Archive for November, 2007
I thought I had sworn off the 8 random things meme, but when Val at the very beautiful Illustrated Garden tagged me, I thought it might be fun to do one more–and illustrate it like Val. Well, not exactly like Val. Val can draw. I cannot draw.
My illustrations usually lean toward the lopsided stick figures. But I put some effort into this one. I even purchased some of those nifty watercolor colored pencils that you can just color with, add water and–Voila!–instant watercolor.
Still, you can laugh all you want at my silly drawings. I actually had fun with this one! The hardest part was thinking of eight things that I might actually be able to draw! So here goes…
1) I am very tall — 5′10 in stocking feet, although I usually wear some heels. The only time I am short is when I am with my family. My husband is 6′3 and my son was 6′4 last time we checked. I feel tiny when we have our family hugs.
2) I start my mornings by drinking my coffee while looking at the birds outside the big windows that frame the back of our home. Wintertime is more difficult since it’s still dark. On cold winter mornings I snuggle with my little dogs and drink coffee and wait for the birds to join the party.
3) I am working my way through reading all the Pulitzer Prize winning fiction books. I just finished The Namesake and am currently reading To Kill a Mockingbird. My son is amazed that I made it all the way through advanced English classes in high school and an English major in undergrad without reading To Kill a Mockingbird.
4) I subscribe to LOTS of magazines. It’s an addiction that I really need to break. Some of them are Food and Wine, Architectural Digest, Backyard Poultry, Hobby Farm, Organic Gardening, Bird Watcher’s Digest, Audubon, American Gardener, Garden Design, Cottage Living and Horticulture.
5) Bugs love me. If there is a stinging or biting bug within five miles, he homes in and has his way with me. Once, my friend Rebecca and I were vacationing in Savannah at a hotel on the river. We went to the pool in the evening. The mosquitoes were so thick we had to hide in the water, keeping just our faces above the waterline so we could breathe. When we got back to the hotel room, my face was covered with red welts. Rebecca had NO mosquito bites.
6) I once ended up alone in the ladies room with Roger Moore, yes, James Bond. It was during the filming of an episode of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” at a horse track in California. I was filmed with him when he presented a trophy to the fellow I was dating at the time. Later, he stumbled into the ladies room while I was washing my hands. He had, errr, a wee bit to drink. He was wearing a tuxedo and top hat. He very charming–and handsome. I have never enjoyed a trip to the potty more.
7) Years ago, I was on television twice with Doris Day for her show “Doris Day’s Best Friends.” She was interviewing me about the importance of spaying and neutering pets and adopting pets from local animal shelters. She was very gracious and beautiful and treated me very kindly. Somewhere I have a photo of us together…must find that.
I wear a pedometer all day and aim for at least 10,000 steps. It’s interesting how much exercise–or how little–you get during a day just doing regular activities. Of course, all steps are not created equally, so I also hit the gym several times a week to help fight gravity, if you know what I mean.
Previous editions of random things can be found at:
Seven Random Things
Garden Art and More Random Things About Me
Make it Stop!!! More Random Things
I count that I have now contributed 30 random things about me. Since I have no plans to delve into the world of random things about me performance art or random things videos, I now retire from the random things postings. It’s been fun, but really, I have to keep some random things to myself!
Now, so that I don’t have to tag you (and you know who you are), why not just post a few things about yourself in the comments section here, ya hear?
Robin
In case your gift-giving taste doesn’t lean toward the absurd or the obscene, I managed to come up with what I think are some pretty nifty Christmas gift ideas for the gardeners on your list.
Some of these things I have. Some of them I want. (Anybody out there? Hint. Hint.)
In ascending order, from least expensive to most expensive, here are my seven favorite gift ideas for gardeners.
1) Watering Spouts – At six bucks each, how much more clever can you get? These stylish spouts are also functional and environmentally friendly. Just screw a spout onto a recyclable liter or other plastic bottle and—Voila! Instant watering can! Just think of all the places you can have little watering cans—next to the violets, next to the window boxes, all sorts of out-of-the-way places.
2) Insect Hat Net – I won’t call this stylish, but it IS functional. Have you ever suited up with long pants, long sleeves and boots, waded into the weeds to do some serious work and still been bothered by pesky flies and, even worse, stinging pests? 
Just slip this insect net over any hat with a brim and you automatically look part of the bee keeping set. Like I said, you won’t win any fashion awards. But at least out here in the country, the fashion police don’t show up much anyway.
3) Stirrup Hoe – A while back I extolled the virtues of the simple stirrup hoe. I still think it’s the best weeding tool out there and that everyone with a yard should have one. Just wiggle the business end of the hoe under the weeds to dislodge them, roots and all. Then you can just rake up all the offending weeds. No more stooping and walking around on your knees!
4) Garden Tool Caddy – I hate to waste steps when I have important garden work to do. My guest blogger Sophie mentioned a while back that I fell in love with this handy cart I found at Bed Bath & Beyond. I can stuff all the tools I need in the garden into the rack and also have room for a stool, gloves and other garden paraphernalia. No more running back and forth to the garage to get what I need! Sadly, I couldn’t find the same cart online, but there is a nice one at Smith & Hawken.
5) Dog and Cat Topiary Forms – How about helping your gardener add a bit of classical whimsy to the garden with a dog or cat topiary form? Unfortunately, these folks haven’t figured out how fabulous Papillons are because don’t have a single Papillon topiary form. I think I’ll look for a bumblebee topiary form instead.
6) Stone Wall Lamp – I don’t know how those folks at Wisteria find the artifacts that they sell, but some of them are truly amazing. I adore these old wall lamps in heavy stone. These lamps definitely won’t blow away. And they will add some architectural interest to the terrace, balcony or patio.
7) Chimney Pots – Re-purposed antiques such as these chimney pots from English Antique Imports have lots of uses in the garden, including as visual elements but also as table bases. In fact, I love just about everything they sell at this resourceful shop. I may need to make a pilgrimage with a truck before spring sets in.
Happy shopping!
–Robin at Bumblebee
Robin
I know y’all are probably scratching your heads trying to think up the best gift ideas for your loved ones this Christmas.
So to inspire you I thought I would share a few of the cherished gifts my little brother and I have given each other over the past two or three years.
First things first. Here’s my little brother Dale. I always think of him as my “little brother” although at 6’3 he’s not so little anymore.
In case you can’t see it, Dale’s t-shirt says “My Indian Name is Runs with Beer.” This says a lot about my brother. Dale cracks me up. Some days we’ll trade numerous emails (no IM for me—too intrusive), having little conversations about some news item, what’s happening in our lives, gossiping about a relative, as there is a LOT of material with our family fruit tree. The guys here in the house always know I’m trading emails with Dale when I start laughing hysterically while sitting at my desk. Not a lot funny usually happens in marketing research, so they know it’s not work related.
When we were kids, our family called my little brother “Dale Dale” cause the Kennedys called their favorite son “John John.” In return, my brother and dad called me “Ra.” Don’t ask me why. Aside from a brief stint as a “Cleo” in Girl Scouts because of an ill-advised hairdo and a Boyfriend-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named who called me Robbie, I haven’t had any other nicknames. I don’t think I am generally the kind of person who inspires nicknames. Someday I need to research the reasons for that.
Our whole gift-giving competition started a couple of years ago when something inspired Dale to send me this silver bowl of coal from that fancy schmancy, overpriced gift catalog Red Envelope.
Dale doesn’t normally go for the type of marketing hype that catalog specializes in, but something about a bowl of coal packaged with a flowery explanation assuring the lucky recipient that it was air purifying, positive karma tradition of some far-off land that made him think “Wow, that’s just the thing for Robin!” The fact that it was a bowl of coal at Christmas was a subtle message. But, hey, I’m smart. I got it right away.
That made me think. What would a clever fellow like Dale really love (okay, deserve) for Christmas?
Then one day, after surfing the Internet for about, oh, about six hours I just happened to stumble across these embarrassingly gross taxidermy frogs. What says “I love you” more than a taxidermy frog? TWO taxidermy frogs!! See, he loved them so much he put them on display in his home office.
I figured I was on a roll, so for his birthday I decided to help him with his garden décor. This little troll picking his nose sure did remind me of my little snot-nosed brother!
Dale was pretty much feeling the heat by now. So one day, he gleefully emailed months in advance of Christmas that he had found the perfect gift for me. He made sure that I had Harry lined up to take a photo of me opening the package since he couldn’t be here to present the treasure in person.
Inside was “knife man.”
Very funny. Have you noticed that Dale’s gifts are a bit insulting? Coal. Knives. Humm. Is there a message here?
What should I do for Christmas this year?
I found a great t-shirt with an Amish guy on it that says “Don’t Drink OR Drive.” That seems too easy. I also found a gun that makes all sorts of body sounds—farts, belches and such, but I think he’s seen those.
I’m putting on my thinking cap. Let me know if you have any great ideas. I need to make this a memorable Christmas for my little bro. He deserves it.
Robin
Occasionally I’ll look back through how people arrived here at Bumblebee Blog.
Apparently, I have inadvertently been luring unwitting Googlers here who were searching for things about bumblebees since a great number of the Google search words are just Bumblebee or Bumble Bee. I have a hard time believing that all these folks heard about Bumblebee Blog from their pals and rushed to Google to find out what all the excitement was about. It makes me think that perhaps I should actually write something about bumblebees sometime soon so they aren’t all disappointed when they land here.
A while back, I had dozens and dozens of people arriving here via a website that linked directly to the story about my visit to Graceland. When I tracked it down, it was some fellow’s website in Greek! I couldn’t find the reference to me or to Graceland and am still baffled why a bunch of Greek-reading Googlers would want to read about my visit to the home of The King. Perhaps it was my fake photo gazing adoringly at Elvis. I like to think that perhaps I have an uncanny resemblance to some Greek movie star or supermodel and that all these folks were checking me out. In reality, I probably look like someone’s cousin or something.
Some of the Google searches and the stories they find actually make sense, such as my blog post on the miracle plant food challenge where I compared SuperThrive and Miracle Gro plant foods.
A huge number of people arrived here looking for a recipe for Italian Cream Cake, although a lot also arrived at the very same story by searching “bird birthday cake” or “happy birthday Italian.” Happy birthday Italian? What’s that supposed to mean?
Quite a lot of people find my story about the ugly parts of my garden by searching on images for sky pencil holly. There are so many those hits that one time I did the same search. It’s no wonder they link here. My sky pencil holly arrangement really does showcase the plant better than the other photos on the Google search. Nanna nanna booboo.
Some of the Google search strings are just plain funny, such as the person searching for “November 2007 Weird Events” that took them to my guest blogger Sophie’s story about my inadvertently picking up a hitchhiker. I wonder what kind of weird events that person was searching for? UFOs? Darwin Award material?
By the way, that story also contained a rather lengthy list of things for me to do that weekend. Someone else found that story the same way by searching “Mom ToDo List.” WHAT? They don’t have enough things on their own list, they need to search for someone else’s?
In an ironic twist, I seem to be attracting bunches and bunches of knitters who Google such phrases as “how to monogram knitting,” “Italian knitting needles” and “$100 knitting needles” and—get this—“knitting mushrooms.” These folks landed on the story about my misadventures trying to learn to knit—and how I re-purposed my knitting needles to prop up the humidity tent on my new mushroom patch. Imaging getting all these eager knitters when I am a knitting moron. Hehe.
One of the most popular search strings is “mung bean sprouts,” which takes people to a short post on the benefits of sprouting mung beans. Who knew there was such a dearth of information on the World Wide Web about sprouting mung beans—and such a demand?!?
Two people, one searching “Christmas hair highlights,” and another searching “blond man hair” found the story about my otherwise uber-masculine brother-in-law’s preoccupation with his hair style. I am QUITE sure that Captain and his “man bag” is not what they had in mind.
Then one guy Googled “little girl tongue.” I don’t even want to THINK about what he was looking for. What he found was a photo of my little dog Sophie after a bath with her tongue sticking out. (It doesn’t fit all the way in her mouth.) Probably not what he had in mind. Serves him right. The creep.
Finally, I’m intrigued that so many people visit my photo album and linger over photos of my family. I posted them as a convenient place to share with my far-away relatives as well as to keep some of my favorites organized in one place. But people are apparently pretty interested in photos of us in Greece, sailing or hanging out in the yard. I read once that when burglars break into homes it is not uncommon for them to take time to peruse the photo albums that might be laying about. Perhaps it’s all part of the same curiosity about other people’s lives?
Now I’m wondering, what Google search strings have taken people to your blog? If you write a blog entry on the topic, let me know by, say, December 5, I’ll do a roundup with all the links. Should be good for a laugh or two, eh?
Robin
I will admit that the pansies aren’t in their finest form.
But I do take exception to the fact that Miss P took it upon herself to re-purpose one of my shabby pansy planters. After all, a flower is still a flower, no? And a flower with a cat sitting on it is nothing more than a squished flower.
But Miss P has taken more than one liberty since we wooed her into switching homes from under a kudzu-covered bush and into our home. I suppose she figures that since we tolerate her slovenly grooming habits, her preference for warm and furry food, how she can get away with occasionally whomping up on an unsuspecting dog and how she can rouse us at 4 a.m. on the coldest of mornings to open the back door so she can enjoy the early morning air, she can get away with anything.
But really, my pansies?
Perhaps it’s time to think about re-planting these containers or putting them away for the winter anyway. The problem with re-planting is that the options are fairly limited when the temperatures outside dip below freezing.
Let’s see…what are my choices?
Helebores in November
I have had very good success with hellebores. It took a couple of years for them to get established, but they are now growing nicely on the shaded north side of the house. They are green all winter long and bloom dark pink to purple flowers starting in February. But given that they take time to get established and these are rather shallow containers that perch on my deck rails, I doubt that they would be suitable.
I could plant with some English ivy. That seems a bit dull and one dimensional though.
I know!!! I could go the route of some creative, color-loving souls and plant faux flowers!!!
(Hah. Just kidding.)
If you have any great ideas for me, please let me know.
Oh, yes. I managed to coax Miss P out of the pansy planter. Much better, don’t you think?
Robin
I very much love sending my imposing 10 pound Papillons to chase the deer away from our yard and garden.
Who knew that a little ball of fur could be so scary? Remember seeing Sarah terrify the deer and sending them scurrying?
Well, I am sad to report that the deer just might be catching on that my Papillons have their limits. We had a bit of a Mexican standoff this morning. Since the grass was wet, Sophie and Sarah were loathe to wade in to eat the deer.
The deer, sensing the hesitation, took advantage of the situation and stared back at the Papillons.
More staring ensued…
Until Sarah worked up her courage to wade into the high, wet grass.
The deer, finally leaped out of sight.
No more deer.
Good job, babies.
Robin
It’s cold outside. Hummm. I could go outside and rake leaves.
Or….I could eat this delicious Dolce de Leche Brownie and have a glass of milk.
Whatever should I do?
Thanks to David Lebovitz for this fabulous recipe. If you decide you don’t want to rake leaves either, give this a try. Make sure you make your own dolce de leche. I doubled the recipe so I can use the leftovers for other yummie goodies.
Bon appetit!
Robin
As I work on the fall garden cleanup, I’m thinking back to the season in the Bumblebee Garden.
In March, the weather was still frigid and the trees were still bare. But before spring kicks is actually an excellent time to take stock of the garden because the “bones”–the major structural outlines–of the garden are clearly visible.
Three years ago I had the white picket fence and arbor installed. Last year Walter, my handyman, installed the raised beds for me, hauling tons and tons of topsoil and leaf mulch in a wheel barrel. Although it was a very expensive project I believe it paid off by providing a formalized framework in which to work. Even though I’m not a gardening genius, things still manage to look reasonably tidy and professional even when I was not particularly tidy and professional about maintaining the garden.
March 2007
In previous years, I largely concentrated on growing herbs and vegetables because I love the fresh food and the kick I get out of growing something I can actually eat. Even when I was in my early 20s I found it gratifying to have some tomatoes and pole beans that I could pick for dinner–not to mention that since I worked at a non-profit, I needed the cheap food.
But with a small family of three humans, we really don’t need all that much in the way of extensive planting to feed everyone pretty darn well. I usually don’t have a lot of time to devote to preserving and freezing, so I ended up giving most of the excess produce away to anyone who would take it–friends, the FedEx guy, the copy store lady, the wine shop guy. Anyone! I was my very own Meals on Wheels with the back of my SUV loaded with cucumbers, zucchini, Swiss chard and other veggies.
So last year I decided to cut back on the vegetables and add more color to the garden with perennials and annuals. The beds in the perimeter of the garden have a few veggies, but are mostly perennials, including peonies, lamb’s ear, ice plant, bee balm, lavender, irises and more. While the borders can be quite pretty, they aren’t particularly organized or cohesive–a result of my undisciplined practice of hauling home pretty much anything that strikes my fancy. (This winter’s plans include, well, coming up with an actual plan.)
May 2007
Not much that you can see was happening in May, although the garden had been cleaned up and planted with seedlings that I started in my indoor light garden–a three-tiered rolling stand that dominates my office. Going clockwise starting from the upper left are 1) peppers and cucumbers 2) tomatoes, parsley, marigolds 3) baby doll roses and a Henryi clematis 4) boxwoods surrounding the most hideous colored rose topiary ever sold to the general public 5) basil, bush beans, Swiss chard, spinach 6) rosemary, basil, oregano, garlic chives, chives, tarragon, hollyhocks, lavender, parsley and more herbs.
May is also the only month that I like the two climbing roses you can see dominating the fence. They bloom these tiny yellow roses and are magnificent, although without fragrance, for about three weeks. The rest of the year the roses are an absolute nuisance that must be hacked back to prevent it from dominating everything around it.
June 2007
By June, things were starting to look pretty good, despite the drought that was already in full swing, as you can tell by the unsightly brown spots over the septic tank. Already I was spending nearly all my garden time communing with the water hose. One of the disadvantages of a garden with this type of layout is that you can’t just set up a sprinkler and walk away. It requires hand watering unless you’re okay with wasting water and encouraging weeds to grow in your mulch paths.
You can see that the wisteria and clematis are starting to race their way to the top of the arbor over the gate from opposite sides. We had plenty of spinach, black seeded simpson and red sails lettuce to make everyone happy. The tomatoes were starting to grow, although the Texas tomato cages really aren’t needed at this point.
The lurid rose topiary was downed in a windstorm. Awwwwwh shucks. It might not make it.
July 2007
What a difference a month makes. The lettuce had bolted and the tomatoes had raced to the top of the 6′ tall Texas tomato cages. The daylilies just outside the fence were blooming beautifully. Lucia, a family friend, finally dug up the lurid rose topiary and carted it home with her. (I believe she might be color blind.) Now that the ugly rose was gone, I could actually sit for a few minutes on the bench without being offended–when I wasn’t hand watering, that is. The drought was in full force.
See the wisteria and clematis doing battle high on the arbor?
August 2007
By August we had moved a container planted tree in to replace the lurid rose topiary. I hacked back the rampant roses so things were still looking fairly tidy. There still wasn’t as much color as I wanted. We had some beautiful cock’s comb, climbing black-eyed susans that you can see creeping out of the fence at the bottom. The marigolds around the tomatoes were stunning though. My baby doll roses have not done particularly well and I am thinking of replacing them with something less finicky.
You can also see here that the cucumbers growing on the bamboo teepees aren’t cucumbers at all. They’re morning glories. We lost all our cucumbers before I realized what the heck was going on.
September 2007
September was still very dry. All summer long we had less than 2 inches of rain and most of that was in a single week in August.
The clematis over the arbor was glorious. It really did seem to win out over the wisteria. The wisteria still needs to come down before things get ugly for that poor clematis.
Amazingly, we harvested tomatoes throughout the month of September and into November.
November 2007
As you can see, it’s November and those dang rose bushes continue to vie for world domination. Harry mowed the one on the right down about three years ago. Yes, he ran over it and cut it ALL THE WAY TO THE GROUND. Now look at it. They wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t invade everyone else’s space, generally look shaggy and harbor unbelievably hardy co-parasitic weeds beneath its branches. I’m thinking that only Agent Orange could deal with these rose bushes and their weedy friends.
We have seen the last of the tomatoes, although we continue to get peppers. The baby doll roses are blooming and look better in November than they have all year.
Everything else is winding down and it’s time to haul myself back outside to clean up the vegetable beds, hack down the wisteria and bring in what remains of the herbs for drying.
All-in-all, I can’t say it was a particularly stunning garden year. I traveled for work most of July and August, which meant that the garden was neglected at peak times. The drought also took a significant toll both because the garden didn’t get the best water–rain water–and because what time I did have was spent hand watering.
Nevertheless, we ate very well and I learned more of nature’s lessons. As I retreat back indoors for the winter I’ll be hatching plans for an even more colorful garden next year.
Ciao!
Robin
I had started to worry that the birds had moved on and given up on our house. But never fear, the birds are here!
I read all the great advice and ideas from readers. I also visited the Wild Bird Store in Waldorf where they had plenty of ideas about how to entice the birds back to the yard.
Based on all this great input, here were the steps I took:
- I moved the bird feeders out of the tree (where the squirrels and raccoons could get them and damage my tree anyway) and placed them on a free-standing pole with a squirrel and raccoon baffle.
- I added a new hopper feeder and platform feeder on another 4 x 4 post.
- I invested in some high quality bird seed mixes. Frankly, these new seed mixes smell so good I could probably serve them at a party and no one would notice.
- I added a water wiggler to one of my bird baths.
- I added a hanging water tough to the bird feeder station.
It has taken a few days, but I see that this weekend the birds have found the feast and are happily telling their friends. So far, it’s mostly finches, tufted titmice and chickadees. But I did spy a cardinal yesterday out of the corner of my eye. And I hear lots of avian activity when the windows are open.
I still can’t take photos of birds worth poop, so I figure I need a better, long-range lens. It’s a shame to go to all the work of sneaking around the yard with a camera and tripod only to get terrible tiny photos of blurry birds.
I believe I’ll start keeping an official backyard bird list. Perhaps that’ll motivate me to learn more about what birds I am seeing. I am always astounded at the wide variety of birds people can spot in their own yards. Surely I’m missing many that I just haven’t identified.
Ciao!
Robin
This has been a very tough couple of weeks for me and Sarah.
Walter, my mom’s repair man, has been running in and out of the house for days and days. He keeps making stinky painting smells and banging on things. Sarah and I have been trying to keep up with all our barking and monitoring of the situation, but frankly, it’s EXHAUSTING. We have practically run our short little legs to nubins keeping up with it all.
Now, with everyone gone, Mom and I (oh, and Sarah) are enjoying the quiet. Mom is also recuperating from a bit of a strange situation today.
See, coming back from the gym after lunch, she was driving past the Catholic church in our little town. Out front a woman was jumping up and down and waving her arms, looking frantic. My mom pulled over to see what the emergency was. Surely there must be a fire, a heart attack or some such emergency that required assistance, right?
As mom stopped and began to fumble for the window button in my dad’s unfamiliar car, THE WOMAN JUMPED INTO THE CAR!
“Thanks for the ride! I really appreciate it!”
What?!? Mom doesn’t pick up hitchhikers! In fact, this woman wasn’t a hitchhiker. She was someone signaling an emergency. Or so Mom thought anyway.
Well, the woman strapped herself in and proceeded to tell Mom that she needed to go to the apartment complex about a mile up the road, all the while thanking her profusely for kindly stopping to pick her up.
Mom said that the woman was too drunk to do any real harm aside from gassing up the car. And since she was hardly wearing any clothes she couldn’t be concealing a weapon. So Mom went ahead and took her there, figuring it would just be faster than trying to convince the woman that she was only stopping for a fire or heart attack, not to give anyone a ride.
It has taken all afternoon for the boozy smell to wear out of Dad’s car. I noticed that Mom also spent some time figuring out how to work the locks and windows on Dad’s car too so it doesn’t happen again.
By the way, I just took a look at Mom’s To-Do list for the weekend. Some of the items:
- Make goat cheese
- Make parmesan cheese
- Mow the lawn
- Clear tomatoes and store Texas tomato cages
- Spread manure
- Turn compost pile
- Rake leaves
- Cut back wisteria vine
- Plant 1,000 bulbs
- Transplant bushes
- Repot some houseplants
- Finish re-organizing kitchen cabinets
- Make coming home dinner for Dad and Ben
I have a pool going on how many of these items she gets done. Email me if you want in.
Arf Arf!
–Sophie (Bumblebee’s Dog)
Robin
