Of Gardens, Kitchens, and Books…

Flowers are taking over my garden. They were smothering my little eggplants, which really couldn’t take much more after the flea beetles got at them. They were hovering over the pepper plants, too and shading some squash in the back. The thing is, though, I think they may be good for the tomatoes: camouflage. Birds and other thieving creatures won’t get to the fruits before I do because there are other red and colored things all over close by that can’t be eaten. Is this sowing chaos?

The garden after weeding, mulching, watering…have I mentioned it’s dry?

Yesterday, I went to the garden to cull flowers, weed and check out what was there. One tomato plant was in trouble from blossom rot and my hope for zucchini had also rotted on the vine. I worked away happily (I am on vacation this week, partly to get the kitchen in order and partly to do other things I can’t seem to get to while working, getting the garden to fabulous being one) for more than four hours and liked the result.

A few tiny cucumbers coming on give me hope of bread and butter pickles…

Today I went back and added composted leaf mulch. But before that, I threw down some bone meal on the tomatoes and squash and some organic fertilizer for good measure. The bone meal could take care of the blossom rot, if that’s the correct diagnosis.

This is the plant with blossom rot. It may be getting over it if this batch is any indication.

I also transplanted some of the zinnias I removed from the garden and put them outside the fence for our sidewalk border. I hope they survive.

The bees love the zinnias.

The small Plot Against Hunger garden has some massive tomatoes coming on, as does the large plot. There was also a summer squash in the large plot and a perfect zucchini in the small plot. Obviously, these plots have a better mineral balance than mine. We’ve given a lot of produce to AFAC this year so far. Jane did a lot of succession planting and interplanting with the early crops, and all the chicken manure we put down in February or March seems to have done its magic.

Other tomatoes are mixed with zinnias and hiding near winter squash.

Over the weekend I painted the kitchen something called shore house green, which looks more like robin’s egg blue to me. There was some bad language at the edges where cutting in or masking is necessary. The edges aren’t perfect, but it’s okay. I painted the wall where I currently have a desk something called suntan yellow, and I really like the combination with the blue.

When I opened the can of paint for this, I started laughing, I liked it so well.

After the garden today, I went up to the Container Store, where I had a counter and shelves designed last week with their Elfa system. I took pictures of the kitchen (being me, I had already taken precise measurements, but forgot, for instance, the HVAC vent up close to the ceiling) and we made some adjustments to the design. I’m paying for delivery and installation, having already used up my bad language quota during the painting. Suffice it to say, it’s a bar height counter I can use for work or breakfast, with some shelving above. I’ll show it when it’s installed.

This is where the bar/shelving will be installed. I use my metal fuse box cover as a place to post notes.

Since all work and no play would be bad, I’m also reading and recently finished a book I enjoyed immensely. It is called Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney. Holy smokes. It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a book so much. I’m following it up with Julia Glass’s A House Among the Trees and will let you know how that is when I’m done.

I really like the way this blue makes the window pop.

But Lillian Boxfish. She’s an 85 year old woman who takes a purposeful walk through Manhattan on new year’s eve in 1985. She was at one time the most highly paid woman in advertising as well as a poet and writer of self help books. She takes the reader through the New York of the twenties (Prohibition did not stop cocktails), the thirties–yes something from most decades. She is witty, astringent, clear-eyed, and open and her walk takes her past landmarks that all resonate with an event. The narrative moves easily between past and present and the writing is solid. Lillian has some insights about life, some surprising, and if she were my neighbor, I’d be dropping in on her.

My banana peppers are loaded. I think Lillian would like banana peppers.

Tomorrow, I’m having lunch with a friend (did I mention we’re having some spectacular weather? Low eighties, no humidity, sun) and may take a kayak onto the river. Vacation at home is heavenly, even with chores…

Soon, I hope to stop buying beans from the grocery. Though I’ve been picking these young and putting them in omelets…