Garden Innovations – & – an Urban Legend (My Mortal Kombat II Movie Review)

My vegetable gardening endeavors are going quite well. I’m continually learning and improvising. Let’s take a quick visual tour.

I hope this flipped trellis protects my pumpkin plants against deer;
I will have to keep track of it...

This contraption provides portable shade, which I concocted last
summer and started calling my Mobile Oasis. Our twenty-nine old neighbor thinks it is BADA$$. ~grin~ And he likes my idea of adding a cup holder, perhaps a small motor, and thinks I should market the altered hand truck.

My carefully cultivated soil for carrots got raided by raccoons overnight last week; the aforementioned kind neighbor
lent me wire cutters to create this barrier.

This morning my husband offered to see a horror movie called “Hokum” in theater. It’s been on my watch wish list so I got my butt into gear for a 10:15am show time. Weirdly, the next three days only offered late night viewings. But neither of us looked close enough at the Sunday listing; it should have been obvious the options wouldn’t be early one day and late the following.

So we had choices. The kind ticket seller mentioned another scary movie but we hadn’t heard of it and I suggested just leaving. On our way toward the exit my guy reminded me of our mutual interest in “Mortal Kombat II”. Lucky for us, our timing was perfect.

Both of us were hooked by actor Karl Urban portraying the flippant Johnny Cage. His film and cinema presence always delight. I did wonder if this Kiwi acting powerhouse would prove too old for the role of a former Black Belt fighter turned action star. I also questioned how this remake would fare against the nineties film we adore.

Happily, I cannot state enough how the character and plot adaptations surpassed all my expectations. Though this popcorn flick isn’t groundbreaking it had me utterly engaged and laughing at the many relevant cultural references.

Do you know that carrots need a particularly fine growing medium and appreciate a bone meal additive? Should I have been surprised that the bone meal attracted opportunistic raccoons?

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An Acrobat's Controlled Fall

 

Waylaid

With a laundered comforter, basketful of fresh sheets and pillow cases, I intended to make the bed this afternoon. But upon entering I found Dandelion tucked between the balled up comforter and one of the pillows.

What near perfect camouflage…

I adore how one paw is curled over her upturned toes...

Who could roust such a pleased and comfy critter? Doesn’t the word camouflage have one of the most awkward spellings?

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Fun Finds

Preparing my garden patch, I discovered a pathetic little sprout trying to grow around my weed barrier. It proved harder to remove than expected. Apparently a squirrel buried a walnut in my grow bag and forgot. Too bad I don’t have space for such a tree or I’d try sprouting a nut myself.

Can you make out the walnut shell behind the germinated sprout?

On the other side of the yard I needed to clean up some aggressively growing lemon thyme. In the process of pruning dead vegetation and what was taking over the sidewalk I decided to remove an old seashell for placement elsewhere before it got lost underneath the vegetation. I didn’t expect a tiny bouquet of thyme flowers to tag along and found it quite lovely.

I found this broken, weathered shell decades ago...

Are you allergic to nuts or do you enjoy eating them? Isn’t it funny that the peanut isn’t a true nut, but rather a legume?

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A Quick Veggie Plant Update

Things are looking quite healthy. I’m leaving them outside for two and a half hours today. On Sunday I fertilized each at half strength. Please wish me well that I don’t trip and fall while moving them.

All my pumpkins and cucumbers have
jagged leaves while those smooth
ones belong to peppers...

I have my heart set on growing Super
Sauce tomatoes this summer...

More pepper and cucerbit plants...

Did you know that luffa sponges are a type of gourd in the cucerbit family? Isn’t it amazing that these gourds harvested young are commonly eaten (similar to zucchini) either stir-fried or curried?

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My Furry Houdini

Acclimating my plants to the outdoors (Yay!), I move them through our walkout basement onto the back patio. It’s easiest leaving the sliding glass door open in the process. Preventing our cats from getting out has an easy solution. I close the door at the top of the steps.

Left to right: pepper, cucumber, & tomato
all still have growing to do...

It didn’t quite latch one day, which I knew but wasn’t concerned. Everything locked up and plants nestled back into their little greenhouse, I headed toward the steps. The wide open door caught me by surprise. Surely my husband hadn’t woken from his nap and opened it. He would understand why I shut the door.

At the top I found Dandelion, who promptly got the zoomies while the sisters remained sound asleep. She is long legged, strong, and has big paws with claws to match, so she must have hooked the edge of the door and simply pulled.

Mischief & zoomies over;
time to nap now...

Dani certainly has done a number on the carpet outside the master bathroom. I finally laid down a wooden transition strip to both further prevent and hide the damage. When used for good, these feet are adorable.

 

It was lucky I rediscovered the thing. Even better was the perfect fit. While longer than the bathroom doorway is wide, it slid perfectly beneath our pocket door.

What is the oddest way you ever repurposed an item? Have you ever seen a pocket door?

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A Very Windy Garden Update

I’m happy to report that my tomato, pumpkin, and cucumber plants are looking good. The Jungle Parrot sweet peppers look a bit feeble but not terrible.

They all need daily time outside to harden off for outdoor transplantation. I set them out three days ago for half an hour. But that’s all I’ve managed.

All my comings and goings left poor
Polly exhausted...

Today’s even more extreme wind gusts (up to 31 mph!) would be detrimental, to say the least. I have my fingers crossed that this pattern changes but the forecast isn’t looking too good. Oh, well. All I can do is try and all the while hope for the best.

She had zero strength to offer sympathy
to my tired, mildly frustrated self.

Do you know we Midwesterners have a saying “April showers bring May flowers”? Why, instead, did March “come in like a lion” and never leave? What happened to the “going out like a lamb” part?

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Two Simple, Satisfying Fixes

My first annoyance involves cooking. A few years ago I introduced my husband to corn meal mush. Usually fried in a pan, it should end up crispy on the outside with the center warm and creamy. But all the yummy crispness ended up stuck to my pan. My disappointed husband didn’t make a fuss but I wondered if air frying would work better with the remainder. As you can guess, success!

Fun facts about the Amish:
You may well know that the devout never drive motorized vehicles.
Neighbor/family groups hire drivers for long distance travel.
Meanwhile, the surname of Yoder is extremely common.
So, what do outsiders call these transports?
‘Yoder Toters’, of course (true story).

Another nuisance regarded my laptop. The keyboard has a ten-key number pad, which I find useful. However, the Num Lk button doesn’t indicate whether it has been activated or not. I’d roll my eyes every time my effort to key in a digit instead moved my cursor. Carefully pried off and turned upside with a dot of hot glue, it’s not pretty but will never fool me again.

While I doubt my husband would appreciate my fix, I decided he doesn’t need to know.

How the number lock kept getting turned off is a mystery…

Have you ever eaten corn meal mush? Do you own an air fryer?

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