Yesterday it rained. This morning I managed to work in my garden exactly 2 1/2 hours and do some weeding. The weeds are taking over. I did about 1/2 the garden. After weeding the Red beet bed I was surprised how tall those plants already were. Same with the Beans.
Before I worked on the weeds, I pulled out all the #dill plants. Okay, dill is also considered a weed by some, because once you have it in your garden you can't get rid of it. It seeds itself and comes back every year. That is okay with me, because we love it in Borscht, soups, stews, and in many other dishes. Everyone loves dill pickles. You can make dill dips with it. The list is endless. Actually, dill is a herb and also used for medicinal purposes.
Right now the plants are about 6 inches tall and at their best. This year, after all that rain, they are green and succulent. I pull out the whole plant, break off the root and throw it into a pail full of water. I wash the plants and take them into the house, where my wife takes over. She pulls the leaves off the stem and puts a bunch into a small freezer bag. Then she freezes them flat, like an envelope. When it comes time to use some, we take the bag out of the freezer, break off as much as we need from the frozen dill, and put the rest back into the freezer as quickly as possible. The reason for rushing is simple. The frozen dill thaws almost immediately. So it is important to keep the rest from thawing. We have 'fresh' dill all winter.
Every time I take that frozen dill out of the freezer, it reminds me of the show we once saw on TV. It was a documentary about the mammoths they dig up in Siberia. They are about 10,000 years old, kept intact in the frozen ground. The researcher who dig them up, have to work fast once the frozen bodies are exposed to the air, because they start to deteriorate very quickly. Sometimes they find animals with grass still in their mouths. And when the grass thaws they can smell the swamp it came from. Imagine, to smell something that was alive and growing 10,000 years ago! That must be exciting. Like traveling back in time.
Pulling the weeds was not much fun. The soil was clumpy and sticky. I had to constantly scrape the dirt of my hands and the small rake I used. In fact, using a rake was nearly impossible because of the sticky condition. Oh, and I forgot to mention the mosquitoes. They were out in full force and buzzing around my head. But I fooled them. I wore a mosquito net and I had sprayed repellent all over me. I got bitten only once. It was hot and muggy and my wet shirt clung to my back. That mosquito found that vulnerable part of my body.
It started raining again at 1:00 p.m. Time for me to go and have lunch anyway. That, of course, was the end of my weeding. I didn't mind. I felt grimy and sweaty and tired. A nice shower made me human again and after one glass of wine I felt okay. Let it rain, who cares!
Last week was our anniversary. Only two of our friends sent us good wishes. Nobody else remembered or cared. Thank you Don and Norma, and Hania and Orest. We appreciate it.
We wanted to go out for supper in #Winnipeg and drove to the #Forks. We got there around 4:00 p.m. Our plan was to walk around a bit and then have supper at the #Beachcomber. That was the plan, but it didn't turn out that way. We circled around looking for a parking spot. Couldn't find anything. We drove into the Parkade...nothing. It was full and everywhere it said: Free Parking after 6:00. Good Luck! This during the week and with that ugly building, the new Museum of Suffering, not even open yet. How can we expect visitors to Winnipeg to visit the Forks? I don't like going downtown anyway, because of the lack of parking spaces and how much they charge if you can find a spot. Metered parking is two Dollars an hour or portion thereof and the parking lots are even more expensive. I prefer going to the shopping centers and shops and restaurants on the outskirts of Winnipeg.
We ended up driving home and went to #Gaffers in Lockport for supper. This is not the first time we did that. Gaffers is a nice place with good food and reasonable prices. My wife had Jumbo Shrimp and I had the 10 oz Prime Rib. Both choices were excellent and we went home happy.
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