Interior House Painting - Part I

Our house is getting a much needed fresh coat of paint on its interior. It’s about 20 years old and most of the paint was original so it was time. I took the normal route of asking around for recommendations from people in the neighborhood - got 3 estimates - and then waited a month or so because the one I chose was so busy. The wait turned out to be an advantage because it allowed us more time to prepare. This first post will talk about that ‘before the painters’ work and then I’ll do a follow up post in a few days that will report on what actually happened during the painting.

All the painters I got estimates from gave suggestions about how to prepare the rooms for painting. The more I could do, the faster they could work and the less it would cost me in their labor. Some things I learned from the painters and as I prepared:

• Empty book cases and china cabinets. They are too heavy to move filled with stuff.
• Furniture needs to be moved toward the center of the room - at least 2 feet from the walls. I put a measuring tape around my neck as I moved furniture out from the walls. Make the furniture group off center if there is an overhead light fixture they will need to paint around.
• Everything hanging on the walls or ceiling must come off. If you are going to rehang pictures - leave the nails and they won’t fill in the hole. If you are not going to rehang things, take the nails and screws out and have them fill the holes.
• Take down the drapes if you can. I got about half mine down. The others were high enough I let the painters take them down. Launder the ones that are washable. Decide if you will dry clean the drapes that require that; if not - at least vacuum them thoroughly while they are down.
• As you move furniture - take advantage of the easier access to the carpeting that was underneath and vacuum that area (multiple times).
• Use under tables (or grand pianos) as storage area. Pack things compactly so that space is used efficiently. Load up kitchen cabinets.
• Be prepared to take lamps to rooms that are not being painted so they will be out of the way of the painters.
• Think about which rooms should be painted together and prepare accordingly. For example - a living/dining room that is connected should be painted at the same time.
• Clear all surface areas (like kitchen counter tops if there is surface to paint between cabinets and counter tops). Beds can be heaped with clothes and then they can cover them with plastic.
• Decide if you want the closets painted. We only had the walk-in ones in the master bedroom painted. Load up the ones won’t be painted to get everything out of the way.

Around our (Maryland) Yard in May

May is a ‘between’ month. Many of the spring blooms are already over and the summer ones are up but not quite blooming - with the exception of the iris…which are truly glorious in our back flowerbed.

The summer bulbs are up - dahlias and day lilies and blazing stars. Fortunately the deer have not decided they are delectable. 

 I have some stakes around them to discourage browsing but they didn’t keep the deer from the day lilies last year about the time. I’m keeping by fingers crossed.

The pyracantha is blooming. It will have a lot of orange berries in the fall.

And last but not least, the maple has a lot of leaves still unfurling that are reddish before they enlarge and turn all green. Many of the stems that held the samaras recently are still attached to the tree. They’ll be falling off soon.

Previous Months:

April 2012

March 2012

January 2012

A Garden in Pots

About a month ago I had a sweet potato in the bin that sprouted. I cut off the sprouted end and put it in a bowl of water (cooked and ate the rest of it). It grew slowly at first then - just as I noticed that roots has developed - it started to grow very rapidly. It grew straight up, reached the bottom of the raised mini-blinds above the kitchen sink and then used them for support. It was clearly time to plant the sweet potato outside. Several years ago I had a pot crammed full of sweet potatoes by the fall starting out this same way. the only challenge was to keep it well watered.

 I decided to buy herbs and 'greens' in small pots to fill every container I had on the deck. 

The stevia, orange mint, Italian parsley and chocolate mint are pictured above (left to right). The sweet potato, rosemary, and basil are pictured below. I hope the sweet potato will grow all over the metal scultures so that it can get plenty of sun. Notice the two parts to the sweet potao vine. It was so long and spindly that it bent while it was transfered outside; the stem eas cut and (hopefully) the end will root quickly enough that there will be two plants in the pot.

Last but not least, I planted the curly parsley in the old turtle sandbox that my daughter outgrew long ago. It looks a little lonely right now but there are peas planted that will come up all around it (old seeds so it's an experiment to see how many will actually sprout). 

So - why didn't I buy tomatoes? They've been part of my deck garden for the past few years. Over time I've come to realize that the local Farmers Market has excellent tomatoes and I can try new varieties every week whereas if I grow my own I have only one kind (and they are not beautiful plants!). It's harder to get just the small amount of herbs and greens to be used for a meal and keep them as fresh as you want unless you grow them yourself. So - I've made a change this year by sticking with green stuff. I'll probably plant the mint in the garden at some point and let it 'escape' so that I'll have lots to dry for herbal tea.  Something needs to compete with the lemon balm that is taking over one end of the garden and growing into th yard.

The challenge - as in previous years - is to keep everything watered on the deck when it doesn't rain often enough. Collecting water from rinsing veggies and carrying it outside is enough until it gets really hot and dry; then we'll have to rig a hose and mister for our 'garden in pots' that I can see from my kitchen window!

Recipe of the Week: Sourdough Adventure: Pancakes

I like the idea of making my own breads now that I have time - so in early April I started my own sourdough ‘starter’ using instructions from Mike Avery’s Sourdough site. All you need is whole wheat flour and water! Everything worked very easily for me and I took one of the simplest paths possible through the instructions. I find that my two cup measure with a small plate on top is ideal while the starter is outside the refrigerator.

I very quickly got to the point I wanted to use it before I got into the mode of putting it into the refrigerator to slow down the growth enough that it didn’t need feeding every 12 hours. The first thing I attempted to make was pizza dough…and that didn’t work out so well. It was too dense. I’ve already found another recipe that I’ll try sometime soon. Pancakes were my first big success.

My basic recipe is

1 egg

2 tablespoons sweetener (sugar or honey…something sweet)

4 tablespoons olive oil

Dash salt

1 1/2 cups mature sourdough starter

1 teaspoon cinnamon

~~~~~

1 teaspoon soda dissolved in 1 tablespoon of warm water

In a large bowl or measuring cup with a spout (to make it easy to pour out the batter), mix sugar, egg, salt and olive oil. Mix in the sourdough starter and cinnamon. Add warm water or tea to get the right consistency for pancake batter. Set aside.

In a small bowl, dilute 1 teaspoon baking soda in 1 tablespoon of warm water. 

When ready to cook the sourdough pancakes, fold the baking soda/water mixture gently into the prepared pancake batter (do not beat). This will cause a gentle foaming and rising action in the batter. Let the mixture bubble and foam a minute or so to give the acid (in the starter) and the base (soda) time to react; this makes the air bubbles that produce pancakes with air bubbles rather than densely packed flour.

Cook on a hot griddle as other types of pancakes.

Note - Other optional ingredients could be added to the batter. Be creative. Some that I like (one at a time or in combinations): orange zest, chopped pecans, grated apples, or ginger. 

I'll continue to share my adventure with my sourdough starter. I'm working my way up to whole wheat loaves of bread and raisin buns like my grandmother used to make!

Maple Samaras Flying

The maples in our neighborhood have released their samaras. They whirl away from the tree with each gust of wind and land in the yards or collect in drifts at the curbs. It is almost like the fall of the year with the amount of stuff on the street. When it rains there are enough of them to clog gutters.

The samaras that land in the yards will have only a slightly longer life. Many will sprout and grow their first leaves only to be mowed again and again until they give up. They won’t become trees.

What would it be like if we didn’t mow for a season? Would a little forest of maples trees spring up in all the yards? The oaks have big and small years for their acorns but the maples always produce a huge number of samaras and they seem to sprout quite easily. The samara can whirl around to get itself well away from the parent tree.

BeforeAfterThe maple that I see from my office window is looking considerably greener with its samaras going and gone. The tree always starts the spring looking reddish…then rust…then a golden brown. The change from golden brown to green happened over a couple of days this year. I kept thinking it would happen earlier because of the samara color and the stiffness of the breezes. But they weren’t quite ready. Now all the maples in the neighborhood are letting their samaras fly.

Previous posts on Maples:

Maple Sequence - Spring 2012

Bulb Project - Phase 1: Planting

I have a bulb planting project this spring. In the past I focused on bulb planted in the fall that would then bloom in the early spring. This year my focus is on bulbs planted in the spring that will bloom in the summer…and summers to come.

The first bag contained 60 blazing stars (liatris spicata) that produce a spire of purple flowers that blooms in mid to late summer. The instructions said to plant the bulbs 5 inches apart and 4 inches deep. I used a big shovel to dig trenches along the back of the flower bed, just in front of the bushes. I planted as many as I could in that trench before using my hands to break up the clods of dirt as I refilled the depression. I ended up making several more trenches. 60 is quite a large number of bulbs! In between plantings - when my back did not want to be bending over any more, I used the nippers to trim the bushes a bit. In a little over an hour I’d planted the bulbs and filled a big trash bag of clippings from the bush and some weeds I’d pulled before I even started the bulb planting.

The bulbs were dried up brownish knobs packed loosely in wood shavings. Most of them had beginnings of roots on the fat end and a few had a tiny sprout on the pointed end. It was easy to tell which end should be planted up most of the time. I don’t think they’ll appear to be in a perfectly straight row when they come up but they’ll still look good in front of the bushes. The bushes are between 5 and 6 feet high so these flowers that can get up to 48 inches will be a nice stepwise progression from then. In front of the blazing stars there is some vigorous foliage of day lilies. I have some wire stakes around them because last year the deer invaded just before the buds opened; I had very few flowers! If they manage to bloom this year - the flowers will show up nicely against the lavender of the blazing stars.

The next day I planted 16 dahlia bulbs. The instructions said to plant them 1 inch deep and 12 inches apart. I dug some shallow holes before I opened up the bag. Surprise! Dahlias have big bulbs with multiple finger sized tubers with each one. It took bigger and deeper holes. Most of the bulbs had a healthy looking sprout that I could leave peeking up through the soil after I covered the rest with soil. The dahlias are positioned in the front of the flower bed since I plan to cut at least some of them for inside the house if they do well. I took time out to finish trimming the bushes behind my bulb bed too.

I am really looking forward to the flowers of summer!

Favorite Smells of Spring

What are you favorite smells of spring?

The smells I most strongly associate with spring are those that are outdoors.

Hyacinths. The scent of hyacinths is synonymous with early spring for me. The bulbs come up early and sometimes weather a last snow - as they did this year. A few times I’ve bought a pot of them to have indoors but most of the time I am content with smelling them on the March breeze.

Violets. We have wild violets that grow in the shade under our high deck. They bloom in April. You have to be in the right place to spell their scent on the air. They’re small and close to the ground but prolific bloomers so often I smell them before seeing them.

Lemon Balm. I planted a small pot of lemon balm years ago and now it takes over whole beds and grows out into the yard. It comes out very early and imparts its lemony smell whenever it is disturbed.

What are your favorite smells of spring?

March 2012 Doodles

I’ve scanned my favorite doodles from last month into a slide show (below). They’re made with gel pens on black paper in a spiral notebook that I found in my spring cleaning this year.

Doodling has no constraints. It doesn't have to look like anything at all. Sometimes it reflects what I'm thinking about - sometimes it is made on autopilot and reflects nothing at all. I've named the doodles after the fact and that is displayed at the bottom of each image. 

Previous doodle posts: 3/6

Around our (Maryland) Yard in April

It’s already April. We had some unseasonably warm days in March but now seem back into a more seasonable pattern. I took a walk around our yard this morning and created a montage of the pictures below.

So - the early April checkpoint for our yard here in Maryland is: The early bulbs (hyacinths, crocus and daffodils) are spent. The day lily leaves have recovered from the deer browsing so they may bloom normally later this spring. We have two tulips blooming in the same bed as the day lily greenery; the deer ate the rest down to the ground. The robins are very active and singing every morning. The maple samaras are about ready to fly - the lower branches have been thoroughly browsed by the deer so may 'self-prune' in upcoming months. The oak buds are popping from the top down. Our tulip poplar has a lot of spring green leaves and tight green flower buds all over. The iris green leaves are up already; they must be too tough for the deer since they don’t even have teeth marks. The tortoise that lives in that garden was out on one warm day but retreated when it got colder here during the past week; I didn't see him at all this morning. Our struggling azalea has a few blooms. 

Previous Months 

• March 2012
• January 2012

Blue Tulip Glassware

I’ve had my Blue Tulip Glassware for a little over a month now. It appealed to me when I first saw it back in December and my appreciation of it continues to grow because its appeal has so many perspectives.

It is beautiful. The blue color of the glass depends on the lighting - all the way from turquoise to a pale Copenhagen blue. The smooth parts are tulip shaped but the nobs often give the impression of sunflowers; at first I thought the pattern was ‘sunflower’ and, based on some questions I noticed on some web sites, others may have made the same mistake. I started a project to photograph the sugar (a cup with two handles) 100 times; 10 of the best images are below.

It has history. Blue Tulip is Depression Glass. It was manufactured by the Dell Glass Company in the 1930s and 1940s. Most of the pieces that I have now were a wedding present given to an Oklahoma couple in the 30s. The set was purchased from the widow many years later by a couple that has known me all my life as they added to their collection of Depression Glass. They added some pieces they found at other places as well. When I visited them last December they commented that they were thinking about selling some of their collection and I offered to buy all the Blue Tulip. They gave me an excellent price for the antiques and it arrived in a big professionally packed glassware box in early March. Sometimes I think the glass is infused with all the happiness around it for the past 70+ years and somehow it rejected any unhappiness; it always seems to speak of home and long term relationships (both general and specific).

It encourages smaller portion sizes. The sherbet cups are a good size for ice cream or custard….any dessert served in a bowl. My husband and I have started using them frequently. The small plates are smaller too; a single muffin fits better than two. The dinner plates are the normal size but I find that the pattern encourages me to put less on the plate - so I can still see the pattern.

It fits the spring and summer season. I love the coolness of the blue color in spring and am anticipating I will like it even more during the summer.

Quote of the Day - 03/24/2012

A cat’s skin is a bigger envelope than is necessary to hold the flesh and bones inside it. - Muriel Beadle in The Cat: History, Biology, and Behavior

~~~~~

Cats have a grace and fluidity to them all the time and part of it might be that their skin is not stretched so tightly over ‘the flesh and bones inside’ as our skin is. Even when they contort themselves, their skin does not seem stretched. My first cat was one that had longer hair which made this observation difficult but now I have a short haired cat - and it is pretty easy to see. The cat’s skin is like a baggy coat.

Now for  a positive thought of the day about what happens to us as we grow older - think of the wrinkles and sags of aging as our skin becoming more cat-like - ‘a bigger envelope than necessary to hold the flesh and bones inside it.’ Are there other ways you want to be like a cat? I want to 

• Walk at my own speed even though someone is trying to rush me
• Be totally comfortable when I still
• Focus intently on what is happening around me (even if I am stealthy about it)
• Go to sleep easily

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 24, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week:

Fundamental Steps Needed Now in Global Redesign of Earth System Governance - the argument of 32 scientists and researchers that some fundamental reforms are needed to avoid dangerous changes in the Earth system

How Monarch Butterflies Recolonize Northern Breeding Range - About 10% of the Monarchs in Canada have come all the way from Mexico. 90% were born en route mostly in the central US.

Feeding Habits of German Wolves - Less than 1% of their prey is livestock

The Physics of Cooking (Science and Cooking) - Videos from Harvard that talk about the mechanics of various culinary techniques (there are 42 hours - 26 segments - of videos on the topic!)

America’s First Cuisines - A chapter from the book that focuses on produce that came from the new world

A brief history of solar energy - Beginning in 1767….

Monarch butterflies down again this year - The scene from Texas - 30% fewer monarchs this year

Surface features on Vesta (giant asteroid) - New pictures from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft

Civic Engagement and Local e-Government: Social Networking Comes of Age - a study of how local governments are using social media…a ranking of the 75 largest cities in the US

What is your Water Footprint? - A calculator of how much water your lifestyle takes

Sewing Skills?

In the first years of my marriage, I economized by sewing most of my own clothes and making quite a few shirts for my husband as well. It was an activity that made sense economically and was also a useful hobby – something I did while my husband indulged his photography hobby by printing photos or watched football.

Fast forward over 30 years - It is not possible to save money through sewing whole garments. The fabric stores now run to crafts like quilting rather than dressmaking and there are not as many of them. Fabrics, patterns, and notions are expensive. The turning away from sewing happened rather suddenly for me when I required suits for work and became overwhelming busy with obligations that had a higher priority. I’ve only recently cleaned out the drawers of supplies – fabrics, buttons, zippers, bias table, and interfacing. I kept the thread although I doubt I will ever use much of it. The sewing machine is still stashed in a closet somewhere. If I ever move to another house, it may get donated before the move.

So – is there any value from that experience from years ago…something that should still be taught as a ‘life skill’ to children and grandchildren? Maybe – but I think it’s the parts that don’t require a sewing machine. All of them have to do with altering or mending clothes already made. A trip to the local cleaners could accomplish the same thing (with an associate cost) and would be more time consuming than simply doing the job yourself. So – here is my list of still-useful skills from my sewing days:

• Putting in a hem. I’ve done this several times recently on pants that were slightly too long for me and on machined hems that have come out with one pull of a thread.
• Sewing on a button that has come loose or off
• Darning up a hole in a favorite sweater (that I can’t bear to throw away)
• Patching a ripped knee or covering a logo with an iron on patch then embroidering around the edges

I avoid more extreme alterations by simply buying clothes that already fit since I’ve had the experience of alterations costing more than the dress!

Quote of the Day - 03/22/2012

Lost cities, erased from living memory – for centuries even their names were forgotten.  After the splendors of their golden age, in the 9th century the Maya cities suffered the ravages of famine, war, and depopulation and then were finally abandoned.  The forest returned.  Roots wrapped themselves around the stelae, bringing them crashing to the ground.  Thrusting branches weakened the temple walls and forced their way through the roofs. - Claude Baudez and Sydney Picasso in Lost Cities of the Maya (Discoveries)

~~~~~

We tend to think of the buildings and houses we inhabit having a kind of permanence that they really don’t have. If we walked away - even buildings of stone would not last long. Would what we leave behind be enlightening to someone finding the ruins 1,000 years from now? Probably - but would their understanding resemble the way we think about ourselves at all?

Consider the people that left the Mayan ruins behind. Maybe many died in an epidemic or civil war…or maybe they simply rejected what the buildings represented and reverted to the way they lived before the stone edifices were built. We are curious about everything that has gone before us and the pieces of a puzzle that we may be able to solve holds our attention. It is the seeker in us that is keen to discover the secrets of the ruins in the forest.

I find the image of the forest ‘bringing them crashing to the ground’ fascinating by itself. It’s a good reminder - what a difference there is in biologic time (plant life times/our lifetimes) and geologic time. Our creations have a lifetime closer in length to our own.

Quote of the Day - 03/19/2012

The process of improvisation that goes into composing a life is compounded in the process of remembering a life, like a patchwork quilt in a watercolor painting, rumpled and evocative. - Mary Catherine Bateson in Composing a Life

~~~~~

Are you satisfied with the way you are ‘composing’ our life? Is there enough ‘improvisation’ to be ‘compounded’? How vibrant is your ‘patchwork quilt’?

Mary Catherine Bateson has a gift for words that draw out positive associations. ‘Composing’ implies some amount of control and the application of our own creativity. It requires some planning for the future but is honed to action; the living of life always is in the present. But then there is the remembering that compounds everything; the older we are the more there is to remember. That doesn’t necessarily that we spend more time savoring the past than in living the present; it may be that we simply evoke everything we have been before into the way we are now and into our remaining days.

Springtime is a good time to make changes - to be like the opening blooms on spring flowers and ‘compose’ something new (or refreshed) aspect of our life.

Robins of Spring

Spring officially starts tomorrow…but the robins have already arrived in Maryland and they are a big part of spring. They are birds frequently seen over most of the continental US and easily recognized with the red plumage of their breast and charcoal feathers on their wings, back, and head. Their eyes are often lined in white. We get large numbers of them in the Maryland spring as they make their way north.

Sometimes they look very trim…almost skinny…when they arrive. But the spring rains bring fat worms close to the ground surface and the robins have feasts that quickly fatten them up.

Sometimes on cold mornings they fluff their feathers and the ‘red breast’ becomes even more conspicuous

As the days warm, some will continue northward while others will stay to lay eggs and raise their young. We almost always have a pair that builds a nest under our deck. Our cats can hear them from the screen enclosed portion of the deck; hours and hours of close scrutiny through a crack in the flooring ensue.  The robins enjoy the safety of the high rafter and the cats get to watch the drama of birds coming and going.

My Desk

I could write anywhere but most times I choose to write at a computer table in my office. It has all the elements that make it a perfect place for me: 

• Equipment. Computer interfaces (two displays, a wireless mouse, a keyboard) comfortably situated. A printer than can be turned on as needed. Task lighting secured to the desk and on an extendable arm; bright light from overhead and a tall floor lamp (rarely on)
• References. A calendar out of the way but within line-of-sight of my chair
• Chair. A Black Swopper Chair that makes it possible for me to move while I’m thinking or reading (i.e. any time I am not writing) and is comfortable enough when I am writing that it is the only chair in the room
• Beautiful views.
  • Behind one monitor - peacock feathers
  • Behind the other monitor - a Georgia O’Keeffe poppy poster
  • Slightly to the right - a window that looks out onto a forest (high enough to look at the middle of trees rather than the ground or the tops). The sheers framing the window have pockets to hold small items that are reminders of favorite people and places. Wind chimes hang from magnets stuck to the mini-blind frame
  • Slightly to the left - a bulletin board and a small (foot high) cloisonné covered folding screen (hiding wires)
  • Behind me - a Georgia O’Keefe prickly pear poster and some metal sculptures with a table below full of family pictures 

 

Summer Wardrobe Planning

We’ve had a few warm days --- and I am looking through clothes to decide if I have what I need for summer. Have you done your summer wardrobe check yet?

Shoes. I quickly realize that the flip flops and sandals I bought near the end of the season last year are still in almost-new condition…so new shoes are not necessary.

Capris/shorts. Last year I enjoyed capris more than shorts. There are more of them in the pile than I remember having…so no purchases needed.

Slacks/jeans. I don’t wear slacks and jeans much in the summer. I do have a pair of linen-like slacks that would be my top choice for summer wear; they should probably stay hanging in the closet year round. Maybe I’ll keep one pair of jeans out as well.

Skirts. I’ve been collecting more of them over the past few years. When it is really hot - they are always my favorite. There are enough skirts.

T-shirts. I have too many. Since I don’t wear them all the time, they tend to last a long time. Some of them are 20 years old! This year I need to focus on wearing T-shirts for working outdoors (with sunscreen to keep my arms and neck from burning) rather than just whatever top I have on at the time.

Tops. I prefer cap or short sleeves to sleeveless and have been collecting some I really like over the past few years. I have some long sleeved big shirts to wear over everything if I’m going to be out in the sun and/or wearing my photo-vest and need fabric between the vest and the back of my neck. Go anywhere tops may be the one area of my wardrobe that needs shoring up a bit for summer.

Swimsuit. It still fits and will work for the few times I need it this summer.

Overall I am in reasonably good shape for summer except for tops. I’m going to make some stops at the local thrift store between now and when it gets really hot!

Quote of the Day - 03/14/2012

To have and bring up kids is to be as immersed in life as one can be, but it does not always follow that one drowns.  A lot of us can swim. – Ursula K. Le Guin as quotes in Frank Barron, Alfonso Montuori and Anthea Barron (editors) in Creators on Creating: Awakening and Cultivating the Imaginative Mind (New Consciousness Reader)

~~~~~

I really like this quote. The observation about having children and full immersion in life is apt…as is the idea that a lot of us either already know how to swim or discover how to do it before swallowing too much! Motherhood requires the sustained involvement from the whole of ourselves - physically and mentally - perhaps to a greater extent than anything else we will do in our lives.

Recognizing this does not mean that we don’t do other things at the same time. The life we want for ourselves is made from dynamic components, of which motherhood is one. These components enrich each other but can be challenging to blend together without undue friction. Have you thought about the proverb ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ linking the idea of motherhood with creativity? It’s all part of the ‘swim’ that we do!

My experience has been that motherhood has a core that is focused on the needs of the relationship to my daughter and tendrils that extend to every other facet of my life. Those tendrils are overwhelmingly positive - at work, within the community, with my extended family. The ‘immersed in life’ aspect forced me to understand more clearly the meaning of my life as a whole.

Even while focusing on the day to day aspects of children - the hope and optimism about the future is wrapped up in them too; from that perspective, being a mother is one of the most strategic things we do. What else has such long term impact directly on our life and has as high probability of extending past our lifetime?

Yes - children and being ‘immersed in life’ go hand in hand….here’s to enjoying the swim!

Parsley in the Kitchen Window

I bought a small pot of Italian parsley at the grocery store this week. This gives me greenery to enjoy now and then put in a large pot on the deck to enjoy all summer. The small shelf above my sink is the perfect place for it - there is great afternoon sun and I’ll notice when it needs to be watered. The store had similar pots of basil and cilantro. I have some basil seeds and decided to plant them (another small project for today). The cilantro plants looked too fragile; maybe I’ll get one some other week.

I’ve enjoyed Italian parsley previously. The plant tends to be hardy (as long as it gets enough water) and rapidly replenishes the amount I cut. I like it in salads, sprinkled on top of soups/stir fries, or in a veggie smoothie. The leaves are even large enough to use on a sandwich!