House of Roses

Turning two 8×8 chessboards into a 10×10

I haven’t actually created a physical one yet but I figured out how to nicely cut two 8×8 chessboards into a 10×10 one, conserving the center fold and the borders.

Creating a 10×10 chessboard

Gaming, Graphics | Comment (0)

Seeds (or, I Need Some Green)

The seed catalogs started coming in December. It’s been fun, though. I’ve spent the last few weeks going through the following, picking out seeds (and other toys) I know I want:

• Seeds of Change
• Seed Savers Exchange
• Park Seed
• R. H. Shumway’s (this is their 139th year)

I’d like to list the seeds I’m considering, though, even though I know I’m going to buy more than I can plant, because I’d like to make sure I don’t miss anything I do want.

Okay, starting with Seeds of Change:

1. S16652 Germination Station ($40.25)
2. S16820 Bag of 25 plugs ($10)
3. S17175 Nira Chives ($3.29)
4. S10973 Tatsoi Spoon ($3.29)
5. S21060 Orange Fantasia Chard ($3.29)
6. S14146 Rosa Bianca Eggplant ($3.29)
7. S10930 Sherwood Leek ($3.29)
8. S15084 Lisbon White Bunching Scallions ($3.29)
9. S17206 Row Cover ($15)
10. S22037 Row Cover Pins ($8.95)
11. S18256 Flower Vase ($20)
12. S11020 Tomatillos ($2.59)

Total: $116.83
Total (seeds + ground cover only): $46.28

Shumway’s:

1. 30146 Top Hat Blueberry Plant ($8.95)
2. 03295 (Pumpkin) Mini Mix ($2.35)
3. 03158 Sweet Pepper Gourmet Rainbow Mix ($2.75)
4. 08785 Garden Geranium ($2.95)
5. 07021 Nasturtium Jewel Mixed ($1.85)

Total: $18.85

Their catalog was hands-down the most interesting to read. Their website may not be much but they are really experienced at selling to the 1908 farmer.

(And I need to continue to remind myself that I don’t need to start marigolds from seed. All marigolds are beautiful; do I really need ones whose petals are tri-color?)

From Park’s catalog:

1. 1537 Black Velvet Scarlet Geranium ($3.95)
2. 3310 Mt. Fuji Morning Glory Mix ($3.25)
3. 5885 Provider Beans ($2.50)
4. 5239 Maestro Peas ($1.45)
5. 5630 Okra Lee ($2.45 - 2 packets)
6. 5194 Annie Oakley Okra ($2.95)
7. 5254 Sweet Banana Pepper ($3.95)
8. 5611 Cherry Pick Hybrid Pepper ($2.50)
9. 5295 Sunburst Pattypan Squash ($2.50)

Total: $25.50

From Seed Savers (in addition to the seeds I have left over from last year):

1. 1177 Tom Thumb Pea ($2.75)
2. 1396 Red Cap Mushroom Pepper ($2.75)

Total: $5.50

Things I’m still missing: the little round carrots, tomatillos, jalapenos… I need to fix that. Ah, Burpee’s has Thumbelina carrots, jalapenos, but not tomatillos. What about the others? Okay, Seeds of Change does. (Above amended.)

Okay, now to decide how much to spend…

(Note to self: plant multiples of the watermelon this year!)

Gardening | Comment (1)

Slayers Cosmology thought

Rewatching Slayers Try, in which a character from the space-opera universe next door visits the sword-and-sorcery world the series takes place in.  Another character mentions that the visitor will be “fragile” because he’s from another world.

This makes me think that the main characters are made of Fire, Water, Earth and Air which obeys the Law of Attraction, the Law of Similarity, etc. while the visitor is made of Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen held together by Electromagnetism, Gravity, and the Strong and Weak forces.

Graphics | Comment (0)

Food, recently

I’ve built Nigella Lawson’s comfort mac and cheese twice now and it’s just ok. If I’m going to wait 20 minutes for it to bake in the oven, I’d rather build a roux (and not bake it) and have it taste deep and creamy. (Not that it was bad, just not comforting.)

The (produce) winter share is lovely but, truly, it is wrong to eat lettuce in the winter. Ugh.

I will never be able to make Thai food to my own satisfaction. At least I live someplace where people who can, sell it.

Sweating over canning jars and lids and a kitchen full of boiling water in August was entirely worth it upon opening a jar of tomatoes (for chili) while it is snowing buckets (and cold) in January. They smelled like real tomatoes in a way that no store-bought can has ever done. Amazing.

Grub | Comment (0)

January Meat Haul and Veggie share

This month we got a wide variety of meat.

• 1 lb Leg of Lamb
• 3/4 lb Leg of Lamb
• 2 lb Lamb Shank

• 1.25 lb Beef Stew meat
• 1.5 lb Ground Beef
• 1 lb Ground Beef

• 4.25 lb Whole Chicken

• 1 lb Sausage Patties

It all went into the chest freezer - we’ve still got plenty of food in the upstairs freezer.

We also got our weekly veggie delivery.  (Last week they brought us 2 avocados which spent a week ripening and became guacamole tonight, yum yum!) This week’s delivery:

• 1 bunch arugula
• 1 bunch kale
• 4 apples
• 4 oranges
• 1 bag carrots
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 onion
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 6 white potatoes

The arugula already became a base for a chicken salad this evening.

Grub | Comment (0)

The rat gives way to the ox

Or, in our case, the mice give way to the buffalo.

Happy new year!

Uncategorized | Comment (0)