Sweet Summer

Impromptu summer excursions can be the best sorts.

Late July Sunday, and I had only just left the Mothership the evening before, after spending time with the family in Queens. The day was to be easy and breezy and lazy.

But then, a call from Mother Hen. "Your dad wants to go somewhere. Otherwise, he'll just get bored and take a nap."

Papa Rooster is 86. In theory, the long passage of time happens slowly, imperceptibly. But every now and again, there are these seemingly small things that are quiet, yet cause the proverbial alarm sirens to go off and the lights to flash. At dinner, he eats not quite half of what he used to eat regularly. Granted, he snacks. But he has always snacked. The caloric intake can't be enough to maintain his body mass, let alone to build new muscle. Is that how dying begins? The body starts to digest itself and break down? And the napping. I'm a small child, napping helps a child to grow. In an older person, is it mere maintenance? Or is it a symptom of the decreased nutritional intake? I don't know. But I don't like it; it is unsettling.

And at the same time, I know it's seeing these changes that spurred me, in large part, to leave demanding BigLaw, for a saner professional experience. And that means I can pivot on a Sunday without worrying what work may loom over the weekend.

And so I tapped into my social media file of places to explore nearby, and found the easy "hike" at Croton Gorge Park. The weather was lovely for a drive upstate, and for a relatively easy walk to chase waterfalls and rainbows and have a small adventure with the old folks. (Mother Hen, with her bum knee, made her way gingerly, slowly but steadily, down the inclining wide trail. She is in many ways less evidently elderly than Papa Rooster - she has the advantage of a decade of greater youth on him - but she does have her own challenges.)

Vowing not to let another Summer pass wondering whatever happened to it. And happy to treat the parentals to yogurt and ices and frozen treats while I can.

[Completed August 25, 2023.]

Am I Raring For Amaranth?

Food from the neglected terrace container garden at the height of summer.

Not quite raring for the amaranth, but there's quite a bit of it, all volunteers, so I might as well consume what's growing and available. I've reached the point in the season when I've resolved not to buy any more leafy greens, because there is likely more than I can eat in the Jardin. The monster amaranth near-tree in the largest planter has reached the point in the season where it wants to have babies, so some plant birth control was in order for this evening; the big green giant has now been plucked. 

Red amaranth, plucked of a few leaves before I remembered to take a "Before" photo.

Speaking of plucked...the largest red amaranth that was in a planter with a tomato, and its little siblings in the same planter, got harvested, and their stems chopped up and fed back to the planter, sacrificed in favor of future (late) tomatoes.

Same red amaranth, plucked bare.

Next year, I'll try to contain it to one pot on the floor of the terrace, where hopefully seed spread will be not so wide. And culling and eating has to happen in the Spring. Resolutions, aspirations.

Leaves from the three red amaranths that volunteered themselves into the main tomato planter.

Light lunch, prepared by me for Sis and me to share in the Jardin, featuring the leaves of the red amaranths two days post-harvest.

Pretty proud about the color of those yolks! Now I just need to work on them being a wee bit more runny/jammy, and on serving up the fresh pickings a tad more quickly.

Raring for fancy, summer seashore-theme decorated gift sugar cookies by @cbkcookies? Yes! One of Sissy's Buy Nothing friends kindly shared them with us. Delightful designs! And thin, yet soft, buttery. I ate them in lieu of dinner one evening. Not so great or healthy a habit. Dessert after a home cooked meal of fresh picked Jardin greens would have been better. Goals.

Raring for sweet scented summer jasmine? Absolutely! No wonder someone way back decided to use these to make rice more appealing. I found a new way to enjoy their scent and pick up my spirits during work from home for the first summer half-day that I took. How civilized, this BigBank life is sometimes - three extra days off during the summer toward wellness, either taken as full days or half-days. Announced mid-June, and with meetings scheduled, I didn't manage to schedule until mid-July, but no matter - take them I will!

Raring for a midday walk, followed by lunch out with Sissy at @thefivelampsnyc, all made possible by that first summer half-day? Yup! The dressing on the house salad was perfect! The baby arugula, red pepper, goat/mozzarella flatbread was delish! (Sis had tacos and lemonade.) Although more veggie options would definitely be welcome.

Raring for smartweed? Nope! Apparently, they are edible. But very hot and peppery, like cayenne, only for small doses, like a spice that leaves the sensation of burning a hole in the tongue. Um, no thanks. I cut all of that down during an overdue weeding session - another benefit of the summer half-day. But I found out, courtesy of @green_thyme, that I have lamb's quarters growing here and there; that apparently gets used like spinach, so it gets to stay.

Raring for tomatoes? Yeppers! Hence the earlier amaranth decapitation. This year, I missed the window to grow any from seed. So I cheated and adopted Mother Hen's thin-outs - hers were a late direct seed scattering, so they are all behind to start with, and even moreso being transplanted to the Jardin, with the very first little fruit only now forming. Even if the plants yield only the one this year, well, it's better than zero!