First Produce!

My first harvest took place on Tuesday! I've missed being able to walk out to a garden and pick food to eat the same day, so that's what I decided to do that evening. 

{she loves being sprayed with cool water. we should get her a kiddie pool!}

{my view}

{right before cutting it from the vine}

Jes

cucumber plants are assholes.

And if I didn't like the look of the little bastards, I'd just cut them all down.

I was going to write a cutesy post about how my garden is blossoming this summer, in contrast to the desolation that was last year's attempt, but then I waited about 10 days while my cucumber plants marched their cruel way through the four corners of my raised box garden.

{THIS WAS TEN DAYS AGO.}

I thought everything was going swimmingly at the time. Philip had installed a hand-made trellis of sorts a few days before in order to keep them from growing into the zucchini plants behind them. I attempted to train the cucumber vines onto the trellis, which seemed to be working, and then they just got too much of a good thing from there on. 

It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't grappling-hook themselves onto the other plants in my garden as a means to grow further out. Their little tentacles got into my oregano, chard, and cilantro (which I let flower, but it was such a small bunch that it didn't matter anyway). Once they reached out to something to grasp, they curled themselves around said item about 10 times.

I don't blame them, though, if they are in any sense aware of my failed attempts at gardening the past two years. I'm impressed that my garden has survived until now. This time last year, I was staring at a couple of bleak and bone-dry containers. I'd given up at that point. And while they have yet to actually produce one measly cucumber, I'm stunned by their beauty and get my hopes up with each yellow flower that appears. Maybe later this summer, I'll be up to my eyeballs in cucumbers, but for now I can only marvel at their will to survive (and conquer!).

Lesson learned: next year grow cucumber plants in a raised bed all to themselves. They're greedy little fuckers.

Jes

Gnarly Neon 5k and My 2013 Garden

I was in the midst of writing this new blog post when the Boston Marathon explosions occurred. There are absolutely no words to express the sheer sadness of this ruthless action, and my whole heart goes to those affected by the attack. I've spent most of the time since hearing of it in tears, even though I don't know anyone who was there at the time. The fact that someone or some group would attack innocent people who came out to cheer on loved ones and strangers is sick and wrong and abominable.

Anyway, here's the post I meant to put up. It all seems so trivial now, doesn't it?
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Hey there!

It's looking more like spring around here! You know what that means for me? Races and gardens :D (and also being outdoors, the return of Mad Men and Game of Thrones, and my birthday!!!!!)

I ran my first races in 2012, and I'm continuing to this year. I'm eyeing about 7-8 different races, the first of which I just completed this past weekend. The Gnarly Neon 5k was my jump into the "dirty/colorful" racing series (like The Color Run, Color Me Rad, etc.). There were things I enjoyed about this race and things that weren't too awesome.

The weather, though a little nippy for 9:00am on a Saturday morning, turned out to be rather pleasant. I started the run with a light jacket on over my white shirt that was soon to be smudged in color but took off the jacket about halfway through the race once I finally warmed up.

It wasn't a timed race, which I was at first disappointed by, but it didn't make sense to time anyone! We experienced a little bit of bottlenecking at the three color stations. Plus, this race was all about hanging out with my friends (at least it was for me). I was on my own for a while after the first color station and then found two of my friends right before the second station, then we found everyone else and ran together the rest of the way. That was probably the best part of the whole experience--being with my friends.

There was no flipping way I was going to get my phone and running case covered in weird, colorful chalky gunk, so I decided to run sans music. Running without music was a wholly new and very enjoyable experience for me. It allowed me to really try out the 3:2 breathing method I'd read about in last month's Running Times. I was just having a great time and realized I was doing the breathing method backwards (exhaling 3 counts: breathing 2 counts instead of visa versa).

Didn't end up with too much color dust on me. My friends got pelted in the face and in the ear with it. It was basically just people bent over boxes filled with color dust throwing it on runners as they passed by.

{m-fer it was cold.}

{Team Effing Carl...you'd get it if you watch The Walking Dead}

{Little Mermaid running tights?!? I die!}

{I'm off! still in my red jacket...it was COLD!}

{not too much color on my front, more on my back}

Also, garden 2013!! I'm working on arugula, lettuce, beets, cucumbers, zucchini, oregano, cilantro, lavender, basil, and swiss chard. Here's the progression so far:

{a couple of days ago}

{whoa!}

{lettuce grows amazingly fast}

Jes