Memorial Day

I was driving into Ithaca to feed the cats today, and I slowed down to look over the improvements at Nichols Park in Spencer. While I was idling, I noticed the memorial could use a weeding and some more mulch. I'm woefully under-involved with the Spencer community, so I stopped by Home Depot and picked up a couple of bags of cedar mulch. I spent a very nice hour in a very beautiful park, weeding, mulching, and chatting with the woman who runs the hot dog stand on the sidewalk.

She gave me a free root beer. :)

Here's wishing you a Memorial Day of sunshine and good friends, and please take a moment to attend your local service if you can. It will only take a few moments of your day, and there's no better way to say "thank you" to your local veterans.

Justifying buying a new car...

Anytime I make a huge purchase, I always suffer buyer's remorse---well, not so much "remorse" as justification. I always worry the day after I buy something I'll learn it cost too much, or is the worst car on the market, etc., especially since I buy sight-unseen.

I was happy to see a couple of articles that indicated (so far!) that I hadn't screwed up buying my Kia. This article rates it as one of the top ten least expensive cars to own.

This one really made me laugh. This article tells you which affordable cars will make you look rich, and the Kia Soul tops the list.

I haven't yet seen another Soul on the road since I bought this one. I have been approached twice by people who are thinking about buying one, and wanted my feedback. I had to admit A) I love the car but B) don't hit any potholes or you'll break a tooth, and C) the stripped-down version is great. In fact, I find it a lot classier that some of the "upscale" models.

Of course, then there is the Best Automotive Ad of the Year" award.

Silly dreams, quickly made, quickly dashed

When I was in Ithaca I took a quick drive around Taber Street to check Nancy's parking lot to see if maybe she were grooming a Sunday dog. I came to an immediate halt when I saw the For Sale sign in front of this old place.

Back in the 80s I picked up a hit-by-car toy poodle way down on Elmira Road by the car wash, with tags that gave this address. I was met by an elderly gentleman who insisted his dog was in his fenced yard. He went out into the yard calling and calling while I stood there in tears, because his dog was in my van, dead. He finally came out to look, and he totally broke down. When he asked for me to take her because he could not bury her, I gave him the poodle's collar, said I was sorry, and drove away. That old gentleman's grief has always haunted me.

I stopped and walked around the house. What had, back then, been a front porch was now a glassed in extension. The lot was fairly large (there was a second house there back when I visited in the 80s) with a shed just like the one I used to have for a cat facility in West Danby. The yard sloped down to one of the inlet channels, and the water was dark and quiet, shaded by trees. It was a suitable spot for a dock, if legal. It was clearly in the flood zone, but the house itself was up on a four foot high foundation. There was more than enough room for another building for the cats.

I began wondering what it would be like to sell the farm, invest in this little place, and be able to plop a kayak in the inlet anytime I wanted, bike to stores, visit friends for lunch, take care of the ferals without a two hour time-investment, etc.

After wandering around, checking the foundation, and peeking in the windows, I called the Realtor. Sadly, the house is part of a four parcel bundle in the seven digit range.

4. 812-814 Taber Street 1,058 sq. ft. This white stucco two story 3 bedroom, 2 bath home is on a double lot with wonderful green space ideal for outdoor meetings. It also has waterfront access. It would be possible to install a dock on this parcel. The house is cleaned out and could be leased as office space for a variety of small businesses. Future development possibilities when combined with adjacent lots.

There is another matching house around the corner for $80,000, but while it looks out over the inlet, it doesn't have water access right on the property, which is all of the charm of the other house. It is a cute house, but I'm not in the market for a cute house. I'm in the market for a lifestyle.

What a pity. Nonetheless, it's always fun to dream.

But then I came home and, sitting on the porch, listened to the birds off in the woods, and was actually quite glad the house was not available. I won't be able to stay here forever by myself, but I can enjoy it for a long while.

Comfort food of spring -- Rhubarb

I ran into Alice in Wegman's today ("mom" to Elvis and formerly-Lulu, whose adult name I am spacing on). I offered her a rhubarb plant, as I have three on the flat I need to move, and I don't really need five producing plants and can easily spare one. She reminded me of the rhubarb crumble recipe she had sent me last year. Of course, I have lost it, but I found one on the internet.



Sadly, I took two large bunches of rhubarb over to my mom and my sister last week, and then forgot it in the car. Maybe I can get some more over to them before the season ends.

Rhubarb crumble is like a crisp, made with chopped rhubarb, orange juice, cinnamon, butter, and oat-butter topping.

Cook Time: 40 minutes, 375F
Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

* 3 cups chopped rhubarb
* 2 tablespoons orange juice
* 3/4 cup granulated sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 tablespoons butter, cut in small pieces

* Crumble Mixture:
* 1/4 cup melted butter
* 1/3 cup brown sugar
* 2/3 cup sifted all-purpose flour
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 2/3 cup quick cooking oats

Preparation:

Arrange diced rhubarb in a buttered 8-inch square baking dish. Sprinkle with orange juice, 3/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, then dot with the 1 tablespoon of cut up butter.

Combine melted butter with brown sugar. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda; mix with oats. Combine the flour oat mixture with the brown sugar and melted butter mixture. Spread over rhubarb. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve warm, with ice cream or whipped topping.

Gardening, our personal metaphor for life.

I was wacking away at my garden the other day, wondering why humans are so addicted to the pastime. I remember when I put in my first massive perennial garden. It was gorgeous the first year. It was gorgeous the second year. The third year, it needed to be divided and reorganized---requiring more work than putting it in to begin with.

My flower garden in this house consists of a long hedge of lavender (flowers twice a year, has pretty gray/green foliage, and you can chop the heck out of it almost any time) and spring bulbs. I have window boxes on the cat facility that I dote over. That's it! A small amount of effort for an effect that gives me great joy.

Then there is the vegetable garden. Wowee zowie, what a mess.

First of all, however, let me sing my ode to Rhubarb, nature's freebie. You can neglect the hell out of this plant, and it will give and give and give. Some day, I long to be as generous as rhubarb. Bless this plant, it will provide enough for you and all your friends. All of my plants came from Mark's dad.



I have had a veggie garden ever since I've been a part-landowner. The first year we had the Station Road house, we put in a great little garden, but I really don't recall what we ate out of it. The garden here at this house in Spencer has never been that productive, primary due to the devastation of deer and weeds (i.e too many working/business hours, not enough home/garden hours). I do recall a lovely Saturday morning when we shelled peas from his garden--just enough for one dinner, and for snacking as we shelled.

Nonetheless, while I don't remember anything I ate out of the first Station Road garden (although I know it produced), I specifically remember eating one thing out of the current garden The Year The Husband Left, and that was kale. I think the kale plants, which churned out leaves for me even as the snow fell, kept me alive that year. Not so much because the plants gave me nourishment, but because they kept on giving even though they were entirely neglected out there.

The first year sans husband, I was determined to keep the garden going, but that fell flat pretty quickly, since I was managing the entire place with a push mower. The second year I was going pretty well until I accidentally slaughtered a family of baby bunnies trying to keep up with the grass inside the fenced area.

This year NYS brought us an early spring, so the weeds really got going. However, I am out of my desperation mode now and into a Victory Garden (i.e. Austerity Budget) view on life. I'll grow kale next to burdock if I have to.



I carved out one spot at a time in the raised bed, to get the kale in. Then I slowly got rid of all the rest of the weeds to plant seeds. In the gap between each of the frames I planted sunflowers.

The grass is an ever-present enemy, but now I have a working John Deere tractor in addition to the push mower.



There once was a time when, if the garden hadn't been "perfect," I would have felt it was a failure. But after picking kale out of the snow--the only plant that lived, but LIVE IT DID!--I'll gladly carve bits of success out of the the Great Wild Lands. Maybe one day I'll have a big beautiful garden, but right now I'll be happy with a little bit of kale and whatever else makes it.

We all have reasons why we garden. Our gardens--or lack of one due to our dedication to other things--are ourselves.

I'm a big girl now...

...and I have moved back to an upstairs bedroom rather than sleeping downstairs in the den. This is mostly prompted by my back, that has decided to object to a squishy twin bed full of cats and rather impatiently demanded a firm double bed. It is also partially prompted by the need to move on.

The cats do not much like the front bedroom. The only cat that has seen fit to join me is Wiggles. Hopefully Ivan will find his way up.