NY, my thumb, and a dog

Random much, SM? Yeah, I know it’s a weird title, but I didn’t have any good way to connect the 3 totally unrelated topics I wanted to write about this morning. So there ya go.

I know this is old news, but I felt I would be remiss in not mentioning it. On Friday of last week, NY became the largest state to recognize same-sex marriages. Awesome!! This has been a contentious issue across the nation for a very long time, and probably will be for years to come, but I was very happy to see this law passed. It’s one step in the right direction, anyway, in my opinion. I know so many people feel gay marriage is wrong, since in the Bible it says marriage is between a man and a woman, but you know what? I don’t care. I’m not religious (another entire post in itself), I’ve never read the Bible (i actually did start on that endeavor years ago, but didn’t get far at all. does anyone else find trying to read that language about as enjoyable as pulling out your eyelashes one by one?), and I don’t understand why a book written thousands of years ago is still considered relevant enough to rule our laws today. If 2 people are in love, want to spend the rest of their lives together in a recognized union just like the rest of us, and are doing no harm to either themselves or anyone else anywhere on the planet, why should they not get married? I still have not heard a good answer to that question, so I personally hope the rest of the states eventually follow NY’s lead. I knew I liked that place.

So remember how I was all excited about the gardens I planted last month? The veggie plants, the veggie seeds, the mulch? Apparently my green thumb wasn’t so green after all. None of the seeds had sprouted a few weeks later, so I just kept patiently watering and waiting. I was showing R where I’d planted everything one night, and he said, “You didn’t mulch over the seeds, did you?” Well yeah, don’t you see that beautifully spread mulch before you, right where I said the bean, cucumber, pea, and lettuce seeds are? “You can’t mulch over seeds, it’ll suffocate them, just like it does to weeds.” DUH, SM. Seriously, I’m stupid. Why this obvious and most logical of facts escaped me as I laid bag after bag of mulch over the entire seeded area, I have no idea. So yeah, I totally failed at the veggie gardens. The seeds, anyway. The plants are doing swimmingly, especially now that the sun has finally decided to remember that the Earth is down here. I pulled the mulch back in those areas where the seeds were to uncover the dirt and try to resuscitate them, but unfortunately only a couple pea plants have sprouted – no beans, no cucs, and no lettuce. So I finally had to resign myself to the fact that I killed them and needed to start over. Last night I got a chance to reseed the barren areas, so I planted more beans and lettuce; unfortunately the cucumber seeds were gone, and I figured I’d take my chances with 4 pea plants up so far before planting any more seeds in that part. Fingers crossed that this round survives and the sun helps them out this week, since each day looks like it’s going to be gorgeous. I had a little helper last night as I was working in the gardens, too.

Mommy & D in the backyard

 

And now for the dog part. This morning on my way to work I saw a dog, running with its leash attached, right down the middle of the road and onto an onramp to the highway! What the?? It was a pretty small little guy (i’m calling it a guy. it could very well have been a girl, for all i know), but he was moving like a bat out of hell. I didn’t see anyone chasing him, but I did see one car that was stopped just behind where I first saw him, so maybe she was his owner and he’d gotten out of the car somehow. She had to stop since the light changed, which allowed the dog to get even farther up the ramp toward the highway, so I really really hope that lady was his owner and was able to get him once her light turned green. I felt terrible for not stopping to try to pick him up. I always think oh yeah, I would totally stop to help an animal, but here I had a chance and totally didn’t. But I’m honestly not sure what I would have done with him had I nabbed him. I guess just taken him back to wherever his tags said, because I don’t know where any vets or animal shelters are around here. I still couldn’t help feeling a touch heartless. Please little doggie, be ok and back in your owner’s care!

 

FF

TGIF!! And especially an F before a long holiday weekend! Everyone pay a little tribute to our honorable vets for Memorial Day (or even better, a big tribute).

What I have for the FF this week are some long overdue pictures that I promised from D’s first Brewers game a few weeks ago:

My 1st tailgate

 

Miller Park, yippee!

 

Mom, this place is fun!

 

Mmm, strings

 

Thanks for letting me chew on your water bottle, Auntie Stacey

 

Of course I cheered with Daddy too

 

And just because, here are some more artsy nature shots of water droplets in the gardens. This time they were on my bleeding heart plants.

Into the heart of the bleeding heart

 

Just some more droplets

 

Have a wonderful 3 day weekend, everybody. I get to go meet our friends’ brand new baby boy, K, on Monday, yay!!

 

That thumb? It’s green again

Today it was finally nice enough outside that I could get our veggie gardens in for the year. I know – 75 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, warm breeze? Was I in the right place? I figured before Mother Nature had a chance to answer that question and piss on us again I’d better hop to it. (good thing too, for as i type this we’re in the middle of a thunderstorm)

Of course everyone else in the greater Milwaukee area had the same idea, and the garden store was PACKED. But I got everything I needed relatively painlessly and was home an hour later to get to gardening. I got 2 Roma tomato plants, a Boxcar Willie heirloom tomato plant, a Mr. Stripey heirloom tomato plant, a green pepper plant, a red pepper plant, romaine lettuce seeds, sweet basil seeds, purple basil seeds, cilantro seeds (yuck! but R loves it), tomato stakes, some new netting to put around all the gardens so I no longer have to scratch the crap out of my hands trying to weave together all the stupid short pieces of chicken wire I’ve been using the past couple years, and 3 Gerbera daisies for the pot I put on our front walk. R went to Home Depot this afternoon and brought home some more seeds – cucumbers, sweet peas, and more herbs – so I planted those as well as some green bean seeds we had from a year or two ago.

Keep your fingers crossed that my netting works to keep all the vermin out, our seeds germinate, and our vegetable gardens flourish. If they all survive we will have quite the bumper crop! Here are some more pictures I took today to show off my handiwork from this afternoon as well as the color that’s now blossoming from my bulbs.

Here's the cool hummingbird feeder I got at The Fireside

 

D's peonies again - they're growing!

 

Back garden in bloom

 

Veggies behind the garage - beans, cucs, peas, peppers, 1 tomato on the left, chives, garlic, and lettuce on right

 

Veggies behind garage from other end - tomato in foreground on right, lettuce in netting on left

 

Side of garage - hops in foreground, 3 tomatoes in netting, and me being a shadow nerd

 

Driveway garden again, much bigger this time

 

Front - gardens blooming, hanging plant from my bday, pot full of daisies on walk