This post is not educational

School has finally started! And in order to soften the blow, we went camping and got all nature-y. So enjoy this last uneducational post before I am so immersed in Information Science that I can't talk about anything else!


It's been a busy couple of weeks since my last post, first trying to cram as much leisure time in as possible, and then getting oriented in my new graduate program. We went to our favorite camping spot and got to see some really impressive shooting stars, part of the Perseid meteor shower, before we fell asleep like old people. But not before a little night swimming, one of the best things to do when primitive camping on a lake! Closely followed by the early morning swim while the fog is still lifting off of the water. We also did a little hiking to stretch our legs and give Solomon a chance to run.

The haze that you see in the picture is partially because it is August and we are having an endless heat wave and our air quality is like hot mud, and partially due to a small forest fire that was happening in a different part of the park. In the other direction, the air was much clearer. It was good, and we had more swimming afterwards to cool off. And then we had to go home, but we had huckleberries (more commonly known as blueberries, but I am respecting the local parlance, and it's fun to say!) to bring home and turn into cobbler for a few more delicious reminders of our fun.

And finally, before I end this post I have to brag about my mother. She called me after 9:30 last Saturday night, meaning something momentous had happened. Unlike my inlaws who routinely call after 11:00, and I do mean P.M., she goes to bed early, like 9:00. (I'm awake at 11, usually, but do I want to talk on the phone? No. I'm busy reading...or doing something else that's better than talking on the phone. Like flossing my teeth. I'm not really a phone person.) But back to my Mom... she had just gotten the exciting news that she had won 2nd place at the local fair with her quilt! See the birds? And the herringbone border? I think it's beautiful.

Okra...and other happy mishaps

Okra is one of my favorite things to watch grow. The flower is one of the most beautiful in the garden (no offense, squash blossoms!), and the whole plant just looks alien to me. With its crazy pods poking out, ready for action. So this year, I decided to try what promised to be an even more beautiful example: an heirloom red okra! I bought the seeds from John Scheepers kitchen garden seeds last fall, dreaming of how beautiful they would be. This spring, after the ground had thoroughly warmed (okay, I was busy, it was more like June), I used my little trick that insures germination of the hard-to-sprout tough little okra seeds, soaking them for five minutes in bleach and rinsing well before planting them. I had tried this method last year, being scientific and treating only half, comparing the germination between the two and taking careful notes which have since been lost, but that I remember clearly supported the use of the bleach method. (It also worked on moonflower seeds that had thwarted all previous efforts using sandpaper, a file/rasp, and finally a hammer when I got frustrated beyond reason.) The well-planned experiment of last year did not, however, include time as a variable, so I decided this year I would wander off and start a sewing project and maybe a load of laundry, triggering the sudden realization that I was still bleaching my expensive heirloom seeds 30 minutes later! I went ahead and rinsed and planted and waited, and waited and got two poor little plants out of six or eight seeds (I'm sorry, I can't remember, I didn't realize this was going to be important data). Interestingly, my regular old green okra fared much better after the 30 minute bleaching...must have a thicker seed coat or something. Anyway, I ended up with two lonely but beautiful red okra plants which is better than none, and I'll try again next year. And use a timer.
My other garden experiment this year (as if my entire garden isn't an experiment!) was trombolina summer squash, seeds from the same source as the okra. You can see its huge umbrella leaves (it grows daily, like kudzu) taking over my little city garden in the bottom right corner of this picture. Although they didn't claim it, I had heard that it is more resistant to squash borers, I think because it sends out little rootlets all along the vine, allowing it to stay healthy and get water even if the borers have gotten into it. Mine is definitely doing that, even scarring over and healing where it was compromised. I planted it about a month ago, in sad retaliation after the borers took all my zucchini out before I was ready to let go. And tonight I will test the flavor of my first trombolina!