Herb Garden Progress Report #1: Day 15

Obviously, this early in, there isn't a WHOLE lot to report, but there has been some progress.  

The first week or so I watered every couple of days because all three herbs grow best in mostly dry soil.  Then, when the heat really picked up and the soil was bone dry at the end of each day,  I began watering it at the end of every day.  

I originally planted 3 herb columns: Parsley(3 rows), Basil( 4 rows), Oregano (3 rows).

 Basil was the first to peek through;  It began showing at just day 5, all 4 rows.  It is in the middle.

One row died out a couple of days later.  Here is a close up of the basil sprouting

Parsley joined the party 10 days in. The picture was so dark I didn't bother adding it.  

 15 days in.

Today, at 15 days,  all 3 rows of Parsley are growing strong (left) and the 3 surviving Basil rows as well (middle).  Still no sign of Oregano.   

That's all for now.  I'll try to give another 15 day update.  Happy Summer Y'all.

Tour de Texas

Mid May we were blessed to go Dallas, Texas for the wedding of a good friend Simon went to college with: Austin Click.  Dallas is not a quick trip for us, so a few months ago, when we were planning the whole thing, we decided to make it a vacation of sorts.  The weekend fell on the day after out anniversary, plus most of Simon's America-dwelling family resides in Texas, so we decided to combine wedding fun with family time and a celebration trip. :)

Thursday morning, early early, we drove to Atlanta and hopped on a plane to Houston.  From there we rented a car , a Chevy Impala of all the rotten luck, and drove to Dallas for the rehearsal dinner since Simon was to be an usher.   

We spent a lot of time in the car.  I will spare you all of those pictures but I had to include one. :)

The country club, where we all ate dinner after rehearsing at the church, was decorated beautifully and we enjoyed the time we were able to spend with some of the friends Simon never gets to see anymore. We continued the fun out on the town for a couple of hours once the pre-wedding festivities were complete. 

Late that night we drove back to Austin and crashed in the living room of Tanya and Wilson, Simon's cousin and her husband.  It was kind of a crazy night with the long drive but being able to spend Friday morning and early afternoon with them and their kiddos, Mia, Ally, Emi, and Jonas definitely made it worth it. It was also our only opportunity to say hi to Dan, Sarina, and Hannah, another cousin and his wife and their sweet daughter.  Sadly our schedules conflicted all weekend so out time with them was brief. But we at least got to enjoy a lunch together and a little chit chatting. 

This is Ally parading around in my heels.  It was pretty cute; she wanted to know exactly what I was doing with each step of my getting-ready.  She asked me what each makeup piece was and had questions about how I was doing my hair and if I would be wearing a necklace, etc.  We don't get to see any of the Texas family, including the girls, nearly as much as we would like, so it was fun having her be so inquisitive and desire to spend time with us.  

Friday afternoon it was back to Dallas for the stunning wedding. Chelsea looked beautiful and the ceremony was so sweet. The reception was on the 6th floor of a fancy building in downtown Dallas and was, once again, perfect.  We enjoyed some delicious food and lots of socializing while we watched the presenting of the newlyweds, their first dance, and the cake cutting.  

 Reception

 Newlyweds being introduced

 Us

...and us again

Back to Austin we went, for another short night followed by a fun day of just relaxing with the Robertsons and Hannah. 

Tanya and I were talking the next morning and I look over to find that all of the girls have made their way over to the still-sleepy Simon and are helping him wake up.  

 That afternoon we packed up or things and drove to Houston to spend some time with Toni, Bill, Julia, Nikolas, Jason and their two new dogs!!   Amidst all our chitchat and catching up with the family, we were fortunate enough to go over to the home of some friends we made back when we lived in Houston a year ago: Ben and Maddison Hisey. 

 I got to hold their precious 2 month old baby boy, Will; it was fantastic!  He was conked out in this picture.  

We're both so thankful that they took that time for us amidst their newly-hectic lives of parenthood adventures.  We shared a delicious meal and caught each other up on the past year. A lot can change in just one year! 

Sunday we went to church at First Colony, just like old times, and hung out at the house with everyone until we had to pack up and leave for the airport. We said our less-than-fond farewells to the Impala and then sat in the airport, waiting on our delayed flight to Atlanta. 

Once in Atlanta, we shuttled to the hotel where our car was parked,  grabbed some dinner at Wendy's, and headed home.  

It was a long, action-packed weekend and I contemplated walking to work the following Monday just to avoid getting back onto a car.  I decided against it, but after driving 1,100 miles in that rental car, it was a tough decision.  

We had so much fun and were so thankful for everyones hospitality and patience with our crazy, sporadic schedule. 

We  can't help but send out a huge thank you to everyone who housed, fed and just spent time with us that weekend.  We love you all and hope to see you again as soon as we can.  

We, also, are so happy for Austin and Chelsea Click and wish them many happy years together! 

Thank you for letting us be apart of you special weekend! 

Planting an Herb Garden

When we first started dating, Simon couldn't come to terms with the traditions bouquet of flowers, and insisted on giving me potted plants.  After the repeated emotional turmoil I underwent each time I killed the thoughtful gift, he gave up on his idealistic intentions and now will occasionally bring me a lovely bouquet of flowers that are bound and determined to die regardless of any heartfelt effort on my part.  Knowing this little fun fact, planting an herb garden might seem an odd pastime for my Sunday afternoon.  I, however, am hell-bent on overcoming my natural inaptitude to gardening.  I love nature, plants, flowers and the idea of growing your own food etc.  Somehow I feel that having ambitions of a vegetable garden later on is rather unrealistic if I can't even keep an herb garden alive.  So this is a trial run. of sorts, for my future endeavors. :)  I've been meaning/wanting to do this for awhile but somehow never seemed to get around to it.  Luckily, now is the ideal season to plant herbs on the middle east coast, so maybe that will be in my favor.  

Well, enough about that;  Here is how my little project went.    

I decided to plant the three herbs I seem to use the most: parsley, basil, oregano.  They all have the same sunlight and soil moisture needs as well.   They sound relatively compatible and should, I am hoping, enjoy each others company as much as neighboring herbs can be expected to do so.  

I read that soaking the seeds in water before planting them is the best way to go about an herb garden.  

Who knows if that is the case but, regardless, that is what I did.

While they were soaking, I prepared my planter.

  

  I used a tub we used to keep drinks on ice at our wedding.

I think it is cute and it has, until now, merely been collecting dust on our balcony. 

I drilled holes in the bottom of the tub to allow for proper drainage.  Here's how I went about that.  

 Here, with Simon's help, we set up a little drilling area.  Drilling directly into the deck would be frowned upon by the complex I think.  

 Stabilized the tub.  

I chose to drill from the inside out.  It seemed like more of a funnel shape would be formed, allowing for better water flow.  I based this off of absolutely nothing at all.  It just seemed like the best option.  

 I used a 1/4 inch drill bit and Simon's Makita drill to make 6 holes that formed a circle.  

TaDa! 

The potting soil package recomended mixing local soil in with the store bought stuff so, I ventured into the "forest" behind our apartment and, frankly, stole some dirt.  

I mixed it in with the potting soil, filling the tub a little less than half-full.   

All of the herbs can grow to about 18 inches so I didn't want to fill it too full.  We'll see how I did.  

I have to brag on/thank Simon for this cute little herb-garden-table he surprised me with.  It fits the little tub perfectly and is much cuter than just having it sit in the ground.  You can't really tell in this photo, but the tub is actually sitting down into the table a few inches.  Thanks honey! It's perfect!  And it makes me feel good that you have enough confidence in my herb garden to build it a table :D  

Love you.  

So then i planted three rows of the herbs. 

To remind me which is which, I wrote the name of each herb on a wine cork and jammed a wooden skewer into the bottom of it.  I placed them at the beginning of each row.  Can't take credit for that idea: I saw it on pinterest.  haha

Then I covered up the holes and watered.  

 So... that's that.  

I'll keep a little update going so you all can be excited with me if they grow into usable herbs.  Keeping my fingers crossed!! 

Any advice on maintenance? I've read they mostly like rather dry soil and need almost constant sunlight.  

Happy Sunday everyone! 

A Spartanburg Weekend

This past weekend Simon and I spent most of our time in Spartanburg: the city where Simon works. We love Greenville but it seems like we end up hanging out just as often in Spartanburg because of friends and organized outdoor events. 

Friday we spontaneously went out and had a fun evening with our friend Patrick. We happened to catch the tail end of a bicycle race.

Video Not Working

We listened to, what I thought was, a great country cover band, but I was soon over ruled by Patrick and Simon, (who apparently have poor taste in music) so we went somewhere else. 

Then on Saturday we all met up again for lunch at the newly-opened Wild Ace Pizza downtown, before heading across the street for the live music playing in the square. Spring Fling was being held downtown that weekend so there were several stages with bands all day, seemingly endless rows of food stands, and a few scheduled events.  We watched a couple of sidewalk painters. 

This one did some cool 3D work.  

 He wasn't finished yet but it was already looking good. 

One of the food stands. Check out the menu options; The epitome of America. LOL

We waited, like cool kids, in front of the "French Fry Factory" food stand to take a video of the neat fry-cutting gadget. Here it is. 

One event we wanted to see was the frisbee dog show. The rain held off long enough for us to see it. Here is a video of some of the tricks. The dogs were pretty cute. :)

Sorry this is such poor quality.  I don't know what the problem is with my download.  

Sign on the dog show lawn.  

Then, the rain hit.  Hurrying over to Wild Wings Cafe, we met up with some friends of ours: Greg, Julie and their son Florian. 

Hunger struck and I gave in and ordered, what turned out to be, donut-sized onion rings. Mistake!  We managed to make it through a few of them but... I think I'll order something else next time. 

Despite the rain, we all had a lot of fun enjoying some out-of-the-ordinary events that Spring time brings.   Can't wait for more :)

Steeple Chase

Since we've moved to South Carolina, the new experiences I've been able to enjoy seem to be endless.   First an exciting introduction into Hockey and now, we've been to our first steeple chase.  The event began mid afternoon on Saturday, and on the way, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Cracker Barrel: my most favorite breakfast place of all! 

 Here is Simon making a better score than me at the little peg game on the tables. 

After that treat, we met up with Kayla, from Simon's work, and Justin, her boyfriend to ride to the event together.  We were blessed with completely perfect weather, despite the fact that the light breeze tricked us all into not putting on sunscreen and therefore leaving with a bit of a burn.  :)

We were at the steeple chase with Simon's company: Consultex Systems, so we were with many of his coworkers, their families, and some friends of his boss Arne.  It was a rather large group huddled into the space, but it made it all the more fun.  

Here is part of the spread we snacked on throughout the afternoon.  Arne's dad is French, and we joke that we can always count on bread, cheese, and salami.  It really never fails.  haha 

Many of the horses came out at the beginning, trotting around before it all began.   

This is a shot of the empty track and an example of the beautiful sky! 

So, the difference, I learned, between a Steeple Chase and a Derby is that, along the track, they have hurdles for the horses to jump over.  Each group is made up of about 6 horses, and they do 3 laps around the mile-ish long track and the first to cross the finish line is the winner.  6 races in total went on that day, including one pony race.  

Before the whole thing began, several small carriages were paraded through the start/finish line area.  

Here is one of the little carriages. 

Arne's area was right in front of the finish line so we got to see the most exciting parts of the races! 

Here is a little three-shot action of the ending moments of one of those races.  

(You can just make out the hurdle in the background) 

The race winner: #5  

Some between-race chit chat

Me and Susana, the sweet wife of one of Simon's coworkers: Alex

Big smiles.   

 Kayla and Justin spectating, and our neighbors having a big time in the background.  

 Justin, Kayla, Kinsey, Brad, Simon, and me

 as we walked back to the cars lugging the coolers, chairs, etc.  

Needless to say, we were worn out after nearly 6 hours of race watching.  We were thankful for Arne and his generosity for providing such fun "work" events for us to enjoy.   As always with this group, we had a marvelous time, enjoyed delicious food with lots of laughs, came home a few pounds heavier and little bit crispier.  

Mom's Visit

Simon was able to travel to Germany, for about 10 days, on a business trip. It was rather last minute; we had less than 2 weeks notice. He and a coworker played the sales men roll at a trade show for a few days and then were able to do some personal travel before heading home.

Here is a shot of the booth they set up at the trade show.

While Simon was away, my mom came for a visit the second half of his trip.

I was working most of the time but it was still fun to talk at nigh and cook dinner together.

Once the weekend was here we just about shopped 'til we dropped. It was a fun time and I am glad she was able to come for a few days. It was nice to have some girl time without the husbands :) There was definitely some silliness and lots of laughs.

This is a random picture of us in the dressing room. 

 We both picked up the same shirt. It did not look at all cute on either of us ha. But I took a picture because I thought it was funny.

Open Season on Ice Cream!!!

Across the street from our apartment there is a dangerously tempting little ice cream parlor coupled with a local farmers market/peach orchard. I try to support local farmers as much as I can by making a stop into the market once a week or so. The veggies are always so fresh, so it is worth the little extra money. Sadly, the place has to close down for almost half of the year since the crops and weather don't allow it to be open year round. I've been keeping my eye out for a sign advertising the reopening for awhile and last week it was there!!

So after a nice al fresco pizza dinner on the balcony, we walked over and each enjoyed a kiddie cup of our favorites. The ice cream parlor is such a little thing, but it is one of the things we have made our own since we moved here and I'm happy to have it back. Now we just have to keep the visits under control :)