A Story: "Adventure" - and Barley Carrot Soup

A Story

Adventure

Mary had discussed at length her possible adventure with her friends. It was all a bit confusing.

"We'll describe it as though it was the weather," said her friends.

"Lots of sunny days.  Balmy and warm," Gloria smiled dreamily.

"Oh, the hurricane was terrible! I was buffeted from all sides," quavered Cheryl.

"The rain just soaked down in dreary misery, day after day," sighed Donna.

"The breeze was so fresh and energizing. I've never felt so alive," enthused Moira.

"But how would I experience it?" Mary worried.

Only one way to find out.

Nine months later everything changed.
 

Barley Carrot Soup

This is a vegetable soup but you could add meat to it if you wanted.

Saute 1 chopped onion in oil or butter

Add 1 1/2 cups rinsed barley.  Cover with 2" of liquid, either broth or water.

Add 1 1/2 cup coarsely chopped carrot

Add 1/2 cup chopped celery

Add 1 tbsp chopped parsley, dried or 3 tbsp fresh

Season with black pepper and salt.

Simmer for about 30 minutes.  

Add 1/2 cup chopped green or yellow beans - frozen work well.

Simmer another 5 min. or so.

Serve with some parsley garnish.

A Story: "Rural Renewal" and Starting Onion Seeds with Recycled Stuff

A story:

Rural Renewal

Pine-fragranced air breezed freshly into Tara's lungs.  How robust she felt on her strong, sure-footed horse as he navigated the wild terrain of the trail to her rental cabin in northern Ontario.  Each swinging stride connected her to his energy.

At the cabin, she built a campfire.  Hot dogs, roasting on sticks, sizzled in the heat.  Steamy tea warmed her bones.  After, hot toasted marshmallows sweetly fuelled contentment.

Later, lying in bed, Tara gazed through the skylight at myriad stars sprinkling passionate light.  Billions of vibrant suns pulsated hope to her.

Tara smiled, cherishing life, defying her cancer.

I like to start some of my onions in January.  It's always a bit unpredictable as January can be sunny or cloudy, and if it's a cloudy month the seedlings don't do well. However, if the weather co-operates then I get larger onions in the summer from my January sowing.  I planted Norstar onions which are a long day variety.  In Ontario, you need to plant long day onions if you want to get any good sized onions in the summer.

I used an empty margarine container for the pot. The plastic clamshell, which works like a mini-greenhouse, is from greenhouse grown lettuce and the plastic tray underneath is from 
Ferrero Rocher chocolates. So my planting set-up only costs me the seeds and potting soil. I've planted about a dozen seeds in this container. 

Once the seeds sprout, I will open up the clamshell if it is sunny but close it up if it is cloudy to keep more heat inside.  By March, I will get rid of the clamshell to harden the seedlings off a bit.  I will also trim them to about 4 inches so that they don't flop over.

 

A Story: "Opportunities" and Dependable Kalanchoe

 A story:

Opportunities

Gerry was quick to seize an opportunity.

A farmer gave him a deal on a dozen peacocks. The birds were worth $75 a piece; for Gerry, $100 for the flock.  A month later, the peacocks had flown the coop.

On to the next venture.  A new widget had been designed and stocks were bound to soar.  Gerry jumped in and quickly free fell to zero.

Undaunted, he snapped up some valuable baseball cards.  Who knew they weren't popular anymore?

An orchard would grow money.  Bad luck.  Bugs, drought killed the trees.

All things considered, Gerry had the minus touch.

Kalanchoe have become my favourite winter flower.  This plant is two years old and I have been able to get it to rebloom easily simply by leaving it on the windowsill and closing the drapes over it so that it doesn't get the indoor light in the evening. The blooms last for several weeks.  The plant form is looser than when you buy it at the store but the flowers are just as vibrant.

This pot has six cuttings that I took from the above plant.  Last week I stuffed them all into one pot.

The bright pink is so welcome in the dead of winter.  Kalanchoes are super easy to grow.  Because they are succulents, they don't want or need much water and one or two fertilizings when they are blooming is all that's necessary.  To take a cutting, simply cut off a piece of stem and put it in soil. It will root in no time.

I put one kalanchoe outside last summer as an experiment.  It got morning sun.  The leaves took on a deep green colour and the stem was less leggy.  However, it did suffer some insect damage and it is blooming a month later than the indoor plants. I brought it inside in October as the temperature got cold outside.

A Story - "Escape to the Country" and Trying to save an Orchid

A Story

Escape to the Country

Here was John's chance to get out of the city.  His boss was making distance work permanent.  John's budget was limited but a rural area had very affordable house prices.  He bought a quaint older house and moved in.

All summer he fished in the nearby crystal-clear lake.  At night, the stars were spectacular.  Every day

he heard beautiful new bird songs.  He even once saw a bear.  He made new friends and hosted relaxing beer-infused barbecues.  It was fantastic.

On October 15th, winter began with ten inches of snow.  John sold his house and moved back to the city.

I've known for several weeks that this orchid was not well as it wasn't making any new growth. I almost threw it out a couple of times but it was so pretty when I got it with small delicate pink flowers that I wasn't ready to say goodbye to it.  Finally when the Christmas busy time was over, I pulled the inner pot out of the decorative pot and had a look.  Oh, my!  The roots were totally finished although it looked like it had lots of healthy roots at one time.  The photo shows the little bit of viable root that was left after I cleaned it up.

I looked at some "rescue orchid" videos and decided to try to save this one.  I dusted the lower part where it would send out new roots with some rooting hormone.  I have it resting in a jar where the root is in the water for part of the day, and then I leave it suspended just above the water so it will get some humidity.

My big take away from this is to always check the roots of any new orchid I buy, right away, so that I can deal with any rotting roots before the plant is destroyed. I'm careful about watering an orchid so I am guessing that the roots were already rotting when I got it and it kept blooming just on reserve energy.