Gardening

I am so happy with the garden this year. I started everything from seed (the only sets I bought were a couple flats of petunias for the front garden bed and baskets, since my petunias didn't bloom 'til late July), and the entire garden, beds and all, was constructed from scratch this spring. And everything has been doing great. From two large garden beds (one in the greenhouse, one outside) and one small one (that I built to use up the extra dirt) I've been able to supply most of our salad and vegetable needs this summer. I haven't had to buy anything for salads since early July, except the occasional tomato -- the one thing that has done rather poorly this year has been the tomatoes, because of all the rain.

But I'm going to have way more cabbage than we can eat (I will be making saurkraut, I think -- from purple cabbage! That'll be fun!). I have three nice-looking pumpkins on the vine; I don't expect they'll last all the way to Halloween, but I can make some nice autumn pies (which I guess means I need to learn to make a decent pie crust).

And autumn is coming. There are yellow patches in the trees and a chill bite to the air. We're still about two weeks out from the first frost (three if we're lucky) but it's definitely on the way.

Garden notes for next year: ( Notes to me )

Anyone have good recipes for things to do with green tomatoes?

Gardening

I am so happy with the garden this year. I started everything from seed (the only sets I bought were a couple flats of petunias for the front garden bed and baskets, since my petunias didn't bloom 'til late July), and the entire garden, beds and all, was constructed from scratch this spring. And everything has been doing great. From two large garden beds (one in the greenhouse, one outside) and one small one (that I built to use up the extra dirt) I've been able to supply most of our salad and vegetable needs this summer. I haven't had to buy anything for salads since early July, except the occasional tomato -- the one thing that has done rather poorly this year has been the tomatoes, because of all the rain.

But I'm going to have way more cabbage than we can eat (I will be making saurkraut, I think -- from purple cabbage! That'll be fun!). I have three nice-looking pumpkins on the vine; I don't expect they'll last all the way to Halloween, but I can make some nice autumn pies (which I guess means I need to learn to make a decent pie crust).

And autumn is coming. There are yellow patches in the trees and a chill bite to the air. We're still about two weeks out from the first frost (three if we're lucky) but it's definitely on the way.

Garden notes for next year: ( Notes to me )

Anyone have good recipes for things to do with green tomatoes?

This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/366781.html with comments.

Some books I've enjoyed lately

Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch - The second book in the series that starts with Midnight Riot a.k.a. Rivers of London. I'm still absolutely loving this series; Peter Grant and his mentor/boss Nightingale make a fabulous bantery team, and the supporting cast is just great. This book directly continues some of the plot and character threads from the first book, as well as bringing back minor and major supporting characters, which is one of the reasons why I love it so; it's really frustrating to be introduced to an interesting character only to have them wander offstage when their part of the story is done, and these books do a great job of fleshing out the world and making each minor character a fully realized person.

The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer - This was great! Although my favorite parts of the book were mostly concentrated in the first half, which totally hit all my "wilderness survival against all odds" kinks, I'm definitely going to pick up the next book in the series when it comes out, because I really like the characters and the world. It's adventure fantasy, but very different from your typical elves-dwarves-and-wizards epic fantasy. The characters are traveling with a merchant caravan trying to cross a dangerous mountain pass in early spring. Having to contend with avalanches and other hazards is bad enough when you don't have also have to deal with spies, secrets and an angry magician trying to kill you. The book is tense, fast-paced, and just when you think things can't get worse for the characters, something even more dire happens. (Also, one of my very favorite characters in the book only appears in a few scenes - he and his female sidekick/second-in-command remind me SO MUCH of Mustang and Hawkeye from FMA - and the ending of the book gives me a great deal of hope that they'll have a pretty big role in the next book. ^^)

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales - This book analyzes a number of life-threatening situations, from a mountain climber breaking his leg on a 20,000-foot peak to the World Trade Center collapse, and tries to draw conclusions about what causes some people to do all the right things and survive, while others panic and die. I think some of his reasoning is a little spurious (the author is a journalist, not a neuroscientist, but he tries to write like he's both) but a lot of the conclusions are really interesting and thought-provoking. I think this book also does a really good job of dismantling the idea that people die in life-threatening situations because they "did something stupid"; he spends a couple of chapters developing the thesis that "stupid" behavior in a crisis is simply our brains doing what has always worked for them in the past (in a person's individual past, as well as our past as a species) - however, some people are able to break out of that cycle and survive, and the book has a lot of interesting things to say about what might enable anyone to be able to do that. (I'd be happy to go into more detail in comments if anyone is interested, because speaking as someone who lives in a state - Alaska - that tends to throw life-threatening crises around at the drop of a hat, I got a lot of useful tips out of the book!)

Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson - Aww man, if you like to travel or if you daydream about traveling, this YA book is like crack. The main character, Ginny, receives 13 blue envelopes from her deceased aunt, and is instructed to open each one only after completing the instructions in the previous one. The envelopes take her all around Europe, doing things like leaving an offering for the Vestal Virgins or visiting an artist who lives in a castle in Edinburgh. The book doesn't have a whole lot of dramatic tension, but it's a wonderful road-trip story, all about the places she goes and the people she meets and the way that her adventures change her. There is a sequel, The Last Little Blue Envelope, that I have on order from Amazon right now. \o/

Some books I've enjoyed lately

Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch - The second book in the series that starts with Midnight Riot a.k.a. Rivers of London. I'm still absolutely loving this series; Peter Grant and his mentor/boss Nightingale make a fabulous bantery team, and the supporting cast is just great. This book directly continues some of the plot and character threads from the first book, as well as bringing back minor and major supporting characters, which is one of the reasons why I love it so; it's really frustrating to be introduced to an interesting character only to have them wander offstage when their part of the story is done, and these books do a great job of fleshing out the world and making each minor character a fully realized person.

The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer - This was great! Although my favorite parts of the book were mostly concentrated in the first half, which totally hit all my "wilderness survival against all odds" kinks, I'm definitely going to pick up the next book in the series when it comes out, because I really like the characters and the world. It's adventure fantasy, but very different from your typical elves-dwarves-and-wizards epic fantasy. The characters are traveling with a merchant caravan trying to cross a dangerous mountain pass in early spring. Having to contend with avalanches and other hazards is bad enough when you don't have also have to deal with spies, secrets and an angry magician trying to kill you. The book is tense, fast-paced, and just when you think things can't get worse for the characters, something even more dire happens. (Also, one of my very favorite characters in the book only appears in a few scenes - he and his female sidekick/second-in-command remind me SO MUCH of Mustang and Hawkeye from FMA - and the ending of the book gives me a great deal of hope that they'll have a pretty big role in the next book. ^^)

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales - This book analyzes a number of life-threatening situations, from a mountain climber breaking his leg on a 20,000-foot peak to the World Trade Center collapse, and tries to draw conclusions about what causes some people to do all the right things and survive, while others panic and die. I think some of his reasoning is a little spurious (the author is a journalist, not a neuroscientist, but he tries to write like he's both) but a lot of the conclusions are really interesting and thought-provoking. I think this book also does a really good job of dismantling the idea that people die in life-threatening situations because they "did something stupid"; he spends a couple of chapters developing the thesis that "stupid" behavior in a crisis is simply our brains doing what has always worked for them in the past (in a person's individual past, as well as our past as a species) - however, some people are able to break out of that cycle and survive, and the book has a lot of interesting things to say about what might enable anyone to be able to do that. (I'd be happy to go into more detail in comments if anyone is interested, because speaking as someone who lives in a state - Alaska - that tends to throw life-threatening crises around at the drop of a hat, I got a lot of useful tips out of the book!)

Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson - Aww man, if you like to travel or if you daydream about traveling, this YA book is like crack. The main character, Ginny, receives 13 blue envelopes from her deceased aunt, and is instructed to open each one only after completing the instructions in the previous one. The envelopes take her all around Europe, doing things like leaving an offering for the Vestal Virgins or visiting an artist who lives in a castle in Edinburgh. The book doesn't have a whole lot of dramatic tension, but it's a wonderful road-trip story, all about the places she goes and the people she meets and the way that her adventures change her. There is a sequel, The Last Little Blue Envelope, that I have on order from Amazon right now. \o/

This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/366972.html with comments.