A cloudy October morning. It’s the 8th day of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’m still chugging along with all the challenges I set for myself. I’m not obsessive or stressing myself about them. I do try to do the best I can. However, I am getting a bit weary but it’s more to do with the season than anything else.
With the progressive shortening of the days, I am craving more food, especially carbs. The other day I ate 2 sandwiches for lunch. One tasted so good that I had to have a second. Then there’s the fatigue. I slept in till 8 even though I went to bed at a decent hour last night. These are the physical realities. It is what it is. I can be a little flexible and not be so stern with myself. I can also practice a little restraint at the same time.
Did I say I’m tired? I only got up 2 hours ago and I’m already feeling sleepy. I need to get up and out even though I don’t quite feel like it. There’s still leeks and celery to harvest. The greenhouse needs watering. There’s leaves to rake. There’s a lot of work calling me. I better get off my butt and get in gear.
A rainy Monday morning. It’s as if the universe is weeping for the passing of sunny summer days. It was only yesterday morning that my sister and I were basking in the sunshine at Boffins Garden. I am feeling mellow with the rain, a tad melancholic, mourning for days/years lost.
It is Monday morning. As you can see, I was dumbstruck and lost for words again. I laid sleepless last night, unable to turn off thoughts in my head. These nights are recurring more than I like. I try to look on the positive side of them. They are teaching me to still myself and let the thoughts come as they may. It was hard to resist my usual habit of trying to understand and fix it. For some things, there are no fixes. And so I laid as still as I could and let the thoughts be.
I’m none the worse for wear. I might not be the sharpest tack in the box today but I think I can still have a good day. This is called making the best of things. I used to be an all or nothing girl. It’s taken me a long time to get here, to not throwing in the towel. I’ve had/am having a stretch of difficult September days. All of life feels difficult. I’m trying to adjust and change my view/attitude towards the word ‘difficult’. The big question is how am I going to do it.
What came immediately to mind was Wayne Dyer’s Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life. Like so many books I have, I haven’t read it. It’s a good place to start. I could make it my 100dayproject. Besides reading it, I could do a little art along with it. Sounds like a plan for the last 14 days of September.
At some point a person have to just stop with the worrying, fussing and carrying on. Do the best you can and live. Life can kill you sometimes and you don’t want to add to that. I’ve come to that crossroad. The other evening I got hit with a sudden episode of feeling so bad. I don’t know how else to describe it. I didn’t know how to alleviate it so I threw myself into bed even though it was only 9:30. Mercifully I fell asleep PDQ.
The bad feeling was gone in the morning. I remembered though it was bad enough for me to think, I want to die. It was a bit disconcerting at first. I puzzled over it over my morning cup of tea. Then I remembered my mother saying she wanted to die in the hospital after she had surgery for her broken hip. I think it is my mother’s suffering I felt in my own body. She came to prod me to get on with things. I need not suffer like she had. I still have work to do and a life to live. There are no excuses for not doing either.
So I am giving myself a shake, rattle and roll. I am pulling up my socks and give everything another once over and see what I can do. I need not worry about being bored and not enough to do. I have bitter melons and cucumbers coming out of my ears. Yesterday I blanched and frozen a bunch of bitter melons. For lunch today I made soup out of leftover turkey, cucumbers, last years carrots, celery and barley. I still have a pail of cucumbers. I’ve been meaning to make some refrigerator pickles for days. Meaning to does not quite get the job done. So I might just get to it soon. I also have celery coming out of my ears. I have alot to do. I can’t afford to feel bad. I better snap out of it and get into the pickle.
August 13th. I’m glad it’s a Thursday and not a Friday. I am superstitious. I used to cross my slippers when I go to bed to ward off ghosts. I was plagued by nightly visits then. You have to remember I ‘saw’ them when I was a child. I no longer do but I still sense their prescence and give them due respect.
It’s another grey morning. I made my daily visit to the garden and greenhouse. I did some housekeeping there yesterday. The bitter melon vines were overgrowing into every space possible. They were blocking the sunlight and air flow. It’s hard for me to trim them as I like to hang on to them for more fruit. It was creating a lot of humidity which led to red aphids on the pepper plants. Some of them were on the bitter melon leaves also. I sacrifice the pepper plants that had no fruit on them. I sprayed the others with soapy water. I trimmed off all the affected bitter melon leaves. Thank God they were just on one side.
After a severe pruning of the vines sunlight can get in and there is better air flow. It’s a lesson in letting go and not hanging onto every little things. More could mean less. This morning’s count of bitter melons is 22 big and small. hanI have given away 6 to friends at coffee, 2 to my father and we’ve eaten a few. I shall blanch and freeze some for winter.
I’m applying the ‘pruning’ rule to my closet this morning. What use are my high school grad and bridesmaid dresses hanging in the closet? They are taking up space and gathering dust, not only in the closet but also in my head. Yes, I take pride in that I made them both. Then there’s my mother’s 3 dresses also hanging there. One of them still have the price tag on it. She had not worn it. The original price was $100.00 marked down for $50.00. I was surprised that my mother did this. This was a dress from a long time back. I was happy that my mother valued herself to buy that dress even though she never wore it.
Against well given advice, I did try on my mother’s dresses. It did make giving them up harder. Two fit very nicely. They made me feel beautiful and elegant but where would I wear these dressy dresses to? I decided that they would all be donated. They would make nice gifts for someone. They do not look dated as I had thought.
August 10th morning coming down. Seems like summer made a sudden departure and we are left in the cool. It is grey and cool. I don’t feel an urge to pick up my heels for my morning walk. Instead, I’ll do my walking on the keyboard for awhile. I am making a conscious effort of not being a gerbil on a wheel. I’ll see if I can break some bad habits and become a better happier version of myself.
Beginnings of anything is the hardest part. I’m feeling stuck already. The thing I can/should do is to pay my house insurance. It is due on the 15th. I have a hot pink post it note to remind me. I’ve just taken time to make said payment for the insurance online. It took only minutes. That little initiative led me to change the bed linen and toss it in the laundry. While I was at it, I thought I might as well dust the bedroom. Having done all that, I felt a need to reward myself with a coffee.
On second thought a morning walk would be a better reward. A walk could loosen that stuck feeling, burn some calories and boost my mood. So that was what I did, my daily walk to the mall. While I was there I bought some B.C peaches and a bag of pluots. You may wonder, what the hell are pluots? They are a cross between a plum and an apricot. I haven’t tasted them yet. I’m hoping for delicious.
Now at the end of the day, I am waiting for my supper. I am pleased with my performance. I blanched and froze more beans, harvested some bitter melons, cucumbers, squash and 2 cherry tomatoes. I visited my father to see if he is ok. My sister had reported that he complained of a sleepless night because of his heart palpatations. I took the guy along so we can say we want to harvest the garlic planted in his garden. I do not want him to give him undue attention.
When we got there, I could see he had been out weeding in the front yard. There was clumps of dandelion strewn here and there. I could not find him in the house. When I went to the back door, I could see him standing on the step looking fine and perky. I made no big deal about it. In fact I made no mention of it. I did not ask about his night or his heart. But of course, he had to tell me. I told him I couldn’t sleep either. I reminded him his heart thing was nothing new and if it wasn’t too bad…..
I left it at that. I did not reprimand him or remind him that he said he was not going to go out ever again after he said he fell. He will do what he will do. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t hold him back. I have to be smart, not to waste my energy and lose my temper and mind. On the last drive to ER, I did wonder what would happen if I was to have a heart attack even if the guy was driving.
Most days I am in the greenhouse first thing in the morning. I love to take in the sweet scent of the bitter melon blooms. This year I am blessed with 13 healthy productive plants. This morning’s count was 20 melons that I could see. Now there’s one less. I cooked photo #7 for lunch with an eggplant from my sister.
I haven’t master the art of growing eggplants. I am still waiting for my first eggplant. The blossoms keep falling off before becoming a fruit. I looked into reasons why. Too hot, not enough water, severe pruning, etc. My best bet was unsuccessful pollination. It’s flower is like the tomato’s. It contains both male and female organs. I had been shaking it once in awhile. That hasn’t worked so I’ve been hand pollinating it with a small brush. I have only one bloom left. Cross my fingers and toes.
Talking about tomatoes, I have one ripe one on the vine. So far I’ve always had a big crop of tomatoes because I plant a lot of tomatoes except for this year. I’ve cut back. I might be sorry because this is the year of not great results.
However, we do have alot of beans. Buckets, buckets and buckets. I’m up to my ears blanching and freezing. I’m taking a little rest break to write this post.
A cool August 3. It’s a sweater and bread baking kind of day. I had a slow start. I had phoned my sister to drop by to pick up some beets and a birthday present for her son. My nephew is going to Japan in October. I still have some Japanese yen from my last trip some 20 years ago. My intention of another trip came to naught so he might as well have it. It’s not big money, maybe $115 Canadian.
We had to have coffee and talked of our dad. It was not the best of things to talk about and left me not in the best of form. I had plans of baking bread. It was late in the morning but I carried on and hope for the best. The bread turned out ok though my memory got foggy and couldn’t quite remember the count of yeast and flour. My auto pilot must be functioning well. Now it is at the end of a strange feeling day. It remained cool and cloudy. I had to wear a sweater out to water the garden. It was nice to step inside the toasty warm greenhouse. It was heaven to see all my dangling bitter melons.
On cool cloudy difficult days, it is nice to have coffee with my sister, bake bread and bask in the warmth of the greenhouse amid the dangling bitter melons. Now the day is almost done and I can breathe a little easier. Tomorrow is a new start.
It’s Thursday, day 30 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’m short of time and short of words. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. As you can see I do live in an urban forest, surrounded by trees. I’m grateful for their green and their shade. Both are cooling especially in this heat we find ourselves this summer.
pepperscarrot bed in background. A Japanese haskap berry bush in the middle. A saskatoon berry tree in right corner.kohlrabis, celery, cukes and a squash.
We try to live as sustainably as we can, growing our own food as much as we can. We have 36 solar panels on the house and have added some on the garage in the back. We have a rain catchment by the side of the house. It is hidden behind a painting of a waterfall by the guy. We also have 3 sets of water catchment in the back. Doing our best but it’s probably not enough.
Another almost perfect summer day for day 29 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’m almost at the finish line. I’m running low on energy as harvesting and perserving it has started. To make it easy, it’s a show and tell of my backyard food forest. You don’t need alot of space to grow alot of food. It’s alot of work but lots of satisfaction also.
The inground garden between the house and garage holds: Kiwis along garage wall. Aspargus, potatoes, tomatoes and Chinese long beans along fence by neighbour’s garage. Swedish beans and cauliflower in next bed. Garlic in the next bed over. Zucchinis and eggplants in far bed. Rhubarb, lovage and goiji berry at the end horizontal bed.
grapes and raspberriesstrawberriestomatoes, greens and brassicaspotatoes,squash and Chinese long beansbitter melons, peppers and cucumbers
In the 2nd last photo, we have 3 haskap berry bushes and one sour cherry.
