In the works...

BLUE

(Stuff I'm writing...)

LIFE LIST

The Happy Camper

with Bobbi Ruggiero

TRAVEL

(Where I'm going...)

May

Cambridge School of Weston

Weston, MA

June

3 Rivers Romance Writers

Pittsburgh, PA

September

Northern Hearts Conference

Toronto, Canada

October

Moonlight and Magnolias Conference

Atlanta, GA

What I'm doing...

GARDENING SEASON IS FINALLY HERE!

What are you doing? How is your garden? Travel plans?

Writing plans?

WE CAN DO THIS!

Love,

Penny/Nina

Anyone Want A Chocolate Tomato?

Happy Mother's Day to me! I made out like a bandit. My hubs got me a Nespresso coffee machine. Natty and I shopped like fiends at the plant nursery. And last night I enjoyed white wine sangria at Legal's.

A great day!

I made my annual trek to Russell's Nursery in Wayland to get my window box plants and assorted herbs and veggies. Natty joined me this year for the first time. And she talked me into pink flowers for the window boxes, which is gonna be a new one. Normally I go for blue/yellow/white color scheme, but Natty kept bringing me pretty pink flowers, and I caved.

We also got...

*A Calamondin plant, which my Filipino father-in-law loved. Natty kept bugging me until I bought it with this refrain...."It's cultural, Mom. Work with me, woman!"

* Four kinds of mint....ginger, chocolate, orange and a new one....mojito cocktail mint! Yee haw!

* Kermit eggplant, which is this neat Thai small round eggplant that I love.

* Sugar Baby watermelons for Nat.

* Strawberry plants

* Six pack of assorted cherry tomatoes and one chocolate tomato...can't wait to see how that tastes!

* Apple Scented geraniums....I adore this old-fashioned herb. Also got vanilla-scented heliotrope.

* Honey Bear squash for Natty

* Tons of pink and white annuals for the boxes

I also planted hundreds of morning glory seeds and some sweet pea vines to grow along my fence. If I can just keep the landscaping company from hacking them down, it will look incredible in a couple of months. 

This week....read, write, garden. :^)

Happy Monday to All!

Penelope

Plant Of The Week: The "Bloody Mary"

Actually, this plant is not really called the "Bloody Mary". It's Bleeding Heart, or Dicentra spectabilis. However, my 8 year old daughter always forgets the name, and calls it a Bloody Mary, which I think is hilarious. It's one of my favorite spring flowers.

As a result of 100 days of rain (only slightly exaggerating), my garden is lush and gorgeous right now....

The hostas are up, the clematis is growing, the hydrangea is covered with tons of buds. My herbs all survived the winter....chives, santolina, lemon balm, oregano, thyme, mint. Everything looks great. I even have one lone fig growing on my fig tree! Hooray!

Happy Wednesday To All!
Penelope

Spring!

First sign of Spring at my house....the star magnolia (Magnolia stellata). This tree got chopped in half by a dumpster when we were doing our house renovation, but it's still kickin'!!! In fact, it looks gorgeous every spring, covered with sweetly scented blossoms. I just love it.

"Operation Daffodil" was a success! I planted hundreds of bulbs, and they all came up this spring. Unfortunately, the bunnies ate the crocuses, but everything else looks great. These are Siberian Squill (Scilla) and Short Cup Daffodils.

The courtyard garden is starting to sprout. Chives, oregano, lemon balm, and bleeding heart are coming up. I have buds on the clematis, hydrangea and spirea.

Here is my planter from last summer. The hens-and-chickens are green, and the mint, as always, reappeared. It's a great idea to keep mint in a container so it won't take over the herb garden.

Can't wait to plant veggie seeds and get started on my potager. Hope everyone is enjoying spring and getting excited for planting season!

All My Gardeny Best,

Penelope

Beard of the Day and Gardening Update (Hee hee..that's a weird combination!)

Happy Friday! Time for Beard of the Day. Here's Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who has an extremely masculine scruffy beard, with the just the right amount of salt and pepper. He also has those super intense puppy dog eyes that are hard to resist.

Now, you're probably wondering how I'm going to segue into the gardening section. Well, here I go.....

Just imagine you're diligently working on your herb garden, when Jeffrey Dean Morgan suddenly appears, wearing faded blue jeans, a tight T-shirt and a gardening tool belt. He gazes at you with those gorgeous hazel eyes and says, "Excuse me, ma'am, do you need some help in the garden? I have this nice, long, hard....trowel." He whips a trowel out of his tool belt and starts digging the compost.

Oh yeah!

What? Well, maybe that's stretching it a little bit, but anyway....

My kitchen herb garden is starting to bloom...I have oregano, chives, sage, lemon balm, thyme and lots of edible Johnny Jump-Ups in every color. I highly recommend growing some of these sweet annuals....you can throw them on a salad, in a pitcher of lemonade, or on a fruit platter. This weekend I'm heading to my favorite nursery to get basil, tomatoes, etc. My daughter Natty (who is 7) planted the peas, lettuce, radishes and beets in our veggie garden last weekend. Now, I just have to figure out how to keep the bunnies out of the garden!