Garden fever

Okay so I have it BAD! I'm planning on two new garden areas for my yard - a shade garden for under my oak tree - and this: an 'herb spiral'. I had seen a website on this a couple of years back, but never had really seriously thought about putting one in, but after looking at the prices of fresh herbs in the grocery store for a little piece of herb ($2.50), I have decided that it is economically sound for me to grow my own herbs that I normally use. So.. here I am, fixing to put in another garden area that my husband will have to mow around. I am rather stuck on trying to figure out how many bags of dirt I should pick up at The Walmart to make this herb spiral, and bricks - how many will be required? The nursery that I go to in town, is getting in their spring plants this coming Friday (woohoo!) and she showed me the list - its quite extensive- and I will be doing quite a bit of shopping there for herbs and the like.

On another note - for once! Walmart has RHUBARB! the plant - I am not exactly sure how it will do in zone 8, but I am going to buy a plant and see how well it does in our summer heat. If I can avoid buying rhubarb at the grocery store, and get it fresh for pie and crumbles, that is the best.

More victims!

or plants, as I call them. I got a pink hibiscus (large), a yellow cestrum, a delphinium bellacosum, a large pot of pink phlox, and planted the orange tree today (finally) that I had bought last year. Although, I found out the orange tree requires a pollenator, so I will have to purchase another one this year, and plant that one fairly close to it. And trim back the trees on my side of the fence that are the neighbors. My asparagus is not growing up this spring (yet), but the spring flowers that grow in the median on the way into town are starting to bloom. Which means spring is definately on its way and we will not get any more frosts. We may get a night or two that is still chilly, but the summer is on its way here to south Texas. What I'd like to do this spring, is dig up the grass in a shady patch under the oak tree (its DYING anyway!) and plant a shade garden - I have two types of fern, some bleeding hearts, and some lily of the valley, put those in there, with some rock, build it up and make it look nice. Plus if I build it up and put rock around it, the husband can't mow it down. That is a major problem! My mother in law has a gorgeous garden area around her whole house, and I would like to eventually have something like her yard, but that will take much work, and time, and lots of back-breaking work to get it to that point. Plus we have this horrid grass that sends out runners that you can't do a darn thing with, but keep tearing it up and back to where it should be. Oh yes, I did buy some purple fountain grass today, going to figure out where to put it - and try to keep the husband from mowing it down! thats going to be interesting. Potted plants all over the yard! *grin*

Something from TV

As I was watching TV last week, Glenn Beck (whether you agree politically with him or not) is doing a series on "we surround them" on principles of life - and he came up with 12 core principles that pretty much everyone can agree on - except for those who are weaselly takers - those who are pretty much slugs.

12 Values

* Honesty
* Reverence
* Hope
* Thrift
* Humility
* Charity
* Sincerity
* Moderation
* Hard Work
* Courage
* Personal Responsibility
* Friendship

I'd say there's a good portion of people who dont ascribe to these anymore - and those are the 'takers' of society.. those who feel that they deserve to get what is theirs, they deserve to have society support them merely because they're unwilling to get a job, it's *beneath* them to work at McDonalds, or Jack in the Box, or to do menial work. They'd rather sit around in their houses, getting paid for doing nothing, watching cable on their new flatscreen TVs. And yes, the poor in this country are NOT poor. When working people are struggling to make ends meet, and buying store brands, and lower priced goods at the grocery store, you see people with Lone Star cards buying high priced goods and junk at the grocery store. They don't have to worry about their next paycheck.

A different thing ~

Ok.. so I bit - here goes :

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. But you will, because it’s from me! (and I make great stuff!)
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It’ll be done this year.
4. You have no clue what it’s going to be.
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

Ok ok so I took away the forced "repost this on your blog and get 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a fabulous homemade gift by me. Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it. Just suffice it will be fun !

I don't know if anyone will take the offer, but it's up here. Who will be the first to jump?

This is utter and complete idiocy

This bill introduced into congress by Mr Rush, H.R. 45 - "Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009" which the awful text can be found HERE. If this isn't a gun-hater's beginning of the dream bill, I don't know what is. As I read the bill, I was reminded of much of the Bill of Rights..and how it's trampled by this bill introduced. What this bill fails to take into account, is that the gun crime that he wants to curb, is done by *criminals*, who really don't give a flip about any new laws. These laws only serve and suffice to make the law-abiding populace miserable, and generally unarmed. Other countries have registered weapons before, and then confiscated them - because they knew where they were, and who had them. This Mr. Rush might have had good intentions, but he's going about it all wrong. He would be better served, by making up more task forces to go after gangs, and scrambling for federal dollars for police forces to man up to go after gangs.

I find this paragraph interesting:

(2) it is in the national interest and within the role of the Federal Government to ensure that the regulation of firearms is uniform among the States, that law enforcement can quickly and effectively trace firearms used in crime, and that firearms owners know how to use and safely store their firearms.

Again, its NOT the role of federal government! Where in the constitution is this found? Again the 10th Amendment is being trampled.

X. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

I finally found it!

Aha! I have found them! What you say? The shoes I LIKE.. I am going to get them later on today.. amazingly enough, at Zappos

I Like:

Nancy
by Vigotti

Chopsticks

Lately I've been buying various things that catch my eye - it was teapots for a while.. but I have to knock that off, as I am out of room for teapots, and as hubby says.. how many teapots does one need? I have 6 teapots in various sizes, ranging from 16 ounces to 48 ounces, and use them at different times, 4 tea-for-ones. I guess enough of those. Lately its been chopsticks. Yes, chopsticks! Why? We eat with them. They make some gorgeous enamelled ones, and cloisonned chopsticks.

Chinese people have been using chopsticks as main tableware for more than 3,000 years.

Japanese Chopsticks are slightly different form Chinese Chopsticks, in that they are more tapered. In Japan they are called "Hashi" which means bridge.

Even our HEB has chopstick sets now.. although they are plastic and in these funky bright colors, not very pretty.. kind of cartoony looking. They are expanding their Asian food section there. They now carry Vietnamese rice wrappers, I noticed. And they also carry sushi rice, which we have a fondness for, instead of long grain fluffy rice. Nice sticky rice anyday!

Some old stuff from Pisa, Italy

I was talking to a friend today, and he found this, the The Camposanto Monumentale cemetary in Pisa. Has some great pictures, and a great way to see some history. This area took a lot of shelling during WW2, as did Montecassino.

Which got me to thinking back about my father. He joined the Navy when he was 17, and was shipped overseas to occupied Japan, where he learned to like warm beer - he said the breweries were still putting out beer, however, there was no ICE.. hence the warm beer. He had some little keepsakes from there, a newspaper, and some chopsticks from his time over there. When we moved into our house, up on a shelve above the fridge area, way in the back was a teeny vase, about two inches tall, stamped "made in Occupied Japan" on the bottom. So now it sits in my hutch, along with my other things of interest (a painted goose egg, and various plates and things I've picked up along the way).

Persecuting Christians

According to Open Doors’ 2009 World Watch List released February 3rd, here's the list:

1. N. Korea
2. Saudi Arabia
3. Iran
4. Afghanistan
5. Somalia
6. Maldives
7. Yemen
8. Laos
9. Eritrea
10. Uzbekistan
11. Bhutan
12. China

Islam is the majority religion in seven of the top 10 countries: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Maldives, Yemen and Uzbekistan. Two countries have communist governments: North Korea and Laos. Eritrea is the only dictatorial country in the 10 highest countries on the list.