Neighborly Neighbors

Blogger friend Pam kindly nudged me on never having posted about something I had essentially promised. So here are a few examples. A young couple bought the house next door and they are both sweet as the day is long. 

The dear lady is rather addicted to an online auction site, bidding on items more for the rush of winning than purchasing things they need or especially want. She gifted me a restaurant quality patio umbrella and this cool garden arch.

Her husband said they like how I used colored duct tape on the support bars, as well as my solar powered neon flamingos...

The gal across from us gives me things from their salvaging expeditions, like an entire box of artificial sweetener. One of her friends is equally kindhearted. The other day she ran over and gave me a mummified garden gnome plushy.

By the way, I am having format issues, so let me ask here what I should name this fellow. And have you ever seen Halloween themed gnomes?

 

Garden Duty

As the title suggests, gardening has kept me busy, both outdoors and in the kitchen. Starting vegetables from seed has proven a huge success and provided the joyous challenge of preservation. It’s also a pleasure sharing with those who often reciprocate in their own way.

(More on neighborlyness later)

My pumpkin plants are doing well. However, it didn’t occur to me that last year’s squash bug infestation would emerge from the same plot for a similar feast. ~shakes head~ The following video shows one silly misadventure.

The yield continues being awesome. There are more tomatoes, peppers, and pumpkins coming to fruit.

I am happy these innards are not stringy...

... as seeds were easily separated for roasting.

I harvested my second blue pumpkin today. It’s being left to cure/dry in our cool cellar.

 

Did you know pumpkins are really difficult to hand process for foodstuff? Do you think I should save all the next for display?

Why Our Carpet Looks Awful

This house, built in 1978, has all original carpet as far as we know. My husband and I had one bathroom and the kitchen renovated years ago, plus new entryway flooring installed. Outside is another story altogether. Anyway, the following illustrates why we’ve left the carpet alone.

While I make grooming attempts, Terra and Polly wrestling gets the job done better. Check this out…

I must be clear that we’d rather have our silly kitties than a neat and tidy house. They are well behaved felines with only the expected issues.

Meanwhile, Dandelion is a long legged female with great strength. We think she never enjoyed a proper kittenhood before we took her in. By the way, my husband doesn’t know she’s shredded anything but cat furniture.

Look at those pink ear tips as she
surveys her efforts...

Do you prefer rugs and carpeting? If not, what is your favorite flooring material?

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Human Quirks

We all are red blooded and weird in our own ways. Liz A covered this in her post about fascinating human aspects.

A strange phobia has plagued me since before I can remember. My mother, having heard her little girl screaming, found me staring at the backyard play swing blowing crazily in the wind. I later stopped enjoying my grandparents’ front porch if anyone or thing made the bench swing sway askew.

Discovering others with my phobia comforted me a few years ago. Much later, however, my husband saw my face turn ashen at sight of a swirling indoor grocery store sign. He thought I was about to have a stroke. Laughing about it now, I make sure to wear a wide-brimmed hat there and keep my eyes lowered in known trigger areas.

I have it easy compared to some folks disturbed by dangling jewelry and even their own hair blowing in the wind. In addition, fixed objects such as vertical blinds don’t trigger my anxiety and my mind conjures ocean wave sounds during high winds. This 2015 blog post and the commentary in particular provided additional insight into my hating unexpected loud sounds.

Do you suffer any unusual anxieties? If so, have you found relief?

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Seriously Silly & Silly Seriousness

When I shared finding a huge bargain on cut flowers, a kind comment from Andrew reminded me my lack of clarity. Each bunch consisted of a single coloration, so my tricolor bouquet would have cost $24 (USD) while I paid one eighth (!) that price. And in addition, Jungle Jim’s market had a sale on white button mushrooms. One of the tasty fungi made me giggle before I sliced, diced, and fried them up.

Putting the butt in button... ~shakes head~ Sorry

Did you know that the common white mushroom I photographed is an immature version of the more expensive crimini and portabello varieties? By the way, dear Mariette, please correct me if I’m wrong. If you are a mushroom culinary aficionado, do you prefer milder or more earthy flavors?

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Bargain Finds – Flowers and Fungi

I know not everyone enjoys the taste/texture of mushrooms. My husband and I adore all varieties. Shiitakes are a favorite for cooking but tend to be expensive.

Growing in My Yard; I Dare Not Taste It

To our joy, we found shiitakes sold for a reasonable price at the international Jungle Jim’s market in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Dried versions in a distant aisle were even less expensive by weight. However, we were happy with our fresh, more familiar find in the produce section.

While he ordered lunch at the indoor sandwich shop I went to wash my hands and found a ridiculous markdown on cut flowers. Originally priced at $7.99 (US), these bunches were being offered at 99 cents each. Petals fell off as I trimmed stems and put the flowers in a vase but they remain festive.

They had been painted, of course...

Do you think any average person nowadays could justify spending eight dollars for something so ephemeral? And are your local stores having huge sales on items they can’t sell otherwise?

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A Cute Visitor to My Yard

Warning: if crickets give you the creeps, give this three second video below a skip. Should I have named this little critter Jiminy?

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Update on the Vegetable Garden

Having grown so many viable vegetable plants from seed, I am so much more invested than in previous years that I stroll around several times daily. Most discoveries make me happy. Now I’m facing a serious issue.

While my container grown tomatoes are thus far unharmed, the corner patch became infested by tomato hornworms. I spent a good while Wednesday morning pulling off and discarding these repulsive caterpillars. Fat and alien in appearance, they cling to the foliage for all they are worth. And their frightening camouflage would have allowed them to decimate every plant if not for their distinctive droppings.

I’m so glad I can recognize this berry-like poop…

On a bright note, an adult moth became trapped in my pumpkin netting (revenge is sweet). Being smaller than its offspring makes the winged bug no less ugly. Unlike most moths’ elegant tapered thorax, those of Manduca quinquemaculata appear revoltingly bloated up to the sharp pointed end.

It did not have a happy ending...

That evening I used the netting for my pumpkins to cover the neighboring tomato plants, as well. And I’m leaving another bit of netting looped over the trellised EarthBox plantings as an extra precaution.

Much to my dismay I saw more droppings early the next day and had to remove another stomach-churning monster. So I bought a spray bottle of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Thursday afternoon.

We once purchased a concentrated form, which I looked for at the store to no avail, but it’s for the best. These natural and effective living bacterium do not have a long shelf life. In fact, we still had the concentrate which is doubtless inert after perhaps an entire decade (!), and I’m a bit annoyed that the label didn’t include a production date. My belated research following the same day application also irked me. This ready-to-use product’s label neglected to inform me that sunlight degrades the product.

I should have waited until evening. But I did not use the entire bottle yesterday and emptied it this morning after killing a small caterpillar. Anyway, this article provided other fascinating information. Humans first discovered Bt’s benefits in the early 1900’s and some field crops have been modified to include the gene responsible for the bacterium’s all important crystal protein.

Did you know that modern Bt strains have also become an essential weapon in the battle against West Nile Virus? And since profit drives more research than human welfare, do you think genetically modified foods pose a health risk?

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