It's that day

A day that I look forward to and a day I dread at the same time. It's the day the air conditioner is turned on. This is about typical, but it means spring is certainly over. There may still be a few days we can open the windows up and not be uncomfortable, but not many. We have enjoyed weeks with the windows open which is great for the electric bill, not so great for my allergies though. So I like the cheapness of having the windows open, but dislike the way it makes me feel. Consequently, I dislike this day since the a/c is an electricity hog, and like this day as it will make it much easier to breath. 

Strawberries

Garden Update - Lady Banks Rose

This is again, like the wisteria, one of those plants that doesn't do much for most of the year, but in the few weeks that it does - good lord, it's just amazing. Thankfully, this rose graces the front of my house and as we're just coming out of winter, every day that I see it, it makes me smile. Damn skippy, spring is here. Lady Banks will hang out for a few weeks, but they are the weeks that somehow I need it to be here - that transition from winter to spring - real spring - not that got cha moment that we have in February. So here it is, my Lady Banks - she's mess, but she makes me happy every March. 

Ain't she a beauty?

Thankfully no thorns.

Window from the exterior

Window from the interior - pretty cool

Garden Update - Wisteria

Boy, March is such an interesting month in the garden. Everything takes off. Leaves sprouting, bulbs blooming, everything getting greener. Here is an example. On March 14th the wisteria was just in buds and then by the time I returned from my work trip - guess what, the blooms had started.

Wisteria buds - 14 Mar

It seems one day the buds just appear - like out of no where. It's pretty cool really, but it will only get better as time goes on, and my sneezing will get worse, but I'll gladly pay that price for open windows and flowers blooming. When the cluster of flowers start to open it's well worth the show. This is what reminds you why it's worth it to keep the plant around all year just for these few weeks.
Besides that, it's damn near impossible to kill the thing. This vine was in a pine tree that was taken out by Hurricane Ivan (2005) and even though we had the stump ground and I expected the wisteria to be a casualty of the grinding too - nope, not to be, happily for me. We have had to give it something to grow on though. It has a re-bar frame underneath everything that you can only see in the depth of winter. It's my version of sculpture. It's pretty cool.

Wisteria bloom - 19 Mar

Wisteria from bud to bloom 

Wisteria

Weather today:Temp: 79˚

Humidity: 48%, breezy and lovely.

Cook's Illustrated - March & April 2011

Why is it magazines always arrive weeks ahead of their dates? I received the March & April 2011 edition of Cook's Illustrated weeks ago. I don't get it, but I also don't get why you receive a renewal bill a year in advance either - I won't pay one more than three months out - it seems like a racket to me.  But I'm me, so no big surprise there.

So I love to go through anything I get from Cook's Illustrated or Cook's Country magazines and pick out the recipes that I want to make. The trouble is that I sometimes don't go back and make any of it and I need to figure out a way to how to keep these good ideas to the front of my mind. Perhaps going to my online version of their websites and printing the recipes to add to my notebooks.

So here is what I have picked from this magazine:

p.  6-7 - Ultimate Steak Sauce - What a cool idea. Make your own steak sauce. Really? I must try this. It also has a recipe for cooking steak inside - which we rarely do since we can grill out the vast majority of the time.

p. 8-9 - Simplifying Potato Galette - This looks simple with only a few ingredients. But you know with Cook's Illustrated, it won't be or if it is, it will involve lots of dirty dishes.

p. 13 - Quick Mushroom Ragu - So will it only take 30 minutes to make it? I doubt it. Sauce needs to take longer - to me, it's a weekend thing - that you serve during the week after it sits in the fridge for a couple of days. I'll give this a go - on a weekend.

p. 14-15 - Wicked Good Boston Cream Pie - I have never made a Boston cream pie before, even though it's not a pie per se. It does seem like something I would like and it's components, well, I could really like it. I hope.

Laptop

I have to go out of town tomorrow for work - groan. But to keep up w/some meeting I'm planning for next week, I have to take a laptop with me. Consequently, I'm giving it a run for it's money in the blog department as I have been debating if I want to get a laptop or not or maybe even a netbook. So I'll work on the Citivolus sus tonight and see how I like it. That should help me decide.

We'll see. Yes, I'm sceptical of almost everything.

Comment on Japan

I think Ruth Reichl sums up my feelings pretty clearly here.


"But in the face of ongoing disaster, it is also our moral responsibility to appreciate what we have.  That is why cooking good food for the people that I love is so important to me; in a world filled with no, it is a big yes." 

First of the Month - March Edition (almost)

Oak - 6 March 2011

Well, it's just been a dismal March so far - until today. I guess it means that spring is here when the lines of storms start to come our way from the west. Unfortunately, there have been tornados in parts of the south, which almost always means someone dies. I hate hate hate tornados - they scare me more than any other weather thing - hurricanes no problem, but tornados - hate them. 
I just keep thinking that spring is here, that said, the high today was 53˚but I can hear the cardinals chirping as they pig out at the bird feeder and that's good enough for me .... so far. 

Bald Cypress - 6 March 2011

River Birch 6 Mar 2011

Realizing that this is the 6th and not the 1st, this isn't quite right, but I couldn't make it through the rain and then the cold and the wind - what the heck - like a tropical storm - but it appears that's over - just in time to go back to work. Woo.

River Birch #2 - 6 Mar 2011

I'm sure to someone up north, I'd sound like a lame-o, but you know, it should be warm by now. I'm sure this has something to do with me gloating (just a bit) to the Verizon tech that helped me this week. She innocently asked me "How's the weather in Florida?" and I went on about how we'd been wearing shorts for two weeks and eating at outdoor restaurants on the water. She in Utah. Oops. Well, it does get humid here and we have gators (at least that made her feel better). 
When are things going to get going in the backyard? It's driving me nuts. Come on. Get going. Um, now. 

Wisteria - 6 Mar 2011

Camellia - 6 Mar 2011

National Grammar Day - March 4th, 2011

National Grammar Day

This cartoon says it all. My absolute pet peeve of the grammar world.

Go check out the rest of the comics at AngryFlower.com.

March 3, 2011 World Book Day

Today is World Book Day

Anne Elliot & Captain Wentworth

So what are my favorite books? Harder than I thought to do this.
Fiction:
Persuasion - Jane Austen - Always first. Two better characters were never created than Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth - not even Lizzie Bennett and Darcy compare.
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte - The only Bronte book I have enjoyed, but it's one of my favorite books of all time.
North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell - Truly a romance, but so very much more about class, society, and the industrial revolution in England. Fascinating.
Howard's End - E.M. Forrester - Again a commentary on wealth, class, and society, with a true romance.
Miss Pettifrew Lives for a Day - Winifred Watson - New for me, but this is a most charming, well-written, funny, fast-paced book. It's a quick read, but very enlightening about society.

John Thaw as Morse

Mysteries:
The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins - Told through the recounted tale of many (many) characters, it is one of the earliest mysteries.
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman - PD James - Cordelia Gray is such a well written character. The story is believable and it's great to see a young female detective in a man's world. Her age, in this case, helps her detective work.
Death is now my Neighbor - Colin Dexter - Morse is one of my all time favorite characters - small, difficult, sensitive (believe it or not), and quick to drink and this is my favorite in the Colin Dexter series. And in this wonderfully complex murder mystery, we find out his Christian name. All set in the beautiful city of Oxford - that doesn't hurt either.

Non-Fiction:
Outliers: The Story of Success - Malcolm Gladwell - fascinating way to think about those among us who seem to have something special - maybe they do - it's lots of hard work.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life - Barbara Kingsolver - details Kingsolver's family's attempt to eat local (w/very few exceptions) for a year. I now know I could never kill a chicken. It was a learning experience in many ways.

Blooms in the Garden - late March

Sparaxis (orange and white) - I planted these about 4 years ago and they still come back, though perhaps a bit less, year after year.

Lady Banks Rose Cluster - They don't smell like anything, and they have no thorns, but just once a year they look glorious. 

Lady Banks Rose from inside the bay window in the kitchen.

 

White Irises of unknown origin - beautiful every year - and almost always a surprise - they just appear one day and hang on for a couple of weeks - a nice addition to the rose bed. 

More photos to come as April is here.