tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61185202012-02-10T03:06:10.738-05:00Entering the long, dark teatime of the soulakageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.comBlogger191100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-41206648597534484972011-10-06T00:47:00.003-04:002011-10-06T01:12:10.291-04:00

I learned about Atomic Rum Balls from a friend in California. Not being a big drinker, I had never heard of Bacardi 151 rum, nor did I understand the implications of a 151-proof beverage incorporated into a holiday confection. I quickly learned, however, where the "atomic" part of the name came from, as I began to experience that special glow.The other day, I told someone to look up Atomic Rum

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-84752833757792415232011-08-31T13:04:00.002-04:002011-08-31T13:34:32.722-04:00

5 p.m. Say, "I'm going to go take a shower." Go to bedroom to get clean clothes. Straighten covers on bed. Adjust window shade. Notice book next to bed that needs to be returned to library. Put book by door. Take clothes to bathroom. 5:06 p.m. Close bathroom door. Notice mirror that needs to be mounted on wall. Go get pencil, drill, drill bits, hammer, screwdriver, screw anchors, mirror clips.

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-67118040181778125952011-05-24T00:37:00.007-04:002011-06-13T21:39:18.659-04:00

My garden has been busy during all this rain. While I wasn't looking, the rhubarb went from too small for picking to sending up a flower stalk. The walking onions are developing flower heads. The comfrey is three feet tall. The weeds are rampant.If celandine was a cash crop instead of an invasive weed, I'd be rich -- I have it in every garden, as well as covering the compost heap.And the lawns?

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-84641865542100008642011-04-26T04:15:00.012-04:002011-04-26T05:04:34.787-04:00

I've found a couple of TV ads really annoying lately. Actually, one is merely annoying; the other is both annoying and kind of scary.First, has the pharmaceutical and medical industries' campaign to get people to take aspirin at the first sign of a heart attack really been so successful that people no longer know aspirin is a PAIN RELIEVER?Is the American public really that ignorant?Or are the

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-59872018283688618822011-02-14T03:48:00.016-05:002011-02-18T03:51:19.253-05:00

It's been a long winter so far. And a cold one. Unfortunately, a lot of the very cold weather hit before the snow did, so I'm a little worried about some of my perennials making it through.I was surprised in 2010 by how much of my garden flourished despite last winter's even later snow, so maybe it will be fine.I got snowshoes for Christmas, but I haven't tried them out yet. It's just ... well,

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-87468750136654436082010-02-25T03:09:00.005-05:002010-02-25T04:24:26.646-05:00

This has been a Jekyll-and-Hyde season. Flowers in October, onions in November, then off-and-on snow cover:From top, Dec. 6, Jan. 25 (thaw and flooding), Feb. 8, Feb. 16, Feb. 18, Feb. 24. Complete snow cover at last!Now I'm just hoping the perennials that were laid bare by thaws, then exposed to single-digit temperatures, are going to make it.The temperature see-saw has pushed a new group of

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-39324738995327315212009-11-21T02:00:00.007-05:002012-01-10T19:29:31.911-05:00

The good news is, I'm not in traction.There isn't really any bad news. It's just that, with this beautiful weather, I got out into the garden two days this week to do some weeding, and I'm happy to report that I'm not suffering for it.What's so tough about weeding? Well, when I do it, it's with a shovel and a spading fork, digging up clumps of lawn that have sneaked over and established

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-6456421708006724332009-11-02T23:07:00.005-05:002009-11-03T00:08:11.176-05:00

I told you I'd let you know when I harvested some of the walking onion and tried it in a recipe. So here it is.But first, a look at the new babies that have rooted and sprouted:I haven't dug or moved any of them yet, and haven't decided where they'll go anyway. It's a little shady where they decided to land, but maybe they like it that way.So I pulled up half a dozen onions from the original

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-7768742241688945172009-10-28T15:19:00.010-04:002009-10-29T01:20:22.274-04:00

If you're freaked out by creepy-crawly critters, consider this a Halloween trick. If you like them, though, it'll be a treat.I think of caterpillars as spring or summer insects, but a lot of them actually live late into the year and overwinter as pupae. I've seen some new (to me) in the garden in the past couple of months.This one was on a hawthorn tree I cut down at the end of August. At first I

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-12483914556243779692009-10-24T00:00:00.011-04:002009-10-24T02:18:53.633-04:00

Okay, I'm still in mourning, but I'm pretty much over the denial phase. I've moved into the acceptance phase. I'm ready to look back at what I lost.On October 11, before the killing frost, I took a few photos of some late bloomers, including these white dahlias:They're now black and ready to be dug up and stored for the winter, along with some pink ones and a couple of cannas that I had in

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-42838038512420997362009-10-21T02:31:00.011-04:002009-10-21T03:36:32.744-04:00

That's what my garden is in now. And, consequently, where I am, too. The dark season of destruction, endings and death. Most people know it as autumn.I haven't blogged because it was just too depressing -- first the rain, then the tomato blight, then the frost.Oh, woe is me; self-pity, sadness and sorrow. I didn't even want to go outside after the first frost, and we've had a few this month.We

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-54489487684126448392009-07-09T00:54:00.004-04:002009-07-09T02:36:31.294-04:00

I walked around the corner of my shed the other day and came face to face with these earth-fallen bits of blue sky:Chicory (Cichorium intybus), sometimes called cornflower, is one tough wildflower, growing in dry, inhospitable places like road shoulders and the gravel base of my shed.Endive and chicory root come from cultivated varieties of Cichorium, although you can also use the wild plant.

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-58888865884794300692009-07-05T04:06:00.005-04:002009-07-09T00:45:03.391-04:00

When I was a little girl, my mother showed my sister and me the edible "cheeses" of cheese mallow, a rangy, low-growing wildflower.She and her sister ate them when they were little girls. Their mother and grandmother probably did the same in their own childhoods.My family wasn't big on foraging for wild foods, but we did pick wild strawberries, and went looking for raspberries and blackberries in

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-50411204374059800242009-06-18T03:21:00.005-04:002009-07-09T02:42:07.974-04:00

I try to notice something funny or interesting every day. Sometimes I have a camera or my cell phone with me, and I get a photo. Here's Wednesday's:It's posted at the entrance to the road leading to the town salt piles (for you warm-climate folks, that's what the road crews spread on the pavement in the winter to melt ice). There has to be a back story. If anyone hears it, let me know.Just so

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-36702055187496954912009-06-12T02:35:00.007-04:002009-06-12T03:53:05.770-04:00

I did some serious weeding today:I had the truck all packed up with recycling and trash before I realized it was Thursday. The recycling center is closed on Thursdays. Change of plans.So I put the truck in the garage and got out the chain saw. Rawrrrrr!OK, it's just a little electric Remington with a 10" bar and a pole-saw option. But it does what I need -- it takes down trash trees that grow up

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-54835819716102595462009-06-07T23:51:00.004-04:002009-06-08T00:07:11.572-04:00

I am not really a fan of rhubarb. The very idea of cutting up leaf stalks and baking them in a pie is just ... so ... wrong.Especially SOUR leaf stalks.Who thinks this stuff up?But I do have a small rhubarb patch (look behind the walking onion in the photo below), and I was raised with a New England penchant for thrift. I can't just grow the stuff and let it go to waste!So I finally found a

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-10268715896678920812009-06-03T00:24:00.005-04:002009-06-03T15:05:41.258-04:00

What's the record for longest time between blog posts by someone who isn't actually dead?I think I broke it.Yet another gardening season has rolled around and I am in the thick of it. Thick, as in you can't see my garden because of the weeds.I had a rototiller once, but it conked out, then got stuck in a spring flood. Twice. Anybody want a third-hand, early 1990s, flooded Troy-Bilt for parts? You

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-1093238650222522162004-08-23T01:11:00.004-04:002011-06-14T02:34:30.974-04:00

It's been most of a year since I started this blog, and this is only my second post. That always happens with my journals, too. And my artwork. And my remodeling projects. And my gardens ...The first step is not always the hardest. For me, it's the second step. Where do I go from here?I don't have an exotic background to draw from. I still live in the area where my mother's family has lived for

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6118520.post-1069567492181841382003-11-23T01:01:00.002-05:002009-06-03T01:55:52.692-04:00

This is my entry into the world of blogging. Up until now, it's all been in my head. It may be that I'll decide it would have been better left there; we'll see.Oddly enough, it was the Iraqi blogs (riverbend, salam pax and others) that encouraged me to begin. I guess that's "how 9/11 changed my life" -- through a domino topple of events. I'll be speaking more about that, certainly.But on another

akageorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01526242372062149424noreply@blogger.com