seven things on a sunday
1 – I will never get tired of staring at the night sky. A dream goal is to move to a way more rural area (not, like, totally rural, but away from any big cities) and have a skylight in my bedroom. There’s something about staring at the stars, when there are no other lights around, that takes my breath away. I love the sky. So much. (But I love it from the ground, I am way too terrified up in a plane to appreciate the sky while IN the sky. Not for me. Nope.) 2 – I hate wearing shoes. Unless I’m wearing a specific pair of slippers in the house, I would much rather not wear shoes (or socks). I can’t stand having my feet imprisoned! Which is an odd thing for someone who can’t stand feet. (They gross me out. Yucko!) I don’t know why it’s bothering me so much this summer, but I spend way too much time trying to figure out what shoes to wear when I have to go out. Not because of look, but because of how they feel on my feet. I would much rather walk around barefoot if I can. Especially in the back yard, and garden, much to the chagrin of my body, because I’m allergic to the grass and then end up with a rash, or hives on my legs. But it’s worth it to feel grounded. Well, maybe not right before bed. *itch*scratch*itch*GAH! 3 – I have been…
jinx’s garden v2.0
Gardening without Jinx around still hurts my heart, though the gardening itself heals me. Last year was the first full summer without Jinx around to help his garden grow. The garden didn’t grow particularly well, and some might say it was the weather; but, I know it was because I didn’t have Jinx looking after it. I did have Yoshi trampling it, and peeing on it. But the coocumbers and tomatoes just didn’t prosper as they had in the past. A lot of changes happened last summer, one of which was the tearing down of our cabanon (shed) and creating way more space in the yard. The idea I had last year was to move the garden space this year, but we got a very late start (read: this past week) due to weather, and my taking a 6-week class for my publishing certificate which pretty much took up all my weekends between the beginning of May until mid-June. Shawn also wanted to be part of the gardening process this year, so he’s been helping me dig and move stuff around. We moved the garden to the far corner of the yard. It’s a better place for it I think. Also I should have to deal with way fewer spiders the size of my head to get to the plants. THANK GOODNESS! We only planted our plants this weekend. I’m about a month behind where I normally am. Other people have gardens that are already sprouting tomatoes and whatnot, but I just…
gardening a la jinx
We got off to a rough start, but I think this little garden of mine- er- Jinx’s is coming along nicely. Finally. I have some cherry tomatoes on the plant and some normal tomatoes and the broccoli exploded in size even just between yesterday and today! (Imagine! All the garden wanted was some SUN! Hear that, Nature? SUN! That thunderstorm you’re currently pelting us with is not appreciated. But I’ll get to that later in this post.) I had to try and encourage my cucumber plants to grow in the OTHER direction than they were going (rude little buggers) and one of my broccoli plants fell over and might have broken overnight (I think Sophie jumped on it. She tends to jump from the deck to the garden if it’s raining because she loathes wet grass). So I broke out the twine this afternoon and made some small modifications to the plants. Hopefully this will work. If you look closely on that top photo of broccoli, you’ll notice there’s a little yellow BUG on it. GAH! I was most distressed as I was looking through my photos (I thought I’d play with my fancy camera and try and get some decent shots of the garden. I’m still completely useless at using it though. Ugh.) So I fretted much of the night (when I wasn’t sleeping) and then I remembered that I had recently read an article on Buzzfeed about products you can make yourself – which I cleverly added to…
jinx’s garden 2013 edition
Jinx’s Ghetto Garden, 2013 Oh, hello there! I assure you I have not fallen off the face of the earth, nor did the jogging kill me (although I haven’t gone out since the last jogging post). I have been extremely busy and exhausted when I am not working and then away for a long weekend so I haven’t had time to run, blog or do anything. I did get a ton of books read on the train though. I just needed to turn off the internet for a while. This is a long weekend in Canada and “traditional” planting time if you live on my coast – even so, it’s still a little cold at night and I am not certain how my – er, Jinx’s tomatoes will fare. This morning Shawn and I went out to the farmer’s market and picked up my (Jinx’s) plants for the garden this year. I managed to get it all done before the rain started to pour down. Score! I already know the tomato plants I get from this vendor at the market turn out splendidly, so I hope they do again. Once more I got one tomato and one cherry tomato plant. Since Shawn doesn’t like tomatoes and my neighbour sold his house, I won’t have as many people to share them with. (Other than my sister, of course!) Last year I bought six little english cucumber sprouts and ended up with cucumber out the wazoo (much to Jinx’s delight! He might…
vacation
Tonight marks the start of my 2 (+) week summer holiday from work. I am pretty sure my body is ready for this because I have been feeling extra exhausted. It’s like my soul is tired. Or sad. Sad and tired. I get to spend the first week of the holiday with Shawn. I wish he could take more than a week off, but at least he’s getting something. We’re both on holiday together, both employed. It’ll be nice to just relax and not worry about anything. A friend offered me her cabin up north for a couple of days. It’s on water. I am very, VERY tempted by this offer. I ran it by Mr. Curmudgeon and I don’t think he seemed all that adverse to it. We’ll see. 😉 The second week I plan on doing nothing but sleep and read. Oh! And maybe spend one day doing something fun with my sister and her kiddies. I can drive now so this opens up all sorts of opportunities! Tomorrow night Shawn and I are off to see The Muppets at the Just For Laughs gala. It’s the first time the Muppets have ever traveled anywhere for something like this. It is a Big Deal in the entertainment world. I am excited. I hope it’s not poorly done though. Hmm. Other than that.. I plan on eating nothing but goodies from Jinx’s Garden. This is what I picked tonight after work. My sister has already been over to take some…
not bad for a 7-year old pup
Jinx’s bountiful treasure!
the hazards of gardening
Someone got tangled in the cucumber vines and couldn’t get out of his garden. Bwahahahahah! Oh, Jinxy. I couldn’t have staged a better photo for today’s challenge if I tried. #photoadayjuly Day 7 – #garden (why, yes, I did actually take a photo of Jinx before untangling him from the vines. I am a wonderful doggy mummy!)
video tour of jinx’s garden & tomato taste test!
Jinx shows off his garden.
jinx’s garden
On May 12 I bought plants at the Farmer’s Market and planted a little garden in the back yard. Happiness in green. I bought one tomato plant, one cherry tomato plant, one box with some green pepper sprouts, one with red peppers, two tiny English cucumber sprouts and some herbs: cilantro, parsley, mint, basil, lemon thyme and, um, one other I can’t think of right now. Oops. Generally it’s not safe to plant anything before our long-weekend in May, which was the weekend AFTER I planted. I took a chance though because the long-term forecast looked hot and sunny. Such tiny little green things. May 21. Two weeks after I planted, I repotted the tomato plants and added extra earth to the “garden” plot. I was worried about my regular tomatoes because I’d gone too long between getting it and finding a bigger pot to plant it in. Thankfully it came back to life. It’s ALIIIIVE! I water the little garden every night that it doesn’t rain. After dinner I’d go out and hose the garden for 15 or so minutes to make sure the earth stayed moist and delicious for those plants. Then I started to notice something… This is my garden, Mummy. Jinx would also come out and do the rounds with me. He was very protective of this little garden. He’d follow me from plant to plant as I inspected, pruned and weeded. Once he’d finish inspecting the plants himself (each one) he’d sit back and allow…
