Of Algae and Dark Tunnels

~Highlight of the Day: Wading with the tadpoles and lilies :) ~

 

 

I love algae cleanup. You get to put on waders (doesn't mean you stay dry. . . you just don't get soaking wet), catch frogs and tadpoles, and talk with a group of new faces. Today was particularly exciting due to a mysterious beast causing large disturbances in the water by the Love Temple. We were all in a fairly small, concentrated area of algae, skimming the lovely green stuff by the bucketful, when just to my right there was a large "shloup!" like something big had jumped in . . . or out. Everyone thought I was crazy until about twenty minutes later when the same something jumped out of the water towards the arborist guys, who were then just as freaked out as I was (for at least a split second :) I think we decided it was a fish, though the garbage compressor scene from Star Wars kept playing in the back of my mind. . .

I'd take pictures during algae cleanup. . . but my
poor camera's already been through True Blue.
I doubt it could survive an algae episode.

After work a few of us lucky people got to go on a tour of the tunnels that run under the whole conservatory. It was quite exciting, and did not lend itself well to pictures. It's so odd how perception of area differs depending on what's filling it. Some spaces in the tunnels seemed much more spacious than their elevated counterparts, though in general the low ceilings and big bulky pipes made things seem much smaller.

 

 

There were definitely some Indiana Jones moments. I think it's the last one, about the holy grail, when they're wading through rat infested sewers to find some ancient tomb. . . (though there were no rats, and the water we were wading through was only from watering)

Baby Watermelons!

~ Highlight of the Day: Discovering a second baby watermelon! ~

I am so excited. I don't care that they probably won't mature before I leave. I have succeeded in growing watermelons! I've wanted to do this since I found a baby watermelon plant (or what I thought was a baby watermelon plant) in my favorite seed spittin' spot in my backyard back when I was just a wee child :)

I'll have to take a picture with my ukulele in it for scale :) There will most likely be very consistent updates on these guys. What can I say, they've won me over completely!

The rest of my garden's kind of a mess. . . I need to do some tidying up. I found these interesting little guys on one of my zucchini's . . . they kind of remind me of African horned melons. Or aliens.

Good Times

~Highlight of the Day: Attending a baptism - such a good reminder of the covenants I've made ~

I love Sundays :) I sleep in till 11, eat brunch, go to church for 6 hours (including travel time), then come home and talk with friends and family on the phone till it's time for bed.

So I was thinking earlier today how fast time has been flying, and then I was thinking about all the things I did last summer and had to marvel at the fact that it was a whole year ago. So here's what I did last summer, briefly.

Canada! I left the country for the first time. . . even if it was just a few hours north. Now I'm preparing to live across seas for a whole semester!

I went to Forks. And saw everything there possibly was to see in such a small place. Now I get to tell people I've been to Forks, and explain that, 'yes, it's small. there's not much to see.'

I got baby chicks (so cute!) We don't have Jack (the little black guy)

any more. . . he preferred crowing and strutting to laying eggs :)

I was tanner than my siblings. . . pretty sure I still am - they've all been in

Washington where it's been raining, and I've been in Pennsylvania working on my farmer's tan.

We re-carpeted our family room! Little did I know I'd be sleeping there the next summer after having been officially moved out of my old room . . .

I bought a Moro Blood Orange tree for a friend's b-day. I managed to keep it alive through a winter in Utah. . . then I killed it in the spring.

That was all a year ago. How does the time sneak away like that?

Rehoboth

~Highlight of the Day: Talking and listening to music on the way to (and from) the beach ~

I have now swam in both the Pacific and the Atlantic! Only three more to go :)

I can also say I have experienced Wawa, the great convenience store that is, in so many ways, so much more. It is apparently the place to know out here in the East.

Me at Rehoboth beach. . . with a Wawa sub :)

It's been a long long time since I've been to a sandy beach you swim at. I think it's been about 7 years actually. So I'd forgotten some important things like:

1. Sand gets everywhere.

2. Shaving right before getting into salt water has never ever been a good idea.

3. Walking in sand takes effort. Running in sand doubly so!

4. If you don't jump with the big waves you'll be getting a face full of sand.

Rehoboth: It's  a weird name - It's also biblical. I was actually just reading about this the other day - Isaac dug a well, and a neighbor's men claimed it. So instead of fighting over it he moved away a bit and dug another well. His neighbors claimed that one as well, and did the same with a third. Finally he dug a well that they did not bother him about, and this one he called Rehoboth. It means something, but I forget. . .

In town we saw all kinds of brightly colored houses and shops. I think I could see myself living in an obnoxiously painted little shop on the waterfront, selling ukuleles :)

Blue and Yellow were made for each other.

Garden Dinner

~ Highlight of the Day: Being caught in a text war between my dad and my sister ~

I love to cook. I could cook all day long (and sometimes do), and dirty every dish in the kitchen (too often do). Same goes for baking. So if this starts to feel like a weird-stuff-Rachel-cooks blog, I apologize :)

Today's dinner:

I may or may not have added more
cheese after taking this picture. . . gotta
balance out the veggies!

Woohoo! It actually turned out well! This meal had one goal - use as many things out of the garden as possible. So it includes one large Brandywine tomato, one awesomely orange mystery pepper, some chives, basil, and zucchini. I was very pleased with myself, and even more so when it actually tasted good :)

I think using bright colored ingredients is just plain fun.

Summer Reading

~Highlight of the Day: Falling asleep on the porch on a perfectly lazy summer afternoon ~

It was quite a perfect day today. Hot enough outside to make you appreciate air conditioning, but not so hot that you couldn't enjoy a nap in the shade (which I did :). I also did a lot of reading. I have a lot of reading to do, and there's no way I'm getting it all done in the next three weeks, but I'm going to try!

Here's some of the lighter reading I've got, along with my lunch of leftover french toast:

I remember when I used to just read all summer long. . . I remember when I had time to just read all summer long back in elementary school when all I wanted to read were the books with horses on the cover . . . those were the days! :)

Essays. . . or "S-A's" ?

~Highlight of the Day: Having sourdough french toast for dinner. Mmmmm. . . ~

I'm currently writing an essay in order to get school credit for this internship. . . I've never really liked essays, and I truly lucked out in picking a profession where no one really wants you to write essays anyway. But I do have to write one or two, occasionally, for those who aren't blessed to work with plants all day and have not yet realized there may be more to life than reading what other people didn't want to write. 

Part of the prompt I'm going off of went something like this:


" What were your expectations for the internship going into it, and how were those expectations realized half way through?"

Based on today I would write:

"Before starting my internship I was convinced I was going to get an awesome [farmers] tan, because I'd be in the sun all day, every day. Then I got here and spent all my time at a potting bench or under shade cloth. Halfway through the summer I was still not tan. This week though I've been at the nursery, and am relieved to say my tan is coming along. So not to worry, Longwood's internship program is still exceeding expectations."

I may actually be a bit more red than tan today. It's what I get for having a 7 hour conversation with the sun. I also had the privilege of listening to this lovely song while my zune was on shuffle. I really had to try hard not to sing it at the top of my lungs in the middle of the mum field :)

Short (ish) and Sweet

~ Highlight of the day: Taking a freezing cold shower. An as-cold-as-it-can-get shower ~

Today:

Tied peppers

Picked grass

Ran three miles

There is no picture of me after running three miles, you're welcome :)  

What I pondered most today: Could certain aspects of Doctor Who be considered 'steampunk-ish'? Like in that one Tardis-eating planet episode? Hmmm. . .

Exclamation Points!

~ Highlight of the Day: A nice, cloudy, breezy, cool morning ~

Title note: I seem to have been using exclamation points a lot in my post titles. . . for a while it was these, ". . . ", but now it's exclamation points. I may need to put a conscious effort into breaking this habit, so if they start getting on your nerves, don't worry, it's being worked on! :)

I love how different gardens have different styles. We visited Chanticleer today, and I thought it was absolutely amazing. Just to sum it up nicely I'd say it's somewhat of a cross between Longwood and Scott Arboretum. It's much more formal than Scott, but not as dependant on annuals and constant display changes like Longwood.

The ruins were such a lovely contrast of stark, structural architecture  and natural, whimsical plantings. I wonder how hard would it be to build some ruins in the backyard. . .

Zucchini!

~ Highlight of the Day: coming home to zucchini bread ~

Zucchini. I am up to my eyeballs in the stuff. I mean, this always happens, so you'd think the surprise would wear off and I'd learn to deal with the huge influx of it. . . but  apparently not. So I think I'll have some zucchini and eggs, and zucchini bread, and steamed zucchini, and fried zucchini, and boiled zucchini, and then maybe some more zucchini bread :)

This morning's harvest. . .

This morning I whipped up a double batch of zucchini bread. It was a lot. Of everything. But it only called for 4 cups of grated zucchini, and I'm pretty sure I got away with 5 1/2, so it did put at least a small dent in my zucchini problem.

I had to use the biggest bowl in the kitchen. . .

At least I know I won't ever run out of veggies for the rest of the summer :)

And it Begins!

~Highlight of the Day: sleeping in, under both my sheet and blanket, with my favorite pj's on! ~

I have only 27 days left in Pennsylvania. . . which means I have a lot of food in my cupboards that needs to be eaten. So here's to creative cooking for the next month!

I began on the right foot I think - I made buckwheat buttermilk pancakes for lunch.

I like using spices. They just look so awesome in all their rich-brownness,
like a lovely color scheme for a painting of a nice warm barn
with horses in it or an old tree in the rain.

I've been meaning to use this buckwheat for more than half a year now. . . I got it at the WinCo in Orem, in kernel form. It took me at least a semester to get around to grinding it, and then the school year ended and I packed it up and took it home to Washington with me. It spent three weeks in the hallway in my unpacked 'kitchen' box, and then made the cut (along with some choice spices and oatmeal packets) for being carted to Pennsylvania with me.

I honestly can't remember if I brought it with me in my luggage or if Mom mailed it in a box of things I forgot. . . but some how it got here, and was promptly put on the top shelf of my allotment of cupboard space (the one I can barely reach, even when I'm on a chair).

And now, finally, after months and months and months of delicious-breakfast-potential, it's become a meal! Now I just have to do the same with what ever else I have managed to acquire and not ever use. . .

Kohlrabi!

~ Highlight of the day: harvesting mostly everything for dinner from my garden! ~

This purple beauty is a Kohlrabi. My neighbor gave me six tiny little starts of this in May, and now they are ready to harvest! I honestly had never had it before and I didn't know how to cook/eat it, but today I decided to give it a try. So I turned to the oh-so-dependable Wikipedia for guidance. Did you know this was related to cabbage and broccoli? I had no idea. And sure enough, it smells like broccoli. Exactly like broccoli. So here's my first kohlrabi attempt:

From left to right: lemon balm, mysterious peppers (all 3 kinds),
 kohlrabi, and basil.

I can't wait to have this as my veggie for
lunch on Monday! It sure beats carrots.

I made fried egg-something-flour pancakes. It's awesome how well that recipe lends itself to experimentation, I was totally making it up as I went.

I would just like to state that kohlrabi is delicious. It has a sweet, crisp broccoli flavor. Just a random connection - the scientific name of kohlrabi is Brassica oleracea, which is the same as ornamental cabbage, and what my house on the row is labeled as!

I also finally found the answer to a matter that has been weighing down on me quite a bit lately. What is the plural of 'fez'? Well, I was reading my O Jerusalem book and came across it:

My fruitless attempts at coming up with a correct-looking spelling are finally at an end!
Fezzes are cool. :)

Needless to say, today was quite productive! I've discovered a tasty new vegetable and learned how to spell 'fezzes', what more could I ask for? :)

I Woke Up Thursday Morning. . .

~Highlight of the Day: Seeing the brand new air conditioner that's going to be installed in the dining room tomorrow - it was indeed love at first sight. ~

Just look at this beauty! It brings tears to my eyes!

Today our weekly intern field trip took us to the Ambler campus of Temple University (about an hour away) for a lovely tour of  their beautiful gardens. It was a small but well landscaped, altogether an enjoyable place :)

 I will someday (when I have the space and time and money) have one of these in my garden:

And to top off an already good day, I used chives out of my garden for dinner!

I think I might be sad my internship is ending soon, now that I can come home to an air conditioned home. . . :)

Happy Wednesday!

~ Highlight of the Day: Getting to play Settlers of Catan, even if I didn't win :) Oh! and resolving the confusing misunderstanding about who I'm selling my Fall housing contract to (it's such a relief to have it figured out!) ~

I was in Chamber Choir when I was in high school, which was auditioned and made up of roughly twenty girls ranging from freshmen to seniors. Because of this high concentration of raging teenage estrogen we ended up doing lots of touchy feely things, like talking about anything and everything other than choir and organizing a 'secret sister' operation where everyone was assigned a different girl to give small gifts to throughout the year. Well, I particularly remember receiving a certain note from my secret sister. It was written with markers on bright blue construction paper, and had a large, cheerful 'Happy Wednesday!' on the front. For some reason it has stuck with me ever since, and it helps me through that terrible tired-already-but-not-quite-half-way-done feeling Wednesday mornings tend to generate.

So, happy Wednesday!

Also, I saw a fox and her baby today. So cool. They were just hanging out by the forest, keeping an eye on me in case I got any closer than I already was.

I've recently stumbled upon this online comic, and so have been pondering foxes more than usual in the past half a week, which made running into one or two of them just that much cooler :)

Mum's the Word

~ Highlight of the Day: Finding out I didn't miss beekeeping for overtime because beekeeping got moved to tomorrow! Couldn't have planned it better :) ~

Um. . . Mums. That's all I did today. Woke up after hitting snooze (that is a funny word. . . ) three or four times, made it to work on time (barely), took cuttings of mums for 3 hours, ate lunch, and potted mums for 5 hours.

This is what I look at all day - a potting bench, soil, fiber pots, and mums. This variety pictured here is called Honey Glow, I believe. I only remember because it was a cool neon green instead of the plain regular green. We went through something like 4 or 5 yards of soil mix too (not yard as in 3'X3', yard as in how much of something it takes to fill the back of your pickup truck to nearly overflowing). It was a lot of soil, for a lot of mums.

After looking at mums all day I was excited to do something different - I got to help take some of one of Bruce Monroe's exhibits out. All of the pieces we're showcasing here are centered around light, and all but one of them are nighttime exhibits. The only daytime one is a whole lot of 'lily pads' set afloat in the large lake. They are essentially neoprene discs covered in Cd's, and when the sun shines on them you get a rainbow of reflection across the lake. It is way cool. They've been out there all summer though, and time has taken it's toll. Today we removed the most damaged ones. It was hot, and sticky, and stinky, but it was not mums, and I was happy :)

Mail Time!

~ Highlight of the Day: Getting a letter from my awesome cousin who's serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in California - Spanish speaking :) ~

As stated in the Highlight above, I got a letter from my cousin Andrew today. I was so excited I opened it right there and read it while walking through the kitchen and dining room, up the stairs, and into my bedroom. Letters are so amazing. Why did we ever give them up for electronics? (I mean, despite the fact that they are 100X faster and more convenient :)

I've decided to be better about writing letters this summer, and so I've already written a response, and it's even in an envelope with an address and a stamp, ready to go into the mailbox first thing in the morning! I even drew a picture on the back. Or is that considered the front of the envelope? . . .

It's a ukulele-playing astronaut*, and I'm rather fond of him :) I think it's funny that we have all that free space on the envelope that we don't use. . . why not make life a little more interesting? It is a little odd because everybody can see what you do, but still. Sometimes blank spaces are just calling for ink, and who are we to deprive them of it!?

Ok, done with that rant.

*Yes, I misspelled astronaut on my letter. I contemplated whether the risks of simply guessing at the spelling outweighed going all the way upstairs to my computer to check it, and they didn't.

Kimchi

~Highlight of the Day: Finally catching up with my best friend of 12 years (not that it's been twelve years since we've caught up. . . :) ~

I remember my first experience with kimchi. My siblings and I were watching my uncle with a mixture of awe and disgust (he was known to eat odd and dangerous things, like whole dried fish ) as he took out a jar of brightly colored something, loaded up a bowl of it, and started digging in. He listed off the ingredients (a bunch of which I didn't recognize at all, or didn't sound safe) and offered the jar up for our curious noses. It definitely did not pass the nose test, so I didn't venture to put any in my mouth (this was my uncle we were talking about after all. . . )

Fast forward maybe six or seven years and I'm in my dining room, eating a fabulous South Korean dinner made by my fabulous South Korean roommate. I forget what she called it, but it included ground beef, green onions, and sweet potato noodles, and it was delicious. But then she disappeared into the kitchen for a minute or two, and came out with a small bowl of kimchi for all of us to try. I immediately got nervous. I'd heard of the stuff once or twice since watching my uncle eat it, and I'd seen my roommate eat it several times in the last two months living together. . . but it still wasn't passing the nose test, and looks were still not helping. But I took a deep breath, told myself there was a glass of water less than 6 inches from me, and, after a substantial amount of hesitation, ate it.

It wasn't horrible. It was mostly like a spicy, strong sauerkraut. Apparently they use the same preservation technique - some sort of fermentation? I think it was a bit on the spicy side for me, and quite strong in flavor, but I definitely could learn to love it if I ever live in South Korea :)

the kimchi resides in the fridge, right next to my gallon of milk. . .
doesn't that look intimidating?
I think it does.

And It Rained, and Rained, and Rained. . .

~ Highlight of the Day: Sleeping in and waking up to rain! ~

Our float down the Brandywine river was canceled today. . . it's just not as appealing in the rain. Instead we drove out to the Jenkins Arboretum for the iris sale. I have never seen so many iris' in my life, it was fantastic! They had a room full tables of them, sorted by color, which was great because I was on a mission for the perfect yellow iris. Here's what I came home with:

They wrote the cultivar right on the foliage, how brilliant is that?! I will have to remember that if I ever run an iris sale :) The cultivars I got were 'Red Skies', 'May Debut', 'Kentucky Derby', 'Again and Again', and 'Indian Chief'

After neatly cleaning out the sale we walked around the arboretum for a bit. Apparently their thing is azaleas, because they were everywhere. That, combined with the light mist-like rain and mossy paths made me feel almost right at home - honestly it was so much like Washington I could almost fool myself into believing it. . . I think I'm going to design a pond with lilly pads in it for my parent's yard. And I need to try and grow a pawpaw tree there too.

Oh yes, I harvested my Brandywine tomato, the one that could feed China for a week it's so big:

And just in case you haven't noticed yet, the uke seems to pop up in pictures where ever. So of course I included my ukulele in a picture of my tomatoes.

Speaking of tomatoes, I am still on a quest for a reasonably priced dvd of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes". I must watch it. soon. So if you stumble across one, let me know!