lady_karelia | (no subject)

I wrote just over 2k words today. Am behind two chapters in beta work. Am far behind with knitting, but never mind that. The sweater ain't gonna run away, right?

And I fully blame

voxangelus for the playlist. *nods gravely*

It's raining again, oh what a surprise. First it doesn't rain for months on end. Then it rains so much the river floods the farmland. Something out there is going crazy.

The seeds I put out into some coffeegrain-laden earth have all sprouted, I'm so pleased! They be: cilantro, basil, oregano, and parsley.

And the one tomato I planted conventionally is thriving. I shall picspam later. The other five all fell victim to a basic hydroponic experiment, which saddens me greatly. Reading about hydroponics, researching it, watching videos about it gave me so much hope, but alas. Only the spinach and oregano, both from seed, are still thriving. They shall have to do for now.

I love days like today when the weather forecasters overestimate the temperature. Which was to be 63, but it never rose above about 57. Lovely. And the cloud cover was absolutely beautiful. I realise it's the last of such beautiful days *sigh*. But the next winter will be there soon. Yup. Seven months or less. Sounds positively good.

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Oooh! What did you write? And have you seen the video for "Return to Innocence?" It was so lovely, it made me cry.

I'm concentrating on the original work at the moment.

No, haven't seen it! Is it on youtube? I love that song, even though I've listened to it millions of times. :)

And I'd be darned worried if the sweater manages to run away. I decided today that I'm going to knit (yes, knit, not crochet) an afghan, if it KILLS me. Making blankets is the best way I've found to speed up a craft in one's hands.

*nod* Although I imagine wool to be sentient, I highly doubt it'll run away...

Wow! You gonna knit??? *iz impressed* I still haven't learned to crochet, but that's something that'll have to wait till the next winter comes.

Yup, I can knit. It just doesn't go as quickly as crocheting, even that tight-textured crochet equivalent of knitting, the single crochet, does. You'll be interested and perhaps amused to know that, as in music, where a British crotchet is an American quarter note, the stitches are named differently as well:

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art347.asp

e.g.: An American single crochet stitch is called a double crochet stitch in Britain (and Europe, I believe).

ROFL! That might explain my confusion when I was trying to observe the LYS lady teach someone "single crochet stitches". I thought, no way, that's not how I remember them from my childhood!

Do tell me about the coffee grains for planting. Our garden is such a disaster for growing anything, as we have a number of large, very well-established plants in a small space, and they take almost everything.

(I cannot take out a 10m pine tree, 40-yr-old bougainvilliea ditto honeysuckle, and don't want to get rid of the lemon tree or orange tree. There is ivy everywhere in the fences/hedges, and... Well, suffice it to say it's not very fertile.)

coffee grains are high in... I think nitrogen; anyway, something lots of plants need. So it's an excellent addition for any poor soil. Tea leaves have similar effects, by the way. And both are easy to spread around plants, no need to compost and wait.

Thanks!

Heh, coffee grounds = speed for plants (just kidding),

You have a point there, lol! They definitely speed up the tomato plants.

Congrats on the word count! Seems like those super-productive days are few and far between, lately. The play list is impressive; I even recognized a tune or two! Hydroponics seems so sci-fi to me; I think it's wonderful that you're trying and learning about it.

Yay for spring in the south! And, of course, boo for summer ...

Thank you! I'm usually a very, very slow writer. I'm amazed myself with my productivity lately.

Hydroponics are apparently an ancient way of growing food - the Aztecs provide the first evidence that it was a feasible thing to do. When I started looking into it, I figured in order to comprehend it, I need to do a hands-on experiment. I'm still very much at the beginning, though. :)

Oooh, I need to do a classical/art song/aria playlist now. Singing is happiness, yes it is.

Yes, I absolutely agree about the singing.

It's fun to plant all those little plants in the spring. Unfortunately for me, the harvesting/freezing/canning always comes just as the school year is starting--just when I don't have time to do anything extra. I'm still deciding whether I'll do a very small garden at our new house or not. Well, enjoy spring while it lasts; it never seems to last long enough for me either.

I think a small garden is a good idea! We only have a patio, so everything is in pots and containers, but it's just so much fun to watch it all grow and then have truly fresh vegetables for a few weeks of the year.

It looks like the spring has been rained off around here. We've had about 6" of rain in the last few days, and the river is still rising... Soon I'll have to take a boat into Memphis instead of the car.

Say, do you grow tomatos in pots? If so, could you tell me about how much soil is needed per tomato?

Yeah. Since our patio consists of concrete, it's kind of difficult to grow them in the ground... Okay, I just went outside and took measurements *nods*. It stopped raining, wow, what a novelty! Ten inches across and about eight inches high. I filled it a good 5" with coffee grounds and the rest is organic soil from the Ebil Empire, so probably not that organic after all. The plant itself has more than doubled in size since I bought them just over two weeks ago.

Another thing I've been doing for years, which isn't relevant at the moment with all the rain we're having, is watering by the moon cycle. If you look here (http://www.paungger-poppe.com) (there is an English flag to click for it to come up in English), the symbol that shows a watering can indicates watering days. Plants produce better crops that way and are more resistant to disease. :)

I've been intrigued by the idea of container gardening for a couple of years. Maybe I'll have to do some research and give it a try. Are you flooded out yet? We're about to get rain for the rest of the week here.

I've always found any type of gardening fascinating, so naturally, I'll say go for it! It is easier in some ways, too, like the typical diseases are nowhere near as much of an issue as with plant-in-the-ground gardening. Also, because it's on a much smaller scale, you tend to give more attention to each individual plant, which means they're more likely to pay you back by producing higher yields.

The river is finally going down, although pretty slowly. Still no carparks in downtown Memphis, lol. But more rain is forecast for tonight and tomorrow...