Planty McPlanterson
Tuesday, May. 25, 2004 @ 12:27 p.m.

I know that technically it's still spring, but outside? It's summer. It's been in the 80-90 degree range every day for the past two weeks and we've had several excellent thunderstorms.

Things I like about summer:

- Being warm all the time
- Real tomatoes
- The freaky greenness of the trees around here
- The smell of magnolia blossoms
- Having central air for the first time in my life. It's better than the dishwasher, y'all. Every! Room! The! Same! Temperature! Amazing.

Things I hate about summer:

- Stupid mosquitoes. They adore me and it's a miracle that I don't have West Nile virus.
- This is the spot where I should be complaining about humidity, but really, I live in the south and it's just part of things. However, there's nothing grosser than trying to breath and feeling like you're underwater. I hate that.
- Yeah, there's some other stuff, but I just lost interest in this list.

**********

As a shiny new homeowner, I've also been busy with the garden stuff, which is a scary and rule-filled new world that everyone seems to understand but me. Kenny? Is a garden master. I'll pull up a weed and if it comes out too easy I have to ask him if it's keeping plant or a throwing away plant. We had a few weird things growing in one of the plots that I debated with him over.

K: "I think they're going to flower. Definitely deliberate."
A: "But they're ugly."
K: "But that one has a flower. They were planted."
A: "But the flower is spiky and ugly. Weed."
K: "Plant."
A: "Fine, then. The ugly weed-plant can live. For now. "

The true garden mania all started with my father's vegetable plot of passive-aggressiveness, in which I've purchased, planted, mulched and am currently tending plants that he vaguely thinks of as "his". Hahaha, no. Sorry dad. Just having it be your idea does not net you free tomatoes. They are mine because you never paid for half of it like you offered and you've seemingly lost interest in any of the "work" part and seems to be fixated on the "reaping" part, only I get to reap and you get to make tomato sauce, or will you somehow make me do that too?

I know what you guys are thinking, you're thinking: "Why don't you get a spine and just tell him to kick in already?" It's not that simple, as there's a long history of me not standing up for myself where my dad is concerned. Why rock the boat now when it's more fun to complain about it? (Hey Rebecca, if you still read my journal, MUM on this, sister. You know the score.)

Anyway, it kind of amuses me and it's also taught me how to plant a vegetable garden, more or less. I did lose a couple of plants. One, in particular, was a tiny, tiny specimen of a cucumber that, once planted, looked back over it's shoulder at the cliff drop below, glanced at the Indian brave that had kidnapped it, let out a traumatized sigh: "Oh!" and flung itself back off the cliff. Poor dramatic dead thing. I bought a new one and it's flourishing. I keep it away from Daniel Day Lewis movies.

Last night I planted giant sunflower seeds EVERYWHERE. They'll be popping up all crazy in weird places and I'm really excited about it. GIANT FLOWERS YOU CAN EAT. I especially like the GIANT part.

We currently have fifteen tomato plants in because we don't want to take any chances. THERE WILL BE TOMATOES. Fifteen plants should cover our bases, I think. We got a variety of different kinds, including the always-popular "Mr. Stripey". You absolutely must have a Mr. Stripey or your vegetable garden isn't worth anything. I have no idea if they're tasty, but the name alone is worth the trouble.

If you're wondering what the big deal is with the tomatoes, you've never had a real tomato. Forget the white mealiness strip-mined from Texas. Forget the rock-hard tomato-shaped wedges of tastelessness. You need an in-season, firm, red full-flavor southern home-grown tomato to really understand. It's perfection. I'm drooling a little right now.

**********

Other Stuff.

Just so you know, I've updated my book section and I recently read "The Life of Pi" which was suggested by data-bunny . It was probably the best book I've read in the past few years and I can't recommend it enough. Thanks data-bunny!

Here's another winner of a restaurant review by Janet Wilson. She reviews the Piccadilly Cafeteria. Haw! My friend Deirdre pointed out what a feat it is that Janet manages to get a restaurant review published that never once mentions the quality of the food.

3 chatty monkeys

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