Balcony Garden Update

 It's been a few weeks since I've highlighted the amazing growth that's been taking place on our little balcony. I've in no way inherited my parents' green thumbs (can't even count the number of plants I've killed) and we've struggled with some of the bi-polar weather this spring (frosts, cold and soaking rain, tornado warnings and high winds) but the opposite swing (over a week now of over 90° days) has really given the garden the kick start it's needed.

And in case you aren't the gardening type, you might want to skip this post. After reading over it, I'm amazed at how long-winded I can be over a 8x11 foot space.

I realize that I never got around to showing off Michael's Birthday presents. I purchased two blueberry plants because they apparently need to have another one around to facilitate cross pollination. And I purchased two types so that we would have different harvesting seasons, thus extending our fresh blueberry eating time. Now, I must admit that I never would have thought to keep blueberries in pots, but Gayla Trail in Grow Great Grub (my current container and small space gardening bible) makes it clear that container grown blueberries can do quite well. Our master plan is to transplant these babies into the ground when the time comes that we have our own yard. This particular plant is the "Patriot" blueberry, and as you can probably tell from the already blue berries, this is our early harvest plant.

This is our "Jersey" (late harvest) blueberry bush with my massive mint alongside. There are many green berries on this plant and while there are one or two blue berries, I don't expect that we will be harvesting for 2 months or so.

 Don't mind the wilty-ness, I watered just after taking the pictures. But regardless, these are my cucumber plants (top right and bottom left) which already have blossoms and tiny cukes growing. The bottom right plant is our lavender which has been growing like crazy; I've already harvested twice and am due to harvest again tomorrow before we leave. The strands of drying lavender are hanging on the same hook as my France calendar which happens to be on a Marseille theme this month. The pairing is very fitting. The herb on the top left is a new dill plant. Since the sage seemed to be over-taking the cucumbers, I opted to transplant it to its own container and put something a bit less invasive.

 Herbs clockwise from top left:

Cilantro is doing OK. It was taking over for a few weeks but unfortunately it went to seed and I didn't catch it in time. We'll see if it comes back or if I have to replace it. Since Michael has an aversion to Cilantro, having a plant means I no longer have to feel guilty about buying it in the store for only one of us to eat it. You could say I've become cilantro dependent.

Terragon is finally taking off after the addition of some worm castings (aka worm poop) to the soil.

Parsley is also starting to catch up with my demand. I have a problem with using too many herbs as soon as I get the plants, not allowing them to get really established before I start eating them.

Chives are also new to the garden. I struggled with the basil that was in this container. It didn't like the cold, wet weather that we had last month so when I finally decided to replace it I opted to move it into it's own container that could easily be taken into the house when the weather isn't perfect. The chives are still quite new but are establishing themselves nicely.

 As you can see, my upside-down tomato plant experiment has been working out quite well. The plant is huge and as of my count this morning, I have 7 tomatoes so far. Two of the three basil plants in the top have done quite well (Thai and the new Purple basil) but the Greek basil struggled with the cold weather and I haven't been able to get it to grow more than one stalk, so we'll see how that one pans out.

 The lettuce, radishes and onions are doing much better after a move to the other, cooler side of the balcony. We have been eating and thinning out the lettuce and onions for quite awhile now and I'm trying hard to keep the radishes happy and damp.

 All of the herbs seem to be loving our heat wave, including the transplanted sage (huge, right?) and the new basil which (thanks to more worm poop) has probably tripled since we bought it last weekend.

My jalapeno plant is doing well but teaching me patience. It has been flowering for quite some time so I was starting to worry that I wasn't seeing any peppers but my research this morning assured me that these plants can take 4-6 months to produce.

What's in your tornado kit?

I know we moved to the midwest but the reality of being in "tornado alley" has only just begun to sink in for this solidly northeastern girl. 

While Michael was still at work on Wednesday in his nice, cozy basement office (I'm not sure he feels that way on normal weather days), and while Pep and I sat at home, a string of very severe weather began to make its way through our area. The meteorologists has been predicting it for days, telling St Louis residents that the conditions were "very favorable" for tornadoes. We were placed in the "high-risk" area on the national map and I was ready with the TV on, to watch the action unfold. Unfortunately, nothing else was prepared. 

You see, up until this point, while we had been under tornado warnings on past bad weather days, and the sirens had blared before, there had never been anything resembling a tornado heady towards our house. And as I am sure you are all aware, the terrible tragedy that happened the past week in Joplin, MO has scared everyone into being a bit more diligent.

Wednesday was a different story though. I had the TV blaring while frantically cleaning (the nervous energy of tornado warnings makes me a great cleaner!) when I heard that there was rotation in the atmosphere and a funnel cloud had been spotted just a few miles south of our house in the shopping area that I frequent daily. At this point, the TV announcer suggested that anyone in the path of this particular cell move to the basement, naming our neighborhood in his list. 

Then I thought, "Oh, Crap! I have nothing ready!". Thankfully, we were still a bit away from the funnel cloud, and the TV was predicting that we would have 17 minutes before anything would be close. What better time to prepare an emergency kit, really?

So, here's my 15 minute tornado kit ended up looking like:

1. Sneakers (with the nasty pair of socks that I've been wearing all week to work out in. Sorry, I only own two pair, so new pairs are doled out sparingly.), cause shiny gold flip-flops just won't cut it.

2. Water

3. Food (a banana and a granola bar)

4. Mag Lite flashlight (I hope Preston isn't reading this, and if you're reading this Cayley, don't show it to him. He left it at my house 8 or so years ago and I never got it back to him.) with a pack of extra batteries.

5. Money, credit cards, insurance cards, etc

6. Phone

7. A sweater

8. Kitten in his carrier

9. Kitten food and treats
10. A book (specifically Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated)

Funny story about Pep and the carrier: 

He actually jumped in the carrier as soon as I pulled it out. While he doesn't like being shut in it the carrier, he does think it's quite a comfy bed to lay on (as you can see in the picture above, taken later in the evening before I got around to putting it away). So after he willingly jumped in his carrier I zipped it up and continued with my frantic packing. I opened the door to the basement to get a baggie of his food out of the stairwell closet and heard a loud "Meow" fly by me down the stairs. It seems that Pepin was worried I would forget him in the shuffle and figured it was every cat for himself! I was worried at first that he had ripped through his carrier but in reality, I had simply forgotten to fasten the clasps after zipping him in. 

I probably should note that Pep is slightly obsessed with exploring the basement and probably just saw his chance with the door wide open and me paying little attention (thinking he was contained.)

All ended well though. That particular funnel cloud never touched down and while the severe weather lasted a few more hours, it mostly involved heavy rain and some hail.

The moral of this stupid story is that we need to get an actual kit together so we're not scurrying around and nearly losing the kitten in the scuffle.

And also, I may have some unhealthy anxiety when it comes to tornado scares.

On a Happier note:

This happened two years ago yesterday on a cliff in Hawaii.

We celebrated with a movie and sushi and I have to say that I am so happy with the little life and little family we've made (minus the tornado alley thing). 

Two wonderful years down, and here's to many, many more to come!

Easter

Our little family of three had a nice, lazy Easter Sunday this year. We started the morning opening our Easter basket (bag) filled with Highland chocolates and Jelly Belly jellybeans. Pep even got a bag of treats in the bag but as per usual, he was much more interested in the packing materials than the actual gift.

So, we spent most of the morning with the crinkling of paper and occasionally we would see a freaked-out blur of yellow speed by when a claw or tooth got stuck.

After a delicious brunch consisting of an asparagus and goat cheese omlett (sounds yummy, huh Mom?), cappuccinos, and bloody marys we spent a good few hours playing Pep's favorite game of "stalk and pounce". (Sorry for the poor photo quality.)

We then dyed eggs and hid them for each other.

And at dinner time we made this amazing Roast Leg of Lamb with Tarragon-Mint Butter, roasted-garlic smashed potatoes and salad.

We didn't sit down for a minute...(cont)

My parents and Grandma set out on the 800+ mile drive on that Friday morning. The original plan was to stay the night along the way and arrive Saturday afternoon. I called it though, I told Michael the night before to expect a phone call saying that they were just going to tough it out and drive straight through on Friday. And the phone call came, happily, meaning one more day with the crew all here.

As you can see, Pep warmed up to the visitors quickly.

I'm not sure what we did on Saturday...I think we were a bit lazy, which was understandable for those who had spent 12.5 hours in the truck on the previous day. We did however manage to get out of the house and to the grocery store to pick up dinner supplies and tulips to adorn the table for our first meal at it.

Everyone is smiling in this picture but really, they are probably cringing from the pain of sitting on seatless chairs since up until this point, we still only had one solid chair that included a seat (Grandma is sitting on that one).

Sunday morning we hopped in the car and headed out MO rt100 towards the wine region. Grandma claims she was falling over from exhaustion in this picture but I think she was just being camera-shy.

Here's the group taking a tour of the wine cellars at Stone Hill Winery in Branson, MO.

And here we are during the post-tour wine-tasting. We cut Grandma off at this point (kidding...kidding).

I don't know what we did up until the afternoon on Monday but when Michael got off of work we met at an unfinished furniture store to fill out our dining room set with some chairs (with seats). We bought four for now and plan to get two more in the near future (although, since our TV just crapped out, I don't know when we'll be able to afford two more chairs).

I'll post more on the finishing process in another post.

Anyway, on Tuesday, we realized that our hometown Pirates were in town playing the Cardinals and get this: the Pirates had won the previous night's game against the Cards!

Sadly, the Cardinals won this game (but lost the next night's), but we did have a great time with a great view. I am anxious to go to another game to cheer for the Cards. I really tried at this game, but I just couldn't bring myself to root against the Pirates.

On Wednesday we loaded up into the truck and drove across the Mississippi river into Illinois to visit the Cahokia Indian Mounds.

Here we are at the top (Grandma didn't bother, there were lots of steps up). Dad and I may look a little tired. This was taken seconds after we raced up the stairs. Unfortunately Michael wasn't able to come along on this trip since he had to work. (boo.)

We may have been miles away but from the (relatively) high viewpoint on top of the mound, we were able to pick out the arch in the distance.

On our way back from the Mounds we stopped off at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.

The walls, ceilings, floors, everything is covered with 41.5 million mosaic pieces.

Coincidentially, after posting these photos to facebook I was told by Michael's Aunt Susie that "Many of these were done by the Frei Studio or Ravena (sp) Mosiacs...Joe's (Michael's Uncle Joe, that is) grandfather's/great-grandfather's company."

We have an exciting familial St. Louis claim to fame.

I particularly loved the red on the ceiling in this chapel, made to symbolize the blood of Christ.

And in this chapel we have the Cardinal hats, left to hang until they turn to dust. Literally.

After the day's excitement, Mom and I did more work on the chair we had been caning all week while Pep drank our cane soaking water.

On Thursday, while dad whipped up a balcony planter box for us, Mom, Grandma and I hit up the botanical gardens. There was much more color on this visit.

It looked as if an Easter basket had exploded.

I love tulips.

We visited the local gardening center at the Botanical gardens so I could drool over the raised bed gardens,

And the cold boxes.

And on Friday we hit up the free (with the exception of the 12.50 parking pass, unless you want to walk 1 mile for free parking, which is what we did) Zoo where we had the pleasure of seeing some incredible birds,

A tiger losing his lunch,

This rather large giraffe,

Pairs of penguins,

And an elephant coating himself in mud to stay cool. (I missed this one, I was busy fetching the truck from a mile away.)

And after the swealtering heat (something like 85°) at the Zoo, we were in need of some lunch and cold beer, so we headed off to Schlafly Bottleworks. After an excellent lunch we took the tour and...

(You guessed it!)...tasted!

And on their last night here we ordered take out BBQ from one of the highest rated St Louis BBQ joints and spent the evening finishing up the chair.

And we moved this beautiful family piece to it's final placement and filled it with all of our (mostly wonderful hand-me-down) china. I forgot to mention earlier that this China cabinet, my Grandparents' (first belonging to my Grandpa's parents) China cabinet, came with my family in the truck so that we wouldn't have to keep all of our special dishes in boxes in the corner of the dining room. Thanks again Grandma!

And thanks to all three of you for the visit, we had a wonderful time!

Why Hello There!

 Warning: This post contains content not suitable for those under the age of 12.

Now that I've shoved Michael off of his computer, I finally have time for a real, pictures included post and since there are so many, how about if I just let them do the talking.

I love my husband very much, but I were forced to pick out one flaw it would be his sentimental attachment to holiday decorations. For months I have been asking -- no begging -- Michael to let me get rid of our dried out and shedding Christmas tree. Finally, sanity prevailed and I promised him we would find something to fill the space. As you can see, he still wasn't very happy about it, but we got a lovely tree to fill up the corner (which I still need to take a picture of) and I must say that both of us are very happy not to stab ourselves with dried pine needles daily.

A few weeks into March, I planted some herb plants which I hope will sustain us through our remaining 9 months here in Metz. This picture of the basil pot was taken only days after planting and thanks to some sunny days the plants are almost an inch high.

And here is my other experiment, a white bean placed snugly between damp cotton balls and a jelly jar. The idea came from a science book belonging to Margeurita and Eleanora, in fact, we are growing lentil plants at their house but I am fairly certain they will be dead by the time the girls return from their spring break in Italy. As with the previous picture, this was taken weeks ago and two of the three plants are now growing and one is close to a foot tall!

My knitting has kept me sane since finding the thrift store. I am happy to report that gifts were sent home to Rosie and Heather for our little nieces or nephews to come and the two bibs above were made for Janice and Jeremy's next little pgirl. Since I do have the time and youtube instructional videos at my disposal I have been forcing myself to make sure everything I make is a challenge and forces me to learn something new. These bibs demonstrate my new found love of cable knit.

As you can see, the bib on the left is just the same as the two above and while I do love cable knit, I am now sick of cable knit bibs for the time being after making 8 in a matter of two weeks! The bib on the left however, was my first attempt at a design in knitting and also my first i-cord.

And finally, my first sweater (or shrug rather) in the process. It was an incredibly easy pattern and since it is made from the neck down, it can be made to whatever length is desired; mine was finished when I ran out of yarn. I still need to block it and figure out some sort of fastening mechanism (perhaps more i-cord?) but I will post updated pictures of that when it is finally totally done.

Janice hosted a wonderful baby shower for two other GTL wives who are (along with Janice) all expecting the arrival of their babies within the next month and a half! The shower was lovely. We enjoyed wonderful food, fun games, and good laughs and were hopefully able to help a few girls prepare for their first babies so far from family. Oh, and Kimber was a hoot, as always.

Our cravings for typical American take-out food never cease so along with pizza night we have been experimenting with quite a few Chinese take-out themed dinners. I know I've posted about General Tso's Chicken but we hit a new high this past week when we took a dive into the world of dumplings. Now that we know our little hand blender food processor attachment works as a meat grinder, I have a feeling we will be making many many more of these. The first half we fried up after eating some spicy, crispy green beans and the rest was used the next day for a lovely won ton soup lunch.

And yet again, Leah and Kyle came over for dinner and we managed to not take any pictures of the actual event. The dinner was initially going to be a very simple pizza and beer night (we though we should share some of the pepperoni sent by mom and Ben) but upon noticing the beautiful rhubarb at Grand Frais we couldn't resist delving into spring with a strawberry rhubarb pie. The night was great with lots of good conversation as always and some good, American style food.

Now for the part that should be censored from little eyes. As it turns out the Easter Bunny came and Stayed on Sunday. Of course he first hid eggs for us, which Michael found without much help (that Easter Bunny is a good hider) and left us with some delicious chocolates including the strange asexual cow pictured above...

...and for dinner he lent himself to a wonderful preparation of braised rabbit with mustard sauce. I know it sounds terrible and both sets of parents exclaimed "You're eating the Easter Bunny!?!" but we had been meaning to make rabbit here in France and Easter Sunday just worked out perfectly. For those of you that are not completely grossed out, the rabbit turned out beautifully. It was tender and very mild flavored. Which leads us to

Today which was the first nice spring day we've had in awhile. We took advantage of the sun and went for a nice walk down the road to a beautiful old cemetery (well, the picture above is of the new section) with stones from the mid-1800's. We walked around for a bit and finally decided that

Spring has finally sprung in northeastern France.