Title? I don't remember.

I’ve been having memory issues tonight. I’ve been sitting around meaning to say things to my mom or whoever, and then by the time I go to say it the thought is gone. And now I opened Word to write an update about something, but by the time the program opened I forgot what it was. This usually happens at the end of a semester during finals week or whatever, but this is actually the first day of the semester and last week was spring break (yeah, Drexel has weird semester times). This does not bode well for this quarter’s classes….

Oh well, here’s a photo of something:

Mont Saint Michel, France, 2009

Look what Quinn found in the backyard

Overly curious dog

Finds nest of baby snakes living in a stump

I saw five of them in there

By the time I came back with a bucket (I was going to put the bucket over the stump and wait for dad to come home to transport them somewhere more dog friendly), they had left the stump and were crawling all around the back yard. I hid inside.

Today the snakes are nowhere to be seen, good for me but Quinn is a bit disappointed.

bread

I attempted to make bread the other day. I was surprised at how successful it turned out! I’m usually a miserable baker. It’s not that my baked goods turn out miserable, but baking itself makes me miserable. It’s tedious. I get bored. I have to measure things. I need to wait for things to finish baking so I can put the next round in the oven (specifically I’m talking about cookies. Baking cookies generally makes me an angry person.) Bread isn't as tedious though. Probably because halfway through you get to punch the dough, so you're no longer angry.

Before

After

Looks like bread, doesn’t it?

I used these instructions.* That’s right, instructions, not recipe. You don’t really need to measure or use any specific ingredients beyond yeast, flour and water. The only thing you need to to make bread is to do general things at generally standard times and you’re set.

The first time I added oatmeal and applesauce to my bread (couldn’t taste the applesauce though….). Today I made bread with raisins, cinnamon and sugar, oatmeal, walnuts and flaxseed. Way good.

*PS, if you use these instructions to make bread, note that it keeps saying salt is optional. Salt is not optional! I didn’t use any salt my first round and it really tasted like it was missing something. Next time I added 1 teaspoon of salt and I was set. You don’t need a lot, but you do need it! Also, I did use bread flour, which I could find at the regular grocery store. I don't know if it made any difference, but I used it and it worked well.

Oh my!

I was on the front page of Etsy today. I was totally not expecting that. At all. Not even a little bit. What a surprise!

Thanks, whoever mystery person in charge thought my book was nice enough to post on the front page.

What’s on MY windowsill?

Rapini broccoli. Since yesterday it has turned into a sad leggy mess. I think it’s because it’s been cloudy for the past week and they’re only getting light from my bootleg artificial set up. So, we’ll see how they survive.

Various herb and veggies I started only last night! So basically just dirt. There’s patty pan (which I’m very excited about) and butternut squash in here, as well as some various beans. Yes, I start my beans inside. I’ve been told that’s weird. But you know what, I’ll get beans before anybody else, so there! Also some poppies, basil, and dill. And a luffa plant.

Did you know that luffas come from a plant? Really, they do! And I found some seeds at Target!

And this violet that really really loves it here. It’s pretty much always in bloom. It’s a happy plant.

Also, here’s some knitting, it will turn into Slinky Ribs (I hope)

And YES I’m knitting it in the yarn recommended by the pattern. This is the first time I’ve ever done that. And it’s really nice yarn. And I want it to fit exactly like it does in the photo (the second photo, just to be unnecessarily clear), so I’m actually following the directions to the letter – that’s a first.

This is also why I don’t post photos of knitting – see, this is boring! It looks like a blob! A blob that wouldn’t even fit me – but the ribbing stretches (as ribbing does….)

Can't complain, even though I don't think "delightful" is a very meteorological word.

What? Broccoli?

These are my rapini broccoli seeds. Look! Spring! No, not really, in fact I need to keep them in my room because everywhere in our house where it would be normal to start seeds is still way too cold. But still, growing things.

Last year my mom and I started a vegetable garden for the first time. We had a broccoli disaster. I started 40 broccoli and cauliflower seeds (total, I did not have 80 plants). First of all, apparently broccoli seedlings (and cauliflower) get really leggy if they don’t get enough sunlight (fyi, no where in our house has significant sunlight, or our yard for that matter). So I had 40 leggy broccoli seedlings that really weren’t very far along when we put them in the ground (remember that sunlight problem I mentioned?) (I’m so into parenthesis today). So we planted them with high hopes, and within two days all but one plant was completely destroyed by bugs. Or maybe I should say vaporized. They were just gone. I would check on the garden once, and then come back two hours later and another row would just be gone…. And a few hours later the NEXT row would be gone. My one surviving seedling (of either broccoli or cauliflower, no one knew by this point), looked really strong and healthy, but never produced anything. So yeah, huge fail. String beans, tomatoes, and squash worked out well, but not the broccoli.

I decided I wanted to try broccoli again this year (who knows why I would ever want to go through that disaster again, but I do). But I went with rapini broccoli for whatever reason…. I haven’t even ever eaten rapini broccoli, but it looks good.

Here’s my bootleg seedling set up, a compact fluorescent lamp with a tin sheet to help reflect the light. I have no idea if this will do anything at all. Hopefully it will produce wonderful not leggy really strong broccoli. I don’t know where I’ll put the rest of the seeds I’m going to start next week….

But in reality they are looking a little leggy already. I could just be paranoid though.

We’ll see.

By the way, I got my rapini broccoli seeds from this lovely etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/HomegrownHealthy