The View from My Computer Window

(Remember, you can click on any photo to make it larger to view).

It's like waiting for a red light to change when you're in a hurry. It's time for the snow to MELT. Ok, now it really will. Ok, really, now it's going to melt today. It has hung around for 4 days now. I know I have no reason to complain, Peggy Anne, at Bailey's Nursery in Minnesota, said they have 3 ft. of snow and she was walking across the lake, on snowshoes, no less, to have coffee with her sister on Sunday. Brrrrrrr. No thanks. A wimpy 1 inch of snow that hangs on for 4 days is waaaay to much winter as far as I'm concerned. The weatherman, lying guy he often is, promises us 70 degrees by Saturday. We'll see.

Above is the view I see from my upstairs window, looking down at the Herb Shop, bell tower and guest house, all in the garden. Ok, now the snow will melt, any minute now. Or else I'm going back to Florida again.

I clicked a photo of the jonquils as they were bowed down under the little bit of snow. And a pic of the poppies that are up and growing in the pathways of the garden. Somehow, no matter how careful I am when I harvest poppy seed, a few escape and come up in the pathways. And once they're there, I let them bloom because they really don't do well when they are transplanted.

I'm posting a couple of photos of allspice and bay rum plants. Anyone interested in ordering them from the nursery? If so, I'll post prices and information. They also have cinnamon plants and lemon bay rum for sale, very nice plants, great people do deal with. Here's how to grow allspice. And the same for bay rum.

That's Billy Hopkins from the nursery, holding the Allspice seedling which they can mail to you.

Then below, the green "twig" I'm holding is cinnamon. That's the part you cut and slice the bark from, then dry it. That's where cinnamon comes from, whether it's stick cinnamon (just the dried bark) or ground cinnamon, which is the dried bark, ground fine. Cinnamon plants grow fine as a houseplant, as does allspice and bay rum. All very fragrant and useful in medicine and culinary uses. Bay rum is easily made into a lotion for skin rashes (you may know the fragrance from after shave lotions; it's in there, not just because it smells fresh and spicy, but because it is very soothing to the skin, as well). Here's a link to making your own bay rum cologne.

Pirates loved cinnamon, or was it bay rum? Probably it was just rum flavored with cinnamon and bay. That's me, sticking my face through a pirate cutout, proving I was a tourist. He's kind of a chubby old pirate. But hey, all that rum I guess.

I just last week sent away a start of a mint I've been cultivating for almost 30 years, to VJ Billings at Mountain Valley Growers. We've tentatively named it, "Blue Eye Springs" since that's where I found it growing (near a spring outside Blue Eye, MO) all those years ago. It's a very productive spearmint that stays green most of the winter and is always the first mint up in the spring and the last one to quit in the fall. She said she will have it for sale in about a year.