Things that go JUMP in the night

Wedding weekend, part II.


Years ago, when I lived in Washington, DC, I started taking pictures of friends in the dark. To my recollection, the first time was one night we had been BBQ-ing in the late afternoon and evening at some picninc grounds alongside the Potomac River. When it turned dark I kept taking pictures around the picnic table and from behind the camera was able to see the exact moment that was caught on film as it was lit by the flash. Eventually I set up the camera with a self-timer and flash, and when the flash light would start blinking we would ready ourselves to jump and try to be in the air when the flash went off. This was way before digital photography, so we didn't know what we'd caught on film until days or weeks later when the processed film returned as prints.

I resurrected this experiment the night of the rehearsal dinner at the McAvoy's house. Tracey, Maureen and Brett's kids were all willing participants, although at first they didn't know what they were agreeing to. They still sort of don't, because I am only now posting the results!! (I am sure that procrastination is a genetically determined trait. Cough*Ken Spencer*Cough. :)

Disclaimer: Exclamation points seem appropriate. And click on images to see them larger.

Jumping here: Kelly, Jessica, Brendan, Keera, Jeffrey, Nicki and Katie!!


Brendan and Jeffrey!!


Kelly, Jessica, Nicki and Katie!!


Keera, Jessica and Lauren!!


Liz, Trace and Maureen!!


Connor!! and Ken!!


Jump for joy!

Wedding weekend

My cousin Patrick got married on July 11! to Bethany, who I am proud to say is now my new cousin.

Here's me and Pat on Friday night at the rehearsal dinner:


Here's Amy and Gus that same night. Gus is holding a "Genny" light beer, which comes from the Genesee Brewing Company right there in Rochester, NY.



And here is Amy demonstrating a new trick she discovered: her thumb can point backwards. Evidently it's genetic, because Cousin Todd can do it, too.

Go ahead, try this at home.



more to follow...

Growing the Crop

I took pictures almost every day of the salad table, and here is a selection that shows the growth of the lettuces:

June 1, 2009


June 8, 2009


June 12, 2009


June 19, 2009


June 27, 2009

Obamaman!!

I know it seems like all I've done lately is work on the salad table.
But I do get out-and-about, and yesterday I saw this on Melrose Ave:



(shot through my windshield at a redlight.
On my way home from the garden center.
Ok, maybe all I do is work on that salad table.)

Salad Table! (with legs, soil and seeds)

Picking up where I left off, here is the hardware cloth being attached:



Hardware cloth is the heavier 1/2" wire grid, attached to reinforce the window screening, and very dangerous stuff. It made me think of something I once saw. Over the years of my work as a freelance graphic designer/print production specialist, I worked in many different office environments, many of which were inhabited by very creative people, not all in creative jobs. Creativity shows in details, right? I will never forget the tape-dispenser (roll of tape, toothed tape-ripper) that had been labeled by it's user: the words "blood-taker" written right below the teeth.

"Blood taker" is what I thought of while working with the hardware cloth. I wore gloves.

Here are my hospital corners:


Frame completed.

I forgot to take pictures through the process of the attachment of legs. But I will tell you that I first attached the table to the legs upside down. If you look carefully you might see the extra drill holes that were required to correct this. Or maybe I will have scrubbed them away in photoshop, but probably not.

Frame built, check.
Legs attached, check.
Legs re-attached correctly, check.
Soil-less growing media mixed and loaded into the frame, check.*
Seeds planted, check.
Rows labeled, check!



* Another goof, this time on the growing-media mix. I had NO IDEA how much soil would be needed to fill this table.
"It's only 4 inches deep! This huge bag of compost and these large bags of perlite and peat moss will definitely be enough."
Wrong.
So I filled the section to the far right (which is the far left on the picture to follow) and planted seeds. Then back to the garden shop for more of everything.

The salad table is now filled and seeded. And the first section which was planted 4 days ago has sprouted!!

Each section has 3 rows, so altogether there are:
2 rows each of leaf lettuce/Grand Rapids, leaf lettuce/Salad Bowl, and butter lettuce;
and 3 rows of arugula:



The arugula sprouted first, and fast!!
All those white globs are the perlite, which i believe helps to lighten the soil and allow for air. The mix in the first section ended up with big chunks of it, which I have since weeded out.
Oh! Don't say weeds!!



So there you have it. In a month I should be eating bowls of greens grown right in my own backyard, watered and harvested while standing up!!
You could call it Lazy-woman's garden, but building the thing was no lazy-woman's job!!

Salad Table!

Home after buying the supplies for building my salad table, Rogers admires lumber with me:



Laying out the lumber to begin building the frame:



I framed; I sawed; I conquered!!



(actually, I had the guy at the lumber yard do the sawing...)

Lincoln is inspecting my work as I get ready to attach the window screening to the bottom of the frame:



The screen is attached with staples and I am getting ready to finesse the corners. I applied my gift-wrapping skills to this task (not shown in this photo).
:)



Next: attaching hardware cloth (stiff 1/2" wire grid) to the frame, reinforcing this window screening.

New beginnings

It's time to start making something of my newly-liberated self.
So today I will start to plant things.
I will plant (re-pot) some palms I bought a week ago.
I will plant seeds for lettuces (and maybe beans). For that I will build a "salad table" from plans designed and posted by the University of Maryland:

http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:7QF51Vlq3TEJ:www.hgic.umd.edu/_media/documents/hg601.pdf+salad+table&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

I am headed to the garden and lumber store now, and I am hoping that one of them will make the cuts in the lumber for a small fee.

Other things to plant: dreams for the future.
Not sure if I'm ready for that one yet, to be honest.
But I will journal and ponder.

On Sunday I took Wesley for a long walk around the neighborhood. He gets anxious if we walk too long in a direction AWAY FROM the house — he must have an internal compass because the minute we turn around and head back he walks faster, pulling a bit on his lease even (which is not encouraged).

As we walked I noticed so many incredible blooming flowers, shrubs, and trees in the gardens of our neighborhood. Jacaranda, Star Jasmine, other Jasmines, Lilies, Bouganvillea in loads of colors, and many plants I don't know the names of. Last night I took my small camera (what Dad likes to call a "toy camera") along on our walk and took pictures of some beautiful flowers. If the colors do any justice to the real thing I will post some of these.

Oh, and I ate oatmeal today for breakfast.
This is noteworthy because I often don't eat breakfast, and because the choice of oatmeal is because I am trying to bring my "bad cholesterol" levels down.
Back when I was a vegetarian my doctor in NY told me I was likely to live forever based on my cholesterol numbers! (Cholesterol is a naturally occurring substance in animals, so by reducing animal-sources in your diet you can help lower your numbers.) So I will be headed in that direction again. I was always a flexible-vegetarian (flexetarian?) — I'm not extreme in many areas of my life, come to think of it. (Any areas?)



Off to the garden store to plant some dreams!