Announcement

The reason for my recent blogging inactivity (actually inactivity in general) is I'm four months pregnant. Partner and I are expecting our first child in March of 2010. I've been feeling generally tired, hungry, dizzy, nauseous, and just plain yucky for the first three months. Now I have lost most symptoms except the hunger and am ready to bounce back into blog mode.

So I'm only bulging a little bit around the middle, and only people who are in the know can tell, I think. This is me at 15 weeks, taken in front of my poor broccoli. It still looks like it sustained a thousand caterpillars for three months. Which it did. Now most of them are gone and it's putting out new leaves. I only hope it can still produce florets. My cabbage also took heavy damage, but not as critical as the broccoli.

And my runner beans have torn down their supports. Partner thought that would be the last of them, but they've rallied and are lounging on the patio producing fresh flowers and tiny beanlets. Only with me being pregnant and having food aversions (actually it's aversion to food in general), I simply cannot look at them. I just can't. And I was so excited about them this spring. I love runner beans. At least I can eat the cabbage and carrots (but not the tomatoes). I've become so picky about what I eat. Normally I eat anything, and am very keen on vegetables in general. Partner tries to sneak in vegetables when he cooks. He chops them really really small and hopes I don't notice.

So about those mice...Partner thinks they're gone for the time being, thanks to the traps. But he also says he caught a mouse-sized slug in one of them. I did not witness the carnage. However, these traps are spring-loaded, so... When I step on a slug, I only apply enough pressure to kill it quickly and cleanly; I don't think the trap was so accomodating.

I thought it would be nice this year to try and handmake most of our Christmas gifts for each other, rather than spend a lot of money. Partner says he'll try, and I asked him now so that we'll both have time to work on things. I think it might be a little more difficult to keep the gifts secret. After all, I can't tell about them here: I think Partner's my only reader. There's not much I really want for Christmas. Well, I kind of want some flower arranging materials. And I like useful presents. Though I can't think of anything I really need either.

We had a flying visit to the inlaws' house last weekend. Partner had a school reunion thing, which I declined to attend (it was just an informal, meet for drinks event) so I stayed at the house, and since we arrived a bit late, everyone went to bed about two hours after we got there. I stayed up a little later working on a jigsaw, then I went to bed too. I didn't sleep that well, though, because their dog kept running out the dogflap--bang!--and barking at strange noises in the night. Since my window was right above the back door, every time he banged, I woke.

So I've had a bit of a hiatus from gardening and flower arranging. Today when surveying the damage, I noticed my red gladiolas had been blown over, so into a vase they went, with some goldenrod and some yellowy shrubby leaves. I absolutely love gladiolas and wish I had a whole field of them. Unfortunately I only had about a dozen this year. I don't think the camera really gives the scarlet color justice.

I have learned in my garden this year that pots and planters next to the house receive less water than those in the middle of the patio. My hanging baskets remain bone dry after a rainfall. I have also learned that caterpillars would much rather eat broccoli than nasturtiums, which I specifically cultivate to feed them. My broccoli is in tatters and the nasturtiums are not even touched. It's true that nasturtiums are edible to humans as well, but they're not as crunchy and tasty as broccoli.

I sometimes read books that are considered Literature, in an attempt to both broaden my mind and experience and also for the pleasure of reading. Some of these Great Novels are well-written and interesting. Some, it pains me to say, are not so interesting. Mostly I will stick with a book to the end, even if it is rather dull, unless it is quite depressing and making me depressed too. I recently finished Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, an interesting but depressing book. Because I usually really identify with the characters in a book, I like a happy ending; it makes me feel good about myself. This book did not end on a happy note, but I suppose it could have been worse. I am now reading Brideshead Revisited, and I can see it getting sadder and sadder, but it's so interesting that I'm sticking with it.