2026, My year of Garden Narcissism

[ducks4you]

Any Christian will tell you that when you are undergoing pain or grief that you are susceptible to demonic attacks. Most of them are irritants, like this weekend, when my Satellite tv (DISH) stopped working. I called the online service number to try to rectify this, and they made an appointment for this morning, SOMEtime between 8AM-12PM.
Haven't heard back yet, so the butter that I left out is turning into oatmeal cookies. The batter is chilling and I will start baking them soon.
Why oatmeal cookies?
BC I started a diet/exercise/hydration routine that DD's are doing with me, and I wanted something sweet to get me by:
1) 8 glasses of water/daily
2) two 45 minute workouts, at least enough to raise your heartrate for 45 minutes--takes me 45 minutes to feed ponies
3) your choice of reducing diet
4) Read 10 pages of your choice of novel/book
DD was going to give me a book, couldn't find it, so my other DD gave me, "The Triangle Fire", which is non-fiction, about the workhouse fire that created labor reform in industrial working conditions.
Youngest DD is reading my copy of "Dirt: the Erosion of Civilizations"

https://kitwallace.co.uk/nabg/data/Bishopston/dirt.pdf

Eldest DD is reading ... ???
Honestly she reads SO OFTEN that it doesn't really matter!
It's called, 75 light, for what it's worth.

 

[ducks4you]

Here are some pictures of cookies in the process. Middle DD gave all of us home made vanilla in 2021 and I've hardly touched it. It's in bourbon and you need to shake it up before measuring out. I also had blackstrap molasses. I KNOW that recipes tell you to measure wet and dry ingredients separately, but when the dry ingredients are heavy they can be hard to get fully mixed, so I mixed in the salt, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon into the melted butter/egg mix first. I found 2 boxes of raisins to add to this. Soon, I will be baking...

 

[ducks4you]

DISH guy just called, so it WILL be repaired today!
Meanwhile I have preheated my oven to 350 degrees so I can start baking/packaging/freezing cookies. I actually softened twice the amount of butter, had to double to recipe--there will be MANY cookies made today!
My houseplanting has not always done well, except for geraniums (none of those overwintering now,) and mums.
They sell these good sized mums in the fall, but if you examine their roots, they aren't big enough to make it through the winter. I purchased yellow, white and lavendar mums last fall and potted them. The one that survived in my front bed was a rust colored mum.
Mums have grown and are FLOURISHING downstairs in front of my south facing window.
I also searched high and wide last year to replace my youngest DD office spider plant--she kinda has a blacking thumb--and the only one I could find was ginormous! I plan to wait until late April to take outside and subdivide the spider plant and keep some in hanging baskets.
I will take the mums outside then, too and transplant them after the tulips and iris have faded and I can dig up bulbs and make room for them in the front beds, where I used to have mums.

 

[ducks4you]

DD took this shot last night on the walk around town.

 

[Marie2020]

DISH guy just called, so it WILL be repaired today!

Isn't it wonderful when they actually turn up

Meanwhile I have preheated my oven to 350 degrees so I can start baking/packaging/freezing cookies. I actually softened twice the amount of butter, had to double to recipe--there will be MANY cookies made today!

So how on earth are you going to get some of these cookies to me

My houseplanting has not always done well, except for geraniums (none of those overwintering now,) and mums.
They sell these good sized mums in the fall, but if you examine their roots, they aren't big enough to make it through the winter. I purchased yellow, white and lavendar mums last fall and potted them. The one that survived in my front bed was a rust colored mum.
Mums have grown and are FLOURISHING downstairs in front of my south facing window.
I also searched high and wide last year to replace my youngest DD office spider plant--she kinda has a blacking thumb--and the only one I could find was ginormous! I plan to wait until late April to take outside and subdivide the spider plant and keep some in hanging baskets.
I will take the mums outside then, too and transplant them after the tulips and iris have faded and I can dig up bulbs and make room for them in the front beds, where I used to have mums.
View attachment 79658

 

[ducks4you]

NUM num num num num...

 

[ducks4you]

Don't know what's going on in my brain--the iris I planted in December are dutch iris. The bulbs resemble small pearl onions, and they look like this:

Flowering Time:Late spring to early summer (May-Jun)
I cannot remember if they are a mix or all are blue--happy surprise later this year!

 

[ducks4you]

I baked up 36 oatmeal cookies, a little bit less NOW--VERY Tasty!! I packaged them in my clear glass cookie jar, and I will pack up some for DD's house and put the rest in the freezer for...later.