Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

WOW! We returned home from a week's trip (including an unexpected day's delay out of Indianapolis due to Hurricane Fay) to find this bountiful harvest overloading the vines and plants in the back yard! It seems that while we were gone everything grew gangbusters, as if I injected the plants with steroids before I left. Not having the chance to pick any of this for a whole week, it turned into a haul.

We have the following vegetables sitting in the kitchen now...I just have to find room in the fridge for it all:


2 Japanese eggplant--a bit damaged from overwatering they received from when I was trying to sprout some seeds I planted nearby.
5 zucchini--including the largest I have harvested this year. What am I supposed to do with this mother? It will undoubtedly be tough and stringy inside, with huge seeds surrounded by dry pith. Perhaps I can salvage some of the flesh for...any ideas?





3 large green peppers--in addition, the pepper plants have at least 5 more new peppers growing to good sizes on each plant. I think I will make stuffed peppers with these ones, as the fresh flavor is a bit compromised when they get this big.







20 lemon cucumbers--most much huger, and many much more yellow than I've allowed them to grow before this week. I hope they still taste good! How are we going to eat all of these?




The regular (green) cucumbers I planted haven't done anything. They have been overtaken by basil plants, lemon cucumber and watermelon vines, and pepper plants. They get no sun! Poor things.



2 Watermelons--one a weird, stunted melon that didn't grow at all while we were gone. I figured I might as well pick it, just to see what it looks like inside. It was pale pink/yellow/white inside, but quite sweet, actually. The other melon I was trying to pick up out of the vines to show Molly and it just came off the vine. Hopefully it won't be too under ripe. I have another melon that was about the size of a golf ball when we left, and is now a lot bigger...perhaps the size of one of those crazy big walla walla onions...or a small sugar pumpkin. I think I'll leave this one on the vine until first frost...if I can.

And finally...15 tomatoes!

7 big beef (bright red)
6 brandywine (pinkish & yellow/green)
1 green zebra (yellow with green stripes)

AND

1 red chile--there are a ton more chiles on the plant, all green, but I should probably start picking them soon. This is the only one that turned red while we were gone. I've forgotten what variety of pepper they are. Perhaps serrano...usually when I see serranos in the store, they are green. I am curious to cut up this little red pepper and see what it tastes like.

I just realized that I forgot to check the cherry tomato plants. I'm sure there will be more to pick from them in the morning. I also have a feeling that in the fading light I may have missed som cucumbers and tomatoes. I am still waiting for ripe tomatoes on the Hawaiian pineapple plant and the black krim. I am also surprised that the zebra hadn't produced more ripe fruit while we were gone. Perhaps the light of day will reveal more to harvest tomorrow. Tonight, I'm putting all this in my fridge and going to bed.

A Knitting Post -- Two Gifts

Gift #1: You've heard of the Peace Train...introducing the Peace Envelope Purse.
It's a present for my 13 year old niece, who loves all things peace sign (as I did at that age, 21 years ago). It's also my first felted bag. I've heard a lot about them...but since I don't carry purses much, and have not the patience to knit anything larger, I have never attempted one.

The design is my own...except I took the peace sign chart from this website. Everything else I made up as I went along. I started at the point of the envelope flap, added 2-4 stitches every row or s0 until I reached 33 stitches (throwing a yarnover buttonhole in there along the way). At the end of the flap, I did a turning row (like you do for a hem) then I knitted a long rectangle with the peace sign chart on one side, and the contrast gray for the other, with another turning row in between them. I folded it, sewed up the sides and when I felted it (at 1:30 in the morning) it shrunk into this dandy envelope size. Then I decided it needed a tassle and a felted i-cord shoulder strap. The yarn was various worsted wools from my stash. The button is a knotted leather button I had in my sewing toolbox. And that's about it for the Peace Envelope Purse.

Gift #2: Pink and Green Baby Sweater
This is an old project that I pulled out of my stash to give to Molly's friend Brooks who just had a baby. Again, I designed this as I went (and can only hope it will fit an actual baby). The contrast edging is in seed stitch, and the body is in stockinette. There is no shaping at all...just a bunch of rectangles sewn together, but the squared/slit neck and the 3/4 sleeves makes it work (at least in my imagination). The yarn is all cotton--an apple-y green for the body and a 3 strand yarn of pink, orange, and green twisted into one yarn for the contrast edges. It really is quite fetching, I think. I'd love to see how it looks on an honest-real-life baby. If I ever get pictures from Brooks, I will post them. This is the problem with my knitting. I'm always knitting baby things and giving them away. I often forget to take pictures, and moms never seem to have time to take pictures of my knitted goods and send them my way (it's cool...I know it's hard and time-consuming to have a baby either feeding off you, throwing up all over you, or sleeping on you most of the time). So I've never really seen any of my baby projects in action. I hope someday I will see some in action on my own kid...but that's a tall order.

The crop is in...

PEAR or POTATO?

An Old Familiar

Walk: City Creek Canyon off-leash dog trail
Length: 2 miles?
Duration: 1 hour?

Here is a picture I took at the top of the off-leash trail at Memory Grove. The dogs had to wait patiently in position while I got the camera set up, and then not move as I came rushing at them to take my place. It took several tries to get it right, and to make sure I didn't look too much like a mushroom.

Walking this trail is nostalgic, because I used to bring the dogs here all the time when we lived on Capitol Hill. The dogs knew where we were as soon as we got out of the car, and the race to the off-leash section was on. As we walked, I was very conscious of how obnoxious Ida is, but also of how she is improving slightly. We're going to have a dogsitter in July to take care of the dogs while we are up at Snowbird for the Folk and Bluegrass Festival. I thought about all the weird shit that I do to control my dogs, and wondered how I'm going to be able to convey that to Meghan, or whether, indeed, I need to. Am I just over-controlling? If I wasn't here, would they be placid, friendly little beasties? I don't think so. So, I will have to explain to Meghan Ida's psychology (wow...I'm really starting to sound like a harf!): she wants dominance, but she's also very very fearful. I'd say that's one of the worst combinations for a dog. The way this comes out on the trail is that she feels she needs to control every little movement that Shed makes. If I let her, she will keep him corralled and cowering at my ankles for the entire walk. The only way to break her of this is to make her heel, and tell Shed to go ahead. If he breaks out first, she'll ignore him. Making Shed go first, however, also takes some work because his psychology is to be submissive and avoid confrontation, and he doesn't often believe that I can really stop Ida from herding him. He eventually will run out a little ways, but when I release Ida from the heel and she comes running up to him, he always crouches down and braces himself for the blow he knows is coming. I actually think that move of his is very cute...sad, but cute.

One happy thing for Shed is that he is unafraid of other dogs (unlike Ida). So here he is going in for a nice butt smell on a huge saint bernard. Ida gave this dog as wide a berth as she could. If she's really scared (usually when a dog approaches her), she'll put her hackles up and start whining softly. Occasionally, if a dog gets too pushy, she'll turn and snark him. This never happens, however, if I tell her calmly that she is okay and to just keep moving.

Sometimes I feel like a real idiot when I'm walking my dogs. Why can't I just have normal dogs who run and frolic and play? No I have to have these weird creatures with their social hangups...I mean CUTE weird creatures!

Other highlights from this walk include wild rose bushes...

lots of water...

a snake!...

and the rock footprint.
After the walk, I went to the yarn store and bought some lace weight yarn in a blueish-gray called "Charcoal." I've been wanting to try knitting lace for quite a while now, so I've found this pattern: halcyon. I'm going to knit it without the god-awful ugly ribbon and bow at the ends. Really...why ugly up a pattern as nice and simple as that?

The Walk: Porter Fork in Millcreek Canyon

Length: 1 hour

Distance: ?

Well, in the heat of the afternoon, the dogs and I headed up Millcreek Canyon despite the skeptical looks of Molly, who objects on principle to the $2.25 fee you must pay as you leave the canyon. But I wanted real canyon hiking though, and Millcreek is the only close canyon that allows dogs (off leash, no less!), so that's where I went.

I was disappointed, however, in my choice of walks. I pulled off at Porter Fork, on the recommendation of my mom, and perhaps under the supernatural influence of Orrin Porter Rockwell (the avenging angel!). Porter Fork is a paved road, with private cabins lining it, following a fork of Mill Creek up a steep canyon. It was pretty enough, the dogs loved playing in the water, and there was sometimes enough shade, but not enough. And the paved road, the houses, and the cars kept getting me down. Still I had that moment I was looking for of "I'm up in the middle of a goddamn canyon!!!" on the way down, when I looked up from my feet (I'm pretty clumsy) and saw this vista:


It made me pretty happy! I don't know why...just did. $2.25 worth of view, right here...If only Shed would turn around, that is (there were other hikers coming up the road, just around that bend).

Along the road, I saw many dandelions. I wondered if they had been carried up on the undercarriages of cars visiting the cabins, or if they grew naturally as a weed in the Rockies. As I walked along, I thought about that bunch of "Dandelion Greens" that I often see at the grocery store next to the Kale and Chard and Collard Greens. It runs, maybe $1.99, $2.49. I've never bought them because I always think "why should I buy something that grows for free on my lawn?"

Seeing all those dandelions growing for free on the side of the road, away from the fertilizing and pesticides of urban lawns, it made sense to collect some for dinner tonight. See, Molly, I broke even on my trip to Millcreek, because I got the greens free, see there? Of course, Molly would never pay money for greens, period, not liking them. But she knows I like them (knows...not the same as understands), and knows I often pay good money for them. What's another thing she doesn't understand? The kale I'm growing in our raised backyard vegetable garden. I'm sure she sees it as a waste of good space where basil could be growing for pesto, bruschetta, and tomato/basil/brie pasta...Molly's trinity of favorite dishes. There are things like this, and times when we just don't get each other's ways. The other night when she had insomnia and lay in bed staring at the ceiling (something that unnerves me greatly...I'd rather be reading a book), I looked over at her and said "I don't even understand one thing about you right now! You're like a completely separate person from me" (duh!). After 10 years of marriage, it seemed revolutionary to say. I'm sure she thinks the same about me all the time.

So I turned one of the plastic bags I picked up for dog poop at the beginning of the trail into a dandelion bag. I pulled the youngest, smallest looking leaves I encountered (though I didn't avoid all flowering plants...apparently the rule if you want to avoid bitterness in the greens). I cooked them with dinner tonight by blanching them in water with garlic, then sauteeing in olive oil with some honey, lemon juice, and salt. It ended up good...bitter, but yummy.

One small problem I have with Porter Fork is envy. Seeing these cute, old cabins up along the creek makes me nostalgic and envious. One little yellow house had smoke coming from the stone chimney...it was a lovely smell and a lovely sight:
Unlike the ugly, ostentatious, over-sized new construction going on across the road and up the creek a bit:
The trees and vans here occlude some of the uglier bits...but trust me, it's UG-LY. And big.

Nevertheless, Porter Fork was a good walk. Enjoyable. Especially for these two rascals:

Walk: Shoreline Trail, between Red Butte Gardens and This is the Place Monument State Park.

Distance: 2 1/2 miles?

Length: 50 minutes

On this, my first day of freedom after my first year as a teacher at Waterford, I took a walk with my parents, their dog Schatze (on left), and my dogs Shed (middle) and Ida (right). My parents are both recovering from knee replacement surgeries, but still they sometimes outstripped me on the trail. How sad. I realized recently that there are no stairs in my life now. My house is one story. The school I teach at is one story. And that's about the extent of my past 9 months. The walks in my new neighborhood (much to my enjoyment) are mostly flat...only by heading in one direction (east) do I ever face a steep grade. Somehow, I always walk north, or south, or west. So, climbing to the base level of the Shoreline Trail winded me a bit.

Even though Shoreline is an on-leash trail (with lots of joggers and bikers), my father insisted that NO ONE walks their dogs on leash there. So, the pooplers ran and ran. All in all, they probably walked three times the distance we did. They also lolled in mud puddles...and sprawled in large swaths of grass, tall and green from all the rain we've had lately...
I took lots of pictures of flowers for some reason. This is something I normally object to. Perhaps it was the unfettered freedom that got to me...the sense that nothing I did today matters to anyone. Having no classes to plan for, no papers to grade, no students to worry about was blissful. And so...
Walking with Lyn and Russ is mostly talking about flowers, politics, the dogs, and upcoming social events. Not much time for ruminating, but an enjoyable spin nonetheless. I don't like how sunny this walk is, but I must admit it's a beautiful view. After the walk, my parents joined me to meet Molly at Koko kitchen for a celebratory lunch of sushi and noodles. Feeling done with the school year has made me very happy today. I planted. I weeded. I read The Crocodile Street by Bruno Schultz. I looked at books I have yet to read. I harvested the first veggies from my new garden (chard), then at 6:00 P.M. (10 hours after posting final grades), I get this e-mail from a student:

hi Dr. Taylor,
I hope you're enjoying summer!! I'm trying to! but i keep having this feeling to email about you recieving my paper. So i'm curious to know if u did? I hope you get this soon! and i can hear back from you! and have a great summer! Oh and one more question! what's my current grade in your class?

thanks,

Xxxxx Xxx

Hmmmph. So many exclamation marks. Such neglect of proper capitalization. Such inconsistent use of "u" rather than "you" (I don't mind abbreviation, but choose one or the other and be consistent!). Such an airhead thing to e-mail your teacher 2 1/2 weeks after the essay was actually due. And now, suddenly, I have one more thing to worry about before I can put school out of my mind completely. So it goes.

More from the outpost of Summer in a few days.

A Lesson Learned: Or, Why I Hate Most People Outside of My Immediate Family

The Walk: Well, I was supposed to make it all the way to M & M's house, but karma intervened.

Distance: With the four blocks of doubling back, about 15 blocks.

Okay, so I was a bad dog owner.

My dogs are usually fairly routine in their business. The black dog seldom shits anywhere except in the back yards of the three houses he considers "home." The white dog, if walked at a certain time of day, will always shit as we pass the off-leash dog park; I suppose she is urged on by the wafting smell of the thousands of dogs who have shat there in the past. When we pass this park, I always pick up a bag from the dispenser because I know what to expect. Last night proved to be no exception. I felt like a good dog owner.

Until several blocks later, when she decided to take yet another dump, right on someone's lawn, of course, and me without bags. So, I didn't slow down. I just kept walking. It wasn't the nicest thing in the world for me to do, but it wasn't the worst either. I just hoped the shit landed on the lawn of someone who might understand. Boy, were those hopes dashed.

Several blocks later I was flagged down by a boy on a skateboard, who pointed behind me. I turned to see a very angry older woman bearing down on me. As soon as she noted the eye-contact, she said "Your dog just shit on my lawn! I was just cleaning! I am an old lady! How could you do this to me! You must come back with me an pick it up! How could you do such a thing! What kind of person are you!" As soon as she stopped to breath, I said "You're right. That wasn't very nice of me. Certainly I'll come back and pick it up." And I turned to accompany her back to the scene of my crime, for my penance.

As we walked back to her house, she marching ahead, the dogs and I walking behind at a pleasant pace, she kept turning back to continue her tirade against me, and this is where my equanimity began to turn to hatred. Again she told me that she was an old woman, and that people shouldn't do this to old women. She was 71 years old, and she had to follow me 3 blocks! I was thinking, "How could I have known you were old? Did you have a sign on your lawn I didn't see, which read 'Warning: Irate Older Woman Lives Here,' because that would have been helpful. And why is it any worse for me to let my dogs shit on an older person's lawn? And why can't you shut up? I'm coming back to pick up the fucking dog shit already!" We continued walking, and I said "I admire your fortitude."

Now, this may make me a despicable person, but ever since sixth grade I've found that an easy way to make stupid people shut up is to use words they don't know. Smart people will ask you what the word means. Stupid people will just look blankly at you. Perhaps she didn't know what "fortitude" meant, because she did shut up for half a block.

Then she criticized my parenting skills, abused my dogs and the size of their shit for a while, and said she was going to call the police. We finally arrived at her house.

After fetching me some bags, she stood over me, expressing a near-constant stream of verbal abuse, while I meticulously scraped up my dog's stinky shit from her yard. The lawn, I noted, was brown and patchy. She probably blames the condition of her lawn, I thought, on the evils of dogs and their negligent owners who allow them to do their business there. Every once in a while she'd break into her tirade to point out another microscopic spot of shit I had failed to remove properly. When I was done, she told me not to throw that stinky, disgusting shit into her garbage. I was to walk along and find another garbage can to use. Then she told me to never walk my dogs past her house again.

I stood up and looked her in the eye. "Wait a minute," I said, "you have no right to tell me where I can and cannot walk my dogs. Next time I pass your house, however, I will be sure to have a bag with me."

"I hope you have learned your lesson," she said.

"I certainly have," I replied. "Thank you very much for teaching me this important lesson today, and I hope you have a pleasant remainder of your week"

And I continued on my walk.