A Disappointment

I was asked by a couple of loyal readers to update you on my results with trying to root a rose cutting. Well, the heading says it all. At first, things were going well, but I took the pot out to the greenhouse and we got some cooler temperatures than I would have liked. I brought it back into the house -- so my thinking is that it might have done better if I had just left it in the house the whole time. My second thought is that it might have suffered from an uneven moisture level.

I am not deterred! I'm going to try rooting some other plants -- namely rosemary, which I understand roots easily. I probably should have started with something that was more of a sure thing from the beginning, but that's just me!

My seeds are sprouting yet, but again, cooler temps in the greenhouse, maybe even the uneven watering. . . I did make one discovery, though! Some time ago, we splurged on getting a barbequed chicken from the supermarket, and the container it was in make a spiffy starter container for seeds. It has a high enough clear dome with holes in it, and the tray is big enough for an 8-pack of peat pots.

I may develop a craving for barbequed chicken. . .

There's Hope for College Food!

Every once in a while I actually read my college newsletter. It's easier now that it comes via the Internet, pictures and all. One came yesterday -- I recognized names, some faces, but to say good ol' Edinboro State College, now a University in northwestern Pennsylvania, has changed is an understatement.

A change many might overlook got a lot of coverage -- and it is about time. It was past time back in 1962, the last time I ate in the college dining hall. The chef of Edinboro's food service won first place in Souper Bowl X, which was held on the appropriate day in Erie, PA.

The winning dish was Hungarian Mushroom soup, served not in bowls but in rolls! The guy has imagination! Exactly what was missing when I was queing up for tuna subs and potato chips in Heather Hall's dining room those many years ago.

Big Day Is Finally Here

Okay, so yesterday was Valentine's Day, and Husband shelled out for four bags of chocolate candy and a card --but I was waiting for today. Candy is good, but planting seeds is better!

We went to Lowe's so I could get some peat pots, and when I came home I got right to work planting basil, parsely, sage and mint seeds. It was rather warm today, compared to what we have been seeing -- 58 degrees -- and more like 68 in the greenhouse.

I mixed garden soil, sifted composted soil from the pile we've been building for several years, and play sand in more or less equal parts, filled the peat pots (8 for each type of seed), watered lightly and will stand back and let them grow.

Husband is cheering on the basil. He loved fresh basil in his pasta salad dressing.

I've got plenty more seeds to work with. I see us going back to Lowe's pretty often. There were some lovely plants that almost reached out an grabbed me, but I called on my will power. No blueberries --yet!

Man and Washing Machine vs. Wife

Lest anyone think Husband is a saint, I need to expose to the public that there is a major bone of contention in our marriage -- he likes to do laundry. "Heaven!" you say? Well, it took me many years to train him to sort.

I should have known. While he was still in the USMC, he came home one weekend wearing an attractive gold knit shirt. When I complimented, he said, "Oh, it's the green swearter I wore home last month." Ahem!

We now have trouble with red -- dark red. He bought me a dark red dress a few years ago -- at a flea market. Lovely thing, but from a country that is known for bleeding colors. I loaned it to a friend of ours, and she wanted to send it to the cleaners before returning it, But he said he'd take care of it. He did! By putting it in with my whites. I have the only pink EPIC 2003 T-shirt in captivity -- yes, my favorite T- shirt, where the lizard looks like he's smoking a cigar.

Then he blithely bought me kitchen towels, which we needed. Some were acceptable, some were dark red. Son asked where we got the pink washclothes. The dark red towels disappeared, so when I needed to have more towels on hand, I asked where they had gone.

"They're down in the bottom of the sink, pushed back in the corner," Husband confessed. So he took them out and washed them by themsselves -- and they still bled.

How my good white sweater got dark red lint on it, I haven't a clue.

Lucky Sundays!

About two months ago, I had to stay home from church because I had what I call an "active cough" -- one of those that you know you can pass germs along to someone else. That morning in my email I got a general notice from one of my publishers that she needed a book for late '08, and a Christmas/winter story for late '09. Since I'll have two books coming off contract this year, I emailed her and told her that they would be available and I'd like to do a winter book.

She emailed back that she'd filled the space she had, but she wants those two that are coming off contract and I could do the winter book. A few days later, she announced a contest for short books, so I got busy and started writing -- and the story just sort-of evolved around a winter theme. Well, today she acknowledged that she got the story --THAT SPECIAL SOMEONE --and she would be publishing it late in '09! Not sure how it will fair in the contest, but I wish good luck to anyone else that entered -- I'll just take being published! This will be book # 12!

A Rose is a Rose -- Maybe

January 18 was Husband's and my 44th wedding anniversary. On our anniversary tour of the local Food City, he bought me a pink rose out of the cooler. Gorgeous thing! Well, by nipping the end off the stem every day and filling the budvase with the hottest water out of the tap, I got it to last until yesterday. And it was still beautiful.

Now, it might have lasted another day, but I wanted to try something more with it -- now that I have the greenhouse. I'd bought some rooting compound to start clippings of rosemary and thyme, and I thought I'd try it on the rose. When I had taken leaves from the rose as they shriveled, I'd noticed that the buds at the nodes were bright green, and they continued to grow a bit every day.

So yesterday I took a tall -- maybe 6 inches -- plastic flower pot from the greenhouse into the house, washed it thoroughly, adding a little bleach to used dishwater -- nothing much gets wasted here -- trimmed the stem to the three nodes it still had, nipped a bit off the bottom of the stem, dipped it in the rooting compound to cover the bottom node and planted it in the pot. The pot had a quarter of an old dish rag in the bottom to insure that the dirt didn't fall out the drainage holes, then a layer of mulch, and some garden soil mixed with play sand so that it would be light but still hold moisture. AND I had to cut off the blossom.....(sigh)

But I hope it will root and I'll have a rose bush in a few months.

PS--I love comments from my friends....and stangers if they are nice.