I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
The Front Porch Garden
We were still without a coffee machine this morning. Or, rather, we were without the pot that broke the other day. Tuesday my husband made coffee by placing a glass measuring cup in the machine and holding open the doohicky that stops the flow of coffee when the pot is pulled out. Only a four cup measuring cup fits in the machine. That is not enough. Yesterday we walked to the local gas station and bought cups of coffee. At first EJ was only going to buy one cup of coffee. When I asked him why he was just getting one, he said he’d just take a sip of mine. Uh…I think we can afford for us to have our own cups of coffee, and I really wanted a whole cup of my own. EJ wisely decided to buy a cup for each of us. Anyway…this morning EJ asked, “Do you want me to make the coffee with the measuring cup or buy coffee at the store?” I said I didn’t care how we got coffee but I wanted COFFEE. We laughed.
We decided the priority for today was to buy a coffee machine.
But first I took Danny for a walk. We usually go for a walk after EJ leaves for work in the afternoon because my mornings are too busy. However, there have been heat advisories this week so it’s been too hot to walk Danny. Poor thing, he loves his walks. So while EJ got dressed, I took Danny out this morning. When he noticed that I was going to take him for a walk, Danny sneezed. I think dogs sneeze when they are emphatic about something. Usually Danny sneezes once when he knows we are going for a walk. Today he sneezed three or four times for extra emphasis. It was about time we went for a walk and he was READY. It was hot outside, but there was a slight coolness in the air. I poured some coffee into a travel cup and drank my coffee as I walked my dog. It was very pleasant. I love mornings, and would walk every morning but I am usually too busy. I mean, I like to wake up slowly with a cup of coffee and my computer, and then everyone wakes up and the day gets busy. The coolness was gone by the time Danny and I got home.
After Danny and I got home, EJ and I left for the local Hospice thrift shop in a nearby town. The thrift shop raises money for the organization. We found one coffee machine for three dollars. We also found a few other things. My greatest find (other than the coffee machine) was large plant pots that were two for a dollar. We took six. I chose five plastic terracotta pots and EJ chose a large white pot. I wish I had gotten more because I think I could use them eventually. Oh, well.
We went to the Hospice’s other store across town as well. This store has large items like furniture and exercise equipment. We always enjoy browsing through this store because…well, we never know what we might find. We also stopped at the grocery store on our way home for a few groceries. They have a coffee station with free cups of hot coffee. Ahhhh!
After we got home and fixed lunch, I filled five of the new plant pots with dirt. I repotted my cactus plants in two of them. I have had these cactus since they were little nubs. They are now quite big. I have discovered that it is not easy repotting cactus plants. OUCH! In another pot I put the new bay plant that I bought last week at the Farmers’ Market. The lady I bought it from said it will get quite big. She also said that Rosemary is supposed to be brought inside during the winter, so I dug my two Rosemary plants out of the herb garden and put them in the other two pots. I figured I better get them in pots before they got too big.
These plants all join my Front Porch Garden. My Front Porch Garden are potted plants that I take outside every summer and bring inside every winter. The horseradish and ginger plants are part of this garden, as well as a spider plant. I always feel sorry for the spider plant in the winter because for some reason the cats love to sleep on it. So to protect it, I have to put it upstairs in the library/guest room, but I tend to forget it’s there (out of sight, out of mind) and water it infrequently. By the time I take it outside, it’s looking pretty pathetic, but it bounces back and thrives in the summer.
EJ also has some salad greens in window boxes on the front porch railing, but they aren’t doing well because our cat Tesla like to sleep in the window box and she crushes the plants. EJ is going to have to come up with a way to keep her out.
While I was filling my new pots with dirt and potting the plants, we had a severe thunderstorm warning in our area. The sky got black and there were some rumbles of thunder overhead. However, the storm passed just south of us and did not hit us. I do not think we even got any rain. The storm did cool the air off a tiny bit for awhile, but by the time I finished potting all the plants it was hot again and I was drenched in sweat. It felt good to go back into the air-conditioned house and cool off.
I Love To Go A Gardening 
Great post! Try living with about 20 cats and kittens.
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You have 20 cats and kittens? Wow! I’m trying to limit ourselves to eight, but we all love cats and kittens and it’s hard to refuse any that come into our lives. We fall in love with them.
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OH, it has been awful! When I moved back on the farm with my parents (they are 82 and 81) after 26 years, I knew they had the cats (well, geez, I brought a lot of plants). The adults were fine, then they started having kittens. I contacted the local pet adoption organization to see if there were any free spay and neuter programs and see if I could find homes. She got right on it and and started taking donations to get the adults fixed. So far I have gotten 8 of our cats fixed and the neighbors tom. What’s worse is that mom won’t stop giving them milk… Have lost several kittens because of it. Still have six more females to go then the kittens when they get old enough.
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I hope you can find homes for them all, and get down to a manageable number of cats! 🙂
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