August Garden: Summer Cleanup and New Arrivals

Some old friends are still in the garden and some new have recently joined. This is what is enduring the August heat for now….

New Citronella plant and marigold. Trying something new to fend off mosquitos.

It was time for some thyme to be added back to the garden. Purchased a thyme plant so we had fresh herbs on hand.

Summer crop of pinto beans sprouting while the garden waits for fall crops.

Spinach is still doing well. Now that the squash is removed it has room to grow.

Tomato seedlings preparing for the fall.

Now that the squash is gone, the collards have room to thrive. They do love those semi-shady days though.

Needed some fresh basil so I put another store bought plant in the garden.

These chives keep on kicking year after year. This is their best year yet. Can’t wait to throw them in various recipes.

We have a few of these sickly kale plants spread throughout the garden. I can’t seem to pull them out yet though. Part of me thinks they will beat the heat and the bugs.

Found Photo : San Francisco

I recently found some photos I took in 2011 during a trip to San Franscisco that I never edited. I had a chance this morning to edit them using Lightroom and the Tone Curve. Back when I took the pictures I thought they were so terrible that not even photoshop could save them. Using the Curve tool, I have made them look slightly better.

Sutro Baths

Butternut Squash

Squashes have always proved difficult for me to grow. I have tried growing them from seed many times and many times I produce nothing.

The first challenge I face is that the leaves die off and rot away before anything can even be produced. Usually some bug attacks them or the Florida humidity molds them to death.

If I get past that stage, it will start flowering but no fruit fully develops. This is due to the lack of successful pollinators for the squash (bugs and bees) and the fact that they require both the male and female flower to bloom at the same time to produce the final product.

This year the plants grew. Squashes leaves traveled in all directions. Finally I had enough blooms to attempt to hand pollinate the squash fruits. The end result was two butternut squashes (the nicest and tastiest one is above. To pollinate, you find both the male and female flowers. The female flowers have a green undeveloped fruit attached and the flower has an opening of sort. The male flowers have no fruit attached and a stamen (long yellow stick). I break off the male flower and clear room around the stamen. I then rub the stamen all around the female squash stigma. If things go well, a tasty squash will grow. This method seems to work for me 70% of the time.

The bugs and heat are once again attacking the squash in my garden. I will be pulling the plants out soon. When it works, they taste fantastic. However I don’t have the real estate available in my garden to sacrifice to only produce 2 squashes for the season. I think this will be my last year growing them. They crowded out all the tomatoes so I have no tomato crop this summer.

I did enjoy my roasted butternut squash accompanied by sauteed spinach and quinoa.

Day and Night

I found this old draft post that began as this….

Today is one of those days that instead of dwelling on things that suck, I took time to think about how awesome my life is.
So many things about my life is great and all the pain I endured in the past got me to this fantastic point in time.

This is after I googled “happy things” this morning.

And found this quote:

“It’s my firm belief that even when it seems like everything’s going wrong in your life, there is always, always, ALWAYS something that’s going right. You owe it to yourself to find out what that is and bring it into your awareness.”
http://www.yourlifeyourway.net/2011/09/19/300-reasons-to-be-happy-things-to-love-about-your-life-now/

This (and past couple of) week(s) are tough. I am trying to use my tools that I discovered to get me back on track so I can write things like I did above.

My toolbox:
Exercise (running & cross-training)
Stress reducing activities (heavy breathing & meditation CDs, bubble baths)
Removing items from my diet that interfere with my mental clarity (sugar, alcohol, most carbs)
Surrounding myself with positive minded individuals and distancing myself from negative minded individuals (For now I am distancing myself from everyone).

Looking forward to returning back to normal soon. Please bear with me

UK Pubs : Camden

One of our last stops was the borough of Camden Town, in northwest London. It is an interesting and eclectic part of London. We visited because my cousin now lives close to this area. Originally I wanted to make it out to the famous Camden Lock Market but we never seemed make it during opening hours. Instead we wandered around town and visited a couple of pubs.

The Worlds End

The Worlds End pub is sort of a landmark in Camden. It was a nice meeting place across from the Camden tube station. The Worlds End pub is a large establishment and its history boasts famous past visitors (like many other London pubs). While we were in here I saw a belligerent drunk old man spill his beer all over the hallway and a yuppy girl break a red wine bottle all over the floor (I guess she was going to a party afterwards). It seemed to be a mix of different types of patrons. The music was heavy alternative.

The Camden Eye

Another pub close to the Camden tube station is The Camden Eye. The pub was busy on arrival but we chose to eat in the empty dining area upstairs. The upstairs was much quieter and provided us a view of Camden Town. We experienced our last fish and chips here but they had an interesting pizza selection (the names too).

The Earl of Camden

Our final pub visit was to the Earl of Camden. We happened upon trivia night. We tried to play along but the topics were more international and British in nature. It proved to be challenging for our group. An adorable large dog was calmly hanging out in the pub while his owner had a few drinks.