hello blog, i’ve missed you.

the funny part is that as i go through my day i often think of things that i should blog about.  aaaaand then i apparently never do.  so really, it’s like i’m just having a conversation with myself in my head… 

the tomatoes did very well.  we had a great crop, but they would NOT ripen on the plant.  i think perhaps the weather here is just a bit too cool.  i’ve picked them all green just before the temps dropped (and just before Hurricane Igor hit us) and several ripened inside immediately.  the others i have high hopes for.  the flavour in them is incredible, so even if we only get 3 or 4, i’d call it a success for our first attempt at growing them on the deck with no greenhouse.  most people here use some kind of greenhouse or something to grow them so i think we’re pretty pleased. 

i do have pictures…somewhere…  which i will post.

and maybe i’ll even get a post up here more than once a season.

summer road tripping

I’ve been going through the music collection putting together a new playlist for summer road trips.  Yay for summer road trips!  We always manage a few weekends away throughout the season visiting friends, or hanging out at the cabin and I like to have the playlists at the ready so I’m not sitting in the car spending the whole time flipping through the iPod and missing the scenery.

I thought I’d share some of the songs I’m including here.  the song that got me rolling on wanting to put together a new road trip playlist is Michael Franti and Spearhead‘s Say Hey (I love you).   To me, it just feels like summer. 

new growth!

the tomatoes are doing really well!  we transplanted them into bigger pots on sunday afternoon and so far so good.  the true leaves are the same size or larger of the cotylden leaves and they all look great.  we only had space for 17 plants under the lights so we did some serious culling – who knows how many will make it through the next transplant.

i’m super excited.  i can almost taste the tomatoes!  and yes, i’ve considered taking a plant or two out of the room into natural lighting to get a better picture, but i hate to disrupt them…

mini life-list

A while ago (several months ago?) I started my own mini life-list. It’s over there on the other page: 35 by 35. I chose 34 things I want to do before I turn 35 (in October) and just wrote them down. I currently don’t have a 35th item so I suppose I’ll just wait and see what random cool thing happens.

I just realized this morning that I can cross off 4 items!

#7 Plant something – well, I’ve planted the tomatoes! They might not work (kind of a major disaster with the other human in the house putting them TOO CLOSE TO THE LIGHT so they are suffering at the moment) but I still planted them. I also have plans for more planting in the front gardens, so there.

#22 snorkel somewhere cool and #23 overnight on a sailboat were satisfied on our southern vacation this year. It was actually 7 days and 7 nights of snorkeling cool places and overnighting on a sailboat!

and #30 I’m embarassed to say that I’ve lived in this town for almost 4 years and I didn’t have a library card. But that has now been rectified. I found myself standing in front of the small library down the road yesterday (one of the smallest library branches I’ve ever seen) and I went in, got a card, and took out 5 books. How satisfying to get books for free.

I feel really good about my list so far. Some other things are in progress and a few others I actually want to do this weekend (now that I’ve read the list again and reminded myself that I want to do them!).

This life-list idea is really fun, and some bloggers are out there doing their lists in the BIG time. I’m working on a bigger one as well, but doubt I’ll actually share it here…and I sort of doubt Intel is going to offer to send me to Greece for free…

Tomatoes! (almost)

i decided that we should plant a vegetable this year, any vegetable! i chose tomatoes because they’re yummy and i think they’ll do well on our deck in pots. we get lots of sun and our yard is going to be undergoing some landscaping which means that having an in-the-ground garden will be impossible.

i started them from seed (crazy yes, but i didn’t realize you could buy seedlings…this is how much of a gardening newbie i am) on Sunday (the 23rd).

(i apologize for the amazingly horrible photos that are included in this post. the light is just awful in the room with the tomatoes (they are under fake light) and the natural light isn’t much better in the basement. i also have no idea how to use the camera that i was using so all the settings are wonky.)

Here they are on Day 5. Yes, I squealed in delight.

And here they are on Day 6. I have a small forest! I’m not looking forward to having to cull them down. We don’t have room for 35 tomato plants…

365 is kicking my butt

i think i’ve taken one picture in the last week.  maybe two…  sigh.  this whole picture a day thing is kicking my butt.

forgotten picture. again

after work yesterday I took the Flea out for a wonderful walk and tennis ball throwing session.  we had a great time, the sun was shining bright…and I forgot my camera.  Sigh.

however it’s only 8am and I’ve found a great looking recipe for carrot slaw that I think I’ll use today to get rid of part of the many pounds of carrots I seem to have stockpiled.  Mmmmm…slaw.  Recipe can be found here.

365.53

365.53, originally uploaded by jcheramy.

365.52

365.52, originally uploaded by jcheramy.

365.51

365.51, originally uploaded by jcheramy.