Gardening ahoy! Plus ASoIaF

[sarea]

Noob gardener tip #1: Wear gardening gloves.

So yesterday, since the garden bed was ready, I decided it was time I put my plan of planting garlic into action. I also figured I'd go to a nursery and pick up a couple of chard/kale transplants while I was at it. The place I chose to go to had 5 stars on Yelp, so I figured that'd be a good place for a newbie gardener to start.

Well, it was enormous. Too enormous. You could actually drive down lanes and pick out potted trees that you wanted. After nearly knocking down a couple of trees, I finally found where I was supposed to park.

The only chard they had was $10 and for 'decorative' purposes. I talked to a worker and she said that all their fall/winter veggie starters were out -- surprisingly none of them were chard or kale. They had things like broccoli, beets, lettuce, bok choi, various cabbages. I looked in my NW gardener's book, and supposedly none of these are winter veggies; they're for planting in early spring, for harvesting in spring/summer. So.... yeah. Don't know what to make of that. In any case, I went nuts. Most of the transplants were $0.69, so I figured even if I screwed up or even if they weren't really fall/winter veggies, I could at least practice planting them pretty cheaply. I ended up buying enough to nearly fill the two beds I have, along with the garlic I was planning to plant ... I think I have 2 squares left, which I plan to fill today with shallots.

I was so eager to get started that even though I couldn't find my gardening gloves, I went ahead and planted everything anyway, figuring my trowel would be enough, and it would be good to get my hands dirty. I didn't count on the splinters. OMG so many splinters. Oww. Hence I learned my lesson about gardening gloves.


Here's the garden bed from afar. You can see I never go out into the yard or do anything with it, as all the grass around the bed is dead. The area you see in the back the previous owners of this house used as a play area for their kids, they had a playground set up there. I have weeds and rocks set up there.


Here's one of the beds (there's 2 4'x4' beds, to make 1 big 8'x4' bed, in case that's confusing) after romanticalgirl's hubby built the thing and filled it with compost/soil. :D


Here it is filled with the veggie transplants I bought. There are beets and various cabbages.


Here's the other bed. This one has the broccoli, lettuce, and garlic. The "blank" plots are the garlic, which you can't see as they are buried, but I put yellow markers on them to remind myself that they're there. Hmmm and looking at the pics now, it seems I was mistaken about having 2 more plots to use for the shallots. Oh well, I'll figure something out.


Close up! I am kind of sad that the last two days, ever since the bed was done in fact, has been gray and cloudy. I was hoping that the veggies might yet get to see some sun. (Ooh as I was writing the rest of this some sun peeked out, yay!)

So I ordered a paper trimmer, it arrived and was awesome, and now I think I have wrapped just about every book I intend to wrap. Yay. The trimmer I got is one where you just slide the nob up to cut the paper, instead of a guillotine-like thing. I think the razor is hidden, so there's no chance of accidentally cutting myself. Thank goodness for technological advances, because I am so clumsy that I'd fear for my safety or Talis's if I'd had to use a guillotine one.

Mmmkay so I have finished A Storm of Swords...

- OMG I KNEW Catelyn wasn't really dead. That's why I held back that 1% chance, and was suspicious from the start. Grrr, she was the one character I really didn't want to hear from anymore. Because of her attitude about Jon (and really, almost everything else), I dislike her. A lot.

- Wow re: Littlefinger pushing Lysa to her death. That was kind of awesome. Lysa was sooooo annoying. And crazy. And apparently had been that way all along, and yet Catelyn nor anyone else ever thought of her that way, when it's SO. OBVIOUS. And wow that she was the one who killed Jon Arryn and basically started this whole damn thing, with the Lannister intrigue and what not! Well, I mean, she was Littlefinger's puppet (and now I know why ceilidh thinks he's really the one pulling all the strings), but still. The game of thrones really started in earnest because we believed that she 'fled' to the Eyrie with her annoying son due to her husband being murdered by the ambitious Lannisters.

- What we learned there also explains why Petyr thinks he took Catelyn's virginity... I mean, he could also just be cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs like akscully said, but apparently when Lysa snuck into his bed he thought she was Catelyn. I can't remember if he was delirious from fever or just dreaming it was her.

- Wonder how attractive he'd find her now?

- As much as I wanted Jon to be Lord of Winterfell, I knew it couldn't be. I'd already been spoiled on the fact that he would become Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, so he wouldn't be able to hold lands. Plus, he keeps having those dreams about the Starks/Catelyn telling him his place is not there (yeah, it's on the Iron Throne, as Rhaegar's son!! Ahem), and Stannis isn't exactly in the strongest position to be giving away lands. Most importantly, we know that Bran and Rickon are very much alive, so even if Jon were made Lord of Winterfell, it would be iffy at best. I mean, HE wouldn't want to keep it if he knew they were alive, or showed up alive, and it would be a messy situation. I did so want him to legally have the name Stark, though, only because it'd mean so much to him. But again, having his status guaranteed by Stannis isn't much of a guarantee.

- I wonder when Robb's will is going to come into play. He wanted Jon to be LoW too. But again assuming his younger bros were dead.

- OMG, Tyrion killed Tywin! That's awesome. Without Tywin the Lannisters' strength is totally lame. That is a sad, sad thing about Tysha though. And I'm not sure why he felt the need to lie about having killed Joffrey.

And I've even started A Feast for Crows, which is going by rather quickly. I dread the day I finish and then I will have to join the masses of people waiting for book 5. Sigh.

- Ugh, more Kraken POVs. There was one Damphair chapter in the beginning and I hope that's all there is. He's the most boring one.

- I like Asha, but I am so sick of people trying to vie for a throne. Can't anyone be content with their lot?!

- Theon is so not dead. I've learned my lesson. No body, no death. And even then, apparently they can rise again.

- Cersei is an annoying twit. She's exactly what Littlefinger said: someone who thinks she's a player, but is actually a piece. In some respects I want to like her, I want to like that she's an ambitious woman in a position of power and trying to keep it despite her sex ... but she's just too stupid. I never really had much use for Kevan Lannister, but that scene where he refuses to be her Hand and insults her abilities as a mother was awesome.

- Liking Jamie more, but the thing is that I cannot reconcile the person we've seen, who sent Brienne off with Oathkeeper, as the person who callously pushed Bran to his death. It's not like that much time has passed in between events. But I guess since he's crippled now too, is that supposed to make up for it?

- Oh lord, Littlefinger means to make Sansa Alayne for real. I suppose I should be glad he's not trying to make her Mrs. Littlefinger ... for now.