Garden Update: Surprise Addition

Yes, I'm in New England and I'm blogging about the rainy weather we've had. I'm ever so original, aren't I?

I can at least offer some evidence of just how relentless the wet weather's been this week. I don't have pictures, but hopefully you'll take my word for it when I say that we now have a bumper crop of itty bitty mushrooms. Volunteer mushrooms, to be sure. I'm hoping they won't be detrimental to the veggies that we've planted on purpose, because it's supposed to be gloomy and dreary for another solid week.

I was pleased to see, though, that four out of six tomato plants are substantially bigger than they were several days ago. Whether it's a matter of them thriving during monsoon season or simply that by not obsessively checking the garden every six hours, any progress appears magnified, I'll take it.

Good things come in threes, too.

I'm choosing to take the successes I can get this week. We will not discuss the un-successes, because that isn't very fun, now is it?

Success #1:
Rocked out the culinary skills and made ravioli. Specifically, homemade whole wheat spinach ravioli. The pasta itself was a pretty standard recipe, rolled by hand, with white-whole-wheat flour used in place of all-purpose; the filling was sauteed onion, wilted spinach, ricotta, and mozzarella. Served in a sauce of diced tomatoes, white wine, and garlic.

Success #2:
Made extra sure that I'll be ok for this weekend's 5k by running three miles and change yesterday. A total of maybe four raindrops hit me, but I managed to avoid full on precip. Looming storm clouds are good motivation for running a little bit faster, too.

Success #3:
Finished Camden.

The pattern calls for long sleeve attachments that are affixed with buttons. I think this is a great idea, but I doubt I have enough yarn. Instead, I've moved on to a cardigan to be knit sans pattern, shaped improvisationally as I go. I'm using a wool/mohair blend. Yes, yes, it's June. I know.

kool stuff. we haz it.

Namely:

- two varieties of raspberry plants in the backyard
- basil, strawberry, and dahlia plants ready to put in the ground
- enough evening primroses ready to plant to fill half the property (well, maybe not quite)
- awesome idea for where to place the asparagus I've been pondering for the past couple of years
- wedding location chosen and booked.

Hooray!

Craftosaurus Hits the Media

One of my knitted items is featured on Knitting Daily TV, a production of Interweave Press that, I believe, is broadcast on public television stations in some markets. The segment discusses how the Frock Camisole pattern by Katie Himmelberg can be modified, and how various knitters' versions can differ. Mine is the light green tank being worn by the mannequin to the right of the host (and, apparently, in the still screen shot that appears before you hit play).



Also, contrary to the impression this blog might give, I've been continuing to knit new items. Specifically, Camden. I'm not sure if I'll have enough yarn to do the detachable sleeves, but I'll at least do the cap-sleeved t-shirt component. I'm halfway through the yoke right now, so not far from being done. Woot!

More of the Same, and Something Completely Different

It's been another great weekend in Craftosaurusville. My, what a boring blog this has become: "we did this fun thing, then went to this fun place, and blah, blah, blah." I suppose it's better than being boring and pessimistic, no?

Anyway, this weekend's adventure was kayaking. Wait, did I forget to tell you? Yeah, we got a kayak. A 19 foot tandem kayak with lots of storage space (all the better for storing camping gear, one of these days). We didn't camp this weekend, just paddled around a lake for a couple hours. Thankfully, there were no spills into the drink (inanimate objects or ourselves). Thanks to some... shall we say "zealous" jetski and motorboat enthusiasts creating sizeable wakes, we had a chance to practing riding out a bit of choppy water, which will come in handy when we graduate to ocean kayaking. (The vessel's designed for it, but out abilities, as yet, are not.)

I'll tell ya one thing, though, this kayak is heavy. And carrying half of it at your side (rather than up close to your torso) is tough, to say nothing of lifting it over your head and onto the top of a car. Well, it's tough for me, anyway. I looked up the specs, and apparently it weighs in at 88 pounds (sans paddles and nalgene bottles inside). My arms are not designed to lift 22 pounds each -- half the kayak, using both arms -- over my head. Yet, anyway. By the end of the summer, I'll be pretty darn strong. That, or injured.

The other news of the day is that I'm officially selling my old house (*single tear*). It's adorable, it's charming, it's updated, it's easy to heat, and it's got a great yard on a quiet street. If you happen to know anyone looking for 862 fantastic square feet of house just outside the largest city in the northernmost New England state, please have them visit southportlandbungalow.blogspot.com for more information, lots of photos, and an address by which to contact me for further details. Go interweb networking, go!

I'm back! And I have pictures!

Lesson learned: When one is embarking on a project to track one's sodium, sugar, and saturated fat intake, perhaps a camping trip might not be the best way to kick off said project. Camping food wasn't over the top unhealthy, but it isn't representative of my typical diet, and the campsite certainly wasn't the most convenient place to carry around a pen and paper to log the consumables of the day. Mindfulness begins tomorrow.

Being decidedly un-mindful about nutrition.

Getting to the very obvious point of today's post, then, Senor Lovely and I adventured to the wilderness this week. To be sure, "wilderness" is a relative term, but considering we were half an hour from the region's Big City, our surroundings were impressively wild.

Half an hour from the Big City. True Story.

There was hiking, which was fun, and a realization that my pant legs were covered in ticks, which was not. I don't have pictures of that moment (disappointing, I know) as I was a little too focused on getting the insidious things the heck OFF me. Seriously, there were at least ten of them. No more tan pants in the forest for me!

Focus on the positive: three lady slippers!

Much lovelier than ticks. Much.

Far preferable to the tick walk was a short jaunt to a pond about a quarter mile from our campsite. For the most part, it was murky and muddy and too dark to see any wildlife under the surface, but along one small, sandy shelf we spotted a school of minnows. They'd swim up to the edge of the sunlight and hang out facing the water's edge, and then I'd wave my arms around and they'd dart, perfectly synchronized, back into the darkness. Rinse and repeat... for about 45 minutes. Yes, really. They were that cute.

Less cute, but still pretty: pine tree roots on the shore of the pond

Overall, it was a great trip. Honestly, I spared you all from the full onslaught of photos. I'm guessing you don't need to see the pretty, pretty sky! and brook! and trees surrounding our campsite! You get the idea. And you also get one more picture:

On Nutrition and Mindfulness

I've been mulling and contemplating and gearing up to try to begin to modify the way I think about food. Hmm, tentative much?

As a caveat, I'd like to state up front that this is not a lose-weight-before-the-wedding endeavor. I could gain ten pounds in the next year-and-a-bit, and The Future Mister would still find me gorgeous, I'd still have a fantastic dress and awesome hair, and enough beautifying happiness radiating out of my very pores to knock you over from twenty paces, thank you very much. If I happen to be ten pounds lighter on my wedding day, it'll be a byproduct of a healthier approach to life overall, not some specific effort to fit in a dress or an internal, theoretical idea of what a bride "should" look like.

With that rant out of the way, I'll add that what this is about is a realization that I've been commenting way too often lately that my stomach is "wonky" or "feeling 'off'" or just "meh." I suspect I'd have more energy and motivation to do the myriad of things I need to do every week if I wasn't unconsciously spending part of my energy on tummy woes. And, hey, who wouldn't love to have less discomfort of any variety if that's an option?

Obviously, there are a whole bunch of ways to start rethinking about nutrition, and I think for now I've narrowed it down using a process of elimination. A friend was talking recently about juice fasting, and I'm a little (or a lot) wary of that. I'm unsure how beneficial or harmful it might be to limit one's food intake to broth and juice for three (or however many) days. I've just got a gut feeling (heh, cue the rimshot) that this isn't what I should do.

I'm less concerned about the advisability of avoiding certain types of possible culprit foods. Dairy, gluten, that sort of thing. I don't think this would be unhealthy -- as long as I take some "fake" calcium, for instance -- but I'm ruling this one out too because, honestly, I just plain like those foods, and I'm choosing to be stubborn and keep eating them for now. Why take the overzealous step of banishing bread and cheese from my diet on pure speculation? That would border on tragic, methinks.

So. What I've decided to do in the meantime is to pay attention to what I consume in established nutrition categories. Namely: sodium, sugar, and saturated fat. I've never paid much attention to them in the past; I avoid them as a matter of general mindset, and I don't eat a lot of processed foods as it is, but I'm sure there's some of each lurking where I wouldn't expect it. There's no question that less of each is preferable, so I figure now is the time to start paying attention, assessing what I consume as a matter of habit, and making improvements moving forward. I'm guessing (or hoping? speculating?) that in making those changes, my overall food intake will be higher quality nutrition. If that, the path of least resistance, happens to resolve my low-level but relatively constant stomach wonkiness, so much the better.

And in a few weeks, I should be able to incorporate some uber-healthy sustenance straight from the garden!

Hello, lettuce!