sheftali52

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Login! It's amazing what we can do when we put our minds to it. You're very perceptive about it not being easy for hubby to depend on me for stuff he used to do--I give him a break a lot, as I too realize how he might feel.

On a different note, the weather is unbelievably hot here in eastern Virginia, and we're all wondering if our lawns will survive. Not that I'm a big fan of lawns, but our homeowner's association would probably gripe if I let it go completely dead. So, I tease the lawn with a little water now and then, but it rarely looks like I did a darned thing! The good news is that this, too, will pass and in December we'll complain about it being too cold!

I imagine our host, Baldur, is working outside a lot lately and doing good things, as usual. I look forward to his next update.

Dragon

If I could, sheftali, I'd send you some of our rain. I think this is the first time we've had 2 consecutive days with out rain all month (I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this because it's only just noon and there's still lots of time for another thunderstorm today.)

Baldur

tah dah! Baldur is back... What did I miss?

My main computer is on life support in the computer hospital. The laptop computer has never liked me and is a bit of a struggle to wield. Luckily Robert figured out how to patch it in to the regular computer's monitor.
At least Baldur can read what's on the screen now.

Beyond that my truck is also dead, it's been in the garage for a whole WEEK waiting for the world's slowest mechanic to install a fuel pump.
I am petty much stranded here at Boughbreak.
There are worse fates.

Also when reaching for the pull chain to turn on the office ceiling fan the other day the whole chain pulled loose, making the fan non-operational.
We tried replacinbg the switrching mechanism but the unit is indeed broken.

This must indeed be a curse.

Auntie B, who had been in Venice for most of July just wired me from Adelaide, Australia where she has taken up with a certain professor of anatomy. There will no doubt be stories there.

All Baldur, Some of the Time

Baldur

petty + r = pretty
replacinbg - b = replacing
switrching - r = switching

Dragon

Aah, glad to Baldur back among us but sorry to hear about all the small disasters happening around Boughbreak. My sweetie (who is a mechanic) tells me that fuel pumps always like to be covered with gasoline and that's why I should never let the tank get to less than the 1/4 mark. This was news to me as I had always been the type to run the car almost dead empty before filling up. Apperantly the fuel pump is kept cool by the gas in the tank but if you let it get too low it can't keep itself cool. So now I try to keep from getting too low, my car hasn't had to tell me 'Low Fuel' in quite some time.

Any news on more liberated gnomes joining their free ranging brothers in Boughbreaks gardens? Haven't had any news on your ongoing outdoor projects for a while, does it make me strange because I miss hearing about someone elses garden? I say no, I can't have a garden so I must live vicariously through someone!

Baldur

But sadly there is another chapter to this sordid saga.
My partner, Robert, has invited his family for a pleasant Summer barbecue, commencing tomorrow.
This necessitated a great deal of culinary effort on my own part, and sadly there was yet another mishap.
One of the items to be prepared was a large salad of Irish potatoes and sauce mayonnaise.
Yesterday I boiled and peeled 10 pounds of potatoes, a dozen hen's eggs, diced a goodly amount of celery and a more modest bit of Spanish onion. Then I whisked some dry English mustard into a bit of white vinegar and poured the resulting marinade over everything before carefully wrapping the mixture and placing it in the icebox.
My intention was to add the sauce mayonnaise this afternoon.
At this point I should tell you a side story about our auxiliary icebox.
The aforementioned Robert maintains a spare icebox in our carriage house. This is normally used to stored his Narragansett Lager Beer at the proper temperature.
Oddly I must generally disagree with his need for an icebox as Narragansett Lager Beer reminds me of the urine of a large ruminant and as such a much warmer holding temperature would seem warranted... but I digress.
This icebox is not very reliable, a fact that in my haste to finish the salad was sadly overlooked.
Baldur retrieved the unfinished and chilled potato salad and proceeded to stir the sauce mayonnaise into it, There was a very small amount in the jar, certainly not nearly enough for this rather large quantity of salad.
No worries, there was another, supposedly virgin jar in the auxiliary icebox.
Dashing off to the carriage house I retrieved the mayonnaise, opened the jar and scooped a large quantity into the salad.
As I struggled to manipulate the oarlike stirring paddle I reflected that the jar was not 'virgin' and indeed a small quantity had been previously removed.
It was only then as I still held the container in my right hand that it dawned upon my normally astute mind that the jar was rather warm for one recently plucked from the bowels of an icebox.
It was obviously not refrigerated.
Had this been a hermetically sealed container there would be no problem in my mind, but now the safety of the food was questionable.
Baldur had no choice but to haul the heavy bowl to the compost pile and dispose of the contents.
Sigh

Hazer

Oh dear...don't you just hate it when that happens! You did the right thing! Better no potato salad then a bunch of sick guests.

sheftali52

Yay--Baldur has surfaced! But wah, the baron of Boughbreak has too many misfortunes lately. Hope the tides turn soon for our beleaguered host.

Two cool things Sheftali has seen lately: dragon flies dancing through the stream of water from my hose, as I was watering my garden. The late afternoon sunlight was illuminating them just so, and they sparkled like jewels. And just tonight, as daylight waned, there were several bats swirling through the air in my backyard, squeaking and hopefully eating mosquitoes.

Baldur

and Yay! for both dragonflies and mosquito-devouring bats; the world is a better place because of them...

polenta

Who had opened the jar and not refrigerated it? A jar doesn't open by itself. Who should be taken to justice to spend the rest of his days in jail?

Baldur

That polenta is a mystery, but the poisoned mayonnaise could have sickened all the guests.
It was placed in the icebox, so whowever was responsible thought they were doing the correct thing.
Unfortunately the icebox doesn't work as it should.

Dragon

I blame one of the gnomes, they're notorious for their love of mayo and disregard of properly working iceboxes. Hope the rest of the family BBQ goes well and without a hitch.

sheftali, I would have loved to see both the dragonflies (my favorite insect-no shocker there I'm sure) and bats (my favorite flying mammals). A couple of years ago Red Deer was absolutely innundated with dragonflies and their smaller cousins the damselflies (I always wonder, do knightflies have to save damselflies from dragonflies?) we must have had just the perfect conditions for them to breed. I would often sit out in the backyard with my cats on their leashes and enjoy watching them fly about. It was not unusual for them to land on my arms and legs and they expecially seemed to like my toes. My cat Oscar (the mighty hunter) thought that they were a wonderful afternoon snack and would happily chase them all over the yard. Haven't seen any in a couple of years now though that could be because I moved, I'm not sure if they simply aren't breeding the way they did that year or if they don't hang around this end of town.

Dragon

I suddenly realize that the sentence 'I would often sit out in the backyard with my cats on their leashes and enjoy watching them fly about.' is a little awkward, I assure you that the cats were not flying about the yard, the dragonflies were. Hmmm, wish we could edit our comments here.

sheftali52

He he Dragon--lol about the cats flying about! My high school English teacher would have been proud of you for catching that. Oh, and tonight I was fascinated watching a hummingbird moth flit around the cleome flowers around my deck. The first time I saw one of those moths several years ago, I thought it was a hummingbird, but I saw it at night and realized it wasn't a bird upon a closer look. The hummingbird moth's movements closely resemble the bird's, so it's an interesting little creature.

Baldur

Dragon, indeed while garden gnomes ore inordinately fond of Mayonaisse based pranks I should point out the eggs are poisinous to gnomes in general. One can actually 'Google' this to read about it.
We currently have at least 15 garden gnomes taking refuge here at Boughbreak. There may be more who never wander into my gardens and have their own private areas in the woodland.
Baldur has noticed that a certain pair of gnomes have become obsessed over a small seedling that I'd planted under a pear tree.
This particular plant is an heirloom flowering annual called 'Jewels of Opar'.
It had never before been grown here, and of the entire packet of seeds only one lived long enough to get transplanted into the soil.
So far it is but a small rosette of golden round glossy leaves, lush and healthy looking but quite small.
The gnomish guardians have never left it's side. It is in the most weedfree, well tended area of the garden.
Next spring they shall be given the packet of seeds right at the outset.

Baldur

I am quite overjoyed that ThinkWrite has been spun off onto it's own site.
This is great news as it seems to have developed quite a fan base.
Baldur has rarely contributed there (only twice actually) but has looked at the material often enough to realize that some people have taken it quite seriously.
Good luck guys.
Meanwhile back to our regular program.

Baldur

At long last we have our first tomato starting to ripen on the vine. This morning it is distinctly orange.
I can't wait. The local produce stand is charging $2.39 per pound, which to me is highway robbery.
There was a time when produce would go down in price in the Summer when it was plentiful, but no more.

Dragon

I remember when I lived in Kelowna with my folks we had tomato plants (and tomato worms, but that's a whole different story) the first tomato of the year was ripening nicely and we brought it inside to wait for the last little bit of red to come into it. It was quite small and my mom and I watched it with great anticipation of it reaching just the perfect ripeness. Imagine our horror when we got home on the day we were sure it would be ready and it was gone, vanished from the windowsill. My brother had decided that, indeed it had reached the perfect ripeness and had eaten it all himself.

Oh, also I had no idea that eggs were poisonous to gnomes. It's a good thing I've never had any or I may have innadvertantly poisoned them! If I ever have any in my garden (if I ever have a garden) I'll have to keep that in mind.

mdawrcn

Same story with the ripening tomato, only mine was still on the vine and perfect. Just the right size, I watched it every day until I knew that tomorrow would be the day. On said day, I went out to pick it and, yes it was gone. A deer was the culprit. You could have heard my scream a mile away. I was so upset and haven't tried to grow any since.

Baldur

Rain, beautiful rain, finally a drizzly morning at Boughbreak.
The soil here is rather like dust this Summer and our well can only provide so much water. Large areas of the garden languish in the drought.
All looks fine as Baldur has used many native perennials that soldier through the dry spells admirably well. Even in the most parched conditions there are still plenty of flowers.
Still it would be nice is the lawns were green again.

I will not go to the extreme measures that were exhibited by my friend Frank several years ago. He is a chemist that works in a large dairy processing plant. He also has a degree in horticulture.
Being rather disgusted with his beige lawn he purchased a gallon of deep green biological dye. After loading it into a large pressure sprayer he proceeded to 'paint' his lawn.
It certainly was the greenest lawn in town.