying them directly, and sprayed the dirt around them. I also sprayed the edges of the beds pretty heavily. I'm hoping that'll be enough to keep her out of them until I can figure something else out.
The only other thing I had planned on doing today was to start putting out my Christmas decorations, but I'm just not feeling it. I dragged all of my boxes into the house, except for the tree, and there they sit.
While I was in the shed, I got my new ladder out, climbed up onto the roof, and ran that chimney brush up and down my chimney a few times. That's one more thing I can cross off of my list, which now looks like this.
By the way, I had my phone in my pocket, and if I had fallen and broken my neck, Edna, I was going to call you to come rescue me! Fortunately, nothing untoward happened, though getting back onto the ladder was where I was the shakiest.
Somehow, your brain knows when your body is getting too old for this.
The trick is to listen to it.
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