On a whim last year I planted an oriental poppy to see if it would survive with deer and hare. Not only has it bloomed, there are many more blooms still in their fuzzy cases. Who knew? This bloom is 5" across.
The time had come, I told Mr. A, to change the big heavy foam mattress from our platform bed and put it back on the box spring bed in the guest bedroom. You see, my "arthuritus" makes it painful for me to lift the corners of the big guy to put on the sheets. In fact. the big guy is almost too big for our platform bed and there is no room to stick in your hand (especially if you have swollen fingers like I do) to get a grip on it. It weighs a ton as it is solid foam. So after breakfast we gutted it up and heaved it out of the platform bed, hauled it down the hallway (with lots of grunting and swearing) into the guest bedroom and slowly nudged it on to the box spring. Fun times! This was the mattress set we got in Chico for our condo when we spent a year there.
Now we have the lighter weight, slightly smaller and lighter foam mattress on the platform bed again. The slats under the mattress keep it fairly firm. We hope that our backs can tolerate it.
Izzy loves to find new lurking locations so she has discovered the lower shelf of the old potting bench that we now use on the patio for our tabletop BBQ and outdoor equipment. She fits right in between baskets and soaks up the southern sun.
Happily, greens don't care if it rains, snows, gropples or lightly hails all in one day...they just keep growing. One pony pak of a "salad bowl" lettuce mix and some spinach can keep us in greens for a couple of months. I will be trying a new recipe I got off the Grocery Outlet website for a sprouted mung bean salad with an oriental dressing.
Here we have Jeannette and Alex Zweede from Sonora, California visiting us this week. They were treated to typical Oregon spring weather...occasional showers. They are enjoying some of Jack's drawings around the dining area table. We did manage a nice drive around the valley as the pear and peach trees are just starting to bloom. Also the requisite trip to the Eagles to watch us dance and then out for burgers at Wild River Brewery. We enjoyed their visit and hope to make it down to Sonora at some point this year.
A basket of herbs on the patio is handy and quick for last minute additions to my culinary delights, rather than trudging out to the garden. This basket contains my favourite ones...Italian parsley (a must for eveything green), thyme (nice on stews and roasting meats), chives (for eggs, potato salad), rosemary (for anything pork or chicken) and some oregano for nice green color on sliced tomatoes. Sonia, the garden fairy, has the place of honor on the converted potting bench (now used for the table top BBQ and the patio supplies.
