That's what the weather is doing now. It's calling my bluff and daring me to follow through with my plan. I need to empty out the greenhouse, and this is probably the time to start. We're supposed to have sunny, warm days all week, with highs around 80F toward Friday.
Here's the greenhouse mess after everything that has kept me from tackling the job for the past year. Last summer and fall I had two cataract surgeries and was told by doctors and nurses to refrain from doing any gardening or other dusty, dirty work. Over winter, and until now, we've had too many cold mornings for me to feel comfortable putting delicate plants outside. Not only did we have way too much rain and too many freezing mornings, but I had a cold that lasted from late January until mid-March. I have finally run out of excuses...
The first thing to do is to cut up and cook some chicken parts (boneless thighs or breast) and sauté them in vegetable oil with some bacon or other smoked pork. Cook the meats until they are browned (photos above). Don't be stingy with sliced onion, garlic, and celery and with and Cajun or Creole spices including thyme, oregano, paprika mild and hot, cumin, and black pepper.
As meat and seasonings cook, add some diced bell pepper, some okra (or green beans), and other vegetables you like, either fresh or frozen. Separately, cook some sausages (smoked de préférence) in a frying pan. When they're done, take them out of the pan, cut them up, and add them to the mixture of meats and vegetables (leaving as much fat as you deem appropriate behind).
Add a cup or two (depending on how much meat you have cooked) of rice and between 1.5 and 2 cups of water or broth (I used shrimp broth that i had in the freezer). Also add some fresh or canned tomato (or tomato paste) to the liquid. Cook the jambalaya on top of the stove or in the oven, covered, for 30 minutes to an hour to make sure the rice is cooked and not crunchy.
When the rice is pretty much done, add (optionally) put some shrimp on top of it, put the cover back on, and let the jambalaya and shrimp steam until they're hot (or cooked if you use raw shrimp.
The grape pictures above are some I took on April 25, 2009. That was a beautiful spring. This year on the same date there are few if any grapes at this stage of growth. I hope the grapes will appear and thrive in May 2025, for the sake of the local grape-growers and economy.
These are just some photos documenting what our back yard looks like on this day in late April 2025. It had just had its first mowing when I took them. The building in the background, above left, is the garden shed, which is being taken over by ivy. It's been so wet that all I can do is watch it happen. Above right, the well is decorative. It's just a big planter box. We call it the vrai faux well.
Here are some views of our two remaining apple trees.Two others, one much bigger than these and one much smaller, died a few years ago and had to be cut down. Above left is a view looking back toward our house and our greenhouse from out by the garden shed. The photo in the middle shows the only two apple blossoms that I can find on our surviving trees. I looks like we won't have any apples this year. Above right is another view of the garden shed. The plants that look like bushes in a couple of the photos here are artichokes that come back up every year.
This is Walt's well-assembled taco
