catch the colors

The leaves keep dropping and all the colors will be gone from the trees soon.

I decided to go for a walk, get some fresh air and enjoy the colors.

Rain Haiku

It is supposed to rain all day. I woke up to the sound of the drops being pushed against the window by a wild wind. It will be a good day to stay inside. I remember learning about different types of poetry in an English class and having to try writing in different styles, so I am challenging myself today to write a haiku about the weather.

First step, looking up how to write a haiku.

From what I understand the 'American' version of this traditional Japanese style of verse sees this style written as three lines, the first having 5 syllables, the second having seven and the third having five again.

water rolls down now

shatters on darkened pavement

pool together new

Basil Harvest

The basil was not looking good... so I cut it all and decided to freeze it so I can add it when I'm cooking instead of having pesto for dinner.

I washed the basil, put it in the food processor (blender would work too) with a little oil and when it was all shredded up I put it in a thin layer in a freezer safe container and put it in the freezer.

2011 Calendar

November! Time is going by so quickly. With Halloween behind us and Thanksgiving and winter holidays right around the corner it's time to starting thinking about holiday gifts for this year and getting ready for the next year.

Today I decided to make a calendar.

I started by going through the photos on my computer and picked out some of my favorites that seemed seasonally appropriate.

I decided which image seemed the most appropriate for which month.

Then I had to choose a size and style for the dates. I've

noticed that I and most of the people I'm in contact with these days seem to keep all of our dates electronically, but it's still nice to be able to have a calendar, for a nice picture and for a quick reference, so I decided to keep the format small and to save some paper I decided to print two months per 8.5 x 11 sheet and too keep it uncomplicated by not using any folds or fancy fastening. I punched a whole at the top of each sheet and tied it with a ribbon to hang the calendar.

Then, since I have my Etsy shop I decided to post the calendar there too and see if there's any interest.

Hoop Garden

I have some vegetable that could still use a little more growing time but it is getting cold out and there will be frost soon. And If I harvested everything before it freezes and my veggies die it would be too much food to eat before it spoils - I still have all that lettuce to eat- so I decided to make a sort of hoop garden. The challenge is doing it using things I already have...

I found:

• two thin bamboo pieces
• a metal trim piece (piece of wood and a nail)
• a large wooden steak
• a large pice of bamboo
• string
• plastic panting drop cloth
• somebroken bits of pavers and bricks

I moved the planters I had things growing in in between the two beds so that they could be covered too. The veggies at one end of the bed were shorter than the ones at the other end of the bed, so I used the small bamboo and string, I tied the string around the tops of the bamboo and used it to pull them together so they would be curved and closer to the beds. At the opposite end of the beds where the vegetables are taller I put the large bamboo and wooden steak and tied the string between them also.

The metal trim piece was wobbly so I nailed it to a board to give it some rigidity in the middle and placed the board between two of the planters so it would stand. Then I put the plastic over the top of everything and used binder clips and chip clips to hold the plastic on to the supports.

It's not a beautiful or expertly constructed hoop house but hopefully it will help to extend the growing time a little so we'll have a few more weeks of fresh vegetables from the garden.

Vote

It's November 2nd again which means it's time to vote! So, this morning when the alarm went off I rolled out of bed, grabbed some coffee and headed out...

They are predicting that there will be higher turn out for this election than there has been in 20 years. I thought I might be waiting for awhile with the before work crowd but there weren't too many people yet.

I always get a bit nervous about voting. I'm not sure if it's that I somehow suddenly feel all this pressure for participating in decision making that will impact the whole... Or it could just be flash backs to multiple choice tests... maybe I didn't read the ballot question information carefully enough, didn't study enough, and now I'm going to fill in the wrong bubble and fail.

Nerves aside it is a good feeling to be participating with the community, everyone gathering in a single place for a single purpose and to have a voice on the crazy ballot questions.

During elections I also am reminded that it was hard fought by incredible activist women for me to be able to participate and have a vote and is also privilege that I have by living in this country so it is important to participate and not take it for granted this privilege I have.

So... make sure you get out and VOTE today!

Lettuce Harvest

It is getting cold out. I'm hoping there will be a bit more growing time for my vegetable garden but as the temperature drops there are a few things that need to come out, so tonight I did some harvesting...

I picked all the lettuce, most of the tomatoes even though they're green and the rest of the radishes. Looks like we'll be having salad and fried green tomatoes or a green tomato salsa or something... hmmm....