Dream

The weather is quite fine today. It’s been sunny all day long, there isn’t much wind and it’s quite comfortable. I opened the back door because letting in some fresh air is always good. There’s a mosquito net, so my cat can enjoy the air without going outdoors. I don’t want her to go there.

I was playing Final Fantasy and I happened to throw a look in the direction of the door. I saw a cat passing on the balcony outside. Nothing special there, as there are several cats in the area. I decided to go and check it out. I like seeing my cat interacting with other cats, even when there’s a door between them.

My, what am I seeing? It’s a bit small, but it’s still an adult cat. It doesn’t look sick at all. It’s stomach is white, but its back and head are striped gray. It has thumbs. It isn’t afraid of me at all, actually it seems to know me…

What the HELL are you doing outside and HOW did you make it there? After getting her inside—which was surprisingly easy and required no running after her or even touching her—, I quickly found the culprit: there is a hole in the bottom of the net. It’s not very large, but she’s tiny and could easily squeeze her way out through the hole, provided she has the will to do it. And, obviously, she does have that will.

I’ll have to get that net repaired.

*sigh* I’m exhausted. I had work this morning. When I have to get up in the morning, I become very stressed the night before and I’m unable to fall asleep. I can’t take my sleeping pills because I’m tired of taking sleeping pills and because at least 12 hours pass between the time of my taking them and the time I am actually able to do something.

So I slept through the morning…and the beginning of the afternoon. I got up at 1:30, angry at myself for missing not only work, but my group therapy in the afternoon. I have such difficulty keeping up with the things I have to do. It doesn’t help that I have about as much discipline as a kitten.

I still went to the hospital, because I had some papers to get, things that should help me “work on myself”. I also went shopping. I absolutely hate shopping. I get tired, with a headache, I can’t find what I want, there are people everywhere, you get the picture. I bought a pair of jeans. It’s ridiculously hard to find a pair of jeans at a decent price. I’m certainly not paying 100$ and more for jeans. I don’t give a shit if it’s written “Guess” on the label inside. I buy jeans because they’re comfortable, you can wear them in many different contexts and they do not break easily. I ended up buying some, but for more than I wished to pay. Amanda wouldn’t be very proud of me for that part, but if she saw the general state of my wardrobe, she would probably run away screaming.

I also bought something for Eric and myself. It’s small, green and stuffed, with an enormous nose. It’s Yoshi! I couldn’t resist entering both game shops I passed by. There were plenty of games (and consoles!) I wanted, but I opted for a stuffed Yoshi for now. I must keep some money for other things, you know. Like that thing I like to do every day, where you take things and put them into your mouth, then you digest them. I kind of like doing that, and, well, I need money to buy the things in question.

I arrived about an hour before Eric, and was surprised when I saw he was not alone. He had brought his mother and two other people, and a bunch of things he was moving in. We got a new kitchen table, a lot of Christmas decorations, clothes, linens and an Atari 2600, with several games.

I keep telling Eric to stop bringing fucking Christmas decorations. We didn’t decorate last Christmas, and I highly doubt we will on the next. I’m gone on Christmas holidays, and both of my roommates spend the holidays working and visiting family members. When I would actually be here, Beatrice would gladly eat every decoration she can get her paws and teeth on. Not only that, but they take a lot of space. The wardrobe downstairs is pretty much full.

As for the kitchen table, well, we already had one…We managed to find room for everything, but the first floor will be as full of furniture as it can be. There are already two couches, one large armchair, four bookshelves…

The Atari still works. I’m looking forward to trying it. The oldest console I played with was the Nintendo Entertainment System, which was not yet an “old thing everyone throws away” when I was a kid.

I’ll spare you the emotional details for now, I just want a break. And my daily dose of Phoenix Wright. I have one case to go before the very last case of the series! Fortunately they have started another series, Appolo Justice. Mhm, Phoenix Wright goodness.

This post has been inspired by Jem’s gardening post. I, lyke, totally stole her idea and she’ll sue me. Er, sorry he’ll sue me. Isn’t he a Jim dude, anyway?

Well, enough of this. Before I was a geek in Montreal, I was a unsatisfied geek in a small village in the CENTER of the province. If I hear anyone say that Abitibi is in the North, I will hit their face with the nearest map I can find. Thank you.

As true children of farmers (well, each on their own side, they weren’t siblings! :P), my parents have always loved growing their own garden. My mother’s parents are still alive and taking care of a garden, where they grow various vegetables (potatoes, lettuce, etc.), and also a greenhouse for tomatoes and cucumbers (both of these can have a bit of a hard time if they are directly outside in our freezing temperature. Because, you know, we wear winter coats from August to June.

Enough of sarcasm, now, gardening is serious business. My father’s parents both died in the 1960s, so I never had the chance to see them but, in addition to my grandparents’ garden, there was my parents’ one. Potatoes, carrots, green peas, rhubarb, broccoli, raspberries, they’re all things I’ve seen growing in there.

While, for certain reasons, I will not speak much about bugs found in gardens, and tend to stay away from growing vegetables, I haven’t lost my memory so easily. So here are a few tips and memories of mine.

Fertilizer

My parents have bought more than once fertilizer sold by companies, made from sheep shit manure and other similar things. They however have two other methods to fertilize the soil.

First, my father keeps horses. Horse manure can be used in gardens. Of course, you don’t replace the earth by manure! I couldn’t speak in terms of quantity at all. Naturally, when you put your nose at five inches from manure, it stinks. It doesn’t stay, however and, mixed with the earth, it can fill it with all sorts of goodies to help your veggies grow. In “layman’s terms”, as would say GLaDOS. Of course, not everyone can access horse manure easily and it’s not something you just steal in your neighbor’s backyard. Not that there’s anything you should steal in your neighbor’s backyard in the first place!

Second, my parents have kept compost for as long as I can remember. Making your own compost is very easy. You just need to keep aside in a container of some kind what you will put in your compost (I’ll mention more about what can and cannot be used shortly). What my mother does is to keep a smaller plastic pot under the sink. When we cook, we just need to put parts of plants that we do not use (for example, the leaves of radishes) into the pot. When the pot is full, we empty it outside.

When I was younger, we had a large wooden container in which the compost was kept outside, to be spread in the garden at the right time. Nowadays, however, my mother keeps it directly on the soil, not far from trees along the riverside. Since we have a large yard and no neighbor on this side (hey, I just said river, after all), it poses no problem. There is no bad smell coming from there and, if you do not put unwanted matters, there shouldn’t be.

So this brings us to what exactly you can and cannot put inside compost. Generally, what you can put is:

• Leaves from plants, even if the leaves in question are not normally eaten, like in the case of rhubarb.
• Vegetables and fruits you do not consume because they are no longer “fresh” (I refuse to use the appropriate r-word because I’m in a bad mood for that).
• Any other part of a plant which you do not eat, by choice or because it simply doesn’t taste good.

In brief, you can put anything from plants. The key here is to put nothing from animals. Absolutely no fat, no bones, no broth, no meat, no shells, no liver, etc. If it’s an animal, it belongs away from your compost (unless, of course, it’s an animal that will necessarily go in your compost, like that w-thing that will remain nameless). By the way, if, like me, you are afraid of those “w-things”, then absolutely refrain from making your own compost! Not only there WILL be some in it, but they are an IMPORTANT part of the composting process.

Keeping Unwanted Visitors Away

I’m not talking here about sneaky humans, for which you’ll need more than any of the tips I will list here, but about other animals.

Dogs are generally pretty easy to keep out of gardens. A small fence should be enough. My dog keeps away from the garden at all times, and we only have a short fence (no higher than 2 feet).

If you have a cat, it might be a bit more tricky, above all if you have plants that are not inside a fence-protected garden. A good method is to combine ways to discourage the cat from visiting your plants with ways to encourage your cats to go elsewhere. One of the reasons a cat might “pay a visit” to a plant is to use it as a litter. It feels more natural, I guess, since cats in nature use earth, not litter. It is important to make sure that the actual litter in itself is clean, so that your cat enjoys using it. Keep toys for your cat if it’s young so that the plants don’t look too much like interesting toys.

Then you can easily use methods that are environment-friendly to keep your cat away from plants. A few rocks around the plant will make the earth inaccessible. Just make sure that, when you water it, the earth gets the water, and that the rocks aren’t keep the plant from spreading around.

There are also smells that cats cannot stand, such as lemon. I will be making a bit more research into plants that can keep your cat away.

Well, that’s it for garden tips for now. I might come up with more eventually.

These Boots Are Made For Walking

Unrelated to gardening, I have bought new winter boots. Woot! After weeks of complaining, it was about time…I caught a cold last week, and I’m pretty sure it’s due to having spent the whole day in wet shoes and socks.

The boots in question are quite like I wanted, which is great at this time of the year, as there are barely any boots still for sale. There are sandals everywhere because, you know, everyone wants to wear sandals right now, in the snow.

The boots are black, like I wanted, fit me very well and have no high heels. Isn’t this wonderful? To add to the wonderfulness of them, they were not expensive! Hurray! Their original price was 90$ (before taxes) and I got them for 30$ (before taxes). Reduction or not, I consider that 30$ is a pretty good price to pay for boots—good, as in, really not too much—and it’s great to have a good reduction either way.

I am the furry one my mommy loves so much. She calls me Beatrice at times, but whatever.

I have been through a very scary experience, and it’s not over yet!

Two days ago, mommy got up as usual and started putting things into a big bag. I like big bags, you can sleep on them and hide inside. I didn’t get what she was doing. All of a sudden, she grabbed me and tried putting me into The Cage! We all know that cages are no fun at all to be in. Usually, when she does that, she takes me to some weird guy who puts things into my butt and keeps touching me all over. Weirdo.

In spite of my fighting very hard, she managed to put me into the cage. I meowed as a giant-not my mommy-took me downstairs, but it was all in vain.

I was put on top of another cage, and I’m certain there was another furry one inside that one.

We then spent hours and hours going through many unknown smells. I slept a little, but I must say I was quite scared and often was startled out of my anxious rest.

We finally arrived in a land I had never explored before. There were a lot of scary giants and I hid under a couch.

Mommy managed to get me out of there and put me into what I assume to be her bedroom.

Since that day, I have met two furry things. One of them is an enormous cat. I know him. I’ve seen him before and I can guarantee it’s him. The same fatness, the same smell, the same dislike of my poor furry self.

The other one is of an unknown species. It walks on all four, as is proper to do, and my instinct keeps telling me to run away. A very strange thing it is. Mommy keeps telling me it’s nice. How could such a scary thing be nice?

I am not the girl you were looking for. I am not that friend you went to college with. I don’t know what about you, but I can personally recognize the picture of people I’ve gone to college with. Sorry for the enormous disappointment.

Now, I don’t mind us being Facebook friends, for what it means. You can send me messages even if you want to. Invite me to the occasional quiz if you feel like it. I would however very much love to know why you sent me a chain letter to be sent to your bestest friendz eva?

In other news, did I mention that my cat seems to have a crush on my roommate? She still remains very afraid of him, running to hide if he tries to catch her, but she definitely seems fascinated by him. She’ll watch him do whatever he’s doing, keeping a certain distance.

When he’s gone to work (at night), he often closes his door. She likes to sneak in there and sleep on his bed. She’s able to open the door when it’s locked, so I imagine that if she really wants to smell him all around her, she can get past such a trivial obstacle.

P.S. Why did my new categories get added with no capital letter at the beginning?