It's been a rainy weekend around here. A little more like August - heat we're not used to, humidity, rain - than April.
But for me, it was Plantin' Time!
New herbs, and the herbs I managed to keep alive over the winter...
Let's see... two tarragon plants, curly rosemary and my thyme were the lucky survivors from last year. Actually, the curly rosemary is even a year older than that (Happy Birthday!).
New stuff include chocolate mint, sage (the sage plant I tried to bring indoors this year didn't do so good. Come to think of it, it never did so good while it was outdoor in the summer), oregano, regular rosemary, and some lavender. Also planted some chives, and I had some chives from last year that came back up (yay!).
And that's some flat-leaf parsley, two basil plants in the square pot, and a patio tomato in the back. I bought all my tomato plants at the same place I got my patio plant last year... that was one tough little sucker that just kept producing tomatoes like crazy.
The rest of the tomatoes....
A cherry tomato plant (I think... don't recall the two "end" pots, guess I'll see when they start producing....)...
A Ball's Beefsteak tomato plant....
I was thinking of trying some kinda heirloom tomato, but they really didn't have any that seemed too interesting where I was looking.
A nice yellow tomato plant....
A (hopefully) a happy garden......
And... what is this? The things I planted last weekend out front are actually - GASP - growing???
Ok... well, even I have a hard time killing a pansy.
And, um... I remembered what each of these was last week when I planted them. But I'm just highly amazed that they've actually grown since then. The front bed has been death to most things I have planted. I tried various ornamental grasses last year and they all either died, or just didn't grow. Didn't die, but never grew beyond what they were when they were planted. It was odd. And frustraiting.
Hello, happy little plants and retaining wall that the landscaping guys always nudge out of place!
Hello, my sad little Sensation Lilac bush and daylillies!
Lamium in the front. One of the few successes I've had in the front bed.
On to Saturday night's dinner... I wanted something quick and easy, which usually means Shrimp pasta.
I had a couple leeks in the fridge, so I cut up a leek and started with that.
Add some canned diced tomatoes and crushed garlic and simmer away...
Add shrimp and pasta, and dinner is served!
Today was also a busy one. More rain this morning, which means that most of the Greater Chicago Area was out trying to get errands done when it finally passed. And I had a few stops to make. Wanted to get some CD case insert things so I could print them up for my portfolio, needed some stuff at Target, hit Trader Joe's for some stuff, then the produce mart and regular store.
After that was done, it was some final work getting the new portfolio together, making copies of it, making the labels and inserts, getting four loads of laundry in, some light cleaning. I was looking for a no-brainer dinner. Roast chicken to the rescue! Or not.
Potatoes and carrots in the bottom, add salt and pepper....
Same treatment to the chicken...
Threw that in the oven. I was slightly distracted by the time and I got it in later than I wanted. And it was a big bird. And it was not done after an hour. And the hubby was in a cranky mood - sometimes he loves a roast chicken, other times he looks at it like it's some horrible thing that should not count as food. Tonight was one of the bad nights. I was already tired from the weekend and threw back and equal amount of sass his way - dude, you don't know how lucky you are to not have to think about getting things on the table, you just need to not bitch about the things that go there. Shouldn't be too hard.
The chicken leftovers will be placed in the crockpot tonight with some other veg, and at least I'll have some no-fuss chicken stock in the morning. Yay!!
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