Hot and Cold
Front yard apple tree gardenIt’s been a week of highs and lows. Last week on Sunday we ended up breaking a temperature record for the day when we hit the 90F/32C mark. Then the temperatures remained hot, just below 90F/32C, through Thursday when a big storm rumbled through in the middled of the afternoon. I was at work in the library, it was the last day of finals and the 1Ls were grinding through their property exams when everyone’s cell phones began screeching with a tornado alert. Then the tornado sirens went off. Down we all went to the basement of the law school where we milled about for twenty minutes before we got the all clear. The poor students had to then get themselves re-focused and back to their final exam.
Turns out we had cloud rotation over the area near my house—yikes!—but the tornado wasn’t able to get itself organized enough until it was well past the city and even then it didn’t manage to touchdown. There were a few places in Minnesota and Wisconsin where a tornado did touch down, but they were small and brief and damage was thankfully limited. By the time I left work to bike home, it was sunny, though I did have to bike into a 20mph/32kph headwind with gusts over 35mph/56kph. That was a workout!
The storm pushed in a cold front and we are now many degrees below “normal.” We had a frost advisory last night and another for tonight. The city heat island effect will keep actual frost away in the garden, but I still brought all the seedlings indoors. I am glad I didn’t plant the tomato and pepper seedlings last weekend.
While I have saved them from the cold, unfortunately during the heatwave, the row cover fabric I had over them for shade on the deck blew off in the wind and seven tomato plants were crisped. Three winter squashes were also burned to a crisp. I re-sowed the squash, but the tomatoes… Three of the tomatoes that fried were from saved seeds from the cherry tomato I dug up from a crack in the alley behind my house last year. Since they are small cherries, I planted new seeds in the pots and hopefully will have at least a few tomatoes at the end of summer. The other tomatoes were big ones and those I cannot re-seed and hope to have any fruit because they need a lot more time to grow. So my plan for jars and jars of canned tomatoes to get us through the winter have been ruined, but there should still be enough to last part of the winter. Better than none.
The seeds I have direct sown in the garden are doing great. The carrots are up, the radishes are growing strong and will need to be thinned soon, the broccoli is looking great as are the salad greens. There are collard and chard sprouts. The snap peas are climbing their trellis already and the shelling peas are sending out tendrils to grab their trellis. The weeds are also doing great, well some weeds, but mostly feral arugula and now feral red amaranth sprouting up everywhere. I need to start pulling them out before they bury all the veg sprouts.
rhubarb in flowerStevie, the cherry tree, has a few tiny cherries. And Professor Plum has lots of tiny plums. Though last year Professor had lots of tiny plums too and then they all disappeared. Hopefully some of them will hang on this year.
The young rhubarb burst into flower. The big old rhubarb gave me another half freezer bag of stalks. The horseradish is flowering. And today, while pruning off the dead bits of the gooseberry, I saw a tiny green berry. So even though the poor thing is half-dead, the part that is alive is doing well.
Everything we got at the plant sale last week is doing great. The tomatillo, still in its pot, is blooming. The jalapeños, also still in their pots, have flower buds. I think I should be okay to plant them out next weekend. The perennials planted out all appear to be settling in. Yay!
There is so much more to tell, but my brain is working in slow motion this afternoon and I am unable to pull anything else out of the chaos. This will have to do for now.
Reading
- Book: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. I first read this waaaay back when I was maybe 20 or so, for fun. It was the first Woolf I ever read. I was both awed and overwhlemed by it. I loved the way the book felt and sounded, but had a hard time following the point of view changes that sometimes even happen in the middle of a sentence. It was so bad I didn’t even realize Mrs. Ramsay had died until several chapters later. This time around I was not overwhelmed and had no difficulty following the point of view changes. Such a beautiful book with so much happening in it.
- Article: Rolling Stone: Trump is trying to take control of Congress through its library. I am outraged over the firing of Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress. She is such an amazing woman and has done great work these last nine years. Plus, her firing was illegal. I am heartened, however, that the librarians mounted a resistance and have refused to accept Trump’s acting appointment as legitimate, especially since the library is not part of the Executive branch and he has no authority to appoint anyone.
- News article: The Guardian: Microplastics found in human ovary fluid for the first time. Yet another reason to resist plastics.
- Poem: Ways to Measure Trees by MaKysha Tolbert “All my life I was a hammer:/ I struck everything I touched.”
Listening
- Podcast: War on Cars: Episode 151: More Motornormativity with Marco te Brömmelstroet aka “Fietsprofessor” Why are cars considered normal and other forms of transportation seen as alternative?
Watching
- Watching: Documentary: Free For All: The Public Library. Tells the story of the institution of the public library in the United States. This was so good! Free to stream on PBS
Kitchen Magic
My kitchen witchery includes a sourdough cinnamon raisin swirl loaf and a pumpernickel round. This is my second time making pumpernickel and it came out even better than the first!
James’s wizardry included making more sunchoke soup. He also made savory lentil pancakes with garden greens—nettles, violets, sochan, arugula, and walking onion—and some homemade vegan cheese on top. Delicious!
