While my container garden on my deck seems to be thriving, I miss my big ol’ flower garden at my parents’ house in Boston. To make matters worse, my dad sent me pictures (which I requested) of my old garden. … Continue reading
When I visited Kentucky in the summer as a child, I spent my time between Granny and Papa’s house and Grandmother’s house. Because I didn’t have any cousins on my Mom’s side of the family at the time, I often requested that my cousin Lauren come with me to play at Grandmother’s house.
Naturally, we spent a lot of time playing with barbies and babydolls. Occasionally, however, I took it upon myself to tell my poor cousin Lauren a story about Grandmother’s old house.
One day, I made up some absurd story that there was a clown trapped in this door. I told Lauren that the clown died in there, which made the glass wavy, and that its spirit haunted the house.
I really don’t understand what my logic (if any) was in crafting this highly plausible tale, but cousin Lauren seemed to eat it right up.
I think it is relevant that the telling of this story coincided with my Nancy Drew phase.
Although it seems my goal here was to freak out my cousin, I was most successful in freaking myself out.
That darn door still gives me the creeps to this day.
I guess it serves me right.
Y’all play nice,
Sugarlump
This past weekend, my sister came down for CMA fest. We missed my cousins who weren’t able to come, but there’s always next year! Eugene and I pinky-promised that we would make attending CMA fest a tradition. Here we are in … Continue reading
A little while back, as I was checking the facts for my Rite Aid post, I consulted my cousin/partner in crime Lauren about when Rite Aid closed and its Cowboy Store replacement opened.
The following is our text conversation regarding the matter:
Me: “Hey! Quick question: about how long ago do you think Rite Aid went out in Burkesville?”
Lauren: “10 years probably.”
Me: “Ok. I’m still sad about it. :(”
Lauren: “I know!”
Me: “I haven’t even been in the cowboy store because I’m so sad!”
Lauren: “I doubt there’s much in the cowboy store you would need anyways.”
Me: “I don’t know about that! I might need some chaps. :)”
Lauren: “Haha well it’s not really that kind of cowboy store. And who doesn’t need a good pair of chaps? Ha.”
She’s very encouraging of my efforts to be a farmer/cowgirl/crazy lady.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to try to find an establishment nearby that sells chaps so I can get my farmer on.
Y’all come back,
Sugarlump
Last evening, as my sister and I were headed out to dinner, there was a very pretty sunset happening. My camera on my phone had decided to black out on me and I didn’t have my big girl camera, so … Continue reading
I love cookbooks. I especially love old cookbooks. I have begun to collect them, starting with the old church cookbooks from the county where my grandparents live. I am partial to these because I recognize many of the peoples’ names … Continue reading
Having recently moved to my first big-girl apartment, I needed a lot of stuff. I needed dishes and glasses and living room furniture and a cake stand and a compote dish. Who doesn’t need a compote dish, right? Many of my … Continue reading
I visited the garden at the end of last week to check on its progress. I had shown up to my grandparents’ house in a cotton summer dress so I changed into a white Hanes t-shirt, athletic shorts and my Crocs to go around to the garden. This was Papa’s response to my outfit:
“That’s a mighty casual outfit to garden in.”
I didn’t really know what to make of this comment considering I viewed gardening as a very casual event and thus thought I had dressed appropriately.
After many hours of reflection, I believe Papa thought perhaps that I should be wearing full pants and boots to minimize bug-bites and such.
That’s all I can come up with. I really don’t think Papa thought I should be wearing anything formal for gardening.
ANYWAY…
Things are moving along nicely and looking a little less patchy than they did on my last visit.
The romaine lettuce had taken a turn for the worse. Some animal had nearly demolished it.
The beets are huge! Or at least much larger than last time.
Papa has caged his tomatoes as the plants started to shoot up.
A few of the plants even have baby tomatoes!
I don’t know why I’m so excited about this. I don’t even like tomatoes. But I guess it shows that the garden is growing so I do like that.
The onions haven’t changed much.
The cabbage looks beautiful. Too bad I don’t like cabbage. Why can’t the animals eat this instead of the good stuff??
My brussel sprout plants are looking big and leafy! I think we’re supposed to cut these leaves off once the plants start to sprout…the sprouts. I’d better figure that out soon.
Here are all of the beans that Papa planted. In the middle and right rows are the pole beans: speckled limas, half-runners, and partridge heads(!). On the left we have poor house beans, which are heirlooms and have been in the family for generations. They are bush beans.
I got word from Papa a few days ago that the poor house beans were devoured by some groundhogs. Poor, poor house beans.
This is a photo I took pre-massacre.
Papa had found some patridge head seed in the deep freeze from 1997 (literally) and he wasn’t sure that they would come up so he planted as many as 8 in a hill (he normally does 3).
Oh boy did they come up! So much so, in fact, that I had to thin them so the plants produce well. This broke my heart to pull up perfectly good bean plants, but I guess if it means more actual beans, it’s worth it. It still made me sad.
Here are the roma beans. They have filled out considerably. They were looking a little patchy last time.
Even though the bean plants look small, it was time to stick ‘em!
So Papa brought some bamboo sticks down from the barn.
And we worked down the rows making little teepees for the beans. I think it looks real purty.
I stepped back to admire our handywork and then I heard a “hhhmppppflllll.”
Oh hello there. Our supervisor was pleased with our work as well.
After the sticks were in place, Papa gave me the job of thinning the beans (if there were more than 3 plants around each stick) and then mounding up the dirt at the base of the sticks to tuck in the beans.
This was the first time I had used a hoe. Pretty handy tool if you ask me.
Above are some of the partridge head casualties of the thinning. Sad.
Here is the finished product. Not too shabby.
Now let’s get some beans growing!
Y’all come back!
Sugarlump
Today is my seeester Eugenice’s birthday.
She came to visit me this weekend and boy did we have a BIG time.
First, we shopped around in downtown Franklin and had an early lunch at Puckett’s. We left the restaurant to check out a cute little bakery and stumbled upon this completely normal scene on Main Street:
The latest in hybrid vehicles.
Thankfully this guy kept his road rage under control.
Apparently the dress code for this event was formal.
Somehow (perhaps inspired by our canine acquaintance’s fashion statement), we wound up at the mall where I purchased these VERY tall shoes. I thought that I was going to sneak one by Eugene and finally be taller than her. But then she also bought some VERY tall shoes. So I got to be tall and she got to be VERY tall. At least I was tall.
Here are some very professional photos we took of ourselves dressed to go out to dinner.
I’m not sure what’s going on with my right eye here. I think it got stuck.
Eugene’s poof was not cooperating.
We take ourselves very seriously. Obviously.
This makes me laugh uncontrollably every time I look at it.
The point of these pictures was to capture our full outfits, especially our sassy new shoes. Clearly we succeeded.
Not.
We ventured down to the Gulch and had a delicious dinner at Sambuca’s, where we enjoyed some great live music in our VERY tall shoes. We also had a celebrity sighting, which was a special present that I organized for Eugene (not really, but that’s what I told her. I won some major points).
After enjoying ourselves thoroughly at dinner, we started toward the door and realized it was pouring rain outside. We decided to wait it out for a little while, but then it just started raining harder.
Wonderful.
So, we agreed to cut our losses, take off our new tall (and suede) shoes, stick them in my purse and run for the hills (the car). I hope someone witnessed this and had a good laugh.
The next morning I whipped up a gourmet breakfast of Eggo waffles, butter and butter-flavored syrup. I then served this delicacy on my formal storage bin table next to the sofa. I know this made Eugene feel really special.
As I tried to take a picture of Eugene enjoying this beautiful breakfast spread, my camera went off like a machine gun. Evidently, the night before as we tried to take pictures before going out to dinner, Eugene had adjusted my camera to a timed, rapid-fire setting so we could back up and get a picture of ourselves since there was no one else to take a photo of us. I was not aware that my camera was still on this setting when I turned it on the next morning. As it went off, my instinct was to find cover because I had no idea what was happening.
Eugene just shook her head.
All in all, I would call it a very successful weekend of birthday/sister shenanigans.
Welcome to the third decade of your life, poodle. I hope you had a stupendous Birthday.
I LAHV you.
Y’all be careful and take an umbrella,
Sugarlump
I am fascinated by storms. I am terrified by storms. In summary, I have mixed feelings about storms. I have always loved thunderstorms, particularly when I can watch them from a (well-covered) porch. In a rocking chair. In Kentucky. There … Continue reading
The Sugarlump 