neotoma

Last night I went with greenygal, the Vegan Knitter, and A Person To Be Pseudonymed Later (aka Euterpe) to see Madame Satan, Cecil B DeMille's only musical at the AFI.

It was fun, though the male lead character does not deserve his awesome wife -- she's so much more interesting than he is, because he's just keeping a vaudevillian as his mistress, and she's willing to crash at the mistress' apartment, force her husband's friend Jimmy to keep up the charade that the mistress is actually his new wife, and when that doesn't solve the problem of her husband's straying, she crashes the masquerade ball that Jimmy is hosting on a zeppelin in a regal and extremely reveling dress as 'Madam Satan', who speaks with a French accent and captives her husband away from the mistress.

There is an extended dance sequence with 'Electricty' that is definitely influenced by the robot creation scene in Metropolis, and was performed by then-famous dancer Theodore Kosloff and an ensemble dressed as gears and mechanisms.

The film abruptly veers into a disaster film as the zeppelin gets caught in a thunderstorm and has to be evacuated via parachute. The film was made in 1930, which was after the USS Shenandoah disaster, but 7 years before the Hindenburg disaster, so the disaster in the movie is based on the Shenandoah, which crashed in three pieces.

The sound quality of the film and the singing styles of the time also means that I missed most of the words of the songs, but it still made sense without them.

Afterwards, we had dinner at Charm Thai and discussed how you would remake the movie today -- consensus was, we'd absolutely have to change the ending, possibly by having the wife and mistress run off together.

This morning, I went with ellen_fremedon and the Vegan Knitter to the Brookside Gardens Spring Native Plant sale -- they picked up some plants to replace the dawn redwood sapling they had to take out of their front bed before it grew big enough to damage their home's foundation and to replace a hosta and a boxwood in the back. I picked up a miniature rose, a stonecrop, a gold-edged hen-and-chicks sempervivum, and a pot of lance-leafed loosestrife (which has a lovely bronze color).

We swung by the Ace Hardware to get some leaf mould fertilizer and then by my place to pick up my garden fork, and then went to their place to get the boxwood and hosta out -- which was a lot of work, as the hosta was actually mass of hostas that we had to excavate around to get out. The soil here is mostly clay, so we mixed about a third of the bag of leaf mould in before putting the native plants in the ground.

Today I pulled up most of the mint in the over-run flowerbed. I managed to preserve the apricot-colored daylilies and the black-eyed susan, but everything else I tried to get rid of. I'll probably use my cutters on Wednesday to cut the saplings that have managed to sprout. Hopefully by Saturday, it will be clear enough that I'll feel safe planting the seedling tomatoes and chile peppers I've got growing in pots right now.

Also, I managed to slice up my finger while making caprese sandwiches, so, that's a thing. Otoh, I managed to do the heel on my latest sock project, so that's a thing.

Got up early and planted most of the plants I bought at Thorne Farm last Sunday. 2 Islander bell peppers (purple skin), Buena Mulata (purple hot peppers -- for salsa morada), 2 New Mexican green chiles (1 Joe Parker, 1 Anaheim), 1 Chiltepin, 2 tomatillos (1 purple, 1 green), and some basil.

I also planted the marigolds I bought yesterday. This just leaves the container eggplant, the cherry tomatoes (Black and Sungold cultivars), and the Fish peppers and the tomatoes I've grown from seed to plant.

Then I took a shower and did 4 loads of laundry, including my gardening gloves and clothes, which were pretty dirty from all the work.

Started more seeds

2 pots each of

• Hatch chile


• Buena mulata chile


• Purple tomatillo


• Abe Lincoln tomato


• Aji charapita chile

I used biodegradeable cardboard pots and seed starting mix this time.

Also, pulled the Mortgage Lifter tomato seedlings out to the windowsill and stronger supplemental light. There were getting awfully leggy, and I want them to be better established before I try transplanting them.

I went to water my hanging planters today, and discovered that someone had abandoned several plants on the wall -- I'm sure they abandoned them, because they left a box of powdered plant fertilizer behind.

I've taken in the Jamaican thyme, the African violet, and the snake plant. I'm not even going to try with the poinsettia, as they are altogether too finicky for houseplants, in my opinion.

The violet looks sunburned, and probably needs repotting; I'll see what I can do. The snake plant looked a bit wilted, but it's hard to kill them so should be alright. The thyme needs repotting and trimming back; I could probably split it into three plants if I cut the leggy parts off and got them to root again.

I don't suppose anyone local wants a snake plant, or a violet? Or even a Jamaican thyme?

Today I planted flowers -- specifically the dozen marigolds and one nasturtium I bought yesterday. I turned over the flowerbeds with my garden fork, and planted the marigolds alongside the walkway, and the nasturtium in a nook between overwintered onions.

Normally I'd have gone to Maryland Sheep and Wool this weekend but it's canceled. I can still check out the vendors, and there is an Online International Fiber Festival to peruse, but it's not quite the same as wandering around the fairgrounds, looking at stuff and eating cinnamon-candied pecans and pit lamb. I definitely won't be getting a flat of chile pepper and tomatillo plants from Thorne Farm, which means that I have no idea what vegetables, if any, I'll be able to plant this year.

The first of the seed catalogs arrived today. Southern Exposure Seed Savers Exchange. I'm tempted by the Abraham Lincoln tomatoes, as I've grown them before and they are excellent slicers. I really need a bigger garden for corn, but I had fun with the Oaxacan green corn I grew this summer.

Pint of snap peas, 3 quarts of strawberries, a bottle of applejack vinegar, Greek chocolate cookies, pita, tzatzik.

I got up and ripped out the mint and larkspur this morning before it got hot or began raining. I planet six corn plants, three Trail of Tears bean plants, and three candy roaster squash. The beans will be fine, and I have hopes for the corn, but I'm going to keep an eye out for the squash. Curcubits transplant poorly.

I also repotted the 5-color Chinese pepper and the cayenne pepper plants into larger pots, and replaced one of the shishito peppers that didn't make it with a fish pepper. I also had to repot my French lavender, since the pot wasn't draining and was terribly waterlogged.

I put a stonecrop and a sempervivium into hanging baskets. Hopefully they'll be able to cope with the heat and way hanging baskets dry out so easily.

I'm going to weigh out and macerate the strawberries for a double batch of the honey-sweetened strawberry/lime/thyme jam.

Planted the sunflowers, bell peppers, thyme, lavender, and rosemary today.

Repotted a mini-rose I picked up at the grocery that needed rescuing. It may not survive, but it's still better off than it was. Potted the Atilla strawberry seedlings -- they're still teensy, and might not make the transition.

Thinking about planting melons, beans, and more corn when I get back from my trip. It might be hot enough by then.

I planted 7 fava bean seeds (Aquadulce variety) today in jiffypots on my windowsill. Hopefully I'll be able to get them into the ground in the next week or two. It's been ridiculously warm here so far, and while we may have snow on Friday, I want to get a start on planting. Otherwise, it will be too warm for all the spring crops like sugar peas or fava beans.

Also, I've seen a few sweet pea plants sprouting, from the seeds I scattered a few weeks ago. If it does snow on Friday, I guess I'll have to rig up covers for the plants to protect them -- recycled plastic containers might be it.