Ambergris

Round orange ones with lots of seeds are probably Meiwa, which I find the sweetest.  Oblong orange ones with very few seeds are probably Nagami.  Striped ones are likely Centennial. 

My kumquats got about six to eight feet tall and about three to four feet across.  One was wider, about five feet across, and thornier--I think it was a seedling.  I grew Meiwa mostly, with at least one seedling and at least one Nagami that I recall.  Right now I have a baby Nagami.  Seedlings take several years to fruit, but there are ways to hurry that up, including grafting on a twig of a known cultivar once you have a healthy little plant with a pencil-thick trunk.

As I understand it, Meiwa grows true from the seed, but other kinds of kumquats are variable from seed like apples are.  Most other citrus is about 3/4 true from seed.

Went to look at the new place today.  Most of the onions have been harvested, and the underbrush on the downslope side was cleared to reveal an actual orchard of papaya trees (and a stack of ripe papayas by the back door).  That side also has half a dozen bearing citrus trees, which have fruit that is ripening now or about to ripen.  The landlord picked me some citrus to carry away, but I suspect the papayas are a market crop.  Okay by me--at one a week, I'd be eating them for years or (more likely) watching them rot.  I spent some time eyeballing where my potted fruit trees would go, and where to put the sweet potatoes and the tomatoes and all.  The potted plants will move seven days from now.  That's when it gets real.

DS1 has a job.

MARY'S ANNIVERSARY SEED GIVEAWAY

Mary's doing a giveaway and also has a sale going on.  

I've used carrot tops, sparingly, in my vegetable powder mixes.  Kind of a parsley-ish taste, but can get bitter.

On a related note, I picked up an herb today that's called "maggi" because adding it to soup produces a flavor similar to adding Maggi brand bouillon.  The cube or granular Maggi is very popular here, but considered too expensive for everyday use.  I also picked up a rosemary that's different from the one I have, something called "anise," and a trio of one of the horchata herbs, but not the white sage because PM was so delighted I'd found some--and there were only two plants.  She's more likely to grow them big and happy enough to take cuttings from, so she gets custody of them.

I'm trying to effectively identify the "anise."  It's not anise, anise hyssop, nor star anise, but might possibly be a tarragon.  It has a pleasant anise smell and taste and leaves that would look like French tarragon leaves if they were more pointed at the tips.  Still looking into this.

18 hours ago, Dee said:

Has anyone read the "Sisterhood Series" by Fern Michaels?  They're old, I think about 2006 or 7 but man are they good.  It's a group of women getting revenge on people who got through the cracks of the legal system.  They are vengeful, very vengeful, but so good I can't put them down.

Oh, I need to read that.  I'm working on a series featuring foster care survivors.

Spinach quiche for breakfast, couldn't finish it because it was too much.

Negotiated for a lunch delivery of fish and chips, which is a Friday special and supposed to be very good.

Arranged a delivery of sand for PM's new pool.

Went to the nursery and got flowers for her and five square meters of sod for me.

If you don't know the age of what you trapped, or have reason to suspect it's "not young," helps to boil it tender and then start the curry or barbecue or roast or whatever.  Alternatively, brown and then fricassee. 

Make sure to get the glands off when you skin and clean it.

Feed GS some meat and have him pee a fenceline.  Meat first.

The fencing is an investment that will pay you for many years.

Cookbooks, especially very old ones, herbals, gardening books, diaries that were never intended for publication, fiction and near-fiction based on those diaries, mysteries, some space fantasy.  I used to have all the Brother Cadfael books, all the Travis McGee books, and Anne McCaffrey's books so I could pull one down and open it to any random page and settle right in. 

Stores being cleaned out of cough syrup has previously been the sign of a Bad Thing going around that nobody wanted to talk about.

Went to what I thought would be an art class today.  Turned out it was a navel-gazing session using paper and crayons and colored pencils. Weeping occurred, and group hand-holding, and much hugging.  Also, surprisingly enough, it did not feel like a waste of time.  

Went to a "paper store" and got a second color photo copy of my local ID plus a color photo copy of the relevant pages of my passport, and got them laminated.  These are now in my go-bag.  Also got some colored gel pens, a much-needed new pencil sharpener, a white Pelikan eraser, a clipboard, a large and a small spiral-bound tablet of grid-marked paper, four ink paintbrushes (the guy was so patient when I pointed to the four of them and asked for "all fourteen"), and an accordion file, all for $19.75.

17 hours ago, Midnightmom said:

 

I have never heard of an unsupervised student "examining" a patient! I hope you took names, and I would "report" the Assistant too as he/she was not in control of the students or your visit! Good on you for switching care givers (doctors)! 

BTW - did any of them don gloves, or even wash their hands???  

This

Lazy day.

Checked on the hens.  They're doing fine in their temporary quarters.  All three are laying now, one putting out double yolks about half the time.

Found a damaged rose bush, a floribunda with beautiful pink blossoms that fade to near-white as they sit on the bush.  I cut the two damaged branches, brought them in, and clipped out four cuttings to try to root with raw honey as a rooting stimulant (something I've heard of but not tried) and the butt-end embedded in a chunk of overripe banana to keep it from drying out before roots form.  I have another overripe banana, so I'm tempted to go collect another branch. 

Redid and rethought my bag-beside-the-door.  The one I was using has short straps, meaning I can't sling it cross-body.  So I moved everything except the first aid kit to my backpack, and put that by the door.  Also made notes of things I want to get and do when in town tomorrow to upgrade it, like photocopying my passport too, and getting both it and the copy of my local ID laminated in case the bag should happen to get soaked.

Breakfast was eggs, sliced tomato, and leftover sourdough pan bread.  Not my hens' eggs, as their babysitter is enjoying those, but still good eggs.  Lunch was leftover black eyed peas, a fresh cornbread pancake, and the rest of the sliced tomato.  Snack: Greek yogurt with dried flor de Jamaica (dried Florida cranberry blossoms) stirred up in it.  Supper?  Probably either chicken or leftover bits of salty pork (heavy on the skin and fat) from Sunday's market trip, plantain, and leftover sweet corn of a type called "choclo," meaning the kernels are round and white, and mostly as big as my thumb-tip.

Edit:  Also rearranged tools to see how many/what would fit into the new tool box.  I think this is going to be labeled Drill and Drill-Related Items

Middle of my front yard...major problem would be if the hillside went liquid, but there'd be nothing to do but surf if that happened.

removed to be personal message

2 hours ago, Midnightmom said:

 

I know a store for you to shop in for T-Shirts and just in time for Mother's Day at that - Buy 3 get 1 free!   https://pumapat.com/ 

 

Here are some examples that are just "you."  Would you actually wear them? I have no idea, but they sure do express what you've been posting about recently. 

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

 

 

 

These are fun to consider, but I prefer not to warn people.

Sometimes they get to find out firsthand.

We just had a brief earthquake here.  While discussing it with a friend, I was kindly advised to always keep a bag by the door with cash, copies of my documents, and water.

How sweet of him to lay this out for an old lady like me.

So I got a coffee/spice grinder today to make powdering the mushrooms and onions and garlic and all more convenient. 

HA!

The grinder is quiet, as advertised, and likely as powerful as advertised.  But the barrel of it is much bigger around than the ones I've used before, so it's hard to grip.  This counts because the lid needs to be twisted and locked into place (safety lock) to run the grinder, and it hardly ever does that easily.  My wrists and hands are quite sore from trying to force it.  --Yet sometimes it slides into place perfectly.  I need to get my magnifying glass on this in the daylight, see if there's a snag I can fix.  

I didn't make the mushroom salt I had initially set out to make.  I just left all the individual powders in their separate jars.  I didn't even finish powdering the garlic. 

I up-potted the last of the reserve tomato seedlings to 12-oz cups (or 11 oz?) because they have had zero growth in about two weeks where they were.  

I want so badly to plant more seeds in the emptied flat(s), but...they will be moving in two weeks.  The timing is bad.  (Hint:  I might plant anyway.)

I like to shred and dry for carrot cake and meat loaf.  Which is probably a sign I don't have the tenacity to clean, trim, cut, blanch, and can that many.

wait--it says five dollars per pound?

I am planning to graft pieces of two of the avocadoes to each other.  The third one is doing poorly and attracting pests, so I might put it in the ground and leave it behind, and then I can use the pot for something else.  Regardless, pieces of it will not go into other trees.  It's not just that this one is weak; it's that this one might have a disease.  And I don't know for sure it's a named cultivar or otherwise has a wonderful fruit.