Water Bills

My new low flow toilet is fabulous.  Will it save me any money though?  My friend brought me recently an extra low flow shower head so that has now been installed.  There are three rain barrels set up outside my house with hoses attached. I'm hoping I won't have to turn on the water at all outside this summer although I suppose it will have to rain sometimes to fill the barrel.

February 2010 the bill was $35
March 2010 = $42
April 2010 = $67

Due to the #$%^%$# leaky toilet - the innards were actually replaced last year when one month the high bill was over $90.  So we'll see what happens next month.  Not sure how to save more on water.  My kids already think I'm over the top with the bucket in the shower to catch the water that falls before it heats up - I do this in the summer and use that water every morning to fill the bird bath or water the container plants.

This toilet better live up to its reputation.

Fruit Leather

It's time to start preserving!  The rhubarb is coming up and I still had some in the freezer from last year.  What to do with it?  I checked out a book recently about dehydrating food and there was a recipe for rhubarb lace (fruit leather) in it, so I thought I would give it a try.

The recipe called for pouring boiling water over the rhubarb to soften it but once the bag of fruit was defrosted, it was already pretty mushy.  I pureed it with some fresh strawberries, sugar, pinch of ginger and 3 tblsp of strawberry jello.  Pour on the leather tray and dry for several hours.  Here is the result.

Brought a taste into work for Sean to try since he claims he doesn't like rhubarb.  He ate it and I think I heard yum yum out of his mouth.

This is a winner and will try again in a couple of weeks with fresh rhubarb.

How are things in the Vegetable Garden?

Last week it was in the 80's and I think one day topped 90 degrees.  That's too hot for this time of year.  The kale all bolted so today I pulled it up and have enough to share with several friends.  The greens, peas, carrots and beets are all growing but we need more rain.  There was a sudden rainstorm on Thurs night but it wasn't enough.  Here are pictures from today.  Everything looks so dry - I did water after taking the pictures.  There are potatoes planted but they haven't started coming up and I forgot to photograph the fava beans.

Peas

Snow peas

Radishes on left, Chard and Mizuna on right

Spinach with Lettuce to the right

Arugula

Mustard Greens

Broccoli Raab

Shallots

Carrots

Garlic

Leeks with Oriental Poppies in the background

Beets

What's Blooming this week - April 8

I finally bought myself a new camera so I wandered into the garden today to take some pictures of what is blooming.

Tulips

Quince

Lilacs

Korean Spice Viburnam

Emerging Hosta

Mazus

Sweet Woodruff

Fothergilla

Daffodil

Redbud Tree

Daffodils

Moss Phlox

Grape Hyacinth

How do you find your books to read?

Being a librarian, I read a few book review magazines but most of them are geared towards academic topics and don't always cover the Swedish mysteries (Booklist an exception).

My library gets the bulk of our books on what is called an approval plan.  We contract with a middle man to send us books every week, based on criteria that has been developed.  Before the books are processed, they are put on carts and left out for people to review.  A few weeks ago, as I was browsing a new cart, I came across this book:


This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All
by Marilyn Johnson.

Hmm, a book about librarians, how interesting.  (As an aside, I don't like the title Cybrarian).  I stuck in a flag saying that I wanted the book once it was processed.  This is one of the biggest perks of working in a library (besides inter-library loan which is THE biggest perk),  we have first crack at the new books.

As I was browsing the book,  I saw that the author had written another book titled:

Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries.

A book about obituaries?  To be more specific, a book about obituary writers.  This is fantastic, how come I never heard about this book?

I have to confession to make.  I read obituaries.  I don't usually read the whole entry but I start to see how old the person was, what was the cause of death and how long were they married.  It tears me up to read that Edna leaves her husband of 63 years.

So we did not have the Dead Beat book in our library so I ordered it.

I loved this book.  The author gives an overview of obituaries but focuses on how the British papers (Guardian, Independent and Daily Telegraph) revolutionized obituary writing in the 1980s.  The author goes to writer conferences (There is still time for me to register for the Society of Professional Obituary Conference ), interviews writers, reproduces favorite obits, travels to London and other fun things like lurking on the obit newsgroup.

I learned that there is a certain format to the writing - that phrase, followed by the tombstone, then the bad news, song and dance, the reverse shift, the desperate chronology, ending with the telegraph. There are friars (quotes) sprinkled throughout.

Amazing.

I will never read the obituaries in the same way.

While sitting on the porch

in the beautiful warm weather, I made a list.

Chop ivy, remove fence
Ferns for basement entry
Agastache
Transplant more Boneset
Dig up Star of Bethlehem
Rose bush - foundation
Cut back winter jasmine
Divide hostas
Astilbe for Hydrangea bed
Hibiscus (where butterflybush was)
Fish Scale Sedum

Now what did I mean when I wrote all that?!

This week in the garden

The greens look fabulous and the peas have finally sprouted.  Today it was 70 degrees with tomorrow close to 80 so in a couple of days, the beets and carrots should also be sprouting (planted Chiogga beets last week - very pretty red and white circles when cut open)

The potato seeds arrived from Abundant Seeds a couple of days ago.   Went to the garden yesterday and planted the potatoes and some flower seeds.

Here's what went into the garden this week

Desiree 

German Butterball

In the small flower plot that is adjacent to my veg plot

Unique Mix Cosmos

Apricot Chiffon Poppy

 














Some Pink Zinnias from my friend Patricia

Sunflower - Waooh