Nesting notes:

I just heated up some tuna... using some virgin olive oil, a dash dried herb flakes (basil, oregano), a pinch of garlic (coulda done without it.. ), a sprinkle of grated parmesan.., slap it on some sweet potato bread with a bit of melted cheese (not 'cheese food') and mmmm.

Woulda been better with fresh herbs though.

I'll go pick up the plants for my liddle herb garden soon.

Mint, basil, oregano, rosemary.

Yar.

Got the idea from the herb garden light tables near the kitchens at the better (read more authentic Italian) pizza joints in Chi-town.

Im not into flowers, I like hardy, useful plants.

The mint, specially if it's strong, will provide a natural deodorizer for the place as well as give flavor for my green tea.

Mint will also grow buck wilde and take over if you let them. I used to grow them wild by the hedges in Chicago.

Luv to pick them fresh and use a leaf or two for tea, slightly crushed, so as not to release the bitterer oils.

The honey from Fred has arrived, packed, insured (O_O!!!), methodical-like. Love that Leo attention to detail. :-)

Gawd. I need to like start sending money and postage and stop mooching off me friends.

Anyways, the herb garden should grow well.

If they werent useful, theyd be weeds anyway..

Following Rachel's example... I think I'll grow a strawberry plant. Just to see what it takes and what its like..

No tomatoes. I wont eat 'em all, and I think the plants look scraggly-ass.

No parsley. Im not cooking for presentation.

I might grow a few varieties of peppers.. although they WILL be outside.

As a kid, I learned pill-popping one or two fresh small chili peppers off the plant is amazing for indegestion.

One of the things I plan to do is to use the fresh herbs to make fresh marinade. Combine light olive oil, herb flakes, crushed garlic.. let it age in a bottle. Voila, flavored oil for salads (not hardly likely in my case) and pungent marinade to flavor meats.

No aloe vera. They grow wild on the drier plains of Jamaica. I dont consider 'em interesting.

SHOOT me if I ever get the urge to grow a banana plant. Tacky.

Palms are semi-tacky. So no.

I might put a simple trellis for morning glory outside. I hate that the blooms die after the noon hour, but they grow wild and flower daily.

Apart from a rhodendron cutting, I think thas it..

Im too lazy for much else.

Orchids? Nah.. sounds suspiciously like work. :-)

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New Yorkers, in a puff of civic pride, will say this when the subject arises..

"New York tap water is great!"

Uh-huh.

If youve been here awhile, you'll know only the most accepting will believe that.

Living in florida, and tasting the water the comes from the aquifer (seriously brackish and polluted) I learned to filter my water or buy bottled.

Unfortunately, I learned that lesson far too late.. now my body is highly sensitive to the quality of the water I drink.

Around here, stores make a brisk business selling water filtered pitchers.

For awhile, I drank the tap water - but based on the rust colored sediment Id see in the toilet bowl, I knew I wouldnt want to be doing THAT for very long.

While shopping awhile back, Kate got me to buy a water filter that fits on the faucet.. expensive I thought, but Kate covinced me it would be worth it.

Sho' nuff, it was. (I had bought it for Rich's place while I stayed there.)

I liked it so much, that I had it on my 'must have' list for when i moved.

At the grocery store the other day.. I found a cheap one.

Lets just say, I feel better about drinking water from the faucet now.

A little thing, I know.. but its important to me.

And to the other folk who dont dare drink New York's tap water.

Which would be most New Yorkers.

If they do, they boil it.
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