This 'n That

I forgot an important "B" the other day -- broccoli!!!!  (What was I thinking?!)

And look how well it's doing.  (So far.  We must not take these things for granted.  Last year they all died a horrible fungal death after giving up their initial head of broccoli -- at least I got something out of them, but I was very disappointed.  This year it's a different variety -- 'PacMan' -- so I hope they'll do better.)

And we've got some good C's coming up, as well:

Love the lacy look of the outer leaves.  Actually, I don't love it at all, but as long as the slugs (or whatever it is that is wreaking this havoc) stay on the outer leaves and leave the heads alone, all's fair in love and cabbage. 

Thanks to all the Michael Jackson video-watching (I almost never tire of watching some of those videos), some good progress has been made on the red scarf.  I do love this color of KnitPicks Swish (Fired Brick), and though this mindless scarf is all I can handle right now, at least it's a little bit of something for this poor little ole knitting blog. 

I've got sort of a busy week coming up, though there is no work-work scheduled.  Tomorrow I provide lunch to the workers at a Habitat for Humanity building site.  You just know they be gettin' some home-grown lettuce in their sandwiches.  I sure do wish I had some of AnnaMarie's homemade bread, but they'll have to settle for store-bought.  It should be interesting for me to manage preparing food for, and serving, a group of people, since I will be on a liquid-diet cleanse that day to get ready for my Tuesday, ahem, medical procedure. Ergh.

Then there's this antique transcript I need to try to get out, assuming I can still read the steno.  Court reporters will love this:  The court hearing was done in 1989.  Yes, I kid you not.  Twenty years ago.  Let me see if there might be any issues with this:  I had just upgraded my computer system at that time, from the old system that took up an entire room in my house and about five laborious steps to create a transcript -- took the whole night to translate a file that I then had to heavily edit.  First it was written on a digital tape, which was put into a tape-reader and put onto an -- are you sitting down? -- 8-inch floppy disk, which took like an hour (which at that time we thought was lightning fast)!  That then was put into a computer to read and try to match the steno to English. Then I edited it -- which was a lengthy and labor-intensive process, and then it was printed on a dot matrix printer.  It took a couple hours to print a half-hour court hearing, and several hours to print a day's worth.  There was carbon-interleaved paper, the edges of which I had to tear off, rip apart each page, take out the carbons, and collate the multiple copies. 

So in 1989, I was now up to a new system that had a five-inch disk and about two fewer steps.  It was a bit faster, but I can no longer read those disks, because since that time I have changed computer systems three more times, and that's not even counting the generations of software.   But also: Since that time, my steno theory was ripped out, stripped down to its nakedness; I was lashed and thrashed and trashed, and lowered to my lowest point; and right when I was at the point where I would almost rather choose suicide than go on, I was retaught how to write, and I have continued to modify it and tweak it and make it the perfect fit so now I can write realtime steno in practically whatever subject you throw at me with only the occasional kooky error such as the other night, "as pennies" came out "aspenis."  The speaker had earlier asked the question, "How many of you pick up a penny when you see it lying on the ground?" and later tied that in by saying that some people treat other people as pennies, i.e., worthless. 

So "aspenis" for "as pennies."  That's a word boundary error.  I had defined AS/PEN as "aspen," and the "-ies" ending decided to translate, in one of those moments of artificial intelligence gone terribly wrong, as "-is" so it almost looked like (but thank goodness it did not, quite) as "as penis," but in any event it translated as a NONword.  Ah, yes, it's always something....that's the third sure thing, after death and taxes.

Anyway, I have procrastinated taking a look at those musty, moldy steno notes that the court sent me because some guy wants to know some little detail in them.  I seriously doubt if I can read them, and I really probably should have just looked at them when they were first sent to me so I could just certify that, "Forget it, bub. It's been 20 freakin' years. Get over it."  So I have to do that this week.

In yet another blog non sequitur, the asparagus from the previously ailing bed continues to grow and produce, and ahhhh, here is a beautiful sight:

 

The new asparagus bed is freshly weeded and OMG, I found all these little asparagus ferns coming up.  After a few rains and some time, and the rock phosphate feeding, it is indeed coming alive.  That is not the 30 roots that I planted by a long shot, but I have confidence that more will come up.  Can I get a woohoo?!  After the weeding shown above, I spread four bags of Intervale compost, some more lime, and some more rock phosphate over and around it, and watered it in.  I am going to get a bale of straw to mulch it, and I think that next year we will be swimming in asparagus. 

I have put in a brand new grow bed:

Ahhhh, it's like a fresh canvas.  I put in a bean tower and planted it with Dolloff beans (a true Vermont heirloom shell bean) sent to me by the Extreme Gardener.  I also put in a fresh planting of arugula, Renee's Stir Fry mix, Romaine, and basil seeds.  When I started, I intended to put in beets and bush beans.  I have no idea how I got off track like that, but apparently the canvas spoke to me.

Comments

[AnnaMarie]

Ahhh, wish I was closer to get you some bread pdq. I ended up selling all but 3 loaves of the Cinnamon bread yesterday and gave one to the wood guy who gave me the cutest baby trellis *g* I need to do a state of the garden post too, the peas are taller than you now! My brocoli is still in the starter pots, probably going to plant that today. You were right, it's growing fast now that the weather is in the 70's. Whoot!

[gayle]

Pacman is pretty good broccoli - we grow that if we can't get Premium Crop, which is our favorite. Don't grow Green Goliath - awful stuff.
Good luck with your antique transcript. Feeling like an archeologist?
Love your comparison of a garden bed to a blank canvas. You are definitely a garden artist!

[Betsy]

We had the first cuke and green pepper in a salad last night...oh so tasty...

Would you and your followers ring in on asparagus and critters...my garden has to be fenced against deer foraging or I would have nothing but I don't think I've ever seen anything about deer eating asparagus or don't remember that they did in the last garden...I have been wondering if I could essentially plant a border around the fence on the outside of asparagus but with Bambi and the two fawns nestled in the lot next door...well...

[Kim]

I'm thinking a composting post would be a good post. ;)

Good luck with your transcript!

[Cookie]

Only one "C"? I am stunned, disappointed and wandering back to my spot in the naughty corner.

[Jean E.]

What are those green plastic-y things in amongst the broccoli? I see two of them in the first picture.

[naomi]

Oooh, broccoli!

There were once 8" floppy disks? My goodness. Good luck finding those details! (Or with deciding it's not worth it...)

[marianne]

Well sure.. WOOHOOOO!
I always enjoyed watching Michael dance, boy had some moves. slick.
Fired Brick... it's a gorgeous red, now is it along the 'warmer' tones of red? with 'Brick' in its name I always think warm red.
Yes. You are indeed a Garden Artist. I feel like one of Pavlov's pooches.. your garden photos have my mouth watering. every single time.
Good luck with that antique transcript. egads.

[Midj]

Just read you in my feed reader and had to come over and comment. Thanks for giving us the option for both! Last year when the computer went pfft... I had to read you on my phone and not having the ease of the feed reader made it tough but I did it anyway. Love my NORMA fix every day. If you were going to post every day for a year, then damnit, I was going to read every day, computer or not! Loving the Gardening again this year. Even planted one for my family again. I do need to figure out why the eggplant are dropping their flowers and producing no fruit though. Off to google!

[Jen B]

The slugs are feasting on my garden this year (must get beer). I don't mind them too much, but I think they're the critters that have eaten nearly all of the basil. I love your garden posts & learn so much every time.

[Gillian]

Do you do anything about cabbage worm? I'm wondering if I could put a cheesecloth hat over each head. If I had any cheesecloth, I'd have done it by now.

[Judy]

I love your garden posts!!! Went out today to get more lettuce and spinach seeds, inspired by Norma

[elizabeth a airhart]

good luck with your tests

i have read that cayenne pepper will keep
all manner of pests perhaps deer away from plants

thank you for the link to dolloffs found the
cranberry pole bush beans i grew up with

jackson was just a fine dancer
the costumes are some of the very best

[Kristen]

Oh yerk. May Tuesday go, uh, smoothly.

[Alarming Female]

My favorite MJ video is Don't Stop Til You Get Enough. Even bought it on iTunes.

I've been catching up (the garden is gorgeous and the photos mouth watering. Asparagus! OMG) but didn't get far back enough to figure out why you're studying the Harlem Renaissance, but good for you! I'm on a white-anti-racist reading diet right now.

The rose petal jam sounds lovely and I'll bet it's ab/fab warmed and drizzled over vanilla ice cream. Wanna trade some for soap?

I miss you, Norma! The girls around here roll their eyes at my single girl angst.

ttyl--

Laurie

[Sarah]

Broccoli and Cabbage envy over here. Ours were pbbbt.

I want to bake bread, but cannot bear the idea of using the oven right now.

Hee-hee. Treating people aspenis.

[knitnana]

The Doloff's might be the "shelly" beans my mom grew up with...hmmm...where can I put an 8' pole bean?
(((Hugs)))

[Vicki]

My old CompuGraphic EditWriter (typesetting machine) took 8" floppies.

[Leigh]

Bravo on the asparagus bed and my deepest sympathies re the ancient transcripts... Looks like a nice spot for the Dolloffs, hopefully they'll make some beans before frost over in your balmy Champlain Valley location!