I’m on Vacation
Ok, not really but summer is making me focus on other things so
posting will continue to be spotty until Minnesota freezes again and
forces me to stay inside.
Not all the veggies in the garden patch are nice.
There was a minor catastrophe in the garden today. Technically the eggplant wasn’t the culprit, the heavy tomatoes were but I already drew a tomato so the eggplant get’s to be the bad guy instead.
My tomatoes got so heavy the knocked over their trellis, smashing a pepper and causing a few green tomatoes to commit suicide in the process. The trellis has been righted and the tomatoes tamed. Hopefully there wasn’t too much damage I couldn’t see.
Crazy, suiciding vegetables. Don’t they know they have to wait to die until I eat them?
In honor of ruthlessly devouring the first two tomatoes from the garden.
They were delicious. Mmmmmmmm.
My garden obsession is spreading.
This is the start of something.
Not sure quite what form it will take.
Boo.
A little ghosty.
This is what happens when you go away for a week.
The plants take over.
This is the first year I’ve planted a (non-container) garden and holy crap. I didn’t think it would get this big. The tomatoes are taller than I am. While this bodes well for my summer bounty I think my neighbors are cursing me for creating the perfect incubation zone for mutant mosquitos.
Maybe I can win them over with some cucumbers or an eggplant.
Gardening (if my lazy-let-the-plants-take-over style can be called that) has taught me a few things which I feel obliged to share since I am talking about my summer obsession (but not so much of an obsession that I might actually, you know, weed or something). 10 things I’ve learned…
1) Tomato plants smell like tomatoes. (even before the tomatoes actually appear) Cucumber plants smell like cucumbers. (etc etc)
I realize that perhaps most of you may have already been aware of this fact but I was not. Who knew.
Why I find this incredibly amazing, I am not sure. But I do.
2) If you cut back raspberries (waaaay back) they will come back a million times more prolific.
I have more raspberries than me, the husband and the dog can eat. (The dog enjoys jumping at the raspberry bushes and pulling down branches so he can eat the raspberries from them. Smart dog.)
3) Tomatoes need cages. Trust me.
4) Bugs are stupid.
Yellow sticky cards are amazing for catching cucumber beetles (and various other bugs).
5) You do not need as many cucumber bushes as you think. Even if you really like cucumbers. (seriously, 3 plants = 150 cucumbers. Too much)
6) Plant zucchini. Seriously, why I didn’t, I have no clue. No zucchini bread for me this year :(
7) Things that vine (ie. cucumbers) belong against the deck, where they can vine til their heart’s content and not make you constantly unwind them from things they shouldn’t grab onto. Like tomatoes.
8) Basil is awesome.
9) I cannot grow peppers. They do not like me.
And most importantly…
10) If you leave your garden alone for a week THE PLANTS WILL TAKE OVER.
So don’t do it. Now I have to weedwack, twist-tie, and pull my way back to something that looks somewhat like an orderly garden. (and maybe some of the mosquitos will go away???)
Saying goodbye to badly curated content.
I read a lot of blogs. Way too many. I’ve tried to curb my addiction to them but inevitably, I give in. One could argue that I’m too focused on what else is going on out there and I should just shut myself in a room and make things and I won’t argue with that logic, but, that’s not the point. The point is, I love reading blogs and there is just so much out there to see and to read that it’s hard for me to pare down to just the important ones.
Lately I’ve been giving it another shot. Time is too precious to spend staring eyes-glazed-over at a screen as continuous content scrolls by. So, I’m saying goodbye to the curated content blogs that don’t add much in the way of conversation.
There are a few that are staying, ones that do a great job of selectively curating content and are not just me-tooing what everyone else is posting. But the rest, the ones that constantly post things that I see ricocheting across the blogosphere, those are out.
The problem with all of these blogs that are curating content (and I have been part of this problem) is that they don’t give much thought to what they’re re-posting and how it applies to their blog’s brand. (Yes blogs have brands too)
If I subscribe to your blog I want some personality delivered along with it. What makes you special? What makes me want to read you over everyone else?
Now granted, some people keep blogs as repositories for their own inspiration (I have one or two) but if you are actively blogging to gain readership, you need to give me more.
So in addition to my shedding of blogs in my blog reader I’m also raising the bar for curated content on my own blogs*. If it’s curated, there will be a good reason, a thoughtful explanation, or some food for thought, otherwise, original content all the way.
*excluding my inspiration repositories of course.
