Weekend and such...

[guenievre]

So it's been a few days since I posted - one of these days I'll get better about that. Meanwhile... on to what I did this weekend this week (ok, I admit, I've been hopelessly remiss!) Of course, nothing particularly interesting happened last week, so I suppose that somewhat explains it...

So Friday night we ended up not doing the Fayetteville demo - it would have required that we get off work an hour early to get there on time, and sometimes we can sneak out early, but it just wasn't in the cards for Friday. Oh well. We ended up going to dinner and hanging out with Jenny and Owen and Other Jenny - that was fun, even if there was an overabundance of Jennifers! We made fun of silly fashions at Nordstrom's, played Apples to Apples and experimented with random drinks from my bar...

Saturday I got up early, and finished (mostly, anyway) Girard's new fighting houppe/tunic thing (basic a-line-ish tunic with flared sleeves, done in blue cotton with the sleeves lined in white mystery fabric from the stash (I THINK it's cotton, but...???). It was just a prototype (want to make some fancier, dagged ones later) but he got at least one complement on it, so yay. As soon as I finished that and got dressed (yes, I was sewing in my bathrobe), we wandered down with Beatrice to the Eagle's Vale demo/practice/revel/thing. It was fun, not a lot of people came down but Girard got some fighting in. The most amusing part was probably when the fighters were playing on the bridge (there was a small bridge over a ravine in the park, which was sturdy enough and had good railings, so the fighters were like "oooh! real bridge fights!". First, Sir Falcone took possession of the bridge, and made a Grand Proclamation of how he was willing to share the bridge with any man, but if any one took more than his fair half (ie, stepped over the crack in the bridge) he would have to protest strenuously in a martial fashion - needless to say, the fine gentlemen arrayed to fight didn't take this sort of challenge lightly! Eventually, Sir Andras took the bridge, and instead of taking a position in the center, took a position towards one end. Girard was up to fight next, and noted that Andras apparently didn't mind sharing the bridge, and proposed since they had no conflict, they should have tea with the ladies instead of fighting. (G has always been a lover not a fighter, lol - apparently when he was in kindergarten, he was one of the only boys willing to play house with the girls...smart man...). Andras agreed, but said that in that case, he had to claim that his lady was fairer than Girard's. My wonderful husband wouldn't let that stand, so they fought, and Girard ended up winning! (Andras's shiny new armor, while quite pretty, makes a lovely target...). I wish there was more schtick like this (yes, Solvarr, I just advocated schtick - it's a very specific KIND of schtick, however...). But half the time they don't even bother with salutes at tourneys...that's ok though, if I'm feeling too cynical, I can always go read the Philosophy of Chivalry at Armour Archive - that always makes me happy, somehow...

Anyway, came home from demo, played Warcraft, ate really awful chinese delivery - the cat liked it better than we did.


Sunday was planting day - I have two plants I keep on my desk at work (well, one I've had since last June, one that Girard just bought me randomly. They were both in desparate need of new potting, so I took them home with me this weekend. Now they're happy plants:

Of course, in the process I ended up arbitrarily deciding that plants are good, and maybe I don't kill them as badly as I thought I did. So now I have a herb/flower garden in front of my apartment - I've got all sorts of herbs, and a few pepper plants - I think I'm going to add some tomato plants next weekend, as there's still space.



And I finally managed to strip all the rosemary I had drying in my kitchen (the leftovers I snagged from Mistress K after The Flood Also Known As Coronation) off the branches, so now I have like a quart (no, really!) of fresh-dried rosemary. Yum. I think some of it will be used for the Next Henna Adventure (details to be forthcoming shortly). Then there was a meeting of people who are going to help with Buckston's Shakespeare-themed "upside-down event" in June - looks like a tasty feast and fun, what with Mistresses Roz and Claire H running it.

Side note: You'd think, reading my journal, if you didn't know anything about the title structure of the SCA, that I was in some odd S&M group...

Now off to home, to play with an arming cote for G - I realized last night that he didn't really *need* a padded gambeson, and doing both a pourpoint and a gambeson was silly, so now I'm just going to do an arming cote type thing and see how that works - part of it is inspired by the one Tasha posted on the Armour Archive (yes, I have been hanging out on there too much)...though I still need to work on the AOTC project (I've made progress, as in I've gotten the software running, now I just have to a. get it to look good and b. add content).

ETA: Sorry 'bout the pictures not posting properly at first - it helps if one actually shrinks ones pictures before posting them... oops!

Comments

[zihuatanejo.livejournal.com]

Pretty plants!

I had to put off planting my garden this year, as I didn't want to uproot everything in order to move. I wish you could have seen it last year, very verdant with lots of herbs and flowers.

[lady-guenievre.livejournal.com]

Well, June shouldn't be TOO late to get a few things started, if you want...

[heike.livejournal.com]

Reading this makes me realize that Clewin (frrom) will need a fighting tunic and who knows what else to go with his armour soonish. He's authorized and almost has the money for armour now. Since he barely sews, and I'm the one who does patterns and cutting and pinning and anything but straight seams...well guess what I get to do?

[lady-guenievre.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't know what type armor he's going to get, but as I finish things I'll post pictures - maybe it'll help you. Girard goes for a French look around 1380, but a lot of his stuff is still fairly generic...

[ciorstan.livejournal.com]

Good looking pots!

Some random advice-- the herbs you have in the same pot like differing water levels, so you're at risk of losing your sage and your rosemary right off the bat. They like the least amount of water of all those plants.

Leaving basil in full sun is asking it to bolt right off the bat. You'll see your basil shoot up and start making little white flowerettes at the very top of the plant. Pinch the flowers off IMMEDIATELY; bolting basil is bitter. Cilantro is also notorious for bolting, but I can't tell if you've got any.

Do you have any mints or oregano in there? They will eventually squeeze out anything else in a turf war. Mints are very hardy, pestiferous propagators by underground runner. Do NOT let them escape from a pot. They are perforce solitary dwellers.

If you plant tomatoes, fortify the dirt with nitrogen as they go in. If you plant anything in the same dirt afterwards, fortify with nitrogen again. Tomatoes will magically bleach the surrounding terrain of nitrogen as if they have a specific vacuum sucker-upper attached to their roots. Chicken manure is good for this; doesn't smell as foul as most fertilizers. And plants really, erm, dig it.

In other news, Hermione samples are still producing mold-- it's been freakishly rainy here lately. *sigh* I'm still trying to dry you a bit without either killing it or getting a Science Experiment.

[lady-guenievre.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I do have oregano, didn't realize it was a spreader - I have the mint and the catnip split off into a different pot for just that reason. That's my front door area, so I'll definitely see the flowers as they come up, on both the cilantro and the basil (there is, indeed cilantro there, as well as a little, tiny curly parsley plant which may or may not make it (it had no root structure when I took it out of the plastic home depot pot. Though the pictures are full sun, the actual porch is only really partial sun - full sun in the morning, turning into half shade/shade as the day goes on - there's a bradford pear RIGHT in front of my doorway...)

So do you think I should move the rosemary and sage? I mean, I can get another pot to match when I go get the tomato pot... (I've never done this before...) Wonder if Lowes will actually HAVE any chicken litter? These are all potted in a fairly generic "Flowers and Vegetables in Containers"(really, that's what the package said!) potting mix...

And thanks for the work on Hermione... :-)

[ciorstan.livejournal.com]

I'd move the rosemary and sage right away. They actually like getting dried out (but not too much, as in dessicated-plant-dried-out. Dried out dirt's fine). Yes, the oregano is a type of mint, even though it doesn't smell/taste like what we think of as classic mint. They come from the eastern, drier part of the Mediterranean, originally, which is kinda dry and hot compared to western Europe. Thyme, too.

Assuming the parsley survives, watch it for bolting, too.

I'd be surprised if Lowe's doesn't have chicken manure. ;) It only comes in one bag size, though, so you're gonna get quite a bit in one bag. That's ok, it is still good even if it's old, if a bit smelly when stored.

Hermione is generally being annoying right now. Sorry for the long wait.

[ciorstan.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. invest in a tomato cage for each of your prospective plants. It makes it a lot easier for the plant to produce, because it doesn't have to support its own weight. They also make it easier for you to harvest, because the cage spreads out the branches of the plants.

Just don't do what I did and plant three plants each of six different tomato varieties all at the same time. We had to give tomatoes away by the grocery bagful that year... and we ate Mediterranean Bread Salad by the cartload that summer--which calls for a pound of tomatoes right off the bat. It would have been a lot better had I bought them spread apart three weeks in succession so the yields weren't all happening all in the same timeframe.

Gardening's fun! When it all works, the eatin' is just fabulous.

[lady-guenievre.livejournal.com]

Heh, luckily I don't have that much room for tomatoes . Though if I did, I'd probably just make/freeze spaghetti sauce...

[lady-guenievre.livejournal.com]

Hmm, this could be bad. I've got thyme in there too...basically the big pot has, lemme think, rosemary, cilantro, dill, thyme, oregano, parsley, lavender, sage, and basil. The small pot has peppermint and catnip. And the other small pot of course is peppers.

So how likely are the oregano and/or thyme to try to take over the big pot? And am I missing anything, to fill in the hole left by the rosemary and sage? Maybe more parsley...

[ciorstan.livejournal.com]

basically the big pot has, lemme think, rosemary, cilantro, dill, thyme, oregano, parsley, lavender, sage, and basil.

What I meant about the thyme is that it is one of those that likes a drier environment, so it should go out with the rosemary and sage. Only the oregano is going to be invasive. Something to consider about the lavendar is that it is likely to hang around for years and years, so it should eventually get its own pot. But I wouldn't be in a hurry about it for now.

Maybe a different variety of basil, like the purple or hot stuff. Winter or summer savory is a variety of thyme, but the flavors are a bit different. Oh! Chives! Garlic chives!

Good thing the catnip is already separate-- my cats were supremely uninterested in my big, lush pot of fresh catnip and when we moved from our 3rd story apartment (I had a balcony full of plants), the catnip pot was set out on the front porch of our new house. Big mistake. The first night it was obviously flattened, because SOMEONE SLEPT IN IT. Over the next few days it was nibbled to death. *sigh* Apparently I became the neighborhood 'nip pusher...

Warcraft

[weaverrhi.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming my "Warcraft" you mean WoW. what's your character's name? What server? I'm on Eonar I think and I'm MeryMischief :-) (A cute lil gnome warrior)

Re: Warcraft

[lady-guenievre.livejournal.com]

I'm on Lothar - a elven hunter named Illyria. A good chunk of Windmasters' Hill is on there - we have a guild ::giggle::.

[3-purple-irises.livejournal.com]

Love the herb garden. You did a great job on it. I might have to concider doing one in pots on my porch also. The ground around my house floods everytime there is a heavy rain or if we have long days of steady rain so it would wash out any garden I plant.