Why I love Costco:

I had to be convinced to join Costco by my younger who had just moved out to his own apartment. He did a good job of selling me a membership but the card mostly languished in my wallet for several months. Somehow, though, I was infected by Costcolove.

This Gerties's Artichoke Tapenade is something I would never have tried for the price ($11+ for a jar) but Costco offered it to me for around $8 and I took it! We plowed through most of the jar in 1.5 days.

There's more, including their 2# tubs of Krinos Kalamata Olives (pitted, no less!) for around $6. I can't find them for less than $9/lb any where else. So yes, I'm in love. I visit monthly and would go more if it wasn't over the hill in another town.

Gardening this time of year for me is basically

1. making sure the kitchen scraps get to the compost
2. stirring the leaves around
3. getting dear hubby to clean up around his shed
4. picking up stuff in the yard that was deposited by chinooks
5. thinking about how to keep the deer out of my food garden
6. reminding myself that I should use the cold frame this year
7. dreaming up projects for dear hubby to do

Good workout, eh?

Still here. Good thing that asteroid missed us.

I have 5+ years of stickers on my neighborhood Eco-pass and decided to use it today to return home from Denver early.  I've always enjoyed the RTD between Boulder and Denver going back to the days when I was getting to know my husband (before we married).   Something about that metal and diesel smell and being high up off the pavement and knowing that nothing will get in the way.  Sailing up the High Occupancy Vehicle Lane like nobody's business.  And it's only on busses that I overhear conversations like, "I hope you don't have to go to jail....that would be sad."

There's a headline today about disappearing dirt.

"Call it the thin brown line. Dirt. On average, the planet is covered with little more than 3 feet of topsoil -- the shallow skin of nutrient-rich matter that sustains most of our food and appears to play a critical role in supporting life on Earth."

Yes that is true and has been for decades and something you can do about that is compost!. Just dedicate an area of your garden for a pile of yard and kitchen wastes (no meats or oils) and add to it throughout the year. Keep it moist. You can turn it in order to convert it to soil faster or let it slowly be changed over the years (my preferred method). A quicker alternative during the growing season is to bury the matter right into the soil. The life underground will have it transformed into rich, black soil in a matter of weeks. Or you can buy a fancy plastic bin. (Can't help you there.)


image from www.mytinyplot.co.uk

It's snowing again, those tiny little dry flakes that hardly look like they're there. Kudos to the new back walk that only wants to be swept, not shoveled.
My phalaenopsis, the one that the friend was going to throw out, is blooming again. This year it's a little later in the year. What's up with that? The other outstanding indoor bloom is the white geranium, the kind that old Italian ladies have on their balconies. And my sweet african violets.

When I started spending so much time in LA, I found various community blogs, including blogging.la. It's been a good source for 'local finds' and other miscellanea.

A sister site, denver.metblogs has been around for a while, in a somewhat somnambulant form. The site is supposed to be about life in the various metropolitan areas that the blogs represent. Life in Denver must be a slow, sleepy existence since I responded to the call for more writers 16 days ago. No other new writers have been posted to the authors list. Maybe the flood of applicants was just too much to handle?

I'm really not crazy about stark, brown winter beauty. Yesterday, though, I had to go to east Boulder county and was pulled right into the agricultural version of the season. East on Arapahoe, through the wide open fields - it's like looking out over a dry ocean bed - just earth and sky for miles and miles. The trip back west is just road and stunning views of the Front Range. Thanks to all the Open Space taxing, we'll have fields and old trees to look at for some time to come. Money well spent.

Why, oh why did I schedule myself to start work at 4:30??

I'm doing my own little version of "Nickel and Dimed" to make some extra money for a project I want to do. My first assignment has been pretty fun except for the big yellow tee-shirt and standing all day. This job is limited to the returning student rush so co-workers won't have time to take on the proportions of family and close friends as Barbara Ehrenreich points out in her book. That's the point - go in, get some extra money, leave and travel.

But starting at 4:30 in the middle of winter is working against my phototropic ways.

It's out with the old at what was the Bank of Boulder but lots of Christmas decorations are still up, including my wreaths and the Flagstaff star. That doesn't stop the major greeting card beast from barrelling toward Valentine's Day.

Yes, the red continues, but did you know that Christmas red is different from Valentine's Day red in the greeting card industry? Christmas is deeper, richer, full of meaning while Valentine's is brighter with the promise of the lighter pastels to come with Easter.

One way to get color in the house in the winter - use prisms. Most of mine catch the morning sun. The sun is too low to be broken up in the west window.
I've been reading gardening blogs this winter that list what's blooming in the garden. I can attest that nothing is in bloom in my yard and now that the snow is melting, it's all various shades of brown for a while. Indoors, a few colorful violets and a jewel orchid are blooming with a phalaenopsis on deck. I've been importing bouquets of color from my florist (Costco). The good news is dusk is lasting till 5:30ish.

This is why I'll never have a lush garden. They are totally oblivious to my yappie Scottie.