Thanksgiving Archives - The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

Thankful

Posted on November 20, 2018 by jmarkowski Posted in Family .

I hope those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving have a fantastic time with family and friends this upcoming weekend.

Here’s what I’m thankful for:

A supposedly repaired septum that will allow me to finally smell the flowers this spring. I still can’t smell two months post-surgery but I’m doing my best to remain patient.

A healthy and thriving family. And I know that can change in an instant so I’m not taking a thing for granted.

Rediscovering writing all these years after I had forgotten about it. Life’s funny that way. Keep those eyes open my friends.

Starting my first fiction book. Yeah you read that right.

A nightmare for gardening conditions. It wouldn’t be fun if it were easy and predictable.

A dog that we rescued three years ago who has done a better job of rescuing all of us. She’s odd, she’s nuts and kind of the cutest thing ever.

Joe Pye Weed.

Black coffee.

My children who have turned out to be good people. Anything beyond that is gravy.

Hallmark Holiday Movies. The perfect mix of bad writing, predictable story lines but a welcomed escape from the day to day.

Ornamental grasses in fall.

Readers of this blog. The fact that you keep coming back is a blessing even if I’m not entirely sure why you do. It must be my charming personality or the killer garden pics or the ornamental grasses. It’s the ornamental grasses.

My wife. There ain’t a more authentic, genuine, empathetic, beautiful and funny woman on this planet. I’m also proud to call her editor. Editor for my writing and editor for my questionable daily decision making process.

Cursing around the kids. I’m glad they’re now old enough to experience my ability to treat it like an art form.

Netflix.

Baseball discussions around the dinner table.

Amsonia in spring, winter and fall.

Winter. Oh I hate everything that it stands for, but I appreciate the gardening hiatus it provides. A chance to start anew when it’s done. If it were to complete by January 15th each year that would be great.

Podcasts. Driving in the car and being stuck in traffic never felt better. A proclamation: I will have my own by the end of 2019. Topic still TBD. Any and all input is appreciated and encouraged.

A sister who has also found the love of writing. Check her out here.

A book that has found legs and is still exceeding my sales expectations. Even if the journey to selling has been interesting.

The discovery of meditation even if I’m way late to the party.

Being 46. I like this age.

Giving thanks

Posted on December 9, 2013 by jmarkowski Posted in Uncategorized .

This year I am thankful for:

Those who lead the charge for planting natives and the results of said charge:

The thrills and results from hard labor:

Realizing the benefits of drinking and gardening:

My kids still OK with being photographed together:

Still finding new ways to “attempt” to control weeds:

Blooms witnessed for the first time:

Large, sharp objects:

Bulbs that actually survive the wet winter:

New interests that evolved out of gardening:

Any efforts by my children to enjoy the outdoors with me:

The battle:

Safer power tools so I can make my children use them:

Snowy/icy conditions:

Where I live:

And finally, a huge thank you to all of you who stop by and read this nonsense.

I am beyond grateful.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and safe travels.

John

Thanksgiving weekend

Posted on November 28, 2011 by jmarkowski Posted in Family .

Grab your favorite beverage and kick back because this is going to be a long one today.

I considered breaking this post up into smaller versions but I know once I set foot back at work tomorrow, the long weekend will be a distant memory and I will have moved on. So you’ll just have to hang in there and do me a solid by patiently wading through this post. Gracias.

One of the greatest benefits (or drawbacks, depending on your point of view) of hosting a holiday is it forces you to get your ass in gear to make sure the house is in good shape. Those small “yeah I’ll take care of that tomorrow” projects become a top priority. My wife is a saint for putting up with my lack of skills when it comes to “indoor” projects, but when forced to get something done, I usually pull through (assuming the project is a relatively easy one). While most consider hanging a picture to be an easy task, I get all sorts of pumped up when I pull it off; but I act all humble like it’s no big deal. Case in point:

I hung this sconce after some serious mathematical calculations to make sure it was centered correctly:

And hung this little vignette of bird art (in a grouping of three naturally). Trust me, they are all straight, this photo is an illusion:

It wouldn’t be a fair representation if I didn’t mention that my wife was about 98% responsible for all of the Turkey Day prep. She busted her hump and I just played the role of sous chef (but a damn good one at that).

Thursday arrived and we were ready to go. We had a smaller crowd this year (miss you Adam/Ali and Jay/Beck) but enough that a full spread was necessary.

To kick things off, the fire was started, even though it was in the 60’s outside:

My daughter took care of the place cards and through some mediation with the two kids, we were able to determine seating assignments:

A sprig of rosemary tied to each napkin gave off a tremendous scent and set the mood:

As did some wine, football, my roaring wood burning fire (never gas) and good conversation. I think the discussion here was about how awesome the sconces looked in the dining room. Or it was about how damn interesting this blog is:

First course (and my personal fave) was butternut squash/apple soup accompanied with maple bacon and homemade croutons (my food photography leaves a lot to be desired, sorry):

After a bit of a break, all of the food was out and it was time to gorge ourselves:

We pretty much ignored each other as we ate our asses off:

It was a great day as we all enjoyed each other’s company without a care in the world. My mother and the two kids would appear to agree:

My nephew entertained us all as only he can and it was a riot to have a young one running around in our house again:

There may be no better sleep than the one had on Thanksgiving evening and this year was no exception. Wine/beer/food/tryptophan/pumpkin pie will put you into some serious REM sleep and it felt GOOD. And, we still had three more days off. Nice!

Friday was all about sleeping in, followed by an excursion to the movies. It felt great to just chill and it felt great to eat the leftovers that night. All was right in the world.

Saturday was an absolutely perfect weather day (upper 60’s) and we made the most of it. Even the bulbs were thrown off by the warm temps:

My daughter was ready to join me outdoors for some gardening chores and she couldn’t wait to show off her new tools:

I also promised her I would share her cool “gardening boots” with you all:

While she planted some acorns in some containers, I managed to perform some serious hard labor as I reduced my never ending topsoil mountain to this:

Which looked like this only a day ago. It may not look like much, but that soil was damn heavy and wet:

After busting my arse for an hour or so, I threw in the trowel (I may trademark that phrase) and took some photos of plants that were still providing some visual stimulation:

Feeling this good about my garden and being outdoors this late in November was a welcome pleasure. Scratch that … family, good food, no work and the garden were a welcome pleasure this past weekend.

Hope yours was just as enjoyable.

John