A chilly & cloudy day here with rain coming in later on. I was tempted to plant carrot, beet, and lettuce seeds yesterday but held off, it still seems too early despite the recent warmer temps. Time for some indoor chores today, but thankfully there's no painting involved ;-)

Well, good morning to you as well! You are a bundle of energy.

How do you make cucumber sandwiches? Use regular cukes or those long ones? Sounds yummy.

Been raining here in So. Calif. for 24 hours and more coming today, so I haven't amounted to much as far as accomplishments, but, Kath, you inspire me.

The rain is a blessing for California. Trees getting a good drink and reservoirs and aquifers recharging, I hope.

Greatest of happy greetings from South of you!

Mild and drizzly here. It was in the 80s this week?! But only 50 for a high today. Perfect weather for hardening off the seedlings, and they are. Been sitting out on the back porch all week. They'll have to go inside Friday afternoon due to 30 degree weather, but getting ready! I'm excited to think it's three weeks away to plant cool weather annuals, and seven for warm weather annuals. Approximately.

I'm about to get dressed and go pick up a fresh lemon, a bunch of parsley, and white wine. Kiddo picked out pork yesterday evening for dinner, but when I went to pull them out to see if they wanted chops or tenderloin, I found a pound of jumbo shrimp. Gonna make shrimp scampi over creamy orzo.

Can't decide what I'm going to do with my day, but I'd like to learn how to use the paint sprayer better, and we do have the paint, so maybe I'll follow your lead and finish painting kiddo's bedroom. It's the only area of the house not painted. I finished everything else during COVID. Takes my baby forever to decide anything, so the paint didn't get picked out, much less applied to walls during that timeframe. Mostly, I want to get good at the paint sprayer, so I can redo the exterior of my house. The south side is a completely different color than the rest of the house because it faded. Maybe it's time to bite the bullet and try.

Good Morning! I am stuck at work today. I am working today and tomorrow morning, a rare occurrence but I get paid by the hour, so the more the merrier is how I try to look at it. The occasion day shift is beneficial anyway, I get to see some people I normally don't, and its sometimes easier to work in my work garden, which needs a lot of attention. One of my yellow rose bushes finally died. So I will have to dig that up. Plus it is full of weeds. I might take care of that later today or I may wait until tomorrow. Its pretty cloudy today and not hot so I may need to get going and get it over with. But I was recently in a car accident and have pretty bad whiplash that does not want to seem to heal so maybe I should just sit down and hold still but things gotta get done! Maybe I can sweet talk some of my drivers into volunteering........

I planted my cold weather plants a few days ago in my raised beds. Broccoli, collard greens and cabbages. I also started some seeds inside. I have never really done that and thought it would be fun to try it. If they do not grow, I can always go buy the plants anyway. Lots of different colors of tomatoes and peppers, english cucumbers, and some double petunias. Oh and catnip for George. I am SUCH an enabler. I have 2 more, much bigger raised beds that are still in the box that need to be put together and filled, but honestly those may just wait until next year or maybe the fall.

I have a couple bareroot apple trees soaking in a bucket in one of my extra bathtubs. Those really need to be planted and today would have been a good day to do it, but I am not home and wont be back home until almost dark so no need in worrying about it. Ill plant them when I can. I only had one day off this week, yesterday. It rained ALL DAY so I could not plant them then and I spent the day cleaning and doing laundry instead. My rose garden at home is a MESS, as a hard freeze killed at least 8 of my roses and it is overgrown with grass, So I plan on hitting that NEXT weekend if my neck and shoulder feel up to crawling around on the ground ripping out grass and laying mulch.

I always paint with caution. Because I know that once I paint one room, the rest of the house will suddenly look shabby and in need of a refresh.to my eyes anyway. $800 to paint one room sounds insane. Maybe the whole house, not one room, geez. I always save endeavors like that for when I take vacation from work, as they do seem to compound once I get started.

I am glad to see that you are staying happily busy among the freedom of retirement! Enjoy your weekend!

Good morning! DH is away from yesterday morning till tomorrow night, so I am making messes and noise! Sent a rug out to be cleaned, washed floors and will wash more today, moving furniture, and going to get some unneeded clutter out of my office. the slipcovers are already in the wash. The soundtrack from ”Footloose” is my get-up-and-go music.

But first, coffee.

Have a great day, everyone!

Socks, just regular cucumbers. I make the sandwiches with cream cheese and dill.

Amylou, sorry to hear you were in an accident but glad you're okay. I'm still sore from my fall through the floor 4 weeks ago! It is getting better though. I ordered row covers for my cabbage and Delicata squash (to protect them from vine borers) but it keeps getting delayed. (Amazon).

Kathsgrdn, your cucumber sandwiches sound yummy, good enough for High Tea!

We're having a cold and clear day today, a typical February day. I'm having a leisurely day today which is a welcome change. Later we will head off to our favorite bookstore so I can get some reading material. i generally prefer using the public library, but I succumb to purchasing books when there are so many holds that the wait times are pretty long. I just attended a cookbook book club meeting at the library where recipes are tried and reported on. The theme was Asian, and the food I cooked - charred cauliflower and red cabbage and udon noodles - was delicious! Next month it is cakes, cookies, etc. and I choose a cookbook by Dorie Greenspan for a recipe. The cake I'm considering contains apricot, pistachio and olive oil.

I am reorganizing the kitchen and eagerly awaiting canning supplies because I've decided to start canning again after not doing so for several years. Clementine is following me about as I pull stuff out of cabinets and move it in order to make more efficient use of my kitchen space. She wags her tail as I tell her what yummy canned treasures are soon to happen.

So far my prayers to ask that Fedex be careful have been answered with not one broken jar, I have 5 more cases of Ball pint jars that are supposed to arrive today and I hope they too will arrive safely.

Just to clarify the snow in southern California—the snow was predicted for the mountains and higher elevations. Some elevations are not so high that they get snow, but this storm is colder than usual, so many elevations that rarely get snow got some this week. We live along the coast and just had cold rain.

Yep! Current Day recipes have added red pepper flakes to shrimp scampi, and I think I like it.

Good evening. Nothing exciting done today. Just packed a bag and heading up to camp tomorrow.

Sunny and in the high 40s today. Except for December we have had a very mild winter. Very little snow and most temps above freezing during the day. Ya!!! Hope March is more of the same. We will probably pay for the nice weather next winter.

Just a suggestion but if you find the paint chip you might want to see if where you purchase paint has a new one with the same number. I had a drawer in the other bedroom where I kept chips for the future. Some of them degraded and were no longer the shade they were when put in that drawer. Most common was partially because the chips developed a coating on the surface. Disheartening to see a chip with bright, cheerful written on the and find it a greyish color.

Update on the day: The living room is so clean. The floor looks fantastic, the furniture is polished, fabrics are washed, cords are corralled. I’m even up to date on the Murdaugh trial, having listened to the Netflix doc at the same time. The poor kitty ventured out once the vacuuming stopped. I haven’t done much in there ever since DH moved his office home…noise, bustle, commentary, meals, etc. But now it looks so good, the dining room next door to it wants a spa day, too! For now, I’m going to collapse in a clean chair with a glass of wine and watch something entertaining.

Staceymb, I've never heard of a cookbook club. Interesting!

The cookbook club is very interesting and since it involves eating small samples, is a good way to get exposure to different foods without the commitment of a whole meal. One Asian item that I would like to cook is Japanese pancakes, made using vegetables. They were delicious!

I ordered two of these club chairs. The bench at the foot of the bed matches.

I need to order two more club chairs for the family room. I'm pretty excited! Says it should be here March 13.