I want to show you something that I’m sure will impress the pants right off of you or impress you so much I could knock you down with a feather. That might be better. We don’t want anybody getting a ticket for indecent exposure, right?! Off topic! Here is my impressive thing…

Do you like it? Can you tell what it is?

No?

Well if I didn’t already know, I wouldn’t be able to figure it out either. I would guess that it is a very patchy spot of lawn. Which it actually kind of is. BUT scattered in there between the crab grass and decaying leaves is this…

RHUBARB!

I have to hunt pretty hard to find signs of spring, but they are there waiting to be discovered! Check back for an update once I get the chance to clean up a little out there!

I know, I KNOW!

It’s not my fault.

We’ve haven’t even been here a year yet.

We’ve had other much bigger priorities.

But I just can’t help it right now – I feel embarrassed by the state of our landscaping. Even though I have not had a lick of time to work at it yet, it just makes me uncomfortable.

I will show one picture and one picture only at the point. Just so you can understand what I am talking about here.

WTF is that?!

Oh hi, I’m a master gardener, want to see my plants? HA! What a joke that is! The bad part is that I really can’t start (at least with this part) until we get the brick work done. Which in order to do that, we have to decide if we are doing a fireplace or stove downstairs and pick one out so we can get the chimney built to spec. THEN we will be able to do the brickwork. And THEN I will be able to work on the landscaping.

Uh.

Stop looking at it.

I’m better than our landscaping right now, I promise. Remember what our nice plants looked like when we lived in town? (other than that I needed to do some dead-heading!)

Le sigh.

It will come with time, I know. I’m just not used to having NO place that looks nice and lovely.

Maybe I’m just feeling some seasonal depression still left over from the winter…I’m sure once I get my hands in the dirt I’ll feel much better.

Until then…avert your eyes and just admire that beautiful siding. :)

That is how Wikipedia described my Amaryllis – doesn’t sound very sexy does it?

I picked up a couple of Amaryllis bulbs on after Christmas clearance and they are getting SO tall…I took these pictures last week and they have grown a few inches since then!

The flower buds are getting fatter too – they don’t seem like they are getting ready to open yet, but it sure is nice having a small touch of “spring” in my office! I bought one red and one white and can’t remember which is which so it will be a surprise when they finally bloom!

So these bulbs along with the seed catalogs that have been arriving in my mailbox are making me itch to get out in the dirt! We haven’t decided if we are going to continue to rent out the 5 acres of farmland or have ourselves a HUGE garden…I have mixed feelings about it. The idea of a huge garden is appealing but the upkeep is not. The one thing that is certain – I will have a garden this year no matter the size! Fresh produce all around!!!

I’ve started to compile a list of things I want to grow in the garden – I love experimenting with plants that are a little outside the norm and I LOVE fall decorations so we will probably do a few different kind of pumpkins, gourds, indian corn, broom corn…the sky is the limit! And if you ask nicely, we will probably take some special requests. :)
Think GREEN people!

The other day after husband had finished doing dishes, he brought them upstairs and put them on the butcher block for me to put away. As I was sorting and organizing them, I caught a whiff of something stinky. I thought it was a little weird since there weren’t any dirty dishes in sight and continued to put them away. Got another whiff. Definatley something stinky somewhere in the vicinity.

Asked husband if he had left milk or something weird in one of the plastic cups for a long time. Nope. Finished putting dishes away.

Stink still persisted.

I was flummoxed…where was that smell coming from?

We proceed to look all around the kitchen – garbage cans, recycle bins, fridge, freezer, behind the stove.

Can’t find it.

Give up.

Next day I am doing some stuff in the kitchen and decide that I should clean up in the terrarium a little bit. That leads to watering plants, etc. Still getting whiffs of the smell. Can’t quite put my finger on what it is…kind of smells like wet cherry wood which to me smells a bit like horse manure/wet hay. Notice that another bloom is about to open on my paperwhites.

Bam. Stink found. Paperwhites are REALLY smelly flowers. Especially considering that they are so very very tiny.

Mystery solved!

And they are just too pretty so we live with the horse manure smell in the kitchen. It’s no big deal…

Here is how little they are compared to my hand.

Another bulb bud is about to burst open with flowers too so I’m sure the stink will get worse again. Oh well – it’s worth it to have some fresh blooms around the house!