(153) The Grand Return!

I’ve returned from my road trip with my sister and when I got home, expecting the grand welcome, I got … not much. Beeks and Max greeted me like they always do when I come home from work. Beeks sniffed me and then was ready to go outside. When he came back inside, he just wanted to play with Max. Big deal! But that is what I said I wanted yesterday so I guess I got my wish.

My sister sent home a huge box of vinca minor plants with me. This is the vine that grows as a ground cover and has little blue/purple flowers. I have seen this also called Periwinkle. I have a few small spots of it in my side yard but it is expensive and slow growing. She happily dug some up from her yard and highly encouraged me to take some home. When I got home, tired and hot (91 degrees here, 86 degrees there) I knew I needed to get the plants in the ground this afternoon. Partly because I am going to be busy working the next couple of days and they would not survive, and partly because if I didn't do it now it wouldn't get done. EVER. I quickly got the car unloaded and then set to work to untangle and plant the vinca. In about three minutes I realize this was a hot messy difficult job and I was already sweating so profusely that I couldn’t see out of my glasses. I was struggling so much with the vines that I was reminded of the movie Little Shop of Horrors, where the overgrown plant wants to be fed and struggles all over the place to get fed. If it gets cut off it grows more and needs to be fed with blood and flesh. Yep, I felt like I was feeding this overgrown, out of control plant that would not be controlled. I had enough plants to fill three flower bed areas and then some. I quit planting after an hour (add small cursing words here). The mosquitoes that were not evident at my sister’s house; had moved to my neighborhood and were now eating me alive. Even after I quit planting and came inside, I was itching like crazy. Nothing less than a shower helped.

I got a wonderful surprise when I got home. Brad had experimented with the food dehydrator and had used it to make dried sweet potato bits for the dogs. His experiment worked! He peeled the potatoes, then cut them into French fry shapes. He dried the pieces for 11 hours and then turned off the machine. By the time I got home they were hard and brittle. They tasted great (I could taste the sweetness of the potato) and the dogs loved them as well. I like that they are brittle and hard so that they have to chew it and it takes them some time to chew it. What a healthy snack for all of us.
Sometimes it just feels great to return from a road trip. Makes me appreciate the trip and home a little more.