49/365 Vacations

Gone away. The Paxtons leave, the McAllisters aren't home yet. The Stricklands are finally done with travel. Iris and Eliza are home from camp finally, but the block has that empty feel, like the dorms in late May. Everyone is busy finishing up summer. It's hot, too, really too hot to go out and waste time, unless it's at the pool. We spend a lot of time at the pool. I wish we were going on vacation, but with Billy still so young, it would be work than play. Next summer--or autumn. I don't fear the wrath of school administrators. My vacations are educational. Always.

Not everyone is leaving for vacation. We're here. The Sudlanders didn't go anywhere this summer that I can recall. Many of us are around. We're just hiding from the heat inside our red brick ovens.

48/365 Block Party Evening

47/365 More Block Party

46/365 Block Party: A Few Photos

45/365 How My Garden Grows

I never know what to expect from my garden. I have a typical urban yard, postage stamp sized, really not much bigger in the back than the footprint of the house itself. 30 feet wide (I know from my water bill) but I don't know the length.

But this has happily limited me in the past. I can only do so much gardening in a space like this, plus there's the 80 year old magnolia tree, and the silver-red hybrid maple, and the baby scarlet oak, and there used to be a mulberry. Lots of squirrels, not a lot of sun. So I grew Russian tomatoes that had a short season (due to their winter), and they grew over a long season of shade for me. Beautiful tomatoes the years I got them. Think of a store bought tomato. Now think of a homegrown one, and the difference between them. Take that same amount of difference, and Russian black tomatoes are that much further along the scale from homegrown.

As you can see from the first slide here, there are some plants that are quite easy to grow and produce a large yield--garlic and basil being the very best in my yard. There are others that require lots of care and do not give much in return, like potatoes and most squash plants. Also, in a city garden, "ease of growing" includes how much space--some plants are easy to grow (pumpkins) but require the whole danged yard.
Usually cucumbers are in quadrant III as well--low yield, hard to grow. Always something puzzling about that family of plants. This year, however, they've had an astounding yield for me. Embarrassing amounts of cucumbers--I switched to a hybrid and frankly, I'll never switch back. I'll keep the heirloom tomatoes but those older cucumbers do not stand up to the weird bugs in my yard. And I don't spray, so if there are bad bugs, we succumb.

But yield is only half the picture in a city garden. Yes, it is very satisfying to have basil coming out of our ears, but if basil wasn't also absolutely awesomely tasty in all ways, it wouldn't be as worth it. So this second slide demonstrates ease of growing vs. tastiness. Note the red y = -x line. Anything on top of that line, I will continue to try. Anything below has proven itself unworthy.

44/365 Sleepover Breakfast Menu

Sliced watermelon
Mini-bagels
Deer Sausage
Ice water

43/365 Spend the Night

Fiona creeps into the kitchen during a break from Lego Batman, the game du jour around here. As summer wanes, I'm caring less about screen time limits. Fry your brains, kids, because life is short and school starts in 3 short weeks.

She creeps into the kitchen and sidles up next to me. "Can Bree stay the night?" she whispers.

I give the requisite Mom Sigh. I'm making leftovers, disguised as quiche, for supper. That's not a problem, but adding another person to the guest list means sitting in the dining room instead of huddled around the kitchen table. Lazy me, I almost say no, but then reconsider.

"Sure," I tell her. "But after dinner."

Bree calls home and negotiates. Getting off the phone, she tells me it's fine, but she has to be in bed by 9:30 and lights off by 10. Fine with me, I think, that will be early for my girls this week...