One of These Things Doesn't Belong Here

...One of these things just isn't the same...

Snaps from this past weekend at the Mothership, with most from the lush Mother Garden.

1 - Loofah (apparently, it appeared out of nowhere, or, at least, surreptitiously; it had caught no one's eye until right before this photo was taken).

2 - Very happy basil (in contrast to my several failed attempts at the Jardin; although the latest cuttings seem to be establishing now, quite late into the season - so even the cuttings' good growth is nowhere near the size of these leaves, only two of which were more than enough for a full dish of leftover pasta).

3 - Spent dwarf sunflower, hopefully bearing some viable seeds, so that we can try for some next year without relying on the supermarket that sold us this one. [This could be the "one" that doesn't belong, being neither edible, nor vividly colored - though once it was.]

4,5,6,7 - Red amaranth, in all its various forms  (taking a cue from my pleasing past practice), including inside an omelette. Mama Hen was somewhat skeptical about the omelette; she seems to have missed out on spinach omelettes in her life. The little yellow grape tomatoes came from seeds that Mama Hen just casually tossed into a planter in Spring, and, of course, they thrived in her care. I saved seeds, since I don't know that mine will yield very much fruit.

8 - The reason for the visit - Lil' Bro's. [This is the other candidate for not belonging, being not of the Mother Garden, though the flan still sprang from the hands of Mama Hen.]

And also "not the same"? The weekend's activities. No watercraft; Lil' Bro was reluctantly willing, but the reluctance was clear. And it was HIS birthday, so it was only right that we should follow his lead and preferences - and for him, mini golf won. A fun outing overall, though surprisingly not much less mosquito-plagued than boating would have been.

Sissy expressed some pressure to boat regularly, too, to make the annual dues that I paid worthwhile. Sure, there are the fees - but it should still be fun, for everyone involved. I think part of the reason the fun has waned is the complex assembly routine. The kayak option that Papa Rooster, Mama Hen, and I went to explore last week alas doesn't quite work as is - the seat was lower than Papa Rooster's comfort level. There might be other options, but that would be more of an outlay. We'll see....

It's always the time versus the money. Feels like life shouldn't come down to that, but surprisingly often, decisions can be plotted out on those two axes. I am fortunate in that, for these things, I feel like I can disregard the cost element - nothing we do is oh so extravagant; I just want it to be fun and easy. But the expense part tends to weigh more on others - it's generally that the ones more lacking in a resource value it more. And so it is with me and time.

Odds, Ends, Aubergine

Food waste averting cookery, with bonus fresh harvested greens - in December!

Every so often, I impress myself with my cooking. Every so often, I prove to be rather resourceful. Once in a blue moon, I delight myself by doing both. And so it was that this post-dinner dish came to be.

My leftover lunch quinoa-kale-carrot soup turned out to be not quite filling enough for dinner (though it, too, was quite tasty). So what's a girl with languishing Chinese eggplant going 10 days unbagged and unrefrigerated, with the stem end starting to go brown, supposed to do? Cook it - browning end and all, cubed. In some oil and salt, tossed quickly, lidded to steam itself. Sauce - what sauce? A leftover ketchup container from fries that accompanied a takeout mushroom burger consumed 3 weekends ago + one pouch of sauce for vegetarian egg rolls that goes perpetually unused and saved because I don't like it with the egg rolls --> mixed, container rinsed with some water, dump in and toss with eggplant. Lid again. Needs some freshness and color, some garnish... Ooh, ooh! The scallion root ends planted outside last Spring were still surprisingly green and sprightly upon last inspection, considering the frigid mid-December of it all. Grab knife, go out into the darkness of the Jardin, cut some of the taller scallion leaves - trust that NYC rain and precip have done all the washing necessary (hope there are no heavy metal traces in said precip). Back inside; kill flame under eggplant. Slice scallion greens, dish eggplant, sprinkle scallions over eggplant.

Photograph. Consume. No spoiling produce, leftover condiment, nor  frost-endangered, homegrown, vivacious-for-now allium shall go wasted in these parts! And it was all pretty tasty. Go figure!

And, even better, I made some headway in the goal of resuming preparing relatively healthy, home cooked meals - for both lunch AND dinner. After an evening of decent sleep, entirely in my bed (without the usual interlude of a sofa sleep). And that's not all! I even got in some exercise, outside, with a quick walk in the park at lunch! Not major accomplishments. But, baby steps back to normalcy.

Chicks Flew The Coop

Procrastigardening. A "Before" and "After" mini project report.

I should have been studying for a FINRA licensing exam. I may hate myself for letting most of the weekend go. But I couldn't. I needed to calm myself, needed to be in the garden.

One of the gutter planters along the parapet railing has always been inhabited by hens 'n chicks - a legacy of one of Sissy's indoor planting failures. Everything else in that succulent pot had died, survived by a small clump of hens 'n chicks, maybe even barely at that - they might have been sickly, or had pests; she brought them up and they went outside, and survived that winter, and many since. That gutter planter was overflowing, growing over the side, with chicks smushed up against the railing.

I recently set up the bird bath again (after it was disassembled from last year's terrace construction work). It came from Vietnam, shipped, after a trip there by Mama Hen and Papa rooster. There was supposed to be a figurine of a girl, but she either arrived broken, or not at all, or grossly out of scale. So I inherited it, without the figurine.

The basin got dirty quickly, as did the water. There was never a good perch for the birds. So at some point, I decided the robust moss in some of the planters could simulate water. The moss-as-water plan just never worked - the moss never grew in as lushly as I hoped, and when it was dry, it just looked sad. So over the last few days, I added a few stray chicks that had fallen out and separated from the hens. Yesterday, thoughts racing in my head at how behind I am in my studies, I decided to go whole hog on populating the basin with chicks.

I began pulling candidate chicks and realized carrying them in my hand wasn't going to work, so went looking for a vessel. Voila! Rediscovered a seashell - I think from a trip with law school friends to the Delaware shore - that was tucked away during last year's terrace construction and temporarily forgotten - and deposited that first little clutch of chicks.

[Aside: Isn't the orange thing cute? Gotta love New York City curbs. Not sure what it was conceived as - stool? plant stand? side table? It may move inside, or maybe just stay outside and extend the indoor pop of orange scheme to the Jardin.]

Finally, the shell with all the migrant chicks was perched in the center of the bath basin, ready for them to be resettled. 

It rained Friday, so the moss was soaked, and there were some pools of water - seemed like a gentle way for them to transition into their new home.

Final result in the last photo. Decided to leave the shell out as a water receptacle for thirsty pollinators. [I had thought about getting a small glass terrarium and tiny solar fountain for the center, but solar burblers don't seem to come small enough.] Fingers crossed that the chicks like their new home and grow and thrive.

Fingers crossed that I survive this exam. The procrastigardening continued today, only moderately abated. And I had sworn, after the first, "easy," exam that I wouldn't do this. Yet, here I am, a week out, doing just that. Sigh. It is a mental illness. 

Years ago, in college, I took a babysitting stint from Sissy's roommate when I should have been writing a Chinese Foreign Policy paper. I never did manage to finish the paper and took a C+ in the class - on the strength of my exam grades and participation in the class. It remains the lowest grade I have ever received. We still refer to the behavior as "Chinese Foreign Policy."

Hoping I haven't Chinese Foreign Policied myself. There remains a week to see how it goes.

First Non-Manic Monday

The dreaded, anticipated, manic Monday may be more monstrous mental manifestation than the music to be faced.

When I drew open the curtains this morning, this greeted me from the windowsill - the geranium I beheaded right before the first freezing nights a few weeks back, and plunked into water in hopes of propagating it for color over Winter and maybe getting a head start on planting come Spring if it survives. I have been checking for roots - none yet. But the upper leaves stayed green and vibrant, and this cluster of buds hadn’t withered. But only with today’s flowers can I dare hope it’s taking in water and still actually alive. And I didn’t even discover these lovely little blooms until after noon - because I was cocooning in bed until then (taking advantage of an “off” day of work for me - one of the few “off” days on my part-time schedule I have actually felt free to be off in the almost two years since I switched to this schedule), on this whiplash-inducing frigid January Monday that followed on the heels of a pair of 50+ degree days for the start of 2022.

The reduced schedule just hasn’t really worked out that way. The last two months leading into year-end have been rough work-wise. (The last two years have been rough work-wise, and otherwise.)

[No More to come.]

[Edited January 4, 2022; then to finality August 26, 2023.]

Day After Fay

Timing gardening tasks to take advantage of a tropical storm, and the rewards of its aftermath.

I am a lazy gardener (lazy in other areas too - or, labor efficient, if we spin it positively). So, knowing a tropical storm was coming, the red spinaches (aka amaranth) that I got from the Mother Garden over the 4th of July, that still hadn’t made it into planters, went in - so that I could take advantage of Fay to water them in.  Why water when Mother Nature volunteers to take on the chore?  Of course, that set off a game of musical planters - stray portulacas in the destination planters got moved to better locations, clustered clown violets got separated, broken mandevilla tips that successfully rooted went in, anything that wasn’t in its ideal home moved, more seeds were sown - all to make the most of Fay’s watering.  If those roots aren’t well established by all that rain, there’s no way I would have done better.

The day after, the newly located plants looked happy and hydrated, so, fingers crossed. And yesterday’s sun showers finally led to rainbow sightings!  It’s nice to be rewarded for chasing rainbows every so often.

The amaranths are so lovely and colorful - I’d plant them just for the foliage, even if they weren’t edible!  But since we’re in COVID times, edible is definitely a bonus...

...The mandevillas budding at last - after all the overwinter care, some reassurance they’re still doing their thing. 

And one of the rosebuds is just perfection...

...and not as perfect, but perfectly pretty...

... Then there were the visitors who came by post-storm - the usual snails,...

... also a most unusual and prehistoric looking, HUGE June beetle - maybe they just are that size, but made be do a double take, for the size and the color, sort of pretty, actually.

And to cap off the evening of pretty skies, these lovely sunsets we’ve been having - I didn’t realize until after looking at the photos that I managed to capture both the sunset AND the moonrise!

[Finally closed out with completing photos on Labor Day 2023.]

Little Speck of Earth Day

A microcosm of Mother Earth to observe her day.

Tiny little snails nestling among the moss at the base of the mandevillas wintering inside.

Earth Day +1, 2020.  Seeds, sprouts, snails, ...

Unidentified seedling - maple? - taking root in an overwintering mandevilla container.

Attempting to root a mandevilla cutting...

...because left to their own devices, they just want to climb the strings of the window shades.

This mandevilla is actually rooting!

More cuttings in water.

Stray little snail.

All indoors on this Earth Day of COVID isolation.

[Edited to complete photos December 13, 2024.]

In From the Cold

As a caterpillar fattened itself for the coming Winter on the petunias, ...

... it was time to rescue the tender bonus hydrangea...

... and geranium...

... and strawberry plants, ...

...and do some seed gathering along the way. 

Their indoor home will be the planter vacated by one of the old mandevillas that got consolidated. 

Unorthodox gardening tools?  Perhaps slightly unorthodox....  Yes, that is a sled, liberated from the sidewalk piles, great for containing stray soil on slatted tables (and if we ever get our sledding hill back from the bulldozers behind Gracie Mansion, great for use by petite adults!).

And yes, disposable chopsticks wrappers repurposed as seed envelopes. 

And, yup, all of these plant transfers done on the convertible bench table used as half-table while the wooden table awaits repairs.  Repurposing and multitasking!

Summer Solstice Weekend 2019

Beautiful weather weekend, at last.  Longest days of the year.  Still not enough time.  The Orifice is a jealous mistress.