we have tomatoes!

[dragonlady7]

Well. We have tomato plants. Tomatoes themselves will probably take a couple months.
Yesterday Dave's aunt phoned up and asked if we needed tomato plants. She'd bought a flat of six and really only wanted four.
I was surprised; I hadn't been planning to plant anything until after the Official frost-free date, which is in about ten days. But she's already got hers planted. So... Looking at the weather forecast, she's probably right.

I came home from work and Dave had planted, courtesy of his aunt:

• tomatoes (2)
• dill
• tarragon
• parsley
• thyme
• and a tiny little clump of mint

Dave had trimmed them all (at his aunt's instruction, to give them less plant to support and more strength to focus on growing roots) and had used the trimmings to marinate chicken thighs, which he then proceeded to grill. It was nummy dinner. I had never eaten tarragon before. I just took a stalk of it and ate it raw to find out what it tastes like. It tastes really good: it's kind of minty-licoricey but more savory than that. Very weird. And quite good with chicken, and rice.

So: we have an herb garden! I've never had one before. I'm quite excited. And next weekend, if I have any time off at all, we can go up to the farmer's market in Tonawanda and buy yet more herbs. Because we have more room. I'm using the wacky little space between the driveway and the neighbors' fence, because planting hostas there like the previous residents did just narrows the driveway. It gets full sun almost all day, so it seems to me that it ought to be put to some good use. Also it's just a little skip away from the kitchen door, right next to where we keep the grill, and it's handy to the back porch, so...

Dave's aunt was incredulous about the mint. It's such a notorious spreader and is so terribly difficult (impossible) to get rid of. (The little clump she gave us is the remnants of what escaped her ruthless weeding as she seeks to eradicate it.) But the chunk of garden where I'm planting it is hemmed in by a metal fence (that goes a distance solidly into the ground) on one side, with gravel beyond, and on the other side is the concrete driveway, so I think it's rather safe. And, I have an inordinate fondness for mojitos, which simply don't work with anything but fresh mint.

There's more room. What else should I plant? Rosemary, sage, oregano? Am pondering. And oh, my basil inexplicably died, so I have to get more of that too. But definitely sage for salmon. I am rather overly fond of herbs, I think.
Rescued pansies are doing tolerably well in their new pot. All other pansies are doing extremely well, including some overambition on the part of the ultramarine ones, which have begun sprouting blossoms as big as my palm. Whoa there. All the others have blossoms more silver-dollar-sized, so the blue ones look rather silly especially beside the sweet petite little purple/orange ones.

The bigger lilac transplant in the back finally decided it wasn't dead. But several of its branches (of which it has not many) are. Oh well. Give it time. The big lilacs at UB South campus are almost blooming now. It'll be years before mine does.

OK, enough about plants, I guess. Work was weird: I was given the new girl to train. She has a very limited schedule and rather unreasonably assumes that my company's going to be fine with that. (She already works 40 hours a week, and also has plans to get a second bartending job in the evenings; this place, she'll just be working on the weekends. How many jobs can one person reasonably expect to have? It's not even like she's saving up for a goal; she's just bored with her day job.) So I mentioned to her how Judy can't get two of the days off she needs to go to her brother's wedding in NC, to which she already has airplane tickets, and how Kelly's been scheduled to work on a day smack in the middle of her Florida vacation, to which she already has airplane tickets, and how I have been scheduled to work on the only day I've ever asked for off, Dave's graduation. "They're not all that flexible," I said, and stopped myself from asking, "so why the hell did they hire you?" That's what none of us can figure out at all. Why hire someone for just the weekends, when we have plenty of people available weekends who want more hours?
She was ok, but had a bit of an attitude, and kept asking me how much money I earned. I was as honest as I could be, but the only honest answer is really, "It depends." However, she's been told she'll be working in the Club, which means I won't be, so I did my best to tell her about how awesome the Club is even if you don't make money. Just bring something to do, I said. Speaking of which, must decide what to work on in the Club today.
I think I owe Katy a letter.
Does anyone else want a letter? It's been a very slow week so it ought to be entirely dead in the Club today. C'mon, I'll send people cheesy Buffalo postcards. Leave a comment! e-mail me your address! (this handle @livejournal.com) and I'll send you stupid pointless postcards.

There: a fit of boredom.

Edited to add: Most of my friendslist is unusually silent of late. I am going to assume that you all are hard at work on your masterpieces and so this coming week will be delightfully full of new things to read. :) See? Optimism.

Comments

[silverwerecat.livejournal.com]

I am not *that* silent, hehe. :) But I *have* been working on my masterpiece.

Now that you mentioned tomatoes, I had a tomato plant appear among my parsley back in September. Probably some bird pooped there... Sadly, it died during the winter frost. On the other hand, I've heard that tomato plants are poisonous to cats, so, maybe it was for the best.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Tomatoes are pretty frost-sensitive. I don't know if they're poisonous to cats: we always grew them, and had cats, but they were outdoor cats, and free to eat whatever they wanted. Tomatoes aren't particularly appealing, I don't think. But perhaps if they were cooped up with a tomato plant they'd eat it...
Dave's mom's dog has eaten a tomato plant, and suffered no ill effects, but this is also the dog that has eaten metal baking pans, and so no conclusions can really be drawn.

Oh good, a masterpiece. :) I will have to check it out. I was going to respond to your post about it-- I, too, know the frustration and pain of working on original fiction and having nobody freaking read it. Bah.

[silverwerecat.livejournal.com]

My kitties eat the dry leaves off the ground - and then barf. No way they'd leave a tomato plant without taking a bite.

Oh good, a masterpiece. :) I will have to check it out.

*purrr* You know now that I'll be waiting by my inbox to hear from you. *wink*

I was going to respond to your post about it-- I, too, know the frustration and pain of working on original fiction and having nobody freaking read it. Bah.

I know... That's the good thing about that new site I posted about - someone will not only read your story, but give you useful feedback on it.

*guilty look*

Someday I *will* read your Viking story. I will, I promise. I love Vikings and the culture. But I need to get a certain story out of my head first...

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Sage takes a LOT of room; I think you'll find that you use it rarely in cooking, and that when you do use it, dry is perfectly satisfactory. Awfully pretty plant, though. Lemon thyme is fun, and good with seafood. Rosemary is very, very useful in tomato dishes and roasted foods.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Sage is bulky, huh? Hmm. Well. We'll see how much room is left. It does have those lovely fuzzy little blue-green leaves, but I don't think I've ever seen it planted, so I couldn't judge how much room it needs. I just know of one recipe that we've done twice ever that used it, and you can't buy it fresh in any reasonably small quantities, so we were just eating sage in salad greens for the rest of the week until it went funny. Bleah.
Lemon thyme, hm? Is that different than just having a lemon and some thyme, then? :) The thyme smells so good just sitting there, it's hard to resist just eating it. It's lovely, and I'm already starting to think of ways to bring the herbs inside for the winter because I am so pleased to have them.

thanks for the advice!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Lemon thyme isn't quite lemon+thyme; it's just a pleasant flavor, and as you say, thyme is pretty.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I shall have to look into it, for sure.

[tehta.livejournal.com]

I have been working on a work-paper and a school-paper, mostly. And I just can't face the computer after all that typing, hence my silence. But will get back to Elf writing on Tuesday...

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Agh! Tuesday!! *thrash thrash* The pain that is my soul in the darkness of the not-having of the next chapter of SF! It will envelop my being! *thrash* The pain! Aughh!

... I'll probably live. Yes, too much typing is the devil. We hates it, yes we does. Except that's probably not really very true, in my case. Or at least, my definition of "too much" rather differs from that of, well, real humans.

I was all hopeful, but you weren't the only one to say "oh maybe I'll do some writing" and then disappear for the rest of the weekend. My hopes aren't entirely dashed. :) I am in a bit of a dry spell at the moment, see, and so am much more voraciously impatient for other people to make with the pretties already than I (hope I) usually am. At least Egalmoth is happily making with the gossip and the making Ecthelion be, well, not human but as close as he gets. I am increasingly fond of him. He needs to get laid. Graphically. Onscreen. Yes. Even if his dress sense is bad, I bet he's good in bed.
*perks up* My evening just improved! No more dry spell. And... an excuse to write het! (oh the boobs, how I have missed them, not to mention the easy pronouns!) Now all I need is... *sigh* canonical or at least reasonable Gondolin females. Curses! Must HoMe involve itself in everything??

[tehta.livejournal.com]

I'm doing a bit of writing tonight, as it turns out. But I just can't write that quickly--or, more accurately, I can't produce anything readable quickly.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Yay!!

Hey, man, do your thing. I'm not trying to be pushy. Just let you know that your efforts are appreciated. :)

Shiiiiny Elfs. :D

[tehta.livejournal.com]

Thanks!