It's finally October, and you know what that means? It means it's time for Pumpkin Kitty to make his debut.
And look at me here saying, "Finally October" when just two days ago at work, I muttered to no one in particular, "It's the last day of September already. Where has this year gone?"
My coworker overheard me and said, "I know, right?"
Nevertheless it is October, and Pumpkin Kitty is in the yard, and behind him I've got a second bluebonnet opening up.
Crazy, right? I'm not complaining. I'm just glad I've finally found a place where they'll grow.
Speaking of growing, look! My green onions are coming back!
I thought they'd died, but I guess I was wrong. I don't know what I'm going to do with them, though. I've still got so many onions in the freezer from last year. I guess I need to start cooking more, but tossing a Michelina's Microwaveable Macaroni into the nuke is so much easier, especially after a 12 hour shift in the factory.
Speaking of cooking, I decided this would be a cooking and baking weekend, and the first thing I was going to make would be my tomato soup. Funny thing is, I looked in my old faithful Better Homes and Betty Crocker cookbooks, and they didn't have a recipe for tomato soup that called for fresh tomatoes.
They both called for canned tomatoes or canned tomato sauce. Then I looked in my Little House cookbook, but I guess they didn't like tomatoes or something, because they didn't have a recipe for soup.
Internet to the rescue and soon I had a nice pot of tomato soup bubbling on the stove.
I wanted to make tomato basil soup, but this recipe didn't call for basil. No worries, I was going to add it anyway. Guess who forgot the basil?
Yep... I remembered about the time it was done. Eh, I added some anyway and simmered it another five minutes. Maybe it wasn't long enough for the flavor to infuse, because I couldn't really taste the basil when I had a bowl for lunch -- along with a grilled cheese sandwich. It was still good, though.
I made a right proper mess of my kitchen, but I have six pints of soup tucked away in the freezer, all ready for a chilly winter day. Tomorrow I want to make pumpkin soup, if I can find that good recipe I'd used last time...and the garlic I have in the freezer. Because I planted the leftover garlic I'd bought for the tomato soup. Right here where the rosemary used to be.
I know they say not to plant grocery store garlic, but the bulbs I'd looked at on line were too expensive for my blood. Burpee wanted $17 for four bulbs! I had seven cloves left after I made the soup, so I planted them and we shall see.
On a similar note, I think I may have messed up when I moved the rosemary. It's looking worse and worse by the day.
I've done some research, but haven't come up with any specific reason it could be dying. It's getting almost the same amount of sunlight, is in the same type of soil, and if anything, it's got better drainage than it had before. But it's not too dry. I checked. I'm going to keep on trying and hope it recovers, but if it doesn't, I'll buy a new one in the spring. I am bummed, though, that I might have killed this one. I don't like to kill anything.
Except fire ants. I'd wipe those suckers off the face of the earth if I could.
The lemon balm, on the other hand, seems to be recovering nicely.
It still looks a bit ragged, but it is late in the year after all. I'll trim all the dead stuff off once first frost hits and it'll be fine next spring.
The only other thing I did was to clean that massive pile of junk off my couch. To be honest, I stuffed most of it into the spare room to be dealt with later. Which I really need to do soon because that room is so cluttered I can hardly walk into it now. I did take the aquarium ornaments and put them into what will eventually be my toad garden.
I'd started to dig it up and get it prepped for spring, but the clay is still too hard. We're supposed to get a good amount of rain over the weekend, and had a nice shower this afternoon, so maybe that'll soften things up a bit.
And finally, be proud of me. I messaged a tree guy, and he's supposed to come tomorrow to look at my tree. If he shows up, and if he actually comes back to do the job, that's one more thing I can cross off my list. After being ghosted so many times, I don't cross anything off until the job is finished.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a pumpkin soup recipe to find.
Laters.
