New York, New York

~ Highlight of the Day: Terrace pizza and chocolate mousse cake. ~

My family is not entirely plant minded. Everyone mows, to some extent, my mom weeds when she has time, and my sister likes plants but is convinced she kills them. I have no idea what my brothers think of it all, and my dad likes a good looking yard, but is allergic to stuff outside, like grass. So gardens have never really been on our lists-of-things-to-do-on-vacation, or even locally.

Being here at Longwood is totally different. We take all sorts of field trips to gardens, like they're the most important attraction around (because they are the most important attractions around :) and actually enjoy it all quite thoroughly. Today we drove to New York City, not to see the Statue of Liberty, or Time Square, or Broadway, but to see the High Line.

This is the place that has the odd cement planks for the floor, with the cool transition from path to flower bed. I've seen it on Pinterest so many times, but I didn't know it was taken here!

They had the coolest water feature - it was just a section of the path with grates on either side of it. On one side water came up to run across the path to the other grate, where it fell underneath and (I'm assuming) is pumped back up to the other side. How perfect for a hot summer day? It's just enough water to get your feet wet and splash around a bit in, but not enough to really cause any safety issues. You could walk across it with shoes on and stay dry. It's just brilliant. I loved it. Just look at that adorable little kid getting his feet wet!

So. Much. Food.

~ Highlight of the Day: Condensing the whole Book of Mormon into just 3 hours ~

So here's a Watermelon Update, which will morph into a General Garden Update:

My watermelon scaffolding is about the only thing in my garden that's not overgrown and fallen over. Every single one of my tomatoes have found the ground much more appealing than the lovely open air. It's like I have a carpet of tomatoes everywhere. Ug. But they're still spitting off little tomatoes, so I can't tear them out just yet. Today was a big harvest day (mostly because I've not been in the garden for a while. . . ) Here's what I got:

Peppers I don't know how to use,

more zucchini,

lots of tomatoes, both ripe and unripe. . .

and more peppers!

I also harvested some Kholrabi, which I still like even though I've had it for lunch going on several weeks now.   (do you like my sock/work boot tan :) How am I even supposed to eat all of this stuff? I won't be lacking in veggies any time soon, that's for sure!

I don't know if you can even recognize my garden in all that jungle, but I promise you it's there! Don't worry though, it'll get better. I'm passing on my garden plot to the other Production intern, and I'm going to try to not leave it a mess. . .

I got off to a good start today! It's really not that bad, but when everything is so overgrown already, adding a few weeds to the few open spaces makes the whole place messy.

Look! You can see my artichoke and one of the remaining kholrabi! I used to have two artichokes. . . not sure where the other one got to. . .

Busy Day

~ Highlight of the Day: Discovering that ginkgos make beautiful carving wood ~

Today I did a lot.

I went to my first All Staff meeting.

I explained Temples* and General Conference*.

I watered a bajillion salvia while wearing awesome sunglasses.

I learned how to recognize the mosaic virus in cannas

I got chocolate milk at a local dairy

(it was 5 minutes away,

it took us 40. )

I sent important emails.

I swept our nasty floor, and lots of spiders.

I ate dinner with 5 British, 1 Japanese, 1 Korean, and 1 American.

I taught someone to play three chords on the ukulele

(I bet you can't guess which ones :)

I did the dishes.

I asked "how do you play Cricket?"

I tried to understand Cricket. . . I'm not sure I do yet. . .

I stayed up way too late, and then decided I wanted to still post something.

*Temple: LDS building dedicated as a House of the Lord, has the Angel Moroni on top.

*General Conference: Big church wide meeting held every six months in which the Prophet, Apostles, and other leaders of the Church speak. In other words, my two favorite weekends of the whole year!

Angel Food Cake: Success!

~ Highlight of the Day: Eggplant Parmesan Caprese Salad. 'Nuff said. ~

Operation Angel food Cake: Success.

Yes. After beating the poor egg whites for what must have been a half an hour yesterday morning, while fasting, and whipping up some dream whip and sliced strawberries today after my mad dash to the post office, the angel food cake was pretty much perfect. And I even have some left over!

I would explain to you why there was a mad dash to the post office, but it's too late to tell the whole story tonight. Perhaps I'll tell it tomorrow when I'll miraculously become a great time steward and actually head to bed/blogging at a decent hour! 

So. . . Tired. . .

~Highlight of the Day: Successfully making a lovely angelfood cake, and successfully not consuming a single drop while doing it! ~

So I've always been somewhat of an avid journaler. I got my first journal for my 8th birthday, along with a selection of gel pens, and would write/draw all sorts of great stuff. I remember writing about a boy in my 2nd grade class that I thought was funny, and that President Clinton went on a date with a woman who was not his wife (that's as much of that story as my young brain could understand. . . or that my teacher would tell me), and I drew pictures of my sister being annoying, and of horses, and almost every thing else.

In middle school I wrote all about my boy troubles (soooo fun to read now :) and homework. When I got to high school my sleeping habits really declined, but I still managed to keep a somewhat regular journal ( I think I really enjoyed writing about myself. . . still do actually. . . ), and I would often write in it right before going to sleep. As you can imagine this quite often resulted in me waking up around 2 or 3 with my lamp still on and a lovely pool of drool on the journal page. More often than not I would be writing, and then have to give up because I could no longer form coherent sentences and my handwriting became illegible. Several times you can see exactly where I shut down, because halfway through a sentence the letters get tiny, and then become scribbles, and then just stop.

Now, in the great golden age of blogging, I am still dealing with the same issues. Unfortuately the deteriorating handwriting does not express itself, but oh boy do the sentences become interesting! If I begin my post after midnight there is no hope. I usually end up waking up and editing my post in the morning.

For example: My last post currently ends like this, "So here's to technology, a sport I've never played, and the moon. :) ", but it originally ended something like this, "So here's to technology and a fledgling industry. " . . .

Fledgling industry? I remember struggling with that last sentence. I zoned out several times before deciding it was long enough and I just needed to end it and sleep in my bed instead of at my desk, but I don't even know where I was going with that. . .

So there, behind the scenes of 'Of Strings and Green Things' with Rachel :)

Also, my camera is having a midlife crisis. So pictures may be not as often ( sad, I know). I did manage to get a picture or two of my angelfood cake though!

I would just like to say that cooking on a Fast Sunday* is just difficult.

*First Sunday of every month in which we pray and go without food for two meals in order to grow closer to our Heavenly Father

Formatting. . .

~ Highlight of the Day: Getting to help put Brian's chickens to bed. . . I miss my chickens! ~

So I'm trying out some new formating for the blog. . . you may have noticed the ampitheater picture under the 'Of Strings and Green Things'. Unfortunately I'm not very computer savy, and it's a little like golfing blindfolded on the moon (would being on the moon make it harder or easier. . . ?), even though I can't even golf to begin with. . . but I've figured that perhaps if I hit enough golf balls out into those craters (or press enough keys and buttons. . . and various combinations of the two) something is bound to get in the hole! So here's to technology, a sport I've never played, and the moon. :)



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How Many Plants?

~ Highlight of the Day: Adopting two adorable baby cycads ~

Here's a joke for you:

How many plants can you take on an airplane?

It depends. . . how many has Rachel managed to accumulate in 3 months?!

Ok, maybe it's not a funny joke. But honestly, I don't know when to stop. I'm flying home in 18 days, and my 'Plants to Keep' list keeps growing. . . Here are my two most recent additions:

They are Cycas circinalis (I think), and are practically baby dinosaurs. . . or at least dinosaur-aged. They're both male, having been vegetatively propagated from the huge Cycas circinalis (again, I think) in the Palm House of the Conservatory, which has been there since . . . 1951 or something like that. Anyway,  they are cool, and they will somehow make it to Washington, be it by carry-on or checked luggage or mailed package!

 

I don't usually name my plants - but these are my baby dinosaurs, so they need names. I'm thinking Luke and Lyle, but that could easily change . . .

Also noteworthy - I watched Dirty Dancing for the first time tonight. Totally not what I expected it to be. . . but better :) Dance movies always make me want to learn. . . why isn't life like a dance movie? I just need some dramatic events, a problem or two, and an incredibly attractive man so I can learn to dance professionally in a matter of weeks!