Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

Today I planted 75 cucumber seeds, 25 spaghetti squash seeds, 50 pumpkin seeds (Howden for carving, Baby Pam variety for pies) and more sunflowers. Day two of full sun for both the plants and I; the former is doing well, withstanding the sun and the breezes well enough, the latter has become tan overnight (with tinges of red--ouch). Night rituals now include rolling down pant legs before coming into the house, shaking the dirt out of clothes creases; stripping down in my coat room and leaving gardening clothes and mud packed shoes there; satisfying cool showers where rivulets of brown water are chased away by skin-rawing scrubbing; homestyle manicures for blistered and camouflage-stained hands, mud caked nails. There is something so satisfying about gardening. Life is good. Still too tired for long blog, must go nap. Will share a funny poem I read years ago and found again today: "Attack of the squash people" And thus the people every year in the valley of humid July d...

My best friend L thought of me when she saw this picture. Thankfully she only thought of me because the ridiculously large whatever the hell that is made her think of  the ridiculously huge cucumbers I've been finding in my garden lately. Some of my cucumbers are getting hidden by the ever increasing pumpkin vines, which are now growing and twining all around every cucumber plants, wrapping around everything like damn boa constrictors! L sent me this picture with the hopes that I too would take an awkward photo with my freak cucumbers and my cat. I may just humor her yet. For those of you out in the wide world, who also love awkward and funny photos, check out these absolute gems! The above picture and more available through this Los Angeles Times article .

Went down to pick more cucumbers tonight; to check on the progress of my tomato and pepper plants; to feel the mounds coming up under the speckled beet leaves; to pull weeds. After all these lovely chores I dropped onto the cut grass, smelling the fresh clippings which now hung to my clothes and to the dampness of my skin. I lay down feeling weightless against the Earth, as though in its constant spin my tiredness was pulled down and away from me. I spent minutes...quarter of an hour...half an hour...who knows?!...just laying there, hands behind my head and toes pointed skyward. I stared at the clouds, white chalk smudges against a perfect baby blue sky; noted the cooler air; listened to dueling nature: a cricket on my left side, a bird on my right. I honestly wanted nothing more than to lay in that field and sleep. To feel nothing. To expect nothing more than to wake up under a star filled sky perhaps. But, sadly, I forced myself up. Moved on to my other plot and stooped, s...

Today marked a serious milestone in my life as a gardener. With the help of M (3.5 year old daughter of friends N & M) I picked over 20 pounds of cucumbers from my plants, taking me to a grand total of just over 300 cucumbers to date. M and S (M's 1.5 year old sister) both were pleased with the product, chomping on one of my cukes; M Sr. couldn't believe how big some of the cucumbers had gotten; RugbyGirl nearly groaned since our cupboards are already so full of quarts upon quarts of pickles (30 quarts to be exact). I am out of quarts jars, been meaning to buy more, but until then (this weekend, perhaps?) I am donating my cucumbers to the Farm kitchen. There is nothing as lovely as knowing that we are eating the fruits of my labors. Yum! Daniel and Kooper  left us this morning, back to hiking the Appalachian Trail after a brief respite here at the Farm. Good luck guys and thank you Daniel for becoming a follower!