It's Shed Season. Or "Did All That Come Off ONE Animal?" Season.

Just spent $100 on plants, half of which go out front, half in bucket out back. And got a railing plant hanger for the deck, except couldn't find a birdfeeder (humming or seed) I liked.

As soon as finish eating, going to go put stripper on the railing and plant some things! And it isn't even noon!

My mother video chatted me this morning and told me that seeing my face was one of the things that makes her happiest. Then she told me that my sister is prettier than me. Which is true, and not something I particularly have a complex about, but seriously, how can a woman be 64 years old and have so little filter?

So the good news is, I'm almost caught up on TV from last week! The bad news is, I haven't done anything else. Ooops.

Holy cow, flea.

Wow, flea.

Oh, flea. And the funny thing is I bet your sister would be as equally WTF MOM.

We had a lovely dinner last night with a bunch of old family friends; my nieces did all the cooking, which was awesome. And then I woke up with a belly-ache, probably from eating too much cheese after a couple of months of limited dairy.

And I'm cold, boo. But I have a mug of tea and I'm going to take the dog for a walk in a few, so that will get my blood moving.

Oh, Nutty and I are certainly as one in our "@@, mother."

A neighbor gave me several stems of basil leaves last summer, expecting I would use them for cooking. They were so bright and pretty I stuck them in a vase with water to look at for a few days, and sniff when passing. They kept looking fresh, so I kept adding to the water.

When I picked up the glass vase days later, the stems had put out roots. So I made a hole in a pot and stuck them in the dirt. They grew like crazy the rest of the summer. But as all basil I've had, they didn't overwinter. I did harvest and dry some of the leaves last fall. Unfortunate I'm not fond of basil in cooking. It's a tomato enhancer, IME, and I don't eat tomato.

My rosemary, sage, and thyme overwintered fine. We cut them back and they're already greening up again. Jury's still out on the tarragon, marjoram, creeping rosemary and Russian sage, and the lavender's alive, but blooming may not happen. I didn't really expect it, but I hoped, given the unkillable nature of oregano, that the ornamental oregano would survive. Sadly, it didn't. And the lemongrass never does. Time to hit the local nurseries next week. Last year's fennel was decorative, but we don't use it culinarily, and I want dill instead this year--dill, we'll use.

Forgive me for laughing out loud when I read that. My word, I hope I don't say stuff like that to my boys! OF course I don't think they feel at all competitive about how they look, although they do have the unequal treatment under the mom complex.

I have 2 sisters and we have all freely discussed that the eldest got all the girly curves. #2 and I got the boy like straight bodies. I think I was like a range of 5" between my waist/bust/hips at the max and Judi was nicknamed tree because she was so tall and straight. Mona had beautiful curves and cleavage that we didn't have until we got fat in middle age! She also got the thick dark hair where Jude and I got the fine blond stuff. I don't think any of us had any notion that one was prettier than the other, more 'vive la différence'.