Creating, consuming, digesting
Gardening
It's been an interesting couple of weeks. My plants came down with some fungus a couple of weeks ago so I started spraying a cider vinegar and water solution on the tomatoes. I also doused the mint and nasturtium plants in neem oil spray. And I did a major tearing away of tomato leaves within the course of a week and a half. Toda I did some more thinning out and moved the plants around to give them more air circulation. I've come to realize the "wall of green" will be a wall of fungus if air can't get through to dry the leaves after copious rainfall. This has given me food for thought for next year. I am trying to be as aggressive as possible to avoid the pitfalls of last year. It's one reason I am documenting the garden as I am on both LJ and Flickr.
I didn't photograph the re-placement of plants yet, but will do.
We did pick a large Celebrity tomato and ate it tonight with some pesto. It was amaaaazing.
The jalapeno peppers are phenomenal. Spicy but juicy and packed with pepper flavor. The bell peppers have been thin-walled and bitter. I think they need more watering. Carrots are slow-growing. When I told my father he instructed me to tack on another month to the growth estimate!
I also picked three of the leeks and they smell sooo good. I'm trying to decide between make a quiche, leek and potato soup, leek and onion soup, or colcannon with them. I have some potatoes and leftover cabbage in the fridge. And after the most recent Costco visit, 5 dozen eggs! So I have choices.
Here's a link to my flickr account garden album
Academic Work
I purchased a Lenovo Ideapad a week ago and thanks to the tech genius that is T-Rex, I can use my iPad as a portable wifi hotspot and get academic work done on the bus while commuting to work. A DWNY friend recommended a website called Dedoose and it has completely revolutionized my ability to do qualitative work. I'm starting to feel the pressure of having done not enough work and time fleeting. So this is a very good thing.
Wonderful people / awful person
I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the violence in the news and all the polarizing discussions around race, policing, Islamophobia and of course Drumpf Trump. Several weeks ago I came into contact with a woman who is related to me. Her maternal grandmother and my maternal grandmother were sisters. When I saw her face I had an immediate warm feeling of recognition. But they things she writes about on FB are HORRIBLE. She's the worst kind of racist, calls Obama "Obumma" and a "secret muslim" and responded to a Black Lives Matter post with such dehumanizing vitriol I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. But after processing it with T-Rex and a friend, I came to realize this is why I do the work I do. The residents in the shelter are almost entirely people of color, are almost entirely poor, and almost entirely without a decent support network. They are vulnerable and often reviled. Now, don't get me wrong. I am tired in the position and efforts to find something else have been entirely unfruitful. I have no illusions that they are all pleasant, appreciative and socially responsible people. They are mostly emotionally damaged, needy, rude, entitled, immature, and with poor judgment. But if they weren't, they wouldn't need social workers. And finding them homes is something of a miracle in their lives when it happens. Many of them are truly thankful to get out of shelter, and some even apologize before they leave for their regressive behaviors and express gratitude for the work that went into finding them homes. I found myself with renewed vigor and sense of purpose as the counter-balance to that horrible cousin and her ilk.
In addition to that, I had two really nice encounters this week that helped restore my faith in humanity. On Wednesday I lost my iPhone on the bus. T-Rex had me use "Find my phone" while we were on the next bus and I could see it going along the route of the former bus. So the driver called the dispatch and they got in touch with the driver of the former bus. But it turned out a woman found it and made every effort to reach me. My job called and she gave her info. I called from T-Rex's phone and she called back and left a message. When we met in person the next day she and her husband were so delightful. She told me she'd found someone's wallet a couple of months ago as well. We shared our stories around the lost and found phone. I gave her and her spouse some cherry tomatoes from my garden and they were SO delighted. They would not take any money from me.
Then I went to Costco on Friday and while in the queue chatted with the man in front of me. When he went off to try a sample I pushed his cart. I asked him where he'd gotten an item in his cart (naan bread) but it was too far to dash off as the queue edged forward. Unbeknownst to me, he texted he wife who was running around the store getting more items and she brought me a package of the naan bread.
It's the little things that carry you. It's dispiriting that I've felt the need for them so strongly of late. But taking time to think deeply and to reflect and appreciate instead of just exist and stumble from work crisis to work crisis has been restorative. It's probably also helping that I've increased the amount of exercise in my life.
Until next time - be well, flist!
It's been an interesting couple of weeks. My plants came down with some fungus a couple of weeks ago so I started spraying a cider vinegar and water solution on the tomatoes. I also doused the mint and nasturtium plants in neem oil spray. And I did a major tearing away of tomato leaves within the course of a week and a half. Toda I did some more thinning out and moved the plants around to give them more air circulation. I've come to realize the "wall of green" will be a wall of fungus if air can't get through to dry the leaves after copious rainfall. This has given me food for thought for next year. I am trying to be as aggressive as possible to avoid the pitfalls of last year. It's one reason I am documenting the garden as I am on both LJ and Flickr.
I didn't photograph the re-placement of plants yet, but will do.
We did pick a large Celebrity tomato and ate it tonight with some pesto. It was amaaaazing.
The jalapeno peppers are phenomenal. Spicy but juicy and packed with pepper flavor. The bell peppers have been thin-walled and bitter. I think they need more watering. Carrots are slow-growing. When I told my father he instructed me to tack on another month to the growth estimate!
I also picked three of the leeks and they smell sooo good. I'm trying to decide between make a quiche, leek and potato soup, leek and onion soup, or colcannon with them. I have some potatoes and leftover cabbage in the fridge. And after the most recent Costco visit, 5 dozen eggs! So I have choices.
Here's a link to my flickr account garden album
Academic Work
I purchased a Lenovo Ideapad a week ago and thanks to the tech genius that is T-Rex, I can use my iPad as a portable wifi hotspot and get academic work done on the bus while commuting to work. A DWNY friend recommended a website called Dedoose and it has completely revolutionized my ability to do qualitative work. I'm starting to feel the pressure of having done not enough work and time fleeting. So this is a very good thing.
Wonderful people / awful person
I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the violence in the news and all the polarizing discussions around race, policing, Islamophobia and of course Drumpf Trump. Several weeks ago I came into contact with a woman who is related to me. Her maternal grandmother and my maternal grandmother were sisters. When I saw her face I had an immediate warm feeling of recognition. But they things she writes about on FB are HORRIBLE. She's the worst kind of racist, calls Obama "Obumma" and a "secret muslim" and responded to a Black Lives Matter post with such dehumanizing vitriol I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. But after processing it with T-Rex and a friend, I came to realize this is why I do the work I do. The residents in the shelter are almost entirely people of color, are almost entirely poor, and almost entirely without a decent support network. They are vulnerable and often reviled. Now, don't get me wrong. I am tired in the position and efforts to find something else have been entirely unfruitful. I have no illusions that they are all pleasant, appreciative and socially responsible people. They are mostly emotionally damaged, needy, rude, entitled, immature, and with poor judgment. But if they weren't, they wouldn't need social workers. And finding them homes is something of a miracle in their lives when it happens. Many of them are truly thankful to get out of shelter, and some even apologize before they leave for their regressive behaviors and express gratitude for the work that went into finding them homes. I found myself with renewed vigor and sense of purpose as the counter-balance to that horrible cousin and her ilk.
In addition to that, I had two really nice encounters this week that helped restore my faith in humanity. On Wednesday I lost my iPhone on the bus. T-Rex had me use "Find my phone" while we were on the next bus and I could see it going along the route of the former bus. So the driver called the dispatch and they got in touch with the driver of the former bus. But it turned out a woman found it and made every effort to reach me. My job called and she gave her info. I called from T-Rex's phone and she called back and left a message. When we met in person the next day she and her husband were so delightful. She told me she'd found someone's wallet a couple of months ago as well. We shared our stories around the lost and found phone. I gave her and her spouse some cherry tomatoes from my garden and they were SO delighted. They would not take any money from me.
Then I went to Costco on Friday and while in the queue chatted with the man in front of me. When he went off to try a sample I pushed his cart. I asked him where he'd gotten an item in his cart (naan bread) but it was too far to dash off as the queue edged forward. Unbeknownst to me, he texted he wife who was running around the store getting more items and she brought me a package of the naan bread.
It's the little things that carry you. It's dispiriting that I've felt the need for them so strongly of late. But taking time to think deeply and to reflect and appreciate instead of just exist and stumble from work crisis to work crisis has been restorative. It's probably also helping that I've increased the amount of exercise in my life.
Until next time - be well, flist!