March!

A month has passed. Where did it go? 

I've been working in my garden and touching up the outdoor furniture. The sun really wears the color fast here. So our black iron chairs are getting a new coat, because rust was becoming visible. I did two of the chairs so far, and the paint was too sparkling in our bright sun, though it looked gorgeous at sunset, just the right shade. But I have to pick another, because it is mostly sunny despite the fact that it has been raining for the past two days!

The garden has been planted with three types of tomatoes, purple basil, sweet basil, mint, chocolate mint, lemon thyme, romaine, cilantro, bib lettuce, and two types of small eggplant. These are hot weather plants that will mature before June.  On the contrary, it is the most beautiful cool weather in years. I'm loving it! Spring seems nearly a month behind, because the yellow is just now blooming, and it is usually February.  I also planted an urn of succulents, which are appropriate to our climate, and are much easier to keep alive in a planter than flowers here. Here is a photo. It wasn't hard. I used a drop in which is readily available here.

I am picking the last of all our citrus. Five of our 6 trees produced this year, though I see my tangelo will have fruit next year. Here is a photo of some of our lemons from our tree.

I plan to paint my spouse's old desk, and it had been set to go for a week now! The sander is out and the plug set. All I must do is sand the top just a bit, because it was deeply gouged, and then I can paint.

Here's another one of my salad recipes. I love to take a chopped tomato, and add a few crushed pecans, a few dried cranberries, and orange pieces, with some fresh basil and a touch of a raspberry vinaigrette. You can make a vinaigrette by processing some raspberry and adding light rice vinegar and oil or you can purchase one. It's so easy and refreshing.

I did some reading. I always prefer the classics or something educational. I'm not a dystopian fan, but I read an early dystopian called Lord of the World. I was cleaning the lower closed cabinets in our library, when I found it. I don't recall purchasing it, perhaps someone gave it to me. I read it in two evenings. I could not put it down. Did you know that every utopia turns into a dystopia?

On the weekends we have been antiquing and going to see the snow.  There has been so much snow this year within a two hour drive. I remember that I took my daughter and nieces on October 6 up to Flagstaff. Then just the other weekend to Payson to actually play in it, and then this weekend to Prescott for antiquing and the mountain tops still had some. Wow! What a season. Nearly six months this year. Of course it is only an escape and we live at lower elevations where it is warmer. Here is a photo from inside one of the vintage stores. Isn't that an amazing cabinet! Huge!

I organized my pantry cabinet in my kitchen. It is actually very tiny, only four shelves, because my kitchen is so small. I went back to using jars, but I found the 12 oz bell jars work best for us, except for flour. Here is an article on decanting and organizing.

A lot of spring nest cleaning and gardening happening here, but I realize a lot of you are only just nearing the end of a cold winter or beginning autumn depending on the hemisphere.What have you been up to or have planned?

Thank you for reading,
I apologize for missing photos. I could not get them to load. I forgot about it. Came back a day or two later and realized that I wrote this, and posted forgetting about photos!

Su