Friday, May 02, 2008

Let's Talk about Other Things

My work week was incredibly draining and is the reason I haven't posted in a while. So...moving on to other topics...

Friday of last week, my parents met me at work and I took off a few hours early. Their visit was much better than I anticipated. Not that I thought my parents would be bad company or something, I was just really worried about them staying with me and perhaps my dad making comments about my neighborhood. Just because there are signs posted at nearly every intersection that read, "This area under mobile camera surveillance," it isn't really that bad. (As long as you stay in at night and aren't a post office letter carrier, since people around here tend to shoot their letter carriers. Ha - see, things aren't so bad!)

But, my parents didn't say much about my neighborhood. Probably because we were so busy buying gardening supplies and plants and looking at plants and eating.

We ate so much Friday night at Sidney Street Cafe, none of us were very hungry on Saturday. We hit the Webster Groves herb sale in the morning, and were surprised at how many people were there! We had to wait in this looooong line to get in:

It was like a night club where you have to wait for people to leave in order to go in. Only it was an herb sale.

After the herb sale and after stopping at Serendipity for a few scoops of ice cream, we went to the Botanical Gardens. Although the Niki de Saint Phalle show didn't officially open until the next day, we saw plenty of sculptures. Like the Niki-gator:


We also saw someone who might possibly be the Chinese ambassador to the US, but that's another story for another post.

We were at the gardens for a long time and certainly got our money's worth. That's a bit of humor because the gardens are free to City and County residents before noon on Saturday...so we didn't have to pay anything. But I would have paid because the gardens are great.

Anyway, I made dinner for my parents Saturday night using the black beans and tortillas from my CSA share. Sunday morning was breakfast at Missisippi Mud House (because La Dolce Via doesn't open until 10 on Sunday), and then my parents were off.

Here are some other plant-related updates...

My tomato plant on the porch is doing terrifically well! Here it is with a companion sweet basil plant that I picked up at the WG sale (its other basil buddies are in the garden):


I have a lot of lettuce to thin out. I think I might have a very baby lettuce salad this weekend:


Here's a thyme plant and a pistou basil plant, also from the WG sale:


And an oregano plant from the sale:


I can't wait until the basil plants are big and there are tomatoes to harvest!

My only wish is that it wasn't allergy time. I'm actually faring well this season thanks to a steady regimen of sinucleanse, allegra, and flonase. However, my throat is getting a bit sore now, and my nose is full of snot and some other yucky stuff. But, you know, at least I can still breathe without too much trouble. It doesn't help that there's a thick coat of pollen on everything in the living room - I intend to clean up that crap tomorrow.

My plant goals this weekend are to find and plant two red bell pepper plants, a banana pepper plant, and possibly an eggplant. In the garden, we currently have the following sprouting: radishes, carrots, beets, lettuce, chard, peas, tomatoes, basil, sage, garlic, and chives. In mid-May, we'll plant watermelons, cantaloupes, and cucumbers. Awesome!

Oh, also, Porkchop and I have decided that it would be best for us to purchase a regular house at the moment. So, I have identified a few around Cherokee street to look at next weekend. Like most people, we have certain requirements that potential houses need to meet. We've nixed a few already because the yards would not be able to accommodate chickens.

Yes, we are basing our housing purchase options on chickens that we don't have.

But we will get them, oh yes, we will. We are so excited about having chickens!

Porkchop wants to buy one of these Eglus, but I'd rather we build a chicken tractor ourselves instead of paying $500 for wire and plastic.

Anyway, that's what we're talking about now...chickens.

4 comments:

Porkchop said...

Yay! CHICKENS!!! Who doesn't get excited about chickens, really? I'm sure our new neighbors will love them. We might have to get the chickens little bullet proof vests though, if we're living around Cherokee street.

bek said...

Sounds like a super-fun visit! I had similar worries when my parents came to visit, also to no avail :)

Chickens are scary! And I would think also illegal in a city, but no: according to the ChickenLaws website, you can have up to 4 without a permit. Good luck on your ChickenQuest!

veggielover said...

one of my co-workers has chickens in her yard, and it's awesome because each week she brings eggs to the office, so I never have to worry about getting non-free range eggs. She has a contribution jar in the fridge and we all leave a few bucks and she donates it to doctors without borders, which is awesome. it's actually one of the sweetest things about working in the archives-- my immediate coworkers are really great.

anyway, chickens sound awesome! I can't wait till you two get all settled in st. louis again and then b and i can come visit.

BethD said...

Dude, Chickens, a house, vegetable gardens???? I'm soooo jealous.