Baldur

Happy Birthday to Hayden Panettiere, Paris Bennett, Usain Bolt, Kevin Nee, Sergey Brin, Nathan Jones, Caryn Mower, King Mohammed VI of Morocco, Jeff Stryker, Kim Cattrall, Chip Coffey, Keith Hart, Kenny Rogers, Wilt Chamberlain, Melvin Van Peebles, Art Farmer, Judy Grable, Christopher Robin Milne, Friz Freleng, Count Basie, Aubrey Beardsley and King Philip II of France.

Dragon

Well, yesterday was my Bridal shower and I had a great time. My Maid of Honour arranged the whole party from Australia and attended by Skype. We had lots of food and several games (which I thought I would hate but they were actually really fun - plus it meant I got to win more goodies hehehe).
Boy starting to get the gifts makes it REALLY start to feel real. Also was fun getting pressys that will be going into the new house.
Well, it's late and it was a tiring weekend so I'm off to bed!

Baldur

Well it's really happening now Dragon, enjoy it all.
Everything must be quite exciting at this point.

Baldur

Happy Birthday to Giada De Laurentis, Tori Amos, Donna Godchaux, Cindy Williams, Bill Parcells, Valerie Harper, Carl Yastrzemski, E. Annie Proulx, Norman Schwarzkopf, Gerald P. Carr, Honor Blackman, Ray Bradbury!!!!!, John Lee Hooker, Dorothy Parker!!!!!, Claude Debussy and Pope Leo XII.

Baldur

Happy Birthday to River Phoenix, Yoshikazu Taru, Charles Busch, Queen Noor, Shelley Long, Keith Moon, Barbara Eden, Vera Miles, Tex Williams, Gene Kelly, Louise Nevelson, Edgar Lee Masters, Arnold Toynbee, Pliver Hazard Perry and King Louis XVI of France.

sheftali52

Did a cut and paste of "Pliver Hazard Perry" to learn more, and found he was Oliver Hazard Perry--lol. Interesting fellow, commodore, and principled.

Baldur

OOPS
a Baldur typo... sadly not as rare as they should be.

Baldur

Happy Birthday to Rupert Grint, Dave Chappelle, Shoichi Funaki, Marlee Matlin, Salazhan Sharipov, Cal Ripken Jr., Steve Guttenberg, Holly Hallstrom, Orson Scott Card, Anne Archer, Vince McMahon, Rocky Johnson, Gregory Jarvis, Mason Williams, Kenny Baker, Yasser Arafat, Durward Kirby, Joshua Lionel Cowen and Max Beerbohm.

Dragon

Dragon is wondering if Baldur grows many herbs at Boughbreak? I'm hoping to have a little herb garden grown in pots on my deck (which will be right off the kitchen) and I wonder if he has any tips for keeping them healthy and strong. I already have one chive plant that is doing spectacularly, in fact I think I would have a hard time killing it. It has been neglected, snowed on, hailed on and it just keeps on thriving. I'm hoping the other herbs I try to grow are as hardy as in the past I have been a bad plant mommy.

Login

Dragon, I've been trying to kill a clump of chives growing out of a crack in a concrete path. Plants encroaching on paths is usually very attractive but this clump is right in the middle of a narrow path and is very resilient. 'Haven't resorted to weedkiller yet but may have to.

Baldur

In general herbs shun fertile, tilled soil.
They prefer to be parched by the sun, have very sandy or even rocky soil that drains away moisture very quickly.
Here I grow basil, chives, Aegyptian onions (-A I suppose), dill, sage, lavendar (I hate the smell of it but it's attractive), horseradish, parsley spearmint, some other unnamed mint,and tons of catnip.
Every year I plant oregano without success; my friend up in Shrewsbury has it overrunning his lawn. It just dislikes Boughbreak.
Each Christmas he gives me a large suspicious looking parcel of dried leaves. It really is oregano but I've learned to open it in private because of the comments surrounding its appearance.
The borage refused to grow this year.
the Good King Henry did indeed sprout but Chloe ate every trace of it.
Somehow I forgot to put in Rosemary this year.

Baldur

Happy Birthday to Mike Lockwood, Claudia Schiffer, Jo Dee Messina, Rachael Ray, Cornelius Bennett, Blair Underwood, Billy Ray Cyrus, Tim Burton!!!, Elvis Costello, Burgandy!!!, Gene Simmons, Rollie Fingers, Regis Philbin, Sir (Thomas) Sean Connery!!!!!, Monty Hall, Leonard Bernstein, Mel Ferrer, Van Johnson, Walt Kelly, Ruby Keeler, Michael Rennie, Saint Faustina!!!, Hans Adolf Krebs, Bret Harte and Tsar Ivan IV.

Dragon

I'm definitly planning on some dill as well. I don't use it very much but I absolutly love the smell of it. Plus when I do have a recipe that calls for it it's just so much nicer to be able to use fresh.

Login, am I a horrible person that I secretly wish that my chives throw off some seeds and keep growing there outside the condo under the window long after we've moved out. Call it my legacy to our building, hehehe.

Baldur

Oh, and I also grow garlic chives, which have become quite prolific. They are running rampant in the asparagus bed.

Baldur

Happy Birthday to Tori Black, Riley Steele, Petey Williams, Chris Pine, Branford Marsalis, Will Shortz, Geraldine Ferraro, Mother Teresa!!!, Peggy Guggenheim, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Manuel Oribe and Joseph-Michel Montgolfier.

Baldur

Baldur went on a beading bonanza over the last two evenings and added 6 new strands to the windows here.
That is quite a lot. Usually I make one strand every other month or so.
Baldur needs to buy some smallish purple glass beads. The current assortment is very lopsided in favor of amber and gold glass with some deep reds and sea-glass green. There are also crystal beads, a very few tiny dark cobalt blue, some root beer and deep emerald mixed in.

I never mix the reds with the watery greens. The pale gold color works well though.

Dragon

I find the really rich purple beads are harder to find than most other colours. I also find that they are the most popular. I can't remember if I said before that alongside my cattoys I'm also making beaded barefoot sandals and selling them at the farmer's market. The purple always sell first.

Must ask Baldur, are garlic chives just a different sort of chive or are they what garlic grows from? I've never grown garlic but I understand it takes a couple of years before they're start growing the bulbs.

Baldur

Garlic chives are not technically garlic, thus planting garlic cloves will not result in them. Nor will you get garlic bulbs from garlic chives.

They are a perennial herb with narrow, flat, straplike leaves. They possess a very strong garlic scent when cut or bruised.
The chive part of their name is because of their growing habit. They form dense clumps with only slight bulbishness beneath the soil line. When they bloom in late Summer the blossoms are rather like chive flowers, but pure white and held on rather thin rigid stems.
The black seeds drop off the dried flowerhead and sprout quite readily.

This is an excellent plant to use in cooking omelets or in noodle dishes such as lo mein or pad thai.

Baldur

Baldur truly meant to stop at the craft store and purchase a quantity of purple beads this afternoon. Unfortunately after dropping by to check on Mother's readiness to weather hurricane Irene, all such thoughts evaporated.
I simply wanted to get home.

Baldur

There was a brief side trip to a small market that Baldur refers to as GhettoMart. It is a no-frills very cheap grocery store that has many items with labels in languages other than English.
This was not my regular GhettoMart. I was not to close to home and decided to try a different one.
The produce section was very small. Luckily they had very cheap limes.
I would not be happy if this were my main shopping destination.
The canned good section and the frozen convenience food section were both gigantic.
I noted the place was very clean, and saw several employees organizing shelves.