treeskin

* 4 'Minos' hyacinth, which is a dark purple
* 25 'Oriental Beauty' Dutch iris, which is an amber/orange/rose/purple iris, hard to describe, but oh-so-lovely in spring

Both purchased at Lowes, and both planted in the new beds at the east end of the garden.

Bulb planting will be complicated this season, because I dug oodles of daffs and lilies (colors/varieties unknown) at D's last month, and I can't remember where they all ended up. Except that the places that look like obvious spots for daffs and lilies are most likely already planted. Silly hobbit.

Children permitting, this morning shall also include moving my 'Twilight Prairiblue' baptisia, and the big clump of scullcap, because they're too big for their spots.

Talked to Sis this evening. She managed to move Nephew's appointment with the neurosurgeon up to today. Nephew has a mild concussion and some soft tissue damage that they're watching, but he's off of cognative rest as of this afternoon, but no sports/physical activity for a week. Maybe longer, depending on next week's exam. He's likely out for the rest of the football season.

I flat-out asked Sis if she'd reported The Ex for abuse and neglect, and she said no. Between the boys' unwillingness to testify against their dad, her lack of money for a lawyer, and the SRS's tendecy to blow off reports from her as being "just another bitter exwife"......

Sis did say that her boss is trying to help her find a pro-bono lawyer who'll take on The Ex. For this doctor bill, for the insure he won't pay for (despite court order), for defying another court order to not drink in front of the boys.........

*sigh*

My mom says Nephew is afraid of his dad, and doesn't want to hurt his feelings, despite being his dad's favorite punching bags. I'm rather afraid that someday soon, The Ex will hit/poke/verbally abuse Nephew one time too many, and Nephew's gonna haul off and hit him. Hard--Nephew has 4" and 30 lb on him already, and he's not 14 yet.

We're finally having fallish weather so we're inspired to cook fallish food. Tonight's dinner: "what do we have in the house" soup......
* pull 1 carton each turkey stock and veggie stock out of the freezer, thaw, plop in crockpot
* chop 1 onion, sautee in olive oil with 2 generous spoonfulls of chopped garlic, melt a couple tablespoons butter on top (because that was in the fridge and needed used), put oniony mixture in crockpot
* wash and chop 2 average spuds, add to pot
* wash and chop 2 big handfuls of baby carrots (or whatever you have left in the fridge), add to pot
* chop leftover smoked turkey drumstick (purchased at Renfest last weekend), add to pot
* trot out to garden for a sprig each of rosemary and sage, and two of thyme, rinse and add to pot
* turn crockpot up to high now that it's mostly full
* bask in the glow of dinner in progress

There will be mushrooms and yellow squash added too, later this afternoon, so they don't get overcooked. There's just enough salt in the smoked turkey that I won't have to add any to the soup (the stocks were prepared sans salt, for more flexibility).

And there will oatmeal bread, for dipping in soup.

No word on the Sperm Donor; I assume this means he's still missing.

Mom had a list of places he could be, to try to distract Sis from the image of his dead in a ditch somewhere. Including off shacked up with some chick he found at a bar, which I find (a) disgusting, given his appearance and smell last time I saw him, and (b) rather unlikely, given that he's drinking rather more since the last time I saw him.

I guess, I don't really care where he is, except that it upsets Sis to know he's missing. I just hope he hasn't killed anybody by driving drunk, on the way there.

Rain!!!!!
Real, honest-to-gods rain, enough to wash down the windows and soak into the soil. Almost a quarter inch so far, which, sadly, is the most rain we've had at one time since mid-May. They're saying we might get an inch of rain out of this storm. *crosses fingers*

This morning, I planted lilies and iris and daylilies that followed me home from D's garden on Wednesday afternoon. She was spending this morning at her new house, trying to plant everything that we dug and sent to the new place. As of 11am yesterday, she is officially out of her old house. Her husband's kids now have custody of it until it sells (which is likely to be a mess).

With the drought, and the return of highs around 100 degrees, my garden looks pretry shabby. I've still got some zinnias, and morning glories, and one blue salvia in color, but the rest has dried up.

All of the worst family escapades start with "so, I got this call from my sister this morning....."

Today's excitement: The oldest daughter of Crazy Aunt Cathy called Sis to ask Sis to send money to The Sperm Donor. Because according to his do-gooder neighbor, The Sperm Donor is sitting in the dark, in a house with no running water or electricity*, drinking up his monthly aid checks. And Cousin With No Sense thought that if The Sperm Donor's daughters would just help him, he'd be better.

What. The. Fuck.

Sis told Cousin With No Sense to call her when he's dead. (Go Sis!) Cousin apparently thought that that was an unreasonable response, which just boggles me. Why is it reasonable for us to send resources we can't spare to someone who never supported us, and who chooses not to support himself?






* The busybody neighbor told Cousin (or her mother**) that Sperm Donor's utilities had been shut off a while ago, because he'd stopped paying his bills.

** I suspect that this is actually coming through Crazy Aunt Cathy, who has finally figured out that Sis blocks her calls.

Haven't had much worth updating recently. It's been hot, and very very dry, and we've been busy, but not interesting.

The garden is down to only the hardiest things blooming, and the rest dormant or limping along. Zinnias, morning glories, a few marigolds. The perennials are mostly dormant; the daylilies are completely dormant, down to dead leaves. It's quite sad. Oh, the maypop is still blooming, mustn't forget that....it's 12' up the tree, silly thing, but I've been watering it. D's mystery clematic is blooming, a tiny, white, four-petaled flower, like virgin's bower but more delicate. Once D get moved and unpacked, I need to borrow her clematis book and try to look it up.

Still haven't mowed. Might, in a week or two; the north field is a little shaggy with lespedeza and queen anne's lace. Even those are only knee high on me, so it's not urgent.

Went to Mom's last weekend, for a quick visit before we all went back to school. Her first day back was Wednesday, same as for my kids. We had a good visit, and By and I got her yard pruned for her, and a neighbor hauled the mess off. We brought Grandma over for one day, so she could see the kids, which was nice.

Mom's really looking forward to being retired at the end of this school year. She's counting down the days. She'll be just as busy, I think, but she'll be busy in the ways she chooses, and away from all the politics of education policy that's been wearing on her the past few years. There are substitute and full-time teachers at her school already circling for her job, some of them rudely so. Jobs are always scarce out there, but she'll be glad to be out of that.

The monsters are in the afternoon section of preschool this year, still 4 days a week, and still on the bus. They were thrilled to see their teacher again, and seem happy about the bus rides. It's taking a little adjustment; their school times is when they used to take afternoon naps. So no naps most of the week, and short ones on the weekend. On the up side, we've moved bedtimes earlier, and they're going to sleep with less fuss.

D has to be out of the house her late husband built by the end of the month. She's starting to panic about getting everything done, naturally. Especially moving the things she loves out of the garden....the dry hard ground makes that slow and difficult. By's going over there today, to help her with stuff in her late husband's workshop. I may or may not go over, depends on how long his part takes. She's got someone who'll take stuff to the new house all week, if she'll pack it and have it ready. And that's great, except she's still got to do that, and then unpack and put it away at the new place.

She's got a contractor lined up to do repairs and some updating on the new place, but he's giving her a runaround about getting prices in writing. He's not good at showing up when he says he will, either; the work should have been done by now, by the original schedule he gave her. I'd be looking for another contractor by now, but I know she's short on time to do that sort of chore, so she's kind of stuck.

Must remember, the monsters notice EVERYTHING. I hadn't thought they were paying attention when I was taking measurements this morning, but they were. They got into my drawers of doll-making things, and now The Miss is "measuring" her brother (back of neck to wrist, very proper) with a length of green and black trim. *shakes head*

Today's canning adventures brought to you by the letters F and S, for Fall Harvest Jam, and Sugar-Free Peach Jam. The fall harvest jam has peaches and pears, apples and oranges; the sugar-free peach is just what it says, nothing fancy, for the lady who gave me peaches.

I've cooked down and jarred 2/3 of the fall harvest jam....it makes enough that it won't fit in my favorite jelly pot, and the stock pot tends to make it burn before it gets up to temp, so.......It is a whole lotta tasty.