In Other News....

I have an unusually long blog to-do list!  Finish posting about our Lake Louise trip, post pictures from Christmas, take photos of Clara's crocheted blanket and show it to you, and, er, give the blog a true makeover.  It's all taking a backseat for at least a week, because our computer has gotten to the point where it's not all that reliable anymore.

Yes, our dear old MacBook Pro is an ancient seven years old and is feeling its age.  It freezes and does crazy things more and more often, the fan is about to die, and there's a crack in the frame around the screen that's getting bigger and bigger.  It will tolerate light activity, but whenever I start opening large files (like photos) and working with several at once while simultaneously working online, I am loudly informed by Mr. MacBook that all is not well.  So we finally took the plunge and ordered a new computer.  Until we get it, I plan not to mess with all that photo business.

In the meantime, I'll share with you one of my afternoon projects for today: planning my garden!

I just realized yesterday that I need to get started planting my tomatoes if I want to have the seedlings in the ground by Valentine's Day or just after (which is pretty freeze-safe here in Houston).  Some of my larger tomatoes took for...e...ver to develop and ripen last year (I'm talking to you, Brandywine and Cherokee Purple), so I want to get them started as early as possible.

Today, I pulled out all my seeds, sorted out the ones I want to replant, and went online to rareseeds.org and southernexposure.com to order a few new items I want to try.  Here's what's going in my main garden bed, alongside the driveway:

• Herbs (basil, oregano, chives, etc.) and green onions.
• Zucchini (possibly a type with solid rather than hollow vines to discourage pests)
• Cayenne peppers
• Marigolds--as far as I can tell, they did a good job of repelling insects last year

And tomatoes, of course!  My specialty!

• Cherokee Purple (even though the squirrels got some and they took forever to ripen, they truly were remarkably delicious)
• Pink Brandywine
• Yellow Brandywine
• Hungarian Italian Paste - or perhaps a Black Cherry - depends on how much space I have
• Yellow Bell, which is a yellow paste tomato.  How fun would it be to make yellow marinara?
• Red Currant (tiny but prolific)
• Cossack Pineapple Ground Cherries
• Blueberry Tomatoes (they are actually blue!)

And, if Nathan is very, very nice and installs raised beds and trellises all along our back fence, I'm going to go wild with vining veggies and melons!

• Running Conch Cowpeas
• Purple Hull Peas (maybe)
• Butterbeans
• Christmas Butterbeans (called so because they are speckled with red)
• Kentucky Wonder Beans
• Bush Slicer Cucumber (which is not a bush plant at all but vines like crazy)
• Lemon Cucumbers
• Mexican Sour Gherkins, which are the cutest vegetable ever because they look like tiny watermelons
• Watermelons
• Ananas D'Amerique A Chair Verte Melon (Thomas Jefferson grew these, and the reviews are stellar)

So that's the plan.  I hope it bears fruit! ;)