Tired of hearing about my garden yet?

Oh, I hope not, since it's become my favorite activity lately. Here's what it looks like today, mid-July 2012. I took this picture this morning on my way to the bus. You can see my garden neighbor Clint's half-circles of radishes (on the left side of my garden), and my recently planted kale (front row) and two rows of collards behind are all doing very well. Clint put the walkway of wood chips between our plots and it's been working very well for both of us. It looks like I should be getting out there and weeding the grass and buttercup plants out of the garden pretty soon. Here's a closeup.

You are actually looking at three rows of veggies here. In front is a cabbage (lower right) that is suffering a bit from my vigorous application of soapy water to kill the aphids, with a marigold plant and some zinnias in the row in front of it. Then in the middle row are two very vigorous squash plants, my very favorite kind too, delicata squash. In front of them are my carrots, which I planted from seed. The squash plants don't seem to be bothered by any of the critters I'm dealing with (slugs, aphids and little green caterpillars). In the row behind, from left to right, are two brussels sprouts plants that have been attacked by all three pests, and the two black kale plants that have been harvested twice now. On Sunday I went out and gathered enough leaves to bring in and make into kale chips, which were so delicious I almost didn't leave any for Smart Guy. They are easy to prepare: wash and break into small pieces, toss with a bit of olive oil and salt, then bake for 12 minutes at 350. I was amazed at how tasty they are.

In the final row, which you can't see very well in the middle picture, is my zucchini squash plant, which is covered with blossoms. That pretty yellow flower will soon be a squash! I am thrilled with the adventure of growing my own food, even though I didn't think I would need to become such an expert on garden pests. Now that summer has come to the Pacific Northwest, perhaps my Asian eggplant will recover enough to survive. They need full sun, and each blossom that has come out has died so far.

And I am definitely talking to all my plants, telling them how proud I am of them, how much I appreciate their addition to my life. I don't think I want to consider how much each of these plants has cost me (it's not a small amount), but the payoff in delicious food and blog fodder makes it all worth it!
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Partly to mostly happy

First actual meal made with my garden kale

Well, here I am sitting at the computer writing another Saturday post, when I fully expected to be skydiving by this time of day. It was not to be. All my gear was set out yesterday evening, ready to go, when the phone rang with Linny telling me the news that the weather forecast was NOT looking good for this weekend after all. When she called, we were in the midst of a thunderstorm, complete with lightning and thunder, something we just don't get all that much here. (Linny lives almost three hours south of me, and the weather tends to vary quite a lot over western Washington.)  She suggested we save ourselves for Sunday, hoping for better weather, so here I am, feeling partly to mostly happy with the way the day is shaping up. That kale was absolutely delicious, my first garden greens where I harvested enough for both of us.

Leo on Friday the 13th

Yesterday at the coffee shop, little Leo was very excited to see me when he walked in with his dad. He is one of my favorite people, and the only three-year-old I know who walks right up and begins chattering away with stories of his latest adventures. "I've got new Crocs, you wanna see how high I can jump with them?" I asked if I could take his picture with my iPad camera; he posed for me in the picture above, and then the fun began.

I know it's a little blurry, but he was suspended in the air, showing me quite well how high he can go. He approved of this picture, so here it is for you to enjoy as well. Those Crocs are pretty amazing, especially with such a fantastic athlete in them.

This morning I went on the Saturday walk with my lady friends, but I left my camera in my pack. There was nothing nearly as interesting to me as last week's creative art. However, after the six-mile fast-paced walk, I hightailed it down to the Farmers' Market for some greens. There again I looked for something exciting to photograph, but nothing appeared. So here I am, picture-less for today. I almost went out to the garden to talk to my plants and take a picture, but instead I'm sitting here writing. The sun is trying to make a comeback, so I'll be heading out to the garden to say hello pretty soon. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to a day with full sun tomorrow. Hopefully: it is the Pacific Northwest after all!
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First time for Goat 2012

Peggy and Terry at trailhead

Last year, the Senior Trailblazers climbed Goat Mountain three times, turned back the first time (in July 2011) because of inclement weather and lots and lots of snow. Today we didn't actually hit the snow until we reached the "meadow" (remember in the Pacific Northwest at this time of year that meadows are often covered with snow) where three of the eight of us Trailblazers decided to stop and have a nice break, while the rest of us soldiered on to the summit.

The "meadow" from Al's blog

We didn't have our usual leader today, Al, so Steve took over the official duties while I was elected to set the pace, which I agreed to reluctantly, mostly because I think Al and I have about the same pace. In the picture above, you can see that the last mile of the hike was very challenging, in lots of snow. Not to mention that this hike is not very long but never lets up in steepness: in a short three miles we climbed almost 1,000 feet per mile, with the last mile in blinding snow. You simply could not have attempted this climb today without sunglasses, it was so bright. Notice that there is not a cloud in the sky.

Terry, Peggy, Jonelle, and Steve (me behind the camera)

Once we reached the overlook, however, the payoff was tremendous. We had a 360-degree view of so many mountains: that is Shuksan behind my fellow Trailblazers, and we had views of Mt. Baker and Sefrit as well. We sat down and had a rather leisurely lunch, even though we were cognizant of our other three Trailblazers who had decided to stay below us on the dry trail.

Terry took this picture of me, which I like very much, showing Sefrit on the left and Shuksan behind me before we headed back down to join our friends. (When we caught up with them, they were ensconced next to a bubbling brook with a lovely view of their own.) We had full sun but a light breeze coming off the snow that made it quite comfortable, but I am sitting here in front of my computer with my cheeks burning from all the reflected sun (even with plenty of sunscreen). Once we joined our friends, we descended back into the lovely shady trees and made our way back down the sun-dappled trail to our cars.

I took several pictures trying to capture the amazing trail that was Goat Mountain today. This comes as close as I was able, but I noticed that as we descended the light breeze would come and go. Since we are not accustomed to hot weather, it was the full sunshine and lack of a constant breeze that made today's hike seem to be more difficult than it normally would. Now that I am back home, however, I look back on a wonderful day, filled with witty conversations and lots of effort as we experienced the outdoors together. I even got some pictures of trillium that are turning lavender with age, but still absolutely beautiful.

I like to think of our Trailblazers as being like this trillium: even though we are no longer in the first blush of youth, we are still showing the world that we are here and happy to be feeling the sun on our petals. It was a great day.
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A little worse for wear

  The garden 9 June 2012

Looks nice, doesn't it? All green and tasty, with the kale in the second row from the bottom looking ready to be harvested. In the foreground is a brussels sprout plant, with two more on the right-hand side of the kale. Well, guess what I discovered yesterday as I was out watering the plants? ANOTHER garden pest: aphids! The brussels sprouts and cabbage are all infested with them. Since we want to keep this garden as organic as possible, I went online to discover what to do next. My other plants did not seem to be affected at all, and the three squash plants are getting big enough that they don't seem to be as bothered by the slugs.

My first cherry tomatoes, 10 June 2012

Right now I'm only concerned about getting the aphids under control. I went out last night and cut off the worst infestations and sprayed the rest with a mixture of water, vegetable oil and a few drops of dish soap, as suggested on line. I went out there to check this morning and was encouraged. I will stay vigilant and hopefully get them under control. A few ladybugs were making their rounds, and I discovered that they eat aphids. Come one, come all; have a tasty treat on me! Discovering the aphids made me so upset that when I went to bed last night I couldn't sleep, thinking of waging a battle for my cruciferous veggies. At least, as Smart Guy said, they have good taste.

Christy, Dave, Linny, Cindy, me

Our summer has come out in full force. I drove down to Snohomish on Sunday and made three wonderful skydives with my friends. The air was smooth on the ride up, the skydives were fun, and my landings were all good.  I had walked into the Drop Zone office at one point and just caught the tail end of a conversation. A young man said, "See, there she is!" He looked a bit shamefaced and admitted that he was surprised to see someone my age out there jumping and saw me as an inspiration. I was actually pleased and hope I let him know that. I was a little the worse for wear yesterday, though, with a bit of residual tiredness. But hey, I'm almost seventy!

Abigail Alfano in Pine, Louisiana

Finally, I'd like to share a picture sent to me in an email, showing a flurry of activity around Abigail's hand. She was filling her hummingbird feeder, and they had grown so accustomed to her presence that they didn't even wait for her to put the sugar water back into the feeder before taking a sip. Her husband caught this picture, which just simply makes me smile. She said they are so light and airy when they land that she barely feels it. Isn't it marvelous?

Well, this post went all over the place. Thinking of a title was the hardest part, going from garden lice to skydives to hummingbird heaven. I think the garden is a bit worse for wear (but I'm working on it), I am too, a little tired from not sleeping well and making three skydives, but the hummingbirds: they look like they are raring to go! 

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Photo safari on a perfect July day

Fairhaven walkers

Summer has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest, as you can see. This morning seventeen ladies all gathered to walk from the Farmers' Market in downtown Bellingham to the Fairhaven district and up this LONG hill and down again. And what did we see during our time together?

Christen Mattix kitting a rope to the water

We saw this interesting sight: a woman knitting a long rope that stretched way down that hill in the picture above. I remembered reading about her at the Bellingham Herald a while ago, and I was able to find that link, which explains what she's doing. She calls it "urban art." She knits for an hour a day, rain or shine, and will continue until the rope reaches the water.

Here you can see the rope stretching down toward the water; she's got a ways to go yet, and you can see my shadow in the foreground. (My shadow! I almost forgot what it looks like!) On the way back to the market, we walked by this interesting piece of sculpture, which just appeared one day last October with nobody knowing who the mystery artist might be.

Grace

I also found a link on the Herald about Grace, and the discussion about whether or not to let her say. Why would anyone want to remove something like this? If this is graffiti, it's the very best kind. When I used to do Bikram Hot Yoga, we performed this particular pose in every class, using the technique of grasping the ankle from the inside, not the outside. I knew immediately that this artist is familiar with Bikram technique.

And finally, I took a picture of these beautiful colorful flowers at the market, after purchasing my week's rations of greens. Now I am home and will fix myself some lunch before I head out to meet Judy for a movie. Tomorrow will be spent driving south to go skydiving, but today has managed to become very full and busy without even trying. Hope you have a safe, cool, and marvelous weekend, too!
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Church twice in a week

Bob, Peggy, Karen, Linda, Al (and me behind the camera)

Church Mountain, that is. When we headed up there last Monday, I wrote a post I called "Church Mountain, Take 1." The plan was to go into the High Country to assess the situation for the rest of the Senior Trailblazers, and Al deemed the hike doable by most. But only six people showed up today, and boy was it a day to remember!

Crossing the creek

On Monday we had "sun breaks," but today we had FULL SUN! I am sitting here writing this post with sunburned cheeks, even though I put plenty of sunscreen on them after we hit the snow. It was amazing to me to see how much snow had melted in just three days. I wonder what it will look like in a week or two after lots of sunshine. Here's where we had lunch today.

That's Mt. Baker and the Sisters behind us. I planted myself between the ladies and the gents while we enjoyed our lunch. You could just feel the incredible warmth of the sun being reflected back at us; I immediately pulled out my sunscreen and applied it liberally. Perhaps I should have done that when we started, but I knew we would be in shade until we reached the meadow (there really is a meadow underneath all that snow).

Al took this picture of me, showing Mt. Baker behind me, the sunshine, and my transition lenses as black as they ever get. We enjoyed our lunch without any need for coats, gloves, or anything to keep us warm; it was, well, pretty much perfect. On the descent, once we reached the shade, we were blinded for a few minutes before we adjusted to the dappled sunlight through the trees.

It could not have been much more perfect a day than it was today. We covered somewhere close to 7 miles, since we walked a bit farther on the snow than we did on Monday, but not much more, and the return trip was quick and painless, as we climbed and descended 2,600 feet of elevation. We were all happy to have been together, to have such a beautiful day, and only to have missed our companions who didn't join us today. I wonder if it was because it was the day after a holiday. Whatever the reason, I wish all of our friends could have experienced it with us.

When we reached the trailhead, I had to stop long enough to take a picture of the incredible profusion of wildflowers. Daisies, foxgloves, buttercups, clover, and more are all in this picture. Now that I am home and showered, I realize my garden needs to be watered! It's been two days since the rain stopped. Heading out right now...
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Independence Day garden

My 7'x23' (2.1m x 7m) plot

I went out this morning in the sunshine, July 4, to see how my garden fared after the steady rain we had all night long on Monday and all day long yesterday. I walked to the bus yesterday morning in full rain gear and was glad for every bit of it. The rain didn't let up until late in the day, giving the garden a real drenching. I found that my plants had all survived and seemed none the worse for wear. Parts of the garden had standing water, but not my little plot. The weather is supposed to be mostly sunshine for the next week or so, and I expect the garden will take off. My neighbor on the left, Clint, put in wood chips between our plots and seaweed all around both his area and mine, hoping to discourage the slugs.

Before I took this picture, I harvested dozens of leaves from the two kale plants farthest from the camera in the middle row. The two healthy plants in front are brussels sprouts. Those two sad plants in the upper right are my well-chewed sweet basil, which the slugs love; the lack of sunshine we've had means they are looking sad in every garden plot, even if they aren't being eaten. Oh, well; this year is an experiment to see how things do, and next year's garden will be planted by a much more informed gardener. I'm learning by doing. Anyway, I had a kale sandwich for lunch today, and it was simply delicious!

Bent Objects by Terry Border

One of my blogging friends, Far Side of Fifty, sent me a bunch of these Bent Humor pictures, with a note saying, "What artists do if given wire and household objects and too much time on their hands." I wanted to share this one and hope that it gives YOU as many smiles as it has given me. Is this what is meant by burning the candle at both ends? Happy Independence Day!
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