A real post, with photos even
May. 28th, 2010 09:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ksmithIt's been a busy last few weeks. Good news--I learned that I had a few more weeks than I had originally thought for current sekrit project. Kinda bad news--I blew through most of my vacation because I was working toward what I thought was the deadline. My own fault. Should've asked sooner. But now I only have enough days left to cover WFC in October. Sort of a bummer. Glad this weekend is a holiday weekend. I need to take Kuro in first thing tomorrow for an oil change, followed by grocery shopping, but after that I can do what I want...except maybe for some laundry. Vacuuming. But the rest of the weekend will be Me Time...to work.
Next year, so help me, I am taking a real vacation. I saw a PBS program featuring a woman named Peggy Markle who hosts/runs/manages Peggy Markle's Culinary Adventures. They're essentially cooking trips--you spend part of your day cooking with local chefs/experts. The show I saw featured a trip to Morocco, and folks cooked with both professional and accomplished home cooks.
I would go to Italy. Tuscany, Amalfi, Sicily, I don't know. But. Italy. I really want to go. I've signed up for the newsletters, and I am dreaming of tomatoes that taste like tomatoes.
On a smaller scale, the garden is picking up a bit of steam. I planted mesclun and arugula seeds a month or so ago, and have been harvesting my dinner salad for the past week. I had wondered whether I was wasting my time growing greens, but I am glad I did it. They taste really good, and I know I won't pick up E. coli from them. I don't know if growing times will allow any overlap with the tomato harvest, but I'll enjoy them while I can, and plant a second crop for the fall.
Anyway, no sense in showing the initial sproutings. I planted a few tomato plants last weekend--one Pink Brandywine, two Cherokee Purple, and one Rutgers, each a couple of inches tall. Three mixed peppers--no clue if they're sweet or what. Last time I buy a mixed package given that I only really wanted bell peppers.
The tomatoes and peppers are shown below. The cluster of green sprouts to the right, I initially thought were weeds. It wasn't until I went inside the fence to clear them out that I realized they were tomato sprouts, courtesy of seeds that survived the winter. Given the location, I am guessing they're Black Crim. I kept the best of them, and so have 7 tomato plants in the upper deck. They may squeeze out the peppers, but I won't lose any sleep over it.
The lettuces:
My first salad of the year--are those chicory leaves? I couldn't ID them exactly. All I know is that they shot up first. They're a little bitter, but good.
And finally, a photo of King, who has discovered the couch in his old age. He doesn't get up on it often, but when he does, he takes it over. The sitting area is 68 inches long, and you can see how much he takes up:
Someday, I will have a couch that isn't slipcovered and draped with a sheet. But not just yet.
Next year, so help me, I am taking a real vacation. I saw a PBS program featuring a woman named Peggy Markle who hosts/runs/manages Peggy Markle's Culinary Adventures. They're essentially cooking trips--you spend part of your day cooking with local chefs/experts. The show I saw featured a trip to Morocco, and folks cooked with both professional and accomplished home cooks.
I would go to Italy. Tuscany, Amalfi, Sicily, I don't know. But. Italy. I really want to go. I've signed up for the newsletters, and I am dreaming of tomatoes that taste like tomatoes.
On a smaller scale, the garden is picking up a bit of steam. I planted mesclun and arugula seeds a month or so ago, and have been harvesting my dinner salad for the past week. I had wondered whether I was wasting my time growing greens, but I am glad I did it. They taste really good, and I know I won't pick up E. coli from them. I don't know if growing times will allow any overlap with the tomato harvest, but I'll enjoy them while I can, and plant a second crop for the fall.
Anyway, no sense in showing the initial sproutings. I planted a few tomato plants last weekend--one Pink Brandywine, two Cherokee Purple, and one Rutgers, each a couple of inches tall. Three mixed peppers--no clue if they're sweet or what. Last time I buy a mixed package given that I only really wanted bell peppers.
The tomatoes and peppers are shown below. The cluster of green sprouts to the right, I initially thought were weeds. It wasn't until I went inside the fence to clear them out that I realized they were tomato sprouts, courtesy of seeds that survived the winter. Given the location, I am guessing they're Black Crim. I kept the best of them, and so have 7 tomato plants in the upper deck. They may squeeze out the peppers, but I won't lose any sleep over it.
The lettuces:
My first salad of the year--are those chicory leaves? I couldn't ID them exactly. All I know is that they shot up first. They're a little bitter, but good.
And finally, a photo of King, who has discovered the couch in his old age. He doesn't get up on it often, but when he does, he takes it over. The sitting area is 68 inches long, and you can see how much he takes up:
Someday, I will have a couch that isn't slipcovered and draped with a sheet. But not just yet.
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-30 02:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-30 05:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-30 01:31 pm (UTC)Jack dug out of the fence last night around 11 pm. Luckily, he stayed in the area and getting him back in took 3 minutes. Dig area has been covered by a cinder block.
I want to take a week long bread course in San Francisco. I might need to bring along a couple of folks: Kim and a friend. Kim won't take the course and she'd need someone with whom to roam about the town. I'm sure I'd be dead tired at the end of the days.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-30 02:10 pm (UTC)There's a guy who runs a travel company where you can give different jobs a try for a week or so. Think you want to work in a recording studio or a pet groomer's or a greenhouse or a winery? Just give this place a try. Can I remember the name of the company? No. I used to get their updates on an old email account, and never updated after I canceled that account.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-01 07:05 pm (UTC)Also, check out some floating row cover, which will extend your lettuce/greens season into the summer more by keeping the mean, hot sun away. I've had good luck with it. The automatic, pop up types with built-in supports are wonderful. Gardener's Supply and Lee Valley both carry them.
Jody in PA