Kitten and Snow

We are having a ~~lovely~~ winter storm in Spring.

Much hand wringing and disaster predicting has happened for a week. And after stepping back from the dire predictions of 12″ the weather people have come to the unreasonable conclusion that we will have at least 2″ and as much as 8″.

In spring. I’m just saying. Mother Nature is off her meds and someone needs to see to it.

Anyway, Tim was sitting in the window, watching the big fat flakes falling and swirling and clearly feeling like he was missing out on a fun time.

So I let him out on the balcony. He ran out like he was going a play date. He arrived back looking a bit cowed. It was COLD, MOM! Also, despite a desperate attempt to cajole her, his babysitter, Mrs. Fluffy Pants, aka, Her Calico Highness, known to her familiars as Bijou, FLATLY REFUSED to go out into the cold. The advantage to age is knowledge.

He was clearly disappointed in the whole experience. Poor Rebel Tim. Life is so much more disappointing than one expects when looking out a window.

But don’t worry. He has overcome his disappointment and is current chasing ghosts at top speed through the apartment.

Bijou and I are less active on Saturday Mornings. We have elected to watch his antics rather than participate.

Dangerous Plans are afoot.

I should NOT plan.

When I dream of the things I want to accomplish I’m nearly always ruined.

I know why, but it doesn’t fix it much.

I have the brain crack problem that Ze Frank describes. Basically I focus on the accomplished goal instead of the DOING of the thing. I picture a clean house or a picture drawn or novel published. That is brain crack. Our brains love that and they also then file away the goal as a done thing and you lose the motivation to get up and do the damn thing.

It is far better to make the process your goal. To focus on doing the thing. Then you have a better chance.

However, I have spent the better part of this week thinking about how I want my living room to look. Not how I am going to make my living room look that way. I have done a similar thing with the balcony and bedroom.

It’s far more satisfying than planning the mopping and the vacuuming and the polishing. 293ff8faf8eccb20f7f44636fd82dba3 I’m not sure why those dreams of scrubbing floors don’t hold my attention as much. Who can say, really?

We are supposed to have a snow storm tomorrow. It’s a good day to get cleaning done. Not the balcony but I assure you, there is PLENTY to get done in this apartment.

I had planned to do it a couple of weekends ago and fell victim to brain crack then too. I do wish I would learn a lesson and then change permanently as a result of it. Why don’t I? It feels like a flaw in my life.

Everyone does it. Knows what is good for them and then doesn’t do it. Sometimes despite experiencing the failure of not doing it. Why?

Of course, if we all started doing the things that are obviously best for us, the economy would collapse. All the diets and self help books and seminars and coaches and psychologists and drugs would no longer be necessary. f9f190a93356af1d9d7e0d5cb7543eb9

Do you suppose we are broken just to support the modern economy of fixing our brokenness?

ANYWAY. I have created a Pintrest board in the name of Cleaning. To inspire me on the actual DOING of the task. Hopefully this will redirect my thoughts to more practical matters. But I never thought I would be a person who has a Pintrest board for cleaning. WHAT IS MY LIFE COMING TO???

Tomatoes!!

My little tomatoes have raised their little heads through the soil. They are Money Makers seeds that I got from a friend.

But I’m very unsure about them. I think they are going to be a bit small. It is very tempting to start a beefsteak. But that is

a. too many tomatoes.
b. too much room.

I only have the balcony. And the balcony only has so much sun. And the best spot for the tomato only has room for one plant. So.

One tomato.

I had been thinking I would have an entirely edible balcony garden this year. No flowers. But then I remembered the damn squirrel.

There is a squirrel that lives on this apartment building. He runs up the sides of the building like it’s a sidewalk. He hangs out on balcony and on the window sills. He ate a couple of tomatoes last year until I finally figured out a cage system that worked.

But I don’t think I could do that the whole balcony. So I think I will sadly give up my brainstorm of a fabulous kitchen garden on the balcony.

Balcony Gardening!

It begins today! Well – I’m going to plant a few seeds today.

It’s going to be a bit of a test because with the new cats I don’t know how the seedlings will fare. Hopefully better than they did with the Much Missed Lily – who killed a lot of plants before I figured out how to get around her.

It’s probably a slight bit early to start. But… I want to have tomatoes as soon as possible.

My friend at work shared her tomato seeds with me. They are MoneyMaker tomatoes. We are hoping for bigger tomatoes than Box Car Willie, who was such a disappointment last year. All his tomatoes were just barely bigger than cherry sized. But he did produce until freeze, so that was encouraging as far as confirming the location the tomato is on the balcony.

I’m worried about the sizing of these Moneymakers though. They say 7-8 oz. A beefsteak is 14 to 24 oz. I don’t want as big as beefsteak but 7oz seems a bit small? Boxcar Willie was supposed to produce 10 to 16 oz. Which seems more like what I want. I think 7 oz might be small. gaaah.

Well. They are what I have. I guess I could poke a couple in some dirt and ponder more. Its such a commitment without knowledge of end results. It makes me crazy.

I’m considering replacing all the flower pots with edibles. It’s won’t be pretty and this is very much a problem in my brain. I’ll have to think on it. It would be nice to have a salad garden though.
This is how the balcony looked last summer. The big pot in the corner is the tomato. I had hoped to have peppers and zucchini last year, but Lily defeated me. This year I could make all the flower pots be salad greens. And cement planter could have french carrots. And the big pot on the ground could have peppers or a zucchini.

The balcony faces south, HOWEVER, the building blocks morning light because it sticks out farther than the balcony. So it basically only gets afternoon sun. And most of that is only on the edges because of the roof combined with the brick balcony. So if something requires full sun – it has to sit where those blue flower pots are. Even then, there is a difference in light; as you get closer to the tomato, you get more sun.

I think I’m going to try it anyway. It might inspire me to eat better. 🙂 But today I’m mostly just worried about tomatoes.

EDITED TO ADD: We now have answers on how the new cats will treat the plants. I was tentatively hopeful because they seemed to be ignoring the succulent I put on the window sill 3 weeks ago. But a few minutes ago I had to clean up this. That cat in the foreground is looking super smug. Just saying.