My husband has spent the last few months working hard on a new book (which you will hear about shortly I am sure!). He just didn't have time to make me a proper grow-light shelf. I was searching and searching for a second-hand setup, and amazingly, I found one for sale by a fellow who was downsizing to a condo!
The only place I have to put it is in the living room! (I really don't want to haul this thing upstairs… )
And now my seeds are already sprouting! These are cold-weather seeds (onions, shallots, lettuce, spinach, beets, herbs, and so on), so they can be growing here (and later in my home-made greenhouse) until planting time without worry.
In a few more weeks I will start the tender plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, and peppers, so that they will be strong and ready to plant at the end of May.
bits & pieces
I want to tell you of a little experiment — I will be posting the sort of thing I would normally post on Facebook or Twitter on a new blog: Happy Despite Them!
I look forward to conversations over there about subjects that don't naturally lend themselves to a pretty picture (the way we do here). As to social media, I just can't handle a new platform (like Gab or Mewe), but the old ones are getting pretty insufferable.
On Happy Despite Them I will also post longer pieces occasionally; once the book I'm working on is at the printer* I will probably start posting thoughts for a new book about what to do after feminism. So I hope to see you there! (Of course I will continue to post here!)
*The title is The Summa Domestica and it's a compendium of what I've written here on the blog in three volumes!
- A good podcast from my husband who is interviewing Robert Reilly on his thesis about the American Founding: America on Trial.
- Saying No in Lent — John Cuddeback (ignore all those “dynamic™️ Catholic [sic] articles telling you that you don't have to deny yourself during Lent)
- On a lighter (but still abstemious) note, doesn't this recipe for gordita crunch tacos look good? They would be fine with refried beans instead of meat! I'm going to try it.
- A Lenten calendar for coloring here, from Liturgy of the Home! and here, made by Lydia, Latin and Eastern!
from the archives
Last week I wasn't able to post here, so I missed linking to my extensive Lenten archive. But there's always time to “begin again” (one of the most important phrases in the spiritual life!). So here you go: the Lenten archive!
liturgical year
Sts. Francisco & Jacinta Marto
follow us everywhere!
Rosie’s photo project on IG continues! Follow her there “if you’re not a creeper” (her account is set to private but you can go ahead and request).
Stay abreast of the posts when they happen:
We share pretty pictures: Auntie Leila’s Instagram, Rosie’s Instagram. Sukie’s Instagram. Deirdre’s Instagram. Bridget’s Instagram.
My new “random thoughts no pictures” blog, Happy Despite Them — receive it by email if you like, or bookmark, so you don't miss a thing!
Auntie Leila’s Facebook (you can just follow)
The boards of the others: Rosie’s Pinterest. Sukie’s Pinterest. Deirdre’s Pinterest. Habou’s Pinterest. Bridget’s Pinterest.
Mckenna says
I’ve only tried starting seeds indoors once, and it was not successful. Which type of seeds would you recommend for an amateur seed starter? I usually buy transplants. I’m open to vegetables, herbs or flowers. I garden mostly in raised beds if that matters.
Leila says
Mckenna, I have not had a ton of luck, mainly because I just don’t have light and warmth in the same place!
Here’s what I have figured out:
Cool weather plants can easily be started from seed, including outside in milk jugs (I do have a post about this; it’s called winter sowing). So spinach, beets, lettuce, kale, onions… these can all be started early. Starting lettuce could not be easier! And it’s great because you can eat it when it’s very tender and young by picking the outer leaves. You don’t need much room.
Tender plants like tomato, eggplant, peppers, etc have to be started closer to planting time and need LIGHT. And then they have to be kept from any cold temps. That is why I just had to find a seed starting bench!
Melisa says
Thank you for posting the link to the Lenten calendar. I have a copy of the very one from last year, but couldn’t remember where it came from.
Melisa
Leila says
You’re welcome!
Rebekah says
I’m obsessed with crunch wraps and my husband will love this version. They are ever so much better made at home.
Leila says
I think it will be good! I have avocados ripening on the counter now…
Rosemary says
Love your little seedlings! I have a similar setup in the basement. Sadly, the 3-4 dozen peppers that germinated this week all died from damping off. 🙁 So frustrating. Thankful I have time to replant though!
Leila says
Oh, Rosemary, that is so frustrating! But yes, it’s early yet. I won’t plant peppers for another month, I think, but our season starts late here. It’s not worth putting them in the ground until June!
Vera Doverspike says
I know this isn’t the main point of your post, but I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOUR BOOK! Can you share any more tantalizing details of when it will be available? : ) I am new to your blog and I have been trying to read through it…but honestly, every post will open like 30 new tabs and I just can’t…(not a criticism)
Leila says
Thanks, Vera! The book will have everything (well, almost everything) that has been on the blog, semi-organized. Actually three volumes! I hope it will help with this tab problem haha… I am not sure when it will be available, but hoping for going to the typesetter by the end of the month… I pray that paper doesn’t get too expensive and that printers don’t have too much backlog!
Kathia says
Oh, I’m so excited for The Summa Domestica (great title by the way)!! It’s been on my mind that when your compendium finally came out, it would be one of the books I’d have at my AirBnb! 🙂
Leila says
That would be an honor, Kathia!
Terri says
I love the book title you’ve chosen!! And I am so excited about the new blog. I am not on facebook or twitter so I’m happy to have access to your further thoughts in another format. Good luck with your sprouting!
Leila says
Thanks, Terri! I’m glad you like the new blog… it seems like a cross between quixotic and comfy 🙂
Toni Graham says
*Really* looking forward to your soon-to-be-published book!
AND I also look forward to the next one, about what to do after feminism.
Thank you for sharing your insights and experience!
Leila says
Thank you, Toni!
Anne Marie says
SUMMA DOMESTICA. Wow! And what a relief you started a blog, now I have no reason to go on twitter anymore! I’m free! Lots of exciting seeds of hope in this post for us all! Thank you Auntie Leila.
mirhavensanctuary says
Love the new BLOG! Last night, sleepless once more, I wistfully thumbed through our well worn ancestral copy of The History of Ludlow Massachusetts (to commemorate the centennial June 17, 1874). An image of of an ancestor’s home within its tattered pages always leaves me homesick in a strangely comforting way. These days I find myself contemplating how those who’ve gone before us must have weathered deeply trying times during Civil War, Spanish Flu, Great Depression, WWII ~ circumstances present generations have either forgotten or dismissed. Fidelity to Faith and family, a deep sense of purpose, eternal optimism, and plain old Yankee grit surely inspired and motivated them, helping them rise above challenging circumstances of their day. We do well to emulate them during times such as these. We were incredibly blessed to visit an ancient graveyard in Ludlow, Mass. this past Summer (Covid be damned). The History of Ludlow refers to several of our ancestors being buried there but most of the gravestones are so timeworn it was impossible to decipher most of the names. We contented ourselves with simply walking the grounds, prayerfully sprinkling holy water upon those hallowed graves, and visiting a nearby Civil War monument which bears the name of one of our brave ancestors. Our visit to that long ago, faraway neck of the woods served as such a blessed, tangible reminder of the need to always be “Happy Despite Them”. Praying you and yours always may remain so! LMS
priestswife says
I’m looking forward to your new blog – we moved to TN in late summer after 20 years in SoCal and we have a yard! I’m looking forward to beginning my seeds- we can put plants in the ground earlier than you
Donna says
Having grown up in Texas, when I hear the word “gordita,” this is what comes to mind: https://www.homesicktexan.com/2014/04/chicken-gorditas.html
Not authentically Mexican, but authentically Tex-Mex. Yes, a lot more work, but worth the effort. Where I grew up they were typically made with ground beef, but chicken is equally delicious and I imagine refried beans would be as well. If you can find masa harina where you live, I hope you’ll give them a try!
Mignon says
1. Yay! Glad for Happy Despite Them! (I seem to remember your having that title for an old family blog, perhaps now extinct?). I closed my FB account a while back and am glad to see you and others finding ways to self publish without the unwelcome editorial activities of anonymous social media employees who don’t actually have an interest in truth, but rather, an interest in promoting whatever particular perspective is precious to them.
2. I am so amused and delighted by the title of your new books, and can’t wait to purchase them! This blog is dear to me and I will be glad to have my own copy in print!
3. I loved that interview with Robert Reilly and listened to it twice. It gave me some great insight into some of the Catholic in-fighting that has been going on at certain Catholic and/or conservative colleges where students increasingly think that being “traditional” means rejecting the American founders because they were Protestant or Deist or Enlightenment thinkers (i.e. not Catholic, so, bad!!). This kind of narrow-minded thinking and uninformed impression of the founding of our country is deeply disturbing. If not even traditional conservatives can defend the founding, we are in deep trouble. I’m looking forward to reading Reilly’s book.
4. Your gardening ambitions never cease to impress me!
Leila says
Thank you, Mignon — yes, this is the old blog, resurrected (really, just the title).
Yes, my ambitions are indeed impressive! LOL — hope that something will come of them!
Laura Jeanne says
Leila, I thought I remembered that in one of your posts – it might have been quite a long time ago – you talked about the kind of flooring you put down in your house. I love how the flooring (on your main floor) looks in photos, so I was trying to find the post where you talked about it, but I’m coming up with nothing. Am I remembering incorrectly? Or just searching using the wrong terms perhaps?
Leila says
Laura Jeanne, the floors in the living room are original to the house (1860). Wide wormy pine. The dining room (the two-toned) was installed around 1920. The kitchen is soft yellow pine which is all we could afford at the time. It is pretty but doesn’t wear very well.
Laura Jeanne says
Thank you for answering my question! It must have been the kitchen floor I remember you talking about — although it is the livingroom floor I find so pretty. I guess I am not going to find the same kind of flooring that was available in 1860, haha!
Leila says
If only!