Introducing: Ambrosia

I've been toying with this idea for quite awhile now, and I'm excited to announce my second blog, "Ambrosia." This one will be devoted to our garden, cooking, preserving, recipes, and food photography. Sweetie is a certified Master Gardener and our home was featured in the 2006 Hidden Garden Benefit Tour. It will be fun to share our garden with you all, and if you are anywhere close to us, pop over for a tour anytime. We are also more than happy to give you starts of our perennials and berries if there are some available when you come by.

Elvira designed the banner for the new blog, and I think she did a fabulous job. This is a big family effort, and the kids will be popping up in lots of photos on the new site. We're also considering opening a booth at the Provo Farmer's Market, so you might see us there this summer/fall as well.

So please, pop on over for a visit. If there are any topics you would like addressed, leave a comment. We take requests!

An Overview of the Garden

This picture is a few years old, but it gives an idea of the layout of our raised beds. That's sue-donym's house behind the fence, by the way. We have their lilacs coming up on our side, they have our grapes coming over on theirs. Win-win!

Our food part of the garden consists of the following:
3 grape vines
4 currant bushes
thornless blackberry bushes
peach tree
pear tree
and then six 5'x10' raised beds which contain the following:
1-raspberries
2-strawberries
3-peas
4,5,6-some combo of corn, beans, pumpkins/squash, lettuce/spinach/broccoli, tomatoes/basil/peppers, onions/potatoes, etc.

So far this year I only have the peas in. We have had some very erratic weather here and I think I'll wait until this weekend to plant the lettuce/spinach bed. We moved them to the bed in the bottom left corner of the picture this year. We rotate our "crops" every year, except for the berries which are kind of permanent at this point.

Travis threw a big bag of sand on everything and we tilled it all in with shovels. That helps break up our clay soil. Even though our beds go down about 2 feet beneath the surface and we hauled in load after load of compost (before we started making our own), the soil still clumps up to an extent. We've tried acidifying the soil so we can grow blueberries, but the water is alkaline and it just doesn't work. I'll have to wait until I go back to St. Louis for my azaleas and dogwoods, I guess. We really need to add two more beds this year. Our raspberries need to be thinned and moved into a second bed, and the blackberries just aren't doing well and could benefit from a new home.

Back to the peas. We usually plant the Early Frosty variety, and I got four rows in on March 19 and another five on March 28. I'll finish up with two rows of snow peas next week. That will stagger the harvest dates a bit so everything doesn't come in at the same time. Once the peas are good and up, I'll put the metal fence sections around to add support. The peas get pretty tangled and heavy, so that helps a bit. I'll post more pictures as they get going.

La Sonnambula Re-Broadcast

Just wanted you to know that it's not too late to see "La Sonnambula" on the big screen. There is an encore performance on April 1 (this Wednesday) at 7:00 pm. You can find the closest theater to you here.

I know you'll love it! And remember to look at the shoes!

I Think You Are So Fascinating!

A little over a week ago I mentioned Story Corps in my post about my favorite NPR podcasts. Well, guess what?! They're coming to Salt Lake City to record YOUR stories. And I know you have lots of interesting ones hiding inside your good-looking heads.

I've always loved hearing other people's stories. Biographies are my favorite genre of books and I think obituaries are so interesting, even in their sadness. I even like reading the author blurbs in the back of the books I'm reading. And this is why Story Corps is my favorite radio show in the whole wide world: because it reaffirms what I've always believed--that everyone leads a fascinating life, even if they don't think so.

Check out the Story Corps website and listen to some of the stories. Many are laugh-out-loud funny, others thought-provoking, some just downright sad. In the space of just a few minutes I get completely involved in a total stranger's life to the point that I can cry huge tears over them. It's very powerful.

This is your chance to get Grandpa to talk about the war, your mom about the day you were born, or thank your brother for sticking up for you when you were a kid. A few of my favorites are "Miss Devine", "Chunky Sanchez", and "Betty Jenkins." Just do a search for them on the site and you'll hear them.

So call them up and make a reservation! It's completely free and will be archived at the Library of Congress for your kids and grandkids to listen to in the years to come.

Warning: Construction Zone

Holy Smoke! We're doing it at last!

The laundry room is gutted and Sweetie has been knocking himself out sheetrocking the whole room (that's "drywalling" for my midwestern readers). Cabinets are down, electrical run, tile picked out, paint (Tiffany blue, of course) chosen--the whole thing! He's doing a bang-up job on everything, as is his way. Even though it's just a laundry room and few people will ever see it, he makes it all perfect. I love that man.

And my contribution to the project is my killer idea for a sewing table. We can't put a fixed table in there because that won't allow room to move the washer/dryer in and out if necessary (after three dryer fires, believe me, it's necessary), so we're going to attach it to the wall with a piano hinge so it can swing down. Aren't I just so tricky? And I'm just warming up!

I am also going to purge my life of about 90% of my sewing/craft inventory. I have so little time to work on projects anymore, and don't anticipate that changing in the near future since I'm headed back to school again next month. If you know any smockers/cross-stitchers/needlepointers/needle tatters/knitters/scrapbookers/sewers/and who knows what else is in those boxes who want to score on great things, leave a comment!

Elvira's Seminary Assignment

Seminary Teacher: I want you all to imagine you're in the premortal life. Everyone is curious about what life on Earth will be like. What question would you ask if you could?

Elvira: Do they have Dental?

La Sonnambula

Natalie Dessay, La Sonnambula

My friend Holly invited me to the Metropolitan Opera HD broadcast of Bellini's "La Sonnambula" today. As you know, I love opera, and I knew nothing of this one at all. Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Florez sang the leads, and they were fabulous. It was a great story about a virtuous young girl, newly engaged, who mysteriously ends up in another man's room one night. Her fiance is enraged and breaks off the engagement, only to discover that his beloved was sleepwalking and still loves only him. Very cleverly staged, beautifully sung, and so fun to watch. And the company couldn't have been better. Holly I knew, of course, Tim I slightly knew, and Wally, Kathy, and Ron are new friends. They announced next year's season, and I'm so excited to attend them all.

Check out Natalie Dessay's shoes in that photo. Aren't they GORGEOUS??? I'm not a shoe girl by any means, but I am seriously coveting those shoes. Any idea where I could find such lovelies?