Fun with gynaecology, a very bad friend and a late notice on what you should be eating on Superbowl Sunday.
Everyone! Could I have your attention please? It turns out that my meno has not paused. I know this is the kind of important information you've come to expect from me so I thought I would tell you about it right up front.
The busiest among you can stop reading this post, go make a coffee or snuggle under the blankets without worrying that you've missed some big news. If you want to hear more about the state of my lady-parts, I'm sure they'll be covering it on CNN later today.
Even though I'm not in menopause, I wouldn't say my ovaries and uterus are in prime condition. If I *were* to magically conceive a baby I feel quite certain it would come out looking like a root vegetable. Menstruation is a marathon and my ovaries and uterus are sputtering across the finish line on their hands and knees while dry heaving.
The photo above might be confusing you a little bit. I took it in my gynaecologist's office this week. They're newspaper and magazine cutouts of cartoons. On the ceiling. They're there to distract you from the fact that your legs are spread, the doctor's face is inches away from your hoo-hoo and you're afraid an involuntary toot might come out.
I'm pretty sure that's what the cartoons are there for anyway. I'm not sure I'd want to be a gynaecologist. Not because of the possibility of someone tooting on my face (that would make a really good story to tell at parties) but because of the verbal abuse. Within my 20 minute visit I told my doctor to shut up, asked her if anything new was going on in the world of vaginal hair trimming and that she was an awful, awful person. Together we decided she should maybe quit the whole doctoring thing and become an Instagram influencer.
Speaking of Instagram influencers I am obsessed with Instagram flower accounts. This week I BOUGHT some flowers to arrange because I was being influenced to do so by all the pretty Instagram pictures from florists and flower growers. I know my arrangement (above) is wrong in a lot of ways and it needs more filler, but it still felt so good to do it. Just cutting and arranging and not thinking of anything other than whether I liked this tulip here or there. Plus of course I got to look at the arrangement until it sputtered and crawled across the finish line 5 days later.
Instagram Floral Accounts I Love
- Dahlia May Flower Farm (Canadian!)
- Tulipina
- Frances Palmer (potter who does a lot of vases)
- Holly Carlisle (modern, very Ikebana influenced)
- Farm Girl Flowers
- Swallows & Damsons
- Floret
I ordered Ranunculus corms from Dahlia May earlier this week and got them within a few days. Take a look at her page and be inspired to try growing these impossibly beautiful flowers.
Seedy Saturday
I'd like to take a moment to talk about the meaning and value of friendship. Saturday morning I got up and got read to go to my local Seedy Saturday event. A buy and sell, swap and save, free for all of seed madness.
I went alone because I just wanted to run in and out quickly. I wasn't going to buy anything because I don't need any seeds. But I did want to go because the point of saving seeds (especially rare varieties) is to share them with other people, who you hope will share the seeds again. That's how seeds that are almost extinct (like Glass Gem corn) make comebacks; by people protecting the seeds, saving them and sharing them with people they know will do the same.
I messaged a friend of mine, Tara, who you may know as the author of the book Raised Bed Revolution (and an upcoming book called Gardening Your Front Yard) to ask if she was going to the event since we both live in the same city. She said she was.
I asked one thing of her. Only one thing. I said, when you see me there, Do NOT let me buy any seeds.
A simple enough directive wouldn't you say? I mean, it wasn't like I said "take the blue wire and cross it over the green one, then while holding the black one, cut the red wire, but only above the purple and below the white - otherwise the bomb will go off".
This is how successful Tara was with her only job of restraining me.
Tara is a very bad friend.
I didn't actually see her at the show. We didn't cross paths. But this is still he fault and I let her know it. Next week, I'll list everything I got and WHY I felt like I SO desperately needed it. Insert every different eye roll emoji you can find here.
Victoria Bick, curator of the historic kitchen gardens of Dundurn Castle at Seedy Saturday.
If you're into seeds SEEK OUT the Seedy Saturday events in your area. You can bring your own seeds to put on the swap table, then just take seeds that other people have dropped off for yourself. Remember to label your seeds well saying what type of seed they are and the variety. Any other information like colour or growth habit helps too. I dropped Glass Gem corn on the table along with some Orca, Lengua de Lobo and Zuni Gold bean seeds that had been originally shared with me.
Hanna Jacobs owner of local Matchbox Garden & Seed Co. (more on the seeds I got from her next week)
The really great thing about seed exchanges and sales like Seedy Saturday is the fact that you get access to seeds that are LOCAL to your area, which means that they should grow well for you. Plus you can talk to the farmers and breeders that actually grow and harvest the seeds so if you have any questions about any of them, you're talking to the number one authority on them.
What I'm Doing & Eating.
Authentic Montana's Antojitos Recipe. A Super Bowl Must!
I should have reminded you to make these for today's big football game but I forgot. So I'm reminding you now! Join the rest of my readers who have made these on Superbowl Sunday and LOVE them.
I made extra at Christmas, so I'm going to just take them out of the freezer. :)
Classic Spicy Chili. Loaded With Toppings.
More of a full meal kind of Superbowl cooker? You're not going to go wrong with a big pot of chili. This chili is FULL of complex flavour and spice. Serve with hot buttered toast.
Seed Calculator
The time has come to start planning this summer's garden. Even I forget when I'm supposed to start seeds sometimes which I why I came up with this handy seed starting calculator years ago. Just plug in your first frost free date (you can find that information online) and voila! The seed calculator tells you when to start all your seeds.
How to Make Floating Candles.
I made a bunch of these floating candles at Christmas and tucked them away. Where I promptly forgot all about them. So I'll be pulling them out and lighting them. That's my large advice for you. If you buy/have candles then LIGHT THEM. I don't even have to know you personally to know that you have a drawer or cupboard that's full of candles you bought but never lit. AmIright?
Have a good remainder of your weekend! Sit back, relax, get under a blanket, eat a bowl of chili and watch some television.
→Follow me on Instagram where I often seem confused.←
OK. I've been busy and just now got around to reading this. I just have to make one comment:
What you asked of Tara is unforgivable. It's like an alcoholic saying, "Don't let me take a drink." Or a smoker saying, "Whatever you do, don't let me smoke." Or any kind of junkie saying, "Just let me look at what's available -- I'm not going to TAKE any of those drugs!"
You are a bad friend, and you should probably apologize to Tara, if she'll even speak to you.
LOL!!! Well, normally I'd agree with that astute analysis but I prefer to blame someone else (in this case Tara) and deny I have a problem. I've yet to reach the level of acceptance I suppose. And now that you mention it she may have been using ME, letting me buy WAY too many seeds to make herself feel better about her own seed purchases. At least I bought food seeds. She bought PINK DANDELIONS! p.s. I didn't see the pink dandelions and am now hoping to find some seed on the Internet. ~ karen!
Well, then, carry on. I look forward to seeing some PINK dandelions. It's things like this that keep me going.
The antojito recipe is THE BEST!!! I have made it so many times. For Christmas Eve, Taking them to Parties and sometimes just baking up a cookie sheet full and eating them for dinner :) So thank you for that one :)
Excellent! Thanks for taking the time to say so Jenny! ~ karen
I actually love the flower arrangement — especially the asymmetry of it. It is not, as my mother, an FTD-award-winning florist would say, a "roundy-moundy." (Asymmetry = good; roundy-moundy = bad.) Nice job. Can't wait to see what your arrangements look like when you *are* actually 'pausal. ;) LOL!
A Roundy Moundy, lol! Love that. And thanks! ~ karen!
I blame you for my floret obsession. If you haven't seen terrain, I am pretty sure they would be happy to empty your wallet as well.
Good to see you are thinking of garden and flowers. Me too. Daffodils are up about 6 inches here in Southern Illinois. In case you are interested, I came to your site from the Lee Valley newsletter where I read your Sow Generously posts all last summer but in the summer am extremely busy Doing Stuff so never got around to subscribing—till a couple of weeks ago. Have had such fun reading back and getting acquainted. Seems nothing is off-limits, even the hoo-ha! Hope your super bowl party is a huge success; your menu sounds like a winner.
Thanks, Karen! I didn't know about Seedy Saturdays until this post. I went searching and found 3 events in my neighborhood that I haven't yet missed. Now I just have to remember to go.
Orca's are the prettiest beans! Haven't actually tasted any so waiting for your recommend.
There are people with vaginal hair?
Check out Bramble and Bee on IG for another awesome florist to follow...
cakeatelieramsterdam 🙌 📸 💯
Hahaha, I'm pretty sure you took okra seeds as opposed to orca, Karen! I mean, we know you can do stuff, it's right there in the title, but growing your own killer whales??? Rehehe-Heally?!
I did indeed mean Orca. :) I put them down for other people to take. They're a black and white dried bean that's also called "Calypso" or "Yin Yang". ~ karen!
You jumped from cursing your gynaecologist to flower arranging too quickly. I thought...wait...you didn’t finish telling us what you found out about newest trends in hoo hoo hair trimming!
I also follow Dahlia May Flower Farm. She produces such beautiful blooms. I’m hoping to go on a road trip to her farm this summer. I’m looking forward to hearing how you fare with the corms.
I will check out those other influencers; thanks for sharing. Your bouquet was stunning by the way.
Thanks Donna. :) To keep things less expensive I might go buy myself a fern today instead of cut flowers. Actually an entire table of ferns would probably be cheaper than cut flowers. ~ karen!
Well I found it a bit disarming to read about you in the doctors office and legs in stirrups and then the visual of a front load washer with a hand holding down the gasket !!!! Lol 😂
Ooooh! I absolutely adore ranunculus and dahlias, too! I have an old-timey, claw foot bathtub that is in front of one of one of my barns that is filled with dahlias every year. I love them, and have them in multiple colors and sizes in different beds around the farm. But about the ranunculus - I swear, I'm pretty sure they hate me. Because I've only had good luck with one color - pink. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course, they're still beautiful, I just had my heart set on the huge bouquet I would be able to pick, of whatever color I wanted lol. Are you thinking about doing a how-to blog on getting to be your ranunculus best friend?
I will do a post on growing ranunculous, but I have to make sure the method I'm doing this year is successful before I tell other people to do it too, lol. ~ karen1
I'm reading this on Sat. night here in Calif, so I can make some of those treats in the morning for the game. Thanks. I love the flower arrangement just as it is. But I am one who frequently adds too much to mine. But I love flowers in the house. Do they have Seedy Sat here in te States?? I'll have to ask Google. ( doesn't everyone ??) According to Phil, it will be an early spring, I sure hope so.
Hi Jacquie. They are starting to have Seedy Saturdays in the States I believe. They normally take place in February and March (on Saturdays obviously). You can also look for informal seed exchanges. ~ karen!
THAT’S IT!!!
I am DONE explaining my very strange carving to guests.
I’m sending you that bas-relief, half-eaten frog that I was inspired to carve when you started that frog-eating group way-back-in-the-day.
The frog thumbnail, at the end of this post, lit up the frog neuron in my brain.
Now..I just have to find your address...and where I hid the frog.
LOL. I remember you carving that frog during the course! I'm so glad we as a group helped to kick start you back into action. :) ~ karen