Kabocha & Cherry Tomatoes, May 5th:
Kabocha, May 26th.
Sigh. So what happened there was that I simply picked a horrible time to plant these guys. First I got swamped in finishing budget at work & getting ready to go to Hawaii. Then, while I was in Hawaii, I was reading some alarming posts about a mini-heat-wave going on. Then our flight back was bad (think it took 17 hours to get home, but I'm not going to say it was anything worse than "bad" because it could have been a lot worse quite easily) and it turned out that the cause of much of the delay was a really bad storm that was punishing Brooklyn with gusts of up to 70 mph...well, I was sitting in the cab listening to the news radio reporting on the mayhem & thinking "Everything I planted is dead." The nice thing about a group of people gardening together is that everybody watches out for everyone else, and people had mentioned that they were watering mine, but the plants hadn't looked one bit happy about the transplant & I just figured the extreme weather just had to have admistered the coup de grace. Well, nearly. There was one tough little cherry tomato plant, and if you look veeeeerrry closely at this you will see that there are some tiny little leaves poking out of that dessicated looking stalk. I'm going to see what happens to it, but I don't expect to be eating any squash off the poor thing.
Thanks again for all the birthday wishes. 40's been awesome so far. Started out by meeting the newest member of the Kayak Family. Yes, Kayak Girl - aka DiWriter on the blogroll - and Kayak Boy have had a very healthy Kayak Baby, and since I'd been way too busy to bother with throwing any sort of over-the-hill shindig for myself, the evening was free to go to the hospital to say hello to the young lady, all of one day old! OK, honestly she wasn't a bit happy to see me, KB & KG offered to let me hold her - she was contentedly sleeping in Kayak Daddy's arms, the minute the handoff happened, all contentness & peace was gone. I hope I don't always have this effect on her! Fortunately her parents were much happier to see me. They looked tired, but really, really happy.
Yesterday, out to garden a bit more (although I'm thinking perhaps I should not use the verb form of "garden" in reference to what I do with my little plot until I actually manage to plant something without nearly killing it - actually I have done quite a bit better since I came back, have some reasonably happy-looking peas, basil, thyme, and a lot of other little things coming up), then...
what a paddle. Didn't get out 'til about 7:00. I'm happy to report that the water's finally up to wetsuit temperatures instead of drysuits - I've moved from the big dead-of-winter backpack to the midsized spring/fall backpack & it makes the trek out there nicer. I had a long-sleeved top and this spiffy little Kokatat splashguard I won at the New York Kayak Polo fundraiser, but I never felt the need to put them on, was perfectly comfortable in a farmer jane the whole trip. In fact I was high-bracing to cool down at the start - and sooth the bites on my arms, the no-see-em's are enjoying the weather too. I could not get off that dock fast enough. The evening was warm, I had my lights, if I hadn't had a reason to get up at a reasonable time I think I would be showing you pictures of Coney Island. As it was, I went out just past the Gil Hodges Bridge, turning back only because I knew I couldn't make too late a night of it. Fishermen were out all over the bay, glorying in the warm evening as much as I was; people were all over the beaches; I like having the place to myself in the winter but it was also marvelous to see all these people out enjoying the Bay. I was definitely being more cautious about where I was, really hugged the shore to stay out of the motorboats' way.
Saw a lot of herons and sandpipers that way, too.
Paddled around 9 miles out & back, and then who knows how many literally paddling in circles, playing with edging & control strokes & listening to the geese calling each other in the dark...
and today I went to CPR class.
Meeting day old baby, gardening, paddling, and CPR class...yep, 40's going ok so far.
Here's a couple of pictures from the paddle:
Floyd Bennett Field
Pilings just beyond the Gil Hodges Bridge. Just to show how quiet it was.
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