Dancing Around the Four Sides

Big line of storms rolled through at about 4 this morning, with lots of rain, thunder, and lightning. Apparently that helped put out a lot of the fires from the fertilizer plant explosion last night in West, Texas. You can read more about that craziness here and here. The Nightdog family is nowhere near West; we're approximately one hundred miles to the north, so we saw and heard nothing. Everybody in this area knows West, though -- it's one of the many communities settled by Czech immigrants, and the big signs for Czech bakeries (kolaches, mmm) are a truly familiar sight on I-35 for folks driving south to Houston or Galveston.

I did finish Eowyn Ivey's The Snow Child, and I have conflicting feelings about it. ( Cutting so people who don't want to read about it don't have to ...  )

Started reading Stephen Harrigan's Remember Ben Clayton, and so far it is pretty good.

Everything green is still growing; should be ready to transplant some of the tomatoes this weekend.

Anything else? Oh, watched the Sabres/Bruins last night. Terrific game.

Relocated all the rest of the seedlings to their intermediate pots. The tomatoes are growing, but it's the peppers that are the real surprise. All of them look strong and feisty, ready to get going. Also saw a bee in the flowers on the Meyer lemon tree -- what a welcome sight! Before that, watched the Blackhawks CRUSH the Red Wings, 7 - 1. That's what's called "opening a can of whup-ass." HA.

Have been reading Will Ludwigsen's In Search Of and Others. Creepy, creepy short stories, and very good so far.

Sunny and warm, beautiful weather. Must run a couple of errands today and it will be good to get out. Seedlings are all getting their second set of leaves, which finally makes them look like the plants they're supposed to be. We'll have to start transplanting soon. Potted some lemon thyme and dill I bought at Calloway's a few days ago, also one of those teeny-tiny grocery store roses.

Was looking last night at a Housefic WIP I haven't touched since 2008. We'll see.

About 3/4 of the way through The Circus Fire; it is without a doubt one of the saddest books I've read in a long time. :-(

Sunny and much cooler -- we're supposed to have a couple of light freezes this weekend but that hasn't stopped the useless Bradford pears in the neighborhood from starting to blossom. Also we have a winner in the New Seedlings Category, and it's SPINACH. Yep, tiny little stems of Bloomsdale Long-Standing spinach uncurling from the potting soil. No signs of any of the peppers yet. :D

Started reading Joshua Ferris' Then We Came to the End and am liking it, although I'll be the first to admit it's hard keeping some of the characters straight.

Really liked both Person of Interest and Elementary last night. Cutting for spoilers ...

( Person of Interest )

( Elementary )

Also, Mister Nightdog just looked at the seeds, and the Thai basil has sprouted. It wasn't there this morning. But no peppers yet.

Our seeds are sprouting! Tiny little tomato and tomatillo seedlings peeking up and uncurling from the potting soil! :D :D :D

Bright sun, 51 degrees (10.6 degrees Celsius). Errands to run today, including picking up a couple of new pots for the deck at Lowe's. I'm going to be starting a few seeds sometime next month and am looking forward to it -- probably some tomatoes and tomatilloes. The seedlings I planted last year for fall tomatoes did eventually produce, but it was too late for all but ONE to ripen. *g* But it did ripen, and it was utterly delicious (it was a Pink Belgian). The Black Prince plant also produced one last tomato, which surprised us. So. Burpee also has a new variety of sweet corn that supposedly will grow in a container, so I'm going to give that a try. :D

Still reading John Sayles' Moment in the Sun -- I'm about 400 pages in (it's very readable) and I've finally realized that it reminds me of reading a James Michener novel, except without all the historical/scientific/geological backstory that Michener would stuff into his books. Which is neither good nor bad; just an observation.

Watched that new Kevin Bacon show The Following last night, and was very surprised it was on network TV (Fox) and not Showtime or HBO. Not because of the writing, but because of the very dark themes and levels of violence. I'll probably watch the second episode, but unless the writing improves dramatically I doubt that I'll stick with it. On the other hand, who knows? I still watch Hawaii Five-0 every now and then. ;-)

Also, cheese fire shuts down Norwegian roadway tunnel.

Wonderfully cool day today, possibility of frost and/or a light freeze tonight. Brought the tomatoes that we've grown from seeds in (the Arkansas Traveler and the Belgian Giant) -- they are both growing happy and strong but we may have started them too late. A lesson for next year, if so. The plants we bought in the spring (the cherry toms) have new fruit and the basil plants have reseeded all by themselves and are growing afresh.

Took a short walk down the street this afternoon and met a couple of neighbors who are usually away. They were out with their dogs -- a pair of Shelties, one of whom was a blue merle named Reggie. Reggie kept wanting to sniff Chango's butt, so Chango spent most of the encounter hiding behind my legs. The Shelties were both gorgeous dogs, though, with beautiful, fine faces.

Watched some small-school football tonight (Cincinnati at Louisville) which turned out to be an exciting game and went into overtime. Mister Nightdog cooked a brisket. Still reading John Gimlette's Wild Coast, which is very good. Uploaded some new icons (to Dreamwidth). I've thought about trying a Plus Account on LJ to gain a few more icon slots, but I fear I'd be subjecting my f-list to advertisements, and I don't want to do that. (I also don't want to give LJ any more money, or anyone else to, so no.) #firstworldproblems, as the Tumblr and Twitter folks say. :-)

Put together one of these today! It was super-easy to assemble, and everything actually fit together, ha. Now I have four extra shelves for plants out on the deck. Chango assisted ably, by sitting close enough so that I could put an arm around her and give her hugs. After a while she simply leaned on me, but only until she saw something interesting in the backyard (a crow).

Warm and sunny, 90 degrees (32.2 degrees Celsius), but it feels as if it's 94. Watered deck plants; will have to move one of the Black Prince tomatoes because it is more in the sun than the others and it Does Not Like. When I was watering the big Norfolk pine, I surprised a bright green anole, who leapt from the tree to a windowframe, where he sat and watched me. I told him I was sorry, that I didn't mean to scare him. :)

Also saw a Great Crested Flycatcher this morning, but only because he was squawking at the dog. *g* Was out and about today and had to turn on my car's AC. Ugh.

Picked first tomato from the patio plant, left four more, have set the one I picked on the kitchen counter to ripen a bit more. Soon we'll be able to make Insalata caprese with our own basil. And it will be delicious. :-D