HOT

It's summer and it is hot hot HOT. Hecklers are out in full force in downtown Raleigh, hooting and shouting sweet nothings -
"Where have you been all my life, angel?!"
"Hello, beautiful!"
And the best one, from a young man waiting out front of a store on Wilmington Street yesterday - "right now I'm wishin' I was a little older!"
He was very young and cute, so that one was a little more sweet than icky. Just a little.
Shucks, fellas, thanks.
But generally, they're not so bad - there's not a whole lot that could scare me in broad daylight on a busy street. It is strange behavior, though. Does that ever work, do ladies ever go for a random catcaller on the street? Doesn't it scare off more ladies than it attracts?
Anyway, high temps mean the garden is growing at what seems like warp speed, weeds and all. Check out the giant, GREEN tomatoes. We keep thinking, oh, they'll turn red any day, but they don't. They just keep getting biggeR!

Garden6-28-07

I'm headed to the beach for the weekend, but not for fun.....for work! Not that work won't be fun, it will, and not that I won't squeeze in a little beach time on the side, I will, but it's less fun to go to the beach without friends, or even the dog. AND I have to wake up at an ungodly hour of the morning tomorrow. Bleh, I am so not a morning person.

Gigante

The garden is GIANT. Seriously. I am overwhelmed by how quickly things are growing, and by the quantity of food that is coming out of it. Aye carumba! Back when it was mostly dirt, it looked so modest. Just a few seeds thrown in, then little sprouts, and I thought, sure, what's one more tomato plant, or a few more lettuce seeds, throw 'em in there.
Well, we now have a lot of food. And, most of the kids have been at summer camp for a couple weeks, so they haven't been around to help with the eating of stuff.

Garden6-15-07

In other news, Amy and I had an anniversary yesterday. No, not the date we met, not the day we hatched our greatest scheme or anything like that. It was the 5th (is it 5th??) anniversary of the day we got ridiculously horribly obscenely publicly drunk by drinking alarmingly cheap bai jiu in a plastic squirt top bottle, a.k.a. "The infamous bai jiu incident." We meandered through the sleepy little town of Kangding, drinking our portable stash (it's what squirt top bottles are made for, baby!) and yucking it up in two languages. I remember skipping, I remember song and dance, I remember talking to random people, I even remember stopping to use the bathroom - one of those terrible stinky pit toilets where you have squat and suspend yourself over the chasm...in the dark...and somehow, our drunken selves did not fall in. It was a rather amazing night, right up until Amy got sick (ahem) and sorta passed out. From there on out, it was scary. It's a kind of horrible, but also kind of wonderful anniversary. Why do we remember such a painful day with such glee? Maybe we are so ridiculously squirt-top-bottle-half-full about life, we still appreciate the joy of that night, even though it ended so terribly. Or maybe we're secretly giant lushes.

Bottoms up, love!

PS: I miss Wu Bangfu, Amy. Among the many hilarious Mr. Wu stories I have, there is one from the morning after the infamous bai jiu incident, when he got called in to "handle" the situation (at 9 freakin' AM the next morning!!). After we'd had the formal meeting with the assistant headmaster and English department chairs to express the school's concern for our safety given our (admittedly ridiculous) behavior of the night before, Mr. Wu and I were left in the office alone. He said to me: "you must not be feeling so well." And I: "uh, no." He: "Well, me neither. I drank a lot last night, too, and they woke me up very early to come down here!" Me: cracking up. Mr. Wu: "One time, I got so drunk, I was sick for two days. But really, I'm a very good drinker. Next time you want to drink, you should be sure to invite me." Then, he bought me breakfast and laughed at me all the while, as it became apparent to both of us that I was not in fact hung over, but rather still somewhat drunk. Ah, Mr. Wu. I love that guy.



Wu Bangfu plays a little ditty on a tin whistle, drunk from the bottles of beer which he uncapped with his teeth. Don't ask me how - the man was just a little bit bionic. He also walked very fast.

strawberry smorgasbord

Kate and I went strawberry picking on Friday at Hilltop Farms! What started out as a royally disappointing afternoon turned into a pretty gorgeous evening. We'd been planning this strawberry picking trip with the garden crew from the Boys' Club for at least a month. The kids got their permission slips all filled in and planned out the questions they were going to ask Farmer Fred about his all-organic farm....and then the trip got postponed because of bureaucratic issues at The Boys' Club. Oh, how they whined. But we rescheduled.....only to have the bus break down the day we rescheduled to. Kate and I, upon learning this, were already convened and ready to bolt from work early to head down to the farm. After a brief spell of whining ourselves about the poor kids, we said, hey, let's go anyway and pick strawberries for the kids. And we did.

When we arrived, Farmer Fred happened to be giving an interview for a local newspaper about strawberries, and the whys and wherefors of organic food. Media darling that I am (hah!), and long-time member of Fred's CSA, I contributed my two cents and posed pretty for the camera.
Then we picked strawberries. Oh, glorious Sweet Charlies, oh heavenly blue evening, thou didst make all my troubles melt away. Strawberries plucked from the bushes and eaten immediately are mind-blowingly good.

strawberry picking 5/18/07

Then, after a mellow round of strawberry picking, we were invited in for beers and got to hear about Farmer Fred's nomination to be part of the 100 People Project. Have you heard about this? I had a vague recollection of hearing the words before, but didn't really understand what it was about, still don't entirely, but damn, does it seem cool.

The [100 People] project will find and capture in film, photography, music and text 100 individuals who represent the global population, proportionate to annual global surveys and statistics. This World Portrait will be used to make an introduction between the peoples of the earth and to facilitate a greater understanding of the diversity and the commonalities among us.

Check it out, it's quite cool. And, under the "videos" tab, you can see some beautifully done trailers, a piece from Niger, AND a piece from NC featuring our own Farmer Fred. It makes me get all misty, it's so beautiful.

Tomorrow, we make strawberry shortcakes and spring salad at the Boys' Club. I'm still disappointed the kids couldn't have come to the farm, but I hope eating the strawberries will be a halfway decent consolation prize.

Coming 'round the bend....

Ah, I'm coming 'round the bend in that funky little side track I've been on the past month or so, and it feels really nice. It's hard not to feel kinda nice on a day like today - it's cloudy and breezy and mild, the world is lushly green and still dripping from yesterday's thunderstorms, and the air has a quality that it occasionally gets in Raleigh, it's refracting light in just such a way.....it sparkles just a little when the sun comes out, and everything looks as though it has just a bit of a sheen. Not quite a glow, it's less like light and more like energy. Like auras. It's very animate, though it is air and trees and clouds. It's really beautiful. Makes me think of....

The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty in the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Ah.
Doesn't that just open something up inside you and make you want to sigh with relief?

This funk I've been in, it's got me thinking about funks and how they come and how they (hopefully) get gone. It's so easy to get ourselves stuck in a funk, easy as a habit. But the getting unstuck, that takes some time and effort and faith and hope. Hard. I think that one of the most important things that we can learn to do in life is to help ourselves out of a funk, to have a forward orientation and put one foot in front of the other and climb up out of a stuck place, get back up someplace high enough to see what's on the horizon. We need help, we all do, but ultimately, we have to do the climbing ourselves.

So here's to getting un-stuck, to the hope and faith in ourselves and the ones we love and the world that helps us get through the stuck times, and to all the good teachers who've helped me get un-stuck from previous funks. I'm really proud to say that I learned something. :)

UPDATE: Relatively recent garden pictures from 5/14! I think the way this slide show thingy works, is if you click on a picture, it'll take you to the site where all the pictures are posted. Check out the pumpkin jungle, I think that's my favorite picture!

Cold snap

We've had a cold snap over the past few days. I've been to the Boys' Club morning and evening to cover the beds over with sheets in the hopes that we could keep the frost from hurting anything, but to no avail. The tomato plants bit the big one last night. My own stupid fault for planting them too early. Last frost in NC is April 15th, now they tell me! It's so sad to see them, wilty puddles of grey-green sadness where healthy wee plants once stood. Luckily, the cold did not seem to bother the sunflowers that had already started poking up, or any of the greens or herbs or the strawberries. So, we're still very much in business. I'm afraid our germination rate for the warm-weather crops - peppers, watermelons, cucumbers, and such that were already in the ground - isn't going to be too great, though. Bummer.

Kings gets bulldozed tomorrow morning. I don't even want to get into it, but it's depressing as hell.

I seem to have had a bug up my butt the past few weeks, and I'm not sure what it's about. I've been testier than usual, more easily irritated, and more negative. I find myself bitching more than usual that "I hate when people do X..." or "I can't believe he didn't X..." or "I would do this so much better...." Totally obnoxious. The world can't possibly have gotten more annoying all the sudden, so it's probably me, sigh, and now I'm annoying myself.

My mind goes to a hundred explanations of why. Not enough veggies in my diet, not enough exercise, not enough sleep, too much sleep, hormone fluxes, seasonal allergies, not enough "me" time, too much "me" time.... It could be any combination of things. I worry, though, that it runs a little deeper than that stuff. I think this particular cold snap in my mood is about anxiety. The temperature is rising (or was, anyway), inspiration is flowing, new projects and ideas are springing, and I feel anxious. Lots of balls in the air. Lots to do. Lots to go well, lots to fail. Changes on the horizon. These are anxiety-inducing times.

Spring is also bringing out the birds and bees, and I find myself giving out big, goofy smiles to cute boys like it's going out of style. I've been on a man break, you see, and it's been great, but now I find myself back at square one, back to flirting with strangers in the sweet, sweet springtime. While this should make me feel all goofy and carefree, it doesn't. It makes me feel lonely. It makes me miss people I have no business missing. I feel a little bit like a recovering alcoholic who fell off the wagon. You can break a habit like that, but you're always vulnerable, there's always some part of yourself that's still addicted, and given the chance, slips comfortably back into old habits. I should write a country song 'bout drinkin', gamblin', and missin' people who ain't no good for you. Anyway, that all makes me feel kind of frustrated and weird, and kind of anxious, too....the impending doom of springtime hormone surges. (fill in eerie horror movie music here.)

Come on back sunshine, get me all warm and fuzzy and make me forget this nasty little cold snap. Sometimes it's better to just ride it and not think to far back or ahead, you know?

Big Dig

Garden time at the Boys' Club is shaping up to be my favorite part of each week. There have been lots of complications: the garden was hijacked for an hour by a rogue digger once and it took us two hours to get it back the way we had it....the faucet for the hose is broken and we have to use a screwdriver to turn the water on and off....pollen season is upon us and one kid can't come outside until it's over because of severe allergies....the kids are unruly and easily distracted..... but they are so genuine and sweet and smart, and they are LOVING the garden. Ah, it's so good, it is making me so happy.

Here are photos from the Big Dig a couple weeks ago -

Big Dig, 3/13/07

And here are more from garden club activities over the past couple weeks:

Boys' Club Garden - 3/07

Yesterday, we planted most of our seeds in the ground. Planting was always my favorite part of gardening when I was a kid, but then I think I was the type to map everything out on graph paper and measure and plot and all that nerdy stuff. Planting seeds actually seemed to stress the boys out yesterday.....the seeds are too small, the spacing is hard to get right, they'd cover seeds up and then forget where they'd planted.... When all was said and done, though, it doesn't matter a whole lot where your seeds end up, so long as they're in there somewhere - we can transplant the strays later.
So, one of the boys was planting onion sets with me yesterday. He was squatting on one side of the bed, and I was on the other. He said to me, "you know, I'm thinking about planting a garden at home."
"Oh yeah?" I said, "what kind of garden?"
"A vegetable garden. I was telling my family about this garden and my aunt asked me to help her plant a garden."
"That's great!" I said.
"Yeah, I think gardening is pretty fun. Maybe I'll plant tomatoes. Or squash."

My heart swelled. All this kid has done so far in our garden is dig and dig and dig, and then plant seeds and water. It's been three weeks. Nothing has been eaten or picked or even looks like something you could pick or eat yet, and already, he's having fun. Yesssssss!

Garden time!

It's almost garden time!

We haven't even dug anything up yet at the Boys' Club garden site, but it's already off to a great start - I have a fantastic crew of 7th and 8th graders working with me who are enthusiastic ("ooh, can we grow spinach?!" I almost cried!) and bring a wealth of previous gardening experience to the table (several have gardened with their mothers, grandmothers, and aunties in the past!). Meeting them was a huge highlight of my week....nutty as they are, I really love teenagers, and I've missed working with them. I've also got a great grown-up crew for this garden project of Boys' Club staff and volunteers that I'm really looking forward to working with.

As if that weren't enough good news, we're now up to $600 in donated gift cards and certificates for this garden project from three local Home Depot stores. As much as I hate using my blog to give props to the second largest retailer in the USA behind Sprawl-Mart, promulgator of big box capitalism, crusher of downtowns and small businesses, and purveyor of voluminous pesticides, among many other environmentally unfriendly products....damn, is it cool to have $600 to use for this garden. Home Depot will also be sending a crew of their "associates" out for a big work-day photo op. Iiiiiinteresting. I've only got 10 kids, and a few local volunteers - a crew of 30 Home Depot folks could quickly overwhelm us. I'm thinking of having them work on other landscaping and fix-it projects at the Boys' Club that day in addition to the garden...we'll see what the Boys' Club is needing.

Anyway, after the crazy week I'm about to have at work, I plan to get right out to the garden and start working! Check back here in the coming weeks and months for pictures, stories, recipes and other learnings from the Boys' Club garden.

And, if you have any tips for me on gardening in NC (last time I had my own garden it was in NY state!) and/or gardening with 12 year olds - favorite books, plants, ideas, sources for great organic fertilizers, etc etc - I'd be thrilled to have them, so please feel free to leave them here.
Thank you!