Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Dirty Deeds

It's that time of year, time to get your hands dirty. And I couldn't be happier.

I always plant my outdoor pots the first weekend in May. I start looking forward to it in March, when we're in that limbo between winter and spring. You know what I mean, the snow is pretty much gone the days are warming up just a bit and it's even lighter out past the early afternoon. There's that hope that spring is right around the corner. BUT, not quite. There could still be a day when a few of those white flakes fall from the sky. And those short sleeve shirts will have to stay in the drawers.

March turns into April and the slow walk towards spring continues. But then April ends and we finally hit that first weekend of May. It was well known, in this part of the country, that once we hit the first weekend in May we were out of jeopardy of there being a frost. So that first weekend, for me, it's full on flower time.

This year I wasn't so sure. We had a week of warm weather in the end of April but then suddenly it was so cold I had to turn the heat back on. On top of that, we were expecting rain for 5 days straight starting on Friday of that first weekend. I'd bought all of my flower but reluctantly stored them in the garage. This may be the first year I'd have to wait. 

Friday came and it warmed up. We had a few rain drops. Saturday came and it was the same, cloudy but no real rain. Sunday morning I baked. Then the sun came out, the air warmed up and that was it. Time to get my hands dirty.

I played in that dirt like I hadn't done it in a year. My fingernails were packed with dirt and my nail beds were crusted in it, but I haven't been this happy since the first weekend in May last year. And when I was done with my dirty little deed? I smiled. Welcome Spring.

Flower pots planted in the spring | Picture featured on and property of www.BakingInATornado.com
on the back deck

Flower pots planted in the spring | Picture featured on and property of www.BakingInATornado.com
between the garage doors

Flower pots planted in the spring | Picture featured on and property of www.BakingInATornado.com
at the front entrance

Another dirty little deed of a completely different sort is also going to make me smile. It starts with potholes. Actually it starts years ago when my boys were in elementary school, and it ends with potholes.

When the boys were in school, it became clear that PurDude had challenges. I was trying to get him help for the tremor and visual spatial issue that resulted in, among other things, his handwriting never having progressed since kindergarden. The school refused to help him, he was so intelligent that his grades actually raised their averages. Why spend money on him?

In my years of fighting to get him the help he needed, one of the things I did was write a letter appealing to each member of the school board. One responded, left a supportive message on my answering machine. Thinking I'd found a partner, I found her number and called her back. She told me that she didn't actually want to talk to me, cutting the conversation short by telling me she was too busy to hear me out, she was having her kitchen remodeled. 

A few years later this same woman had actually been elected mayor of the city. I lived just outside city limits, our area had not been annexed into the city and therefore I could not vote against her.

This year the potholes in the city were . PurDude not only ended up with a flat tire due to the road conditions, but a week later ended up with a bent rim. The city's streets were so bad and the mayor's solution so absurd (in some places dig out the asphalt and leave the roads with just gravel) that there was actually a New York Times article written about it. Oh, and something else, a grassroots movement to impeach the mayor. Yes that same woman who on the board of education didn't care about kids, as the mayor doesn't care about infrastructure.

And guess what this woman did, just two months ago? Yup, she annexed our area into the city proper. Know what that means? 

The group has organized, filed the paperwork, set up a public meeting and have petitions ready. Let me tell you that I cannot sign on the dotted line fast enough. In fact, I'll even bring treats. As I said, before I planted, I baked.

Strawberry Milkshake Shortbreads, the flavor of a summer treat in a crunchy cookie. | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #cookies

Strawberry Milkshake Shortbreads
Strawberry Milkshake Shortbreads, the flavor of a summer treat in a crunchy cookie. | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #cookies


The last dirty deed? Staying a Red Sox fan. I am so excited about how the Celtics are doing. And the Bruins. I'd like to say it's an exciting time of year to be a die-hard Boston fan. But then there's the Red Sox and let me just say right now that watching them is excruciating. The good news? They're finally out of last place in the American League East. Last place? My beloved World Series winners had been languishing in last place. I'm a fan, a huge fan, always have been. Grew up with box seats at Fenway Park. 

But this year? Let's just say I'm being sorely tested. In fact, you could say that lately I've been standing on that dirt warning track of Red Sox fandom.



Baking In A Tornado signature | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics





Strawberry Milkshake Shortbreads       
                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe


Ingredients:
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup strawberry Nesquick powder
1 1/2 tsp strawberry extract
2 cups flour
red colored sugar

Directions:
*Cream 2 sticks of butter until smooth. Mix in the powdered sugar and strawberry Nesquick powder until just incorporated, then beat in the strawberry extract. Mix in the flour and form into a dough with your hands. Roll into a log, about 14 inches long, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover cookie sheets with parchment paper.
*Remove cookie dough from fridge and cut into 1/4 inch slices. Sprinkle with red colored sugar. Bake for 12 minutes. Allow cookies to cool completely.



12 comments:

  1. Our potholes are really bad here too. To many politicians taking money for stupid projects and don't care at all about the infrastructure. Of course, Lindsey Graham is our Senator so you can probably understand where I problems come from!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I've lost a lot of respect for almost all politicians, but Lindsey Graham is on the top of my list when it comes to being two-faced.

      Delete
  2. I've been too busy running around the country to get any planting done yet. For the past few years Hubby has bought me annuals for Mother's Day, so when we both get a free moment we'll head to the garden shop and load up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Know you've been having a great time visiting family, looking forward to hearing what you end up planting.

      Delete
  3. No dirty hands here not because I have a problem with dirty hands but because I just washed them

    ReplyDelete
  4. Spouse and I hve both gotten our hands dirty. Because of my back issues I stick mostly to hanging pots and containers (it's easier) and it's getting done bit by bit. Today was gorgeous. Tomorrow is back to rain. I wish you much success with getting the impeachment going. What an...(can't say it). May I suggest a raspberry (I'm from the Bronx, after all, where we make that famous raspberry sound called the Bronx Cheer) dish, also, if you aren't exhausted from the baking and gardening. My hands are freshly washed but my fingernails still have plenty of dirt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha, I'm familiar with the Bronx Cheer, hope the mayor gets way more than that.

      Delete
  5. For 44 years, the ruling party here in Alberta sacrificed infrastructure for a healthy bottom line. (Such as closing schools and hospitals, because who would need those?) Then we had a brief change. And the new party wasted no time in starting to build up said ignored infrastructure. To the tune of billions. And all anyone could see were the dollars spent and not the horrendous decisions that had ignored the issues for so long our province was, quite literally, falling apart. Now the old ruling party is, once again, firmly in the driver's seat and the first thing they are proposing is privatizing the education and health systems. What could possibly go wrong?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ugh, well, where do I start with that list? I was just talking to my oldest son about this, about how with politics there never seems to be a happy medium. The pendulum swings from way too far one way to way too far the other. What politics needs is some common sense and some common decency.

      Delete

Warning: Comment at your own risk. I have Comment Moderation, meaning I approve all comments before they show up here. So go ahead, I'm not scared!