I've got Lena Horne on the stereo. I always thought, in interviews, her personality was too snooty but I'm following her with Sarah Vaughan. I never saw an interview with Sarah but she was nicknames "sassy" so I guess who cares. Both ladies could sing. Lena's singing Stormy Weather and that's as good a place as any to start. Just finished a cool early morning walk with Cooper around a very quiet Sunday neighborhood. The clouds to the west over Green Mountain look as grey and fat as the weatherman said they would. So I'm expecting today to be a good day of rain, inside music and maybe homemade pizza, later.
The pizza won't be quite the usual thrill as Deb is in Oklahoma for her sister's 70th birthday. I've told Deb and I don't know if she gets it, I enjoy cooking but only when I have her for an 'audience'. Now mind you I'm no chef but even something simple like pizza is fun to make, if you can share the little details like "Oh did you notice I tried basil in the crust". Deb is a good audience. She always applauds even if a day or two later she gently shares that the mizuna was a little bitter for her. Now mind you I grew up with 5 brothers and sisters so getting a whole pizza to myself (a crust or two for Cooper!) is decadence. As to the audience aspect, I have you dear reader and thank you!
Cooking was not only a creative outlet that grew with our marriage but also one that grew with the garden. If it's May and a cheap old Scotchman has an abundance of arugula some spinach trying to bolt and a fistful of big fat radishes you get pushed into making a salad. Now that's good from a health perspective but it's also the mental health aspect of your mind gets to grind in the background thinking "what would go good with those ingredients". The 'monkey mind' needs something to grind away on. Cooking get to be artistic play when it has screwing around with some constraints imposed on it by what's in the garden. Sometimes the results might have you reaching for the Pepto but last night's spicy arugula and radishes paired perfect with a red pear and some mellow cheese. Sadly, no audience but the cat!
The garden itself has a way to go before it manages to raise itself to art. The lawn looks like one of those bad at home haircuts you've seen on TV during this shutdown. The tulips out front usually give me a point of pride in spring but this spring was tough on them and their giving way to the Irises. So it's a bit of an in between moment for beauty. Which is not to say there aren't moments of joy and pride.
One little such moment was walking in from the alley gate and noticing a big fat red strawberry. The 1st one! Now on closer inspection something had gotten to it before me but I popped it in my mouth without even a thought or a rinse. The 1st one is always a treat. Gosh it was good!
It is those little things that make the garden a joy. Noticing that the Swiss Chard is finally catching on and brightening up the odd little patch you put it in. Or finally, finally, the damned carrots are going to Daine to grow. I go through it every year with 'em plant 'em just right, water, water, water, wait, wait, wait. Oh damn it musta been old seed I'll start another row - wait what is that. What little drama queens making me wait like that. Ah, and the real queens of the garden - the tomatoes.
I'm jealous of my brothers garden in South Texas as he's been eating his tomatoes for a while. Mine just went in last week. Of course the weatherman decided last night to scare the crap out of me by beginning his segment announcing "gardeners are going to need cover up those plants for the snow". I went from half asleep to turning up the volume, wait, what! I just sold all my back up plants. I've just put in the poles and staking for the tomatoes and while my mind is furiously imagining elaborate covers to work around the poles the ass puts up a tiny map of the state that may or may not show the freeze line as right over my house. Come on zoom in. OK, switching stations I catch the other report just in time to see a closer view and she mentions the elevations that might freeze. I'm likely safe, but I've hedged my bet by putting wall of waters over the 4 plants that I hadn't planned to grow up poles. I'll let you know how it goes or you can just listen for the howl of pain.
As I mentioned I sold my tomato starts. First ones were ready to sell on Mother's Day and sold quickly. I held back some smaller ones till just the other day and they also sold quickly. That was kinda what I expected having seen surprising number of neighbors putting in gardens and understanding people were feeling insecure about food during these 'interesting times'. I managed to also sell a few kale starts and even a few gooseberry which came from the leftover roots of the plant I'd torn out. Frankly, though even if the little sign in the driveway had said "free" no one woulda stopped just for kale. When people think of a garden they always think of tomatoes.
I may have mentioned this before but I feel I should risk repeating it. I sell my tomato starts not out of any desire to make money or get rich. I sell them to give them value. If you give things away too many people simple see the thing as without value. I do and will always happily give a few to people as a simple gift. Now from a time and effort aspect I could much more simply grow only what I'll be needing for my garden but I do like to be an evangelist for gardening. I like the idea of living in a neighborhood that has gardens. I like walking Cooper and seeing gardeners and asking them about their garden and what they're growing. Every gardener likes an audience and not only do I get to meet my neighbors but I've yet to meet one who hasn't taught me something interesting. It's an easy passion to share and tomatoes are the gateway drug to get new gardeners started and encourage older ones to talk. In hard times good neighbors are priceless, but not without a cost. I might have to bite clear through my tongue if we talk politics but what tomatoes are you growing - well that's 20 minutes at the fence. passion and an audience are like that.
This next week will see the bulk of the garden planted out. With today's rain (and hopefully no freeze) the warming soil will be perfect for beans and squash. Followed by yet another try at watermelons, tomatillos and some herbs. The early spring plants will be finishing up and are in some cases already beginning to bolt and flower. Hopefully spring will glide gently into summer as the peas are way behind and I do want more than a hand full on my plate. (butter and salt no creativity required!) I thought I'd jumped the gun a bit putting in my corn last week. The soil thermometer showed it just a few degrees cool for planting. 'course there I am walking Cooper yesterday and I see a neighbor with his new garden and corn popping up 2 inches high. I talked with him a bit but still don't know if he was just lucky in his timing or if he's on to something and I need to listen and applaud. I do know my corn seed was very old, a gift from Shaun's mom after his death of some seed packets. I don't know how long corn seed will last but I've hedged the bet for the bed with planning some extra butternut squash. If the corn jumps up I might add some climbing beans to make a 'Three Sisters' combo. If the corn fails or takes it's time sprouting I'll at a minimum have some much loved butternut.
The mystery squash out front in the new bed is doing real well. it might end up being some weird cross but it could be some Kuri squash that the neighbor gave me and I ate late in the fall with the seeds ending up in the compost, which of course became the new bed out front. Compost is like a beautiful black lottery ticket. Or perhaps to go Forest Gump it's like a box of chocolates. The heat from the unfinished compost no doubt spurred the squash to pop a bit early but I think Kuri is able to beat butternut by a bit. That said knowing a good thing when I see it I planted some butternut seed two weeks back in the same bed. It's not as far along as the mystery squash but is doing at least as good as those I started inside at the same time.
I added a small test or maybe it was a hedge to my butternut starts. I had some decade old seed I got from Natalie's Mom sitting in a paper bag. I also had some seed from two years ago which I had saved from my "earliest and biggest". I marked and separately planted each both inside and outside. The first part of the question was would the older seeds sprout. They generally came up a day or two slower but otherwise 100% for each. The second part of the question will be answered in time. I've noticed my butternut seemed to be getting smaller over the years. Perhaps also a bit meatier with the seed cavity shrinking and I've never been happy with the number of ripe ones I got before the freeze. Now that could simply be a nostalgic memory or the vagaries of weather. It could also be I need to refresh my seed having followed some less desirable genetic spur in the family tree. We'll see.
There are a million more things I want to tell you about happening in the garden. I'll save those for another day and simply add what a joy it is to be talking about things in the garden and not how gardens might save us from doom and starvation. I have to add that these last few months have left me with a frustration, that you have kindly let me write out of my system. Or as I saw one commentator say never have I learned so much about a subject and known so little. Between we're all going to die we need to shut everything down and hide in a bunker, to screw all that. Between it's the damned bats, no it's the Chinese, no that's racist, no it's power hungry scientist and bureaucrats playing stupid in a lab. From wash your hands to take this test to take this pill to no this vaccine and wear a mask and wash your hands and did I mention wash your hands. Can I just say what a joy it is to simply wonder about butternut squash.
OK well I could but, I do have to add a couple of things as this blog is "small gardens and small government". I mentioned last time Justin Amash had changed his Party registration to Libertarian and is now the 1st sitting Libertarian in Congress. He has since dropped out of the race for the Libertarian nomination for President. This morning the Libertarian Party nominated Jo Jorgensen as their candidate. I've met Jo and she is a nice person and will express the ideas of liberty very well. I hope if you're not familiar with the philosophy behind the Party you'll get the chance through her campaign to learn a bit about it. Your vote would be nice too but honestly she won't get much of an audience as the media won't see her as important to the race and they only cover the race. It is for me not about my Party or candidate winning it is about living in a community where I like my neighbors. I will never enjoy living near people who see me as a person from who they can take. Mind you I will happily give of both my civil and economic liberties but never happily to those who see taking as acceptable behavior. It is not!
On that same theme a couple of blogs back I talked about the edges and the importance looking beyond the usual suspects when thinking about the future. I'll stand by that but have to admit that I fell into one of the oldest traps 'The expert from afar'. I neglected to remember two experts not far away at all, my Father and my friend Mike. My Father has from time to time offered me bon mots of common sense that just blow me away with their clarity. When faced with a neighbors death due to the virus in his senior living building he turned down an offer by Deb and me to move into our spare bedroom. His logic was simple. Both he and my Mother had lived long lives and for all he knew he'd already had the damned virus. Mike was even more direct he had commented "How about this idea: 1) everyone who is vulnerable should shelter in place, 2) don't close anything and allow the virus to spread through the part of the population that can handle it safely, 3) Once enough people have gotten it and recovered we'll have herd immunity to protect those who shouldn't get it. This will buy us time to develop the normal vaccines and cures and, maybe most importantly, not trash our economy." I remembered his thoughts when I read this article. ( If you right click on the link you can open in a new window!) The article talks about a flu that happened when I was old enough to remember - yet like the author I don't remember at all. Not at all. Perhaps these two 'experts' had looked to the past as a ways to see the future. Or perhaps they're just on to something and I need to listen and applaud.
Now mind you I'm still the guy with half my tomatoes in Wall of Waters 'cause some yahoo said they're all going to die. So you bet I see it as a cheap hedge to wear a mask in crowds, (N-45 for my protection not the herds! And better when it becomes available.) a morning dose of Elderberry syrup, vitamin C and zinc, and washing my hands like I've got OCD, yup. Deb and I are healthy (which seems to be a primary cause of death) but we're not spring chickens so while I don't like people taking my liberties from me you bet I'm hedging. Also, I am not a religious person but I am happy to see churches being allowed to reopen. I mean heck if you can walk into a 7-11 and work on killing yourself with a 64 oz Slurpee a pack of smokes and one of those hot dogs, shouldn't you be allowed to get together with a group of people who can pray for your immortal soul.
Finally I would offer that politicians by nature like the stage and the applause. I would not think it's been a happy time to be a leader dancing through this mine field. I actually think both my Democratic Governor and my Republican President have done a respectable job. Mind you I wouldn't call them sassy or snooty but I do have some other off topic names for them. Yes, yes great job, now I want to go get a haircut and while "Give me liberty or give me death" shouldn't be yelled loudly at minor slights to liberties there is a place to remember Liberty first, security if it can be had. The greatest insults to our Rights is going to be a real contest between our personal freedoms and our economic freedoms. I now worry that having been through the worst for one we now enter a truly horrific period for the other. Get good neighbors, grow a garden and applaud theirs. Doug A.
The pizza won't be quite the usual thrill as Deb is in Oklahoma for her sister's 70th birthday. I've told Deb and I don't know if she gets it, I enjoy cooking but only when I have her for an 'audience'. Now mind you I'm no chef but even something simple like pizza is fun to make, if you can share the little details like "Oh did you notice I tried basil in the crust". Deb is a good audience. She always applauds even if a day or two later she gently shares that the mizuna was a little bitter for her. Now mind you I grew up with 5 brothers and sisters so getting a whole pizza to myself (a crust or two for Cooper!) is decadence. As to the audience aspect, I have you dear reader and thank you!
Cooking was not only a creative outlet that grew with our marriage but also one that grew with the garden. If it's May and a cheap old Scotchman has an abundance of arugula some spinach trying to bolt and a fistful of big fat radishes you get pushed into making a salad. Now that's good from a health perspective but it's also the mental health aspect of your mind gets to grind in the background thinking "what would go good with those ingredients". The 'monkey mind' needs something to grind away on. Cooking get to be artistic play when it has screwing around with some constraints imposed on it by what's in the garden. Sometimes the results might have you reaching for the Pepto but last night's spicy arugula and radishes paired perfect with a red pear and some mellow cheese. Sadly, no audience but the cat!
The garden itself has a way to go before it manages to raise itself to art. The lawn looks like one of those bad at home haircuts you've seen on TV during this shutdown. The tulips out front usually give me a point of pride in spring but this spring was tough on them and their giving way to the Irises. So it's a bit of an in between moment for beauty. Which is not to say there aren't moments of joy and pride.
One little such moment was walking in from the alley gate and noticing a big fat red strawberry. The 1st one! Now on closer inspection something had gotten to it before me but I popped it in my mouth without even a thought or a rinse. The 1st one is always a treat. Gosh it was good!
It is those little things that make the garden a joy. Noticing that the Swiss Chard is finally catching on and brightening up the odd little patch you put it in. Or finally, finally, the damned carrots are going to Daine to grow. I go through it every year with 'em plant 'em just right, water, water, water, wait, wait, wait. Oh damn it musta been old seed I'll start another row - wait what is that. What little drama queens making me wait like that. Ah, and the real queens of the garden - the tomatoes.
I'm jealous of my brothers garden in South Texas as he's been eating his tomatoes for a while. Mine just went in last week. Of course the weatherman decided last night to scare the crap out of me by beginning his segment announcing "gardeners are going to need cover up those plants for the snow". I went from half asleep to turning up the volume, wait, what! I just sold all my back up plants. I've just put in the poles and staking for the tomatoes and while my mind is furiously imagining elaborate covers to work around the poles the ass puts up a tiny map of the state that may or may not show the freeze line as right over my house. Come on zoom in. OK, switching stations I catch the other report just in time to see a closer view and she mentions the elevations that might freeze. I'm likely safe, but I've hedged my bet by putting wall of waters over the 4 plants that I hadn't planned to grow up poles. I'll let you know how it goes or you can just listen for the howl of pain.
As I mentioned I sold my tomato starts. First ones were ready to sell on Mother's Day and sold quickly. I held back some smaller ones till just the other day and they also sold quickly. That was kinda what I expected having seen surprising number of neighbors putting in gardens and understanding people were feeling insecure about food during these 'interesting times'. I managed to also sell a few kale starts and even a few gooseberry which came from the leftover roots of the plant I'd torn out. Frankly, though even if the little sign in the driveway had said "free" no one woulda stopped just for kale. When people think of a garden they always think of tomatoes.
I may have mentioned this before but I feel I should risk repeating it. I sell my tomato starts not out of any desire to make money or get rich. I sell them to give them value. If you give things away too many people simple see the thing as without value. I do and will always happily give a few to people as a simple gift. Now from a time and effort aspect I could much more simply grow only what I'll be needing for my garden but I do like to be an evangelist for gardening. I like the idea of living in a neighborhood that has gardens. I like walking Cooper and seeing gardeners and asking them about their garden and what they're growing. Every gardener likes an audience and not only do I get to meet my neighbors but I've yet to meet one who hasn't taught me something interesting. It's an easy passion to share and tomatoes are the gateway drug to get new gardeners started and encourage older ones to talk. In hard times good neighbors are priceless, but not without a cost. I might have to bite clear through my tongue if we talk politics but what tomatoes are you growing - well that's 20 minutes at the fence. passion and an audience are like that.
This next week will see the bulk of the garden planted out. With today's rain (and hopefully no freeze) the warming soil will be perfect for beans and squash. Followed by yet another try at watermelons, tomatillos and some herbs. The early spring plants will be finishing up and are in some cases already beginning to bolt and flower. Hopefully spring will glide gently into summer as the peas are way behind and I do want more than a hand full on my plate. (butter and salt no creativity required!) I thought I'd jumped the gun a bit putting in my corn last week. The soil thermometer showed it just a few degrees cool for planting. 'course there I am walking Cooper yesterday and I see a neighbor with his new garden and corn popping up 2 inches high. I talked with him a bit but still don't know if he was just lucky in his timing or if he's on to something and I need to listen and applaud. I do know my corn seed was very old, a gift from Shaun's mom after his death of some seed packets. I don't know how long corn seed will last but I've hedged the bet for the bed with planning some extra butternut squash. If the corn jumps up I might add some climbing beans to make a 'Three Sisters' combo. If the corn fails or takes it's time sprouting I'll at a minimum have some much loved butternut.
The mystery squash out front in the new bed is doing real well. it might end up being some weird cross but it could be some Kuri squash that the neighbor gave me and I ate late in the fall with the seeds ending up in the compost, which of course became the new bed out front. Compost is like a beautiful black lottery ticket. Or perhaps to go Forest Gump it's like a box of chocolates. The heat from the unfinished compost no doubt spurred the squash to pop a bit early but I think Kuri is able to beat butternut by a bit. That said knowing a good thing when I see it I planted some butternut seed two weeks back in the same bed. It's not as far along as the mystery squash but is doing at least as good as those I started inside at the same time.
I added a small test or maybe it was a hedge to my butternut starts. I had some decade old seed I got from Natalie's Mom sitting in a paper bag. I also had some seed from two years ago which I had saved from my "earliest and biggest". I marked and separately planted each both inside and outside. The first part of the question was would the older seeds sprout. They generally came up a day or two slower but otherwise 100% for each. The second part of the question will be answered in time. I've noticed my butternut seemed to be getting smaller over the years. Perhaps also a bit meatier with the seed cavity shrinking and I've never been happy with the number of ripe ones I got before the freeze. Now that could simply be a nostalgic memory or the vagaries of weather. It could also be I need to refresh my seed having followed some less desirable genetic spur in the family tree. We'll see.
There are a million more things I want to tell you about happening in the garden. I'll save those for another day and simply add what a joy it is to be talking about things in the garden and not how gardens might save us from doom and starvation. I have to add that these last few months have left me with a frustration, that you have kindly let me write out of my system. Or as I saw one commentator say never have I learned so much about a subject and known so little. Between we're all going to die we need to shut everything down and hide in a bunker, to screw all that. Between it's the damned bats, no it's the Chinese, no that's racist, no it's power hungry scientist and bureaucrats playing stupid in a lab. From wash your hands to take this test to take this pill to no this vaccine and wear a mask and wash your hands and did I mention wash your hands. Can I just say what a joy it is to simply wonder about butternut squash.
OK well I could but, I do have to add a couple of things as this blog is "small gardens and small government". I mentioned last time Justin Amash had changed his Party registration to Libertarian and is now the 1st sitting Libertarian in Congress. He has since dropped out of the race for the Libertarian nomination for President. This morning the Libertarian Party nominated Jo Jorgensen as their candidate. I've met Jo and she is a nice person and will express the ideas of liberty very well. I hope if you're not familiar with the philosophy behind the Party you'll get the chance through her campaign to learn a bit about it. Your vote would be nice too but honestly she won't get much of an audience as the media won't see her as important to the race and they only cover the race. It is for me not about my Party or candidate winning it is about living in a community where I like my neighbors. I will never enjoy living near people who see me as a person from who they can take. Mind you I will happily give of both my civil and economic liberties but never happily to those who see taking as acceptable behavior. It is not!
On that same theme a couple of blogs back I talked about the edges and the importance looking beyond the usual suspects when thinking about the future. I'll stand by that but have to admit that I fell into one of the oldest traps 'The expert from afar'. I neglected to remember two experts not far away at all, my Father and my friend Mike. My Father has from time to time offered me bon mots of common sense that just blow me away with their clarity. When faced with a neighbors death due to the virus in his senior living building he turned down an offer by Deb and me to move into our spare bedroom. His logic was simple. Both he and my Mother had lived long lives and for all he knew he'd already had the damned virus. Mike was even more direct he had commented "How about this idea: 1) everyone who is vulnerable should shelter in place, 2) don't close anything and allow the virus to spread through the part of the population that can handle it safely, 3) Once enough people have gotten it and recovered we'll have herd immunity to protect those who shouldn't get it. This will buy us time to develop the normal vaccines and cures and, maybe most importantly, not trash our economy." I remembered his thoughts when I read this article. ( If you right click on the link you can open in a new window!) The article talks about a flu that happened when I was old enough to remember - yet like the author I don't remember at all. Not at all. Perhaps these two 'experts' had looked to the past as a ways to see the future. Or perhaps they're just on to something and I need to listen and applaud.
Now mind you I'm still the guy with half my tomatoes in Wall of Waters 'cause some yahoo said they're all going to die. So you bet I see it as a cheap hedge to wear a mask in crowds, (N-45 for my protection not the herds! And better when it becomes available.) a morning dose of Elderberry syrup, vitamin C and zinc, and washing my hands like I've got OCD, yup. Deb and I are healthy (which seems to be a primary cause of death) but we're not spring chickens so while I don't like people taking my liberties from me you bet I'm hedging. Also, I am not a religious person but I am happy to see churches being allowed to reopen. I mean heck if you can walk into a 7-11 and work on killing yourself with a 64 oz Slurpee a pack of smokes and one of those hot dogs, shouldn't you be allowed to get together with a group of people who can pray for your immortal soul.
Finally I would offer that politicians by nature like the stage and the applause. I would not think it's been a happy time to be a leader dancing through this mine field. I actually think both my Democratic Governor and my Republican President have done a respectable job. Mind you I wouldn't call them sassy or snooty but I do have some other off topic names for them. Yes, yes great job, now I want to go get a haircut and while "Give me liberty or give me death" shouldn't be yelled loudly at minor slights to liberties there is a place to remember Liberty first, security if it can be had. The greatest insults to our Rights is going to be a real contest between our personal freedoms and our economic freedoms. I now worry that having been through the worst for one we now enter a truly horrific period for the other. Get good neighbors, grow a garden and applaud theirs. Doug A.
I always enjoy reading your thoughts. Be well!
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