Little Grey Speck

knitting!

A former student from my office just had her long-awaited baby, a little girl named Zélia. I was extremely superstitious ( I always am when it comes to babies),  so I waited until she was born, but finally I am starting this..

The Boatneck Sweater from Susan Anderson's Itty Bitty Nursery 

It is in Blue Sky Alpaca, sport weight. I ordered it from Purl on Tuesday at 8 pm, it was shipped out at 11 pm from California, and by Friday morning it had arrived at my door in brooklyn, neatly tucked in a packing box, and lovingly and tastefully wrapped in orange tissue paper, held together with a charming sticker. I am also going to knit up matching booties, so I ordered a Pom-pon maker kit - I can't reisist buying some unneccesary notion when I order from Purl, what's $7.50 for some ingeniously designed plastic when you're spending untold dollars in yarn? Anyway, I was so happy to see Pom-pon spelled correctly on the package, even though Purl persists in spelling is as Pom-pom on their website. Oh well.

 

A parting shot of todays harvest from my garden...... Heaven bless you Floyd Bennett Garden Association, I love you more than words can say;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August.... and a meme

Garden update...the pole beans I planted in late june are flowering, the new crop of mixed greens are coming up, the brussel sprouts are thriving, the new basil is wonderful, and, best of all, the tomatoes are here, with a fantastic vengeance!

And a meme from fig and plum ....

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

I had just finished grad school and was a new Nurse Practitioner. My husband I had just moved to NYC, into a giant 2 bedroom apt in a high rise. All I could think about for the whole year was work. It's a blur to me now, but it was also the year we adopted our dog, Sammy, and our lives changes inexorably.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today? ( no work tasks included)

progress updated 8/10/08

Weed the garden

do laundry

organize my closet

breathe

knit

3) Snacks I enjoy:

All nuts, especially pistachios; goldfish crackers; peanut butter and jelly on a hot dog bun; reeses peanut butter cups; lastly, pigs in blankets ( please do not tell anyone, I am very ashamed of this)

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire (in no particular order):

Quit my job, travel, buy a house in England, pay off my Mom's house ( along with everyone elses in the family). Start a rehabilitation anlmal shelter where I would live and also have a small gentlewoman's farm. Raise Alpacas.  Volunteer in Africa as a Nurse Practitioner. Did  I say travel? Travel, travel, travel. 

5) Places I have lived:

Katonah NY

New Paltz, NY

Ithaca, NY

Clintondale, NY

Jamaica Plain, MA

Philadelphia, PA

Brooklyn, NY

6) Jobs I have had 

Babysitter, Deli Clerk, Bookstore Clerk, Library Clerk, Secretary, Dishwasher, Waitress, Bartender, House Cleaner, Farm worker, Counselor, Medical Assistant, Lab Technician, Nurse, Nurse Practitioner, Health Service Director

Punkins

As my mother is apt to say, "punkins," and as I have said before, pumpkins take up a lot of room and they grow fast......

Here's my mambo pumpkin last week:

and then here it is today:

My complaint is that there are relatively few pumpkins growing. There are tons of flowers, but nearly all of them are male flowers, which result in nothing.Apparently I need bees to cross-polinate.

Am I doing something to keep the bees away?

a few more pictures to document the end of July.....

and just to remind myself I live in NYC.....a parting shot of the sunset in Manhattan looking down 33rd St

Queen Ann's Lace

My mom's name is Ann and when I was little I always loved the idea that there was a flower named after her. And I love this flower so much. It is lace, there's no other way to describe it....

Sammy doesn't really care about flowers, except maybe to pee on them ...

but who cares when he is so lovely....

By the way I need to remind myself that this is in Brooklyn - sometimes I can't believe it!

Pumpkins

I think the expression " growing like a weed" should be changed to 'growing like a pumpkin vine"....... .

more importantly, may the harvesting begin....

:

more importantly, check out my rose

Is this blog going to turn into a gardening blog?

Actually, my brain has been taken over by gardening, so by default everything around me has some relation to gardening.  Margaret Roach's ( garden editor for Martha Stewart) country home and blog, A Way to Garden, was highlighted in today's NY tImes I am now completely inspired.

So, to start, Grape Vines are weird......they grow like wild fire, but the vines are very fragile. There is an ancient grape vine in my garden plot that was cut down to the quick and shoots are popping up like crazy. Everytime I went near these shoots they would fall off in my hand. 

Thanks to Flatbush Gardener, I found Cornell University's site for home gardening and have begun to figure out what to do. Keep trimming all the shoots but one, don't let any grapes grow the first year, and get an arbor.

Thanks to some annoying, but determined vole I need to defend my brussel sprouts. 

And just when I start to feel frustrated I turn around and see this...

and this ........

Sammy has to wait in the car, but he gets the last laugh

.......busy in the garden

I've been so busy in my garden, or should I say gardens? From famine to feast.....I have been yearning, whinging, whimpering, begging for a garden since I moved to NYC. Ten years of envy and dark thoughts. I have been on the waiting list at one plot for 2 years! Then one day my neighbor gave me the number for the president of the Campus Garden at Brooklyn College, and next thing you know I got a plot! It's 7'x7', and it's in the shade most of the day, but it's lovely nonetheless, and it is 3 blocks from my apartment building! It is a wonderful community of people and restorative in many ways. Then, out of the blue,  I got a call from the Floyd Bennett Field Garden and got another plot! So here I am running all over Brooklyn, buying plants and seeds and reading books and combing the internet for anything and everything related to gardening.

Here is my FBFG plot - 10 feet by 20 feet with vegetables, flowers and herbs... there is also an old grape vine from the previous gardener ( he was there for many years apparently, and made small batches of wine every year!) and I am busy trying to figure out how to promote my vine!

 

there is also a buddha, who lends me a mental hand.

 

It makes me so inordinately happy...

Floyd Bennett field also makes my dog so inordinately happy

 I still can't believe we're in Brooklyn when we're out there....

or here...

I haven't forgotten about knitting...the lace ribbon scarf from the spring Knitty

Spring in Ditmas Park, Part II

Spring is here. There's no turning back, a freak snow storm will not change the fact that spring is here ( although I wouldn't put away your winter boots just yet!).

Creatures lurking everywhere......

Brooklyn College Parrots

clematis coming back to life ( a lesson in pruning)

Where angels fear to tread? No.....

my photo assistant

"Sammy, please, hold onnnn! Wait, I just want to ta...stop, no, leave that cat ALONE!!! STOP! What's in your mouth?!?!What do you have?!?!? Put that down! LEAVE IT! "
He is no help, really, but it creates a challenge that adds to the drama of the photos, I think. At least that's what I tell myself. I should at least have him carry extra batteries.
One issue with Sammy is that he does not like to look at the camera. As soon as he hear's the beep-beep-beep as the camera goes on, he looks away, anywhere but at me:

"Hey Sammy! Look at your mama!"

"Hey Sammy, are you......hungry?"

You still want to move? NO!!!

Flatbush Gardener asks me the question, "so you still want to move? "

My previous post, in its ambiguity, points to this question ( in addition to my whinging and whining). I answer emphatically, NO! I love Ditmas Park, I really do. I love that I have lived here for ten years and watched things change and grow. I have a sweet apartment in a building I could grow old in. Even though I live in an apartment I can garden! I wished for a proper restaurant and I got three! I wished for a cafe and I got two! I wished for a better food coop and I'm getting one. Best of all, I wished for a great community of people and I got one! All that being said, I read this piece recently and could not swallow the adoration it espoused. Ditmas Park is not the 'Brooklyn Hamptons,' ( thank goodness, I hate the Hamptons). This piece goes on to describe Ditmas Park as 'mini urban wonderland,' and this caused me to comment anonymously and sarcastically on my local blog, something I usually try not to do. But now I think I misspoke - what if I lived in Katonah, NY, for instance, what would I think of Ditmas Park? I would think it is a bit of a mini urban wonderland. I can answer this because I grew up in Katonah and all I ever wished for was to live in a cool city. When I first moved to Brooklyn, a neighborhood guy asked me where I grew up and was aghast at the idea that I would reject the suburbs for Brooklyn. After all didn't my parents leave NYC for the bucolic suburbs?!? But I love it and won't leave. I wouldn't say no to a nice little bungalow that I could escape to on weekends, but I will always need to be able to run back to NYC.

My husband and I took a walk around the neighborhood this afternoon to enjoy the beauty of Flatbush in the spring: