Monday, June 6, 2022

T Stands for Cooking with Wine and Thinking About Being Busy

 Hi everyone.

The past week I was trying to check off some must do items from my to-do-list. I didn't  finish any of them so nothing got checked off. ๐Ÿ˜Ÿ The two things taking up much of my work time right now are getting my gardens up for the season and getting the rest of my supplies put away in the new spare bedroom art space. 

I am making headway with both of these tasks. Garden work is the top priority since the growing season in New Hampshire isn't really very long. The art space gets worked on if we have a rainy day, or else it will wait until all the initial gardening is done. And my gardening tasks (other than the occasional weeding) should be done by the end of this week. Hurrah!!!


Here's my veggie garden on Saturday afternoon. I have a love-hate relationship with it. I love getting the produce, planning it and buying the plants, but I really hate setting it up. I am trying coconut mulch on it this year since last year it had SO many weeds. Weeds are one of the reasons I dislike veggie gardening. I ran out of mulch and need to go get some more. This has been the biggest outdoor project that will end up taking me 4 days once I get the rest of the mulch and spread it. Have you used coconut mulch, and what do you think of it if you have? I'm hoping it will help the weed situation.

My other garden projects only took a couple of hours here and there,  easy morning projects.  

And speaking of being busy, a lot of you commented lately with the question of how I seem to do so much? Sorry if I am exhausting you.  Compared to juggling around 75 students a day in 3 eighty minute classes, as well as a 40 minute study session when I didn't know who would be joining until that day, never mind 80 minutes to plan lessons and grade whatever was passed in, as well as the occasional lunch duty, teacher's meeting, National Honor Society lunch meeting since I advised the group,  parent conference, staff meeting, work I took home... (OK- now I am exhausted.)

I am doing exactly what I love, when I feel like doing it, for how long I feel like doing it.   I am definitely enjoying my retirement! ❤And if you don't believe that, I can share  photos of how messy my house is right now- big smile!!! ๐Ÿ˜€One of these days I will get around to picking it up.

There hasn't been a lot of cooking in my house lately with me trying to get the veggie garden planted, and I keep forgetting to take drink photos. I did however make up a quick spaghetti sauce last Friday evening for dinner, mainly because I was out of jars of it on the basement stockpile shelves. With the rain we had all day, the temperature never got over 55 degrees (about 13 degrees C) , so spaghetti seemed  like a good call. 

I like to add some wine to my sauce, so that meant opening a bottle. I might as well have a glass (or 2) since it was open, right?


Here's my link to this week's T Day post  post over at   BLeubeard's and Elizabeth's blog.   You can even see my teapot on the stove that I keep on the stove also.

Do you like my wine glass?  Back in my 20's my MIL's neighbor at the lake was cleaning out her house and offered us some glasses. I took a bunch of assorted glasses, and I'm still using them. In fact, I really like these wine glasses. I don't have a complete set, but I have  5 of them, which is the most I've ever needed at one time anyhow. 

That's it for me today. I hope everyone has a wonderful T day and week ahead.
And thanks so much for visiting my blog also.





20 comments:

Linda Kunsman said...

I really admire anyone with the knowledge and patience in putting together a veggie garden. It's really is the one thing I miss the most about losing our next door neighbors/friends. The wife really knew her stuff and while we helped a bit- most of our help was picking and eating:)I must ask her if she's heard of coconut mulch. The new neighbor although a nice guy has no plans to keep the area as a veggie garden. he doesn't even cook for himself at all. I do so very little yard work since I am so sensitive to the poisons and get bad infections. I know you will be so happy for all the veggie rewards soon after so much work.
Always so nice to hear of someone enjoying retirement. My hubby can't wait until he can finally retire. As you know there is a lot to make the days fly by just like when one was working a full time job;)
I always add a dry red to my spaghetti sauce:). Happy T day!

Angie's Recipes said...

Awesome that you have been enjoying busy life :-) Cheers!

Iris Flavia said...

I´m so with you - I hate planting and all that but I love the outcome!
Cute story with the wine glasses. I have some my Mum gave to me and (knock on wood) so far I didn´t break one so there are six!
Retirement, yes, looking forward to that! Off to my work PC in 8 minutes, though ;-)
Happy T-Day to you, hugs!

Words and Pictures said...

I'll be interested to know how it goes with the coconut mulch. Wood chip is the most commonly available kind here, and I've certainly noticed it helps hugely with moisture retention in the courtyard garden where almost everything is in pots and troughs (including my vegetables). Round the back is much more of a wilderness/meadow/orchard type affair, so mulch is not going to feature much! Great to hear you are enjoying having time for the things you love doing.
Alison x
Oh, and thank you for stopping by - I've no idea why your comment isn't showing on the post - it's in my Comments list and I got an email about it too - weird.

Valerie-Jael said...

Cheers, Erik, enjoy your wine. I hope our garden grows well. I have coconut earth in my plant boxes, and the flowers are doing really well on it. I used to get a lot done each day, too, but at the moment its just not possible. But rest and reading or painting are also nice activities! Hapy T Da, hugs, Valerie

Empire of the Cat said...

That wine glass looks big enough Erika, and a nice shape too. I have a love/hate relationship with my garden too, and a hate/hate with the weeds. Right now, there is one particular one that has spread from one side of the garden to the other in just weeks - my fault for not keeping on top of it but it's just frustrating how fast they grow. I put weed supressing fabric and bark mulch down last year and it must have had weed seeds in it because now I have bark with new weeds on top! Bah! Anyhoo, Happy T Day Elle/EOTC xx

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

I enjoy planting and watering, but for some reason, I'm bad at harvesting. Not sure why.

I have never tried that mulch, but I used to have a lasagna garden. Here is how I made mine. I used heavy cardboard for the bottom layer: https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-make-a-lasagna-garden-2539877

You can do this in the fall, so the garden will be ready in the spring.

That's a lovely wine glass. I remember when I was in LA, Trader Joe's had a wine called "Two buck Chuck," or something like that. Had to laugh at the Trader Joe's label. Thanks for sharing your veggie garden and your wine with is for T this Tuesday, dear Erika.

nwilliams6 said...

I would have a love hate relationship with a garden if I had one too! Looks fun though. Love your wine glass and that you have had it a long time - those are the best! Glad retirement is so wonderful - I hope to join you soon and start doing more of what I love as well! Hugz

Mae Travels said...

Good luck with the gardening — you really look as if you know how to do the hard work to get good results. I’m a big fan of cooking with wine, especially in spaghetti sauce. Yours looks good.

best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com

CJ Kennedy said...

Get your gardening done today. Awesome space you have. Rain for Wed and Thurs. Good days to clean house or to sit in your hammock, read a book and sip wine in the pretty glass. Happy T Day

David M. Gascoigne, said...

Now if I lived close by, Erika, I would do the very neighbourly thing and come over to help you drink that wine. It would be the right thing to do after all. And you do have five glasses and I never have more than one glass in each hand so that would be sufficient! I don't know if you have tried any of the Malbecs from Mendoza, Argentina, but they are quite wonderful. My two favourites at present are Don David (who can resist a wine with a name like that?) and La Linda. Get some good cheese, a fresh baguette and some olives and you are all set for dinner! Be sure to invite me. Hugs - David

Let's Art Journal said...

So glad that you are enjoying your retirement! You are always so busy, I bet you wonder how you had time to work ...lol ๐Ÿ˜‰. Your veggie garden is looking great, the coconut mulch will definitely help with the weeks, we put down bark every year in our flower borders and it definitely helps. Take care and have fun! I'll happily join you for a glass of wine too - Happy T Day! Hugs Jo x

Lisca said...

You're not the only one who feels like that about vegetable gardening. We usually get as far as planting and growing/watering, but then never know exactly when to harvest. Because of hubby's illness we have not planted much (see my blog) but he is passionate about his fruit trees, so we are making an effort about watering those. I don't know about coconut mulch...
I'm glad you are enjoying your retirement (I know you would).
The wine glass is lovely. I love the shape. So here's to you and your to-do list!
Happy T-Day,
Hugs,
Lisca

Jackie McGuinness said...

I have lots of sets of glasses with 5 glasses.
I don't miss my big gardens we had in our house. I am happy now to put a few plants on the balcony and plant herbs for cooking.

Christine said...

You are so organized and get so much done. I do like your wine glasses. I am out weeding every day unless it rains like today.

carol l mckenna said...

Kudos to you and wine and gardening ~ Enjoy ~ Xo


Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,

A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)

jinxxxygirl said...

Because of weeds i decided a long time ago that if i EVER have another garden it will be in raised beds.. MUCH easier to take care of in my opinion.. After moving in the new house and getting hubs shop build .. we will eventually have to work on the yard.. Hope to have some raised beds.. I think you WOULD have to enjoy yourself to do as much work as you are doing.. I hope your garden produces some fabulous stuff this year!! Happy T day! hugs! deb

Carola Bartz said...

For some reason, my vegetable garden is my least favorite. I do love the results (if it works out well), but often the plants don't really take or shrivel or just plain die. I'd rather keep to my habitat garden. I have never used coconut mulch - be careful if you have dogs and don't let them get into that. The mulch I use is compost - it suppreses weeds, regulates the soil temperature, and amends the soil and keeps it healthy. That glass of wine looks tasty; I also enjoy cooking with wine (and drinking from my glass at the same time, of course.

Sharon Madson said...

The wine glasses are pretty. I have some I don't use, that came from my mother. I hope you get lots of good vegetables from your garden this year.
Happy T Day.

pearshapedcrafting said...

There are times when I miss having a garden but when I see how hard you have to work I remember how much time it used to take! I shall enjoy seeing your garden grow and not feel so envious! Not supposed to drink wine these days so will enjoy those memories too! Belated Happy T Day, Chrisx