We're having a thunderstorm! Been forever since we've had a decent one. I've been extremely jealous of Andy, who seems to have one on a daily basis lately.

So first things first... A good friend of mine has posted a story on eFiction. Finishing Lyrics by Unbeliever I'm a real fan of his writing for a few reasons. He tends to write short, sharp pieces, which is something I really like. His writing style is different.' It usually has an edge to it, which is also something I like. And it is vastly different from mine, which brings me to one other reason I am a fan--he is the "he who points out things" that I have mentioned before. I would call him my editor, but he won't let me. When he reads my words, he reads them with an eye that sees things from an angle, a different perspective, which always has the result of making my writing better than it would be. So, give his story a look. It might not be to everyone's taste (whose writing is?). but you owe it to yourself to experience something new. And don't forget to leave a comment in the discussion thread.

i've planted my garden. That's always an exciting thing for me (yes, I am sad). My gardening options are a bit limited since my yard is shady in most spots and the ground is filled with large tree roots just about everywhere. So I put in a few raised beds last year and made a raised herb garden out of some cinder blocks that used to be part of what we called "the fireplace" when I was a kid (someone's aborted attempt to make a bbq).

I discovered that most of my herbs DID overwinter. Though for some reason the catnip didn't. Neither did the sage. The sage I can understand. It seldom overwinters. But the catnip is usually much hardier. Though I really do suspect that my son had something to do with that. My cats seemed to be stoned more often than usual last summer and fall. Improper and excessive harvesting o the leaves--that is what I am thinking. So I put more catnip in this year and some more sage. I also added some dill in the center. Most of what has overwintered can't really be seen in the pic. What appears to have survived is the chocolate mint, peppermint, lemon balm (though it may be the lemon catmint), oregano (did I actually DOUBT that the oregano--which ended up EVERYWHERE at my old house--would NOT survive?) and some other form of mint that I really don't remember. Hopefully it is spearmint. Will know when the leaves get big enough to risk pinching off one and sniffing. I added wind chimes to the herb garden this year. Got them in Virginia Beach when I went on vacation. They are fishy things and I forget what they are made of, but they have a nie sound. I also added some flowers. I planted violets (which somehow survived the unexpected encounters with the cereal box and the candy bar in WalMart) and Alyssum in the holes in the cinder blocks. Hopefully they will grow for a little while at least.

This is the garden bed that will have the snow peas. Sam planted them. We don't end up doing muh with them except eating them when we are in the yard. I put 3 pimento pepper plants in that bed, 2 catnip plants (in case the herb garden finished the other catnip off again) and 3 cucumber plants that wouldn't fit in the other bed along the trellis. They are bush type, so I will cage them and hope for the best. I also had one violet plant leftover from the herb garden, so planted it here.

This is the garden bed that has the cucumbers planted along the back trellis. They grow fairly well that way and we seemed to get enough cucumbers last year to keep up with our salad and munchie needs. I also have a patio tomato planted there (no cage yet) and some tomato variety that claims to be HUGE. It is Texas something or other. Well...everything in Texas is HUGE, right? And in between them I planted some basil. I don't actually use a lot of basil, but I like the smell of it and it likes tomato plants.

This garden bed is just grape tomatoes. I have one plant that is "Juliet" and is suposedly a grape form of Roma paste tomatoes. I never seem to have enough grape tomatoes and they are expensive as hell in the stores. They also provide good munchies as well as salad material. I need to grow a lot o anything that can be picked and munched on--because Sam is like a locust when he is around a garden. I, of course, do not pick things and eat them while I am gardening... I decided to cage them as well as leave the trellis up for their climbing pleasure. Last year the grape tomatoes grew over 8 feet tall. My guess is there will be little bastards (aka volunteers) growing on the other side of the fence this year.

So yeah, I get into gardening a bit. It's relaxing--or it is when no one bothers me when I am doing it. I don't like to r ush things. I just like to take my time and sit next to the beds and look over the plants and pull weeds and chill.

I have also planted a raspberry bush, but apparently I left that pic on my upstairs computer when I was transferring files. Since the Ottawa/Buffalo game is on now, there is no way I'm going to go upstairs and get it. They are tied 2-2.

GO, SENATORS!