Everyone who hears these words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. Matthew 7:24-25

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Long Time, No Blog

Surprise!  It’s me again.

I know. I know.  It’s been so terribly long since you last heard a word from me.  Poor dears! You must be crushed!  I have the best excuse ever, though. 

My computer died.

Yep, it kicked the bucket.

Bought the farm.

Winged it’s flight to worlds unknown.

You get the idea.

Actually it was only the tangible computer that keeled over, not the brains of the machine.  The hard drive is still perfectly healthy, along with all of the priceless information stored on it.  So while I’m in the midst of transferring everything from my old hard drive to a wonderful, new machine, I thought I’d take a moment to let y’all know I haven’t abandoned blogging.

So what’s a girl like me to do when her computer is down and out?

Get outside and enjoy spring, that’s what!  Y’all know how much I’ve been looking forward to spring, and I’m so happy that it’s finally here!  For weeks I’ve been itching to get out in this winter-weary yard of mine and spruce it up a bit.  Thanks to the longer days and the warmer temperatures, the Tool Man and I have been able to tackle quite a bit of outdoor work around here.

The biggest chore we’ve completed so far has been to get our pool (a.k.a. Redneck Oasis) up and running.  The water is still far too chilly to go for a swim, (just ask Lucy who wouldn’t take my word for it) but at least it’s all set up, cleaned up, and ready to go.

In addition to prepping the pool, the Tool Man and I have spent some time giving our flower beds a face lift.  We’ve pruned shrubs, pulled weeds, relocated plants, and added some new flowers here and there.

Since we don’t have time to tend to a real vegetable garden, I decided to add a couple of tomatoes and jalapeno plants to my backyard bed.  I’ve also got a little collection of herbs growing:  rosemary, basil, lavender, and sage.

The sage bush was planted last year and is still going strong.  I believe it’s doubled in size in the last month alone!

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It’s leaves are so big and beautiful; just the other day I plucked a few and added them to a chicken salad.  Yummy!  I don’t know about you, but the smell of sage always makes me think of Thanksgiving dressing.

The rosemary was planted last year as well.  I’m channeling my inner Martha Stewart and desperately trying to train the rosemary into topiary form – crossing my fingers I’m doing to correctly.

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I’ve successfully grown a rosemary bush before but never once tried to prune it.  It grew to a monstrous size – at least 3 feet tall and twice as wide!  I finally had enough of the beast and got scissor happy with it last summer.  Now the poor plant looks like it’s been beaten with an ugly stick!  It’s gnarled, woody trunk grows at a wonky “60-ish” degree angle and bushes into an awful upside-down, squished pyramid shape.  I’m only keeping it around until my new plant is well established.  Fresh rosemary from an ugly plant is better than no rosemary at all, right?

I have more spring fun to talk about, but I ‘m not going to put all my eggs in one basket (pun intended.)  I apologize again for the recent blogging drought.  Hopefully, I’ll get all my computer woes ironed out soon.  Thanks for being patient!

Happy spring!

Lindsey