This spring was just horrible. HORRIBLE. In the span of a few days, one of our cats got sick (stomatitis, which is a gum infection, and he had to have his teeth removed), followed by the waterbed exploding, and in the madness to clean up that mess, I stubbed my toe…and yes, broke it. Big time.

Thank God it wasn’t the same toe I broke two years ago (crushed that one actually), but the one next to it. I stood there in agony, crying, going, “you’ve got to be f***ing kidding me.”

At least now I’ve learned to IGNORE the advice people give, oh it’s just a toe, buddy tape it and move on. When I did that last time, it cost me half of my toe bone and a creepy surgery that still feels weird. So I went to a foot/ankle specialist, got it x-rayed, and as I already knew, was broken. He taped it up, gave me a big lecture on “you already know not to mess around with this, let’s heal this one up….and please start wearing shoes,” and a boot. And that sucked.

But what sucked worse was that Jack, the cat with stomatitis, turned out to have FIV (cat AIDs), and after two full months of constant nursing, hospital times, surgeries, force feeding and even learning to give injections and subq fluids, he did not make it. He died Memorial Day weekend. It’s been really horrible, because I loved him so, and he was such a special, extraordinary guy. I was just glad I could be by his side at the end, but I’m so sorry he had to go through all that he did. I had two friends, one a vet and the other a cat health advocate, on the phone with me during the ride to the emergency clinic when his condition went to hell.

Oh, and then I caught a terrible flu/cold/bronchitis and was actually sick enough I should have gone to bed. But the only thing that mattered to me was my Jack. Only other pet lovers would understand that; I’ve always loved animals more than people to be honest. It’s true.

I don’t care about the bed (it’s gone, I’m finally over my 80s waterbed love and have made everybody happy…it was just so comfortable and I thought it would always at least remain in a spare room so I could float). The toe is healed, but I still miss Jack so much.

He came to me via the Internet; his owner dying of breast cancer and she didn’t want him to be dumped back into a shelter. I’m not much of a believer, but I find comfort in the thought that maybe Catharine and Jack (and my other pets) are together somewhere peaceful.

One warning: never allow a vet to give your pet a drug called Convenia. I believe it contributed to his death, and there are reports all over hell that this drug can cause horrible side effects in cats and dogs, and kill them. Dr. Lisa Pierson of catinfo.org is leading the charge against this drug and has collected a lot of information about it.

The good news is that I eventually DID go ahead and put out a garden. I just said screw it, and put it out after Jack died. That helped me cope with my grief, and even though many of my seedlings had died from neglect, I was able to revive some and fill in with stuff still in nurseries. Better late than never and I’ve even had a few ripe tomatoes and my sweet Italian peppers are starting to come in like crazy.

I’ll probably write several posts in a manic frenzy to make up for the lack of posting.

and p.s. I finally got coerced into joining Facebook. If you want to friend me, please tell me who you are. I have kind of a love/hate thing going on with Facebook. They don’t give me enough space to write what I want, and I’m wordy at times. Uh, yeah.

So….hi!

I miss you Jackie boy.

I’ve shopped a few different places online, no complaints, but happened upon the Tea Butler. I called them with a shipping question, and what a nice guy!

If you need/want tea, they have wonderful, extravagant teas, and free shipping through Christmas for orders over $35. What luck I called, because I hadn’t noticed that. My order was just under 30 dollars, so I bought another pack of Caribe, and got it free!

Nice place, shop there: Tea Butler

p.s. Hi, it’s been awhile. I had a crappy summer, but just another month and I’ll be ordering seeds and starting fresh for 2010. I’ve also signed up for a native plant course plus yoga and photographing birds.

I can’t wait til I get my tea!!! There’s nothing more perfect than a hot cup of Caribe and a blizzard. Merry Christmas to ME!

I have a monarch that visits me daily – either these butterflies are naturally pretty sweet or the word has gotten around that I’m a friend. She flutters around my head quite a bit. I like to think it’s a she, and she’s laying lots of eggs on the host plants I grow. It won’t be long until one day I’ll look, and my butterfly weed will be crawling with monarch cats.

I also have a yellow swallowtail, a HUGE one. Now I’ve forgotten if it’s the yellow or black swallowtail that uses parsley and dill as the host plant. I have lots of both plants ready for them. Another swallowtail uses the spice bush as its host plant, so I planted a tiny spice bush, but I believe it died. That particular caterpillar has a big face on its head, just colorings that look like a face. The first time I saw a picture, I thought it was a cartoon…it’s that goofy looking.

http://www.images.on.ca/JayC/images/Spicebush_Swallowtail_larva.jpg

Now that I’m a suburbanite instead of a country girl, that means the pets stay indoors. So now I can have bird feeders, and that’s a lot of enjoyment for me. I never understood my grandmother and mom watching the birds like they did, but I get it now. They’re pretty and they entertain. And the cats just love watching them through the window.

There’s been this bird visiting, and turns out (after much googling) that it’s a bald cardinal. Apparently it has mites and it scratched its head feathers off. Or it’s some kind of molting thing. The first time I saw this bird, I thought it looked kind of sick, and now it’s looking better. But with a big black bald head.

My aunt in St. Louis has an albino cardinal that comes around every summer.

On the garden side of things, eggplants are about ready to pick, and I’ve been picking peppers, both hot and sweet. For now, just tossing them into the freezer for later. Frozen peppers are great for stir fry or various recipes.

Yellow squash is still coming in, so we tried this recipe for yellow squash patties. They were kind of good!

I also ordered a copy of “Please To The Table,” a Russian cookbook that Yulinka recommended. I’m anxious to get it and try to make black bread. I miss that bread! It’s sour and good. I also hope to find a good Russian recipe for golubtsi, stuffed cabbage rolls. Totally different from what I knew, as it uses sour cream. I learned that recipe from ladies at the Russian Orthodox church in Royalton, Illinois. But now I’ve misplaced it and can’t seem to get it right from memory.

I also haven’t made borscht in a long time and have a craving for it. Next year I might even grow some beets to honor the borscht.

She fluttered around my head the entire time I was out there, and it was delightful. I love my monarchs! It won’t be long until I’ve got my caterpillars. I think I have a tomato hornworm, but can’t find it. I’m going to make an order from Gardens Alive, and they had those parasitic wasps for about five bucks. I was going to add that to my order, but then I realized, if they kill hornworms, they might hurt my monarchs. I learned that the hard way last year with the monarch murder (by a spined soldier bug). So I googled, and sure enough. So no wasps for the hornworm. I’ll just have to keep looking for him. The can o’ death awaits.

Here’s a cool pic of the wasps on a hornworm…they look like grains of rice:

http://z.about.com/d/gardening/1/0/V/V/HornWorm_Parisites.jpg

My butterfly weeds are starting to get the oleander aphids, but as of last year, I decided they are friendly. They feed my ladybugs and lacewings, so I just let them be. That little Joe Pye weed I planted last year is a huge bush this year. Really pretty!

Despite some weeds, the back garden really looks fabulous to me. Some chicory escaped its pot, which would make my uncle the farmer go crazy. Noxious weed, noxious weed, but it’s one of my very favorite things. I could easily let that back garden just go to “weeds,” which would be chicory, Queen Anne’s lace and my various types of butterfly weeds and bushes.

When I lived in Russia, one of my favorite things to do was a trip to the countryside, where they had their little dachas, or summer cottages. Some of them didn’t mow at all and just let everything grow up wild. It was so untidy from an Anal American point of view, but I always thought there was something so charming about those dachas and their yards. (Google Russian dacha and you can probably find some photos. One day I’ve GOT to get some of my pics scanned.)

Maybe tomorrow I can get out to the gardens with my cameras. I need to keep documenting my straw bale garden, which is doing pretty darned well. I kind of like the concept and except for watering and some fertilizing, it’s relatively maintenance free.

We hired a new yard man and I think this will work out well. He can also do odd jobs. He’s a teacher and just looking for extra work in the summer, so I feel very good about this. He can also tackle the mulch mountains, which would take a huge load off my mind. I’m excited about this.

Complaint of the day: today my neighbor informed me that she’s been messing with my hummingbird vines, to train it into the lattice. Um, I like it to go where it wants…it does just fine. It knows how to climb the lattice. Reminder to self: she’s one of the best neighbors I’ve ever had. I need to let go of the small annoyances.

So I was feeling kind of low, and DH came home with a pile of DVDs, just pure glory. The Love for Three Oranges, Lakme and Madame Butterfly, plus some gorgeous ballets with my two loves: Barishnikov and the late Gudunov. It’s been a real feast for my soul. Madame Butterfly is my other favorite opera; it’s the first opera I can remember as a child, with my mother as the star. She’s a retired opera singer, and one of her sisters is as well (not retired, still sings). i used to dress up in Mom’s Madame Butterfly kimono and wig and float around the house. Thinking of the way that silk felt on my skin just makes me all dreamy and happy.

Although it’s sucked not being outside very much, this pile of DVDs really helped. Thanks Tony**** You’re the best!

The garden, despite its lack of TLC, is doing okay. A few weeds that need to be pulled, but they’ll still be there when I’m ready. It’s looking as if my wounds may keep me from doing any real work the rest of the summer, although I continue to hold out hope. It’s just day by day.

I had set up my soaker system, and that’s been a lifesaver. All I have to do it go outside and turn the water on, then it waters itself. I’m very funny about the garden; I don’t like others in it, including family. They think things are weeds, and they aren’t. They’re important flowers for my butterflies. I mix everything up, so I have flowers amongst the vegetables and my garden is like someone’s messy desk: don’t touch it. I know where things go and I have my system. I know Sally Jean Cunningham would understand and approve.

So things are coming in, several crookneck squash, tomatoes, lettuce, peas and greens are long gone, and have even started tossing Italian frying peppers into the freezer. And despite the lack of attention, my eggplants are looking good. The groundhog got one, but the others are moving along just fine. I’ve got white ones and purple ones. No sign of lavenders yet. Oh, and cukes. I’ve got three kinds growing. One variety is coming in now, and these curl at the end. Very odd, but they’re sweet. And yes, MELONS! Baby melons! My honeydew died. I think a borer got it. I had injected spinosa into the stems of my cucurbits to kill off any larvae, but haven’t been able to keep that up. Also have not been doing my kaolin spraying.

I’m just having to accept things as they come this year, and I really missed picking the Japanese beetles off things and drowning them. I see where they did some damage, but they left my hibiscus alone. I had moved it to a different spot.

I hope by the time my monarch cats arrive, I’ll feel more like spending time outside. Also, one of the antibiotics I’m on comes with a strong warning about sunlight, so I have to take that into consideration as well. I’m fair-skinned to begin with, although I do have a nice bottle of 30 SPF lotion.

I thought I’d use the down time to edit and upload some of the movies I’ve taken, but the medications have had me in a stupor. I feel like the summer is drifting by and I’m kind of missing it.

Now, my complaint. I hadn’t seen my neighbor, the one I call Grandma (because I can’t remember her name…lol; she’s in her mid 70s and has lots of great grandkids). I had told her about the surgery beforehand because I specifically did NOT want any company. She sometimes brings baked treats, which is very sweet of her. (And man, can she bake!)

But she caught me outside yesterday as I was turning off my soaker hose. She said she’d been banging on both front and back doors, plus windows since the day after the surgery. Ummmmmm. Grrrrrr. I was SLEEPING. In a half-COMA.

At least I never heard it, so didn’t have to answer the door, but geesh.

That’s my minor complaint. Here’s my big one. She said she’d been keeping an eye on my garden for me, said she was just sick that my flowers were drying up.

Ackkkkkk! No they weren’t. Even when I couldn’t go outside and turn on the water, I had Tony do it. Nothing was drying up. I know that “keeping an eye on things” meant coming over and snooping in my gardens every day. I know she does that, because not so long ago, she asked what one plant was (it was lovage), and she couldn’t see that from her yard. It’s hidden by my huge bamboo grove. She had to physically walk into our yard, around the bamboo and SNOOP.

Yes, I know. I’m like a male dog with his fire hydrant. It’s a hazard of being an only child.

And then the coup de grâce: she said “Your squash is in terrible shape.”

::::scream::::

No, it’s not. It’s just fine.

Here’s my message to all: it is acceptable to have a certain amount of ornamental damage to plants from bugs. This is my way; I learned this from Sally Jean and Paul James, and if it’s not hurting the plants or crops, you need to let it go. Once I learned that, gardening became so much less stressful. And get this – this year I hardly even have any flea beetles.

A few dead leaves on the squash isn’t the end of my crop.

But this will tell you everything you need to know. Her granddaughter put in a huge vegetable garden (my neighbors have a big yard, the granddaughter’s house apparently doesn’t). It was a beautiful garden, and had two rows of spectacular tomatoes. The tomatoes were COVERED in huge tomatoes. There must have been 200 tomatoes on those plants. Gorgeous fruits.

They pulled ALL OF THE PLANTS up. Why? Because some of the branches on the bottom of the plants had turned brown. It was nothing but a little blight or something. I’ve had that before, and the fruits still do just fine. I saw those plants – it was nothing major, just a few brown branches. And they ripped them all out.

They also pulled all of their sweet corn because “it didn’t look right.” Good grief.

Me, I wait until something is DEAD before I pull it. (Unless I know it’s a wilt that might spread, and then I’ll pull it.) I just can’t believe they aborted all those beautiful tomatoes. This was after nearly killing that poor groundhog with a bow and arrow because he stole a few fruits.

These neighbors drive me nuts sometimes, but I feel guilty for kvetching. Overall, they’re good people and good neighbors. She’s just a little too nosy and always telling me something’s dying in my garden. Before my squash, it was my peppers, saying they were rotten.

No, those particular peppers turn brown right before they turn…BRIGHT RED.

Hubby put this nifty little pocket video camera in my Easter basket, and I’ve been taking videos but haven’t yet had the time to edit and upload. I’m anxious to post video of this crazy straw bale garden.

Unfortunately, we also have a new groundhog. I’m sure he’ll be every bit as cute as Holtsville Hal, which is a problem for me. Tony’s uncle has humane traps, and came and set one, but it’s been three days and still no Hal. Last year we also had a groundhog that dug under the front deck. One day came home to this crazy pile of dirt, and I thought the cable company had been digging for cables. But then I thought, under the front deck??? No, was a groundhog. So Uncle Renzo came over and set a trap and that groundhog was caught in ten minutes! But it wasn’t garden season, and I guess he was hungry.

That groundhog was sent to witness protection in the country. He was just adorable, even though he had rat teeth. Here’s last year’s groundhog:

Now we have a new groundhog, and he ate his way through my neighbor’s garden. I caught my neighbor at the end of our drive with a bow and arrow, getting ready to shoot. So I discussed with the neighbor and our deal was this: if he sees the groundhog in his garden again, he’ll shoot, but if Uncle R can catch him in a trap, that’s fine.

Today, however, my perspective has changed. The groundhog ate my corno di toro peppers. And a baby eggplant! You mess with my peppers and eggplants, and I get mad.

But I still don’t want Holtsville Hal shot with a bow and arrow. I’d prefer the relocation program.

Tomorrow I will apply the compost tea I made. It really stinks.

Go read about kefir on this site (or Google it) and try it. You might fall in love. And here’s a coupon for a free bottle. FREE KEFIR! Just in time for the holiday.

My neighbor, Grandma (I call her that because I forgot her name, and sometimes her great grandkids stay with her, cuties they are), put out a big garden this year with one of her granddaughters. She sees this as some kind of competition with me, which is funny. They planted a couple of weeks earlier than I did (I usually wait til Mother’s Day, another farmer rule that my uncle the farmer does NOT follow), so will naturally have tomatoes before I do. However, I believe their tomatoes have a blight. I’ve had that before, and it’s ugly, but doesn’t hurt the tomatoes.

My chicory spread out of the pot. LOL. My uncle (the farmer) warned of this catastrophe, although I don’t see it as one. I like chicory and Queen Anne’s Lace a lot. They remind me of childhood, I guess playing in the pastures where this stuff grew. I swear half of the things I grow are noxious weeds to him, but I’ve come to enjoy finding something new to annoy him with. It’s our dance, and he likes it too. This year, it’s the straw garden, which he’s sure is an internet scam. Can’t wait for him to see my big scam and how well it’s doing!

One of my penstemons didn’t come up this year. It’s weird. Sometimes a perennial doesn’t show, and I think it must have died, then it comes back the next year. This was a good year for my goat’s beard, though. First year it really did well. I may have to plant more of that…so pretty.

A friend of mine has herds of goats and sheep and is getting a llama as a guard dog. A llama apparently can and will kick a fox or coyote to death, so they’re the latest rage among goat farmers. I just find that incredibly interesting and still wish I had some goats. We don’t have coyotes, so I wouldn’t need the llama.