Thank you, thank you, Philadelphia Free Library, for affording me the opportunity to read (and listen to) so many great books lately. Here’s a few that I recommend:

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith … Wonderful read, great setting. I know this is a popular series, so I won’t go into too many details. All I can say is, I read the first book and I want MORE!

The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon … Oh, Michael Chabon, your prose is addictive, never boring, always entracing, funny and wry and twisted. I’m not finished reading this book yet, but so far, I am really getting into it. The language used in it is really enjoyable; if you don’t know any yiddish words yet, you might find it a little difficult at first to get used to reading this book.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows … If you’ve read the first six books, I guarantee you’ll want to read the finale. While I like the series, I find the books not quite worthy of all the hype. The world of Harry Potter is entrancing and fun, but the bigger picture and the ideas of the books are fairly mundane. Nevertheless, it’s like any addictive substance; though the series is over, I keep thinking of more books that could be written just to satisfy our urge to believe in a magical world hidden just beyond our noses.

The Trumpet of the Swan (on CD, read by the author, E.B. White) … A classic story, read by its author. Incredible.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (on CD, read by Eric Idle)… I just love Eric Idle’s reading of this classic Roald Dahl book. When he reads the women’s parts, I especially find myself grinning ear to ear.

James and the Giant Peach (on CD, read by Jeremy Irons) … I love Roald Dahl’s works and his wordplay is stunning. I love it that he’s not afraid to allow hideous things to happen. My children did not seem at all disturbed by the horrid child abuse of this book, nor by the random violence of having the parents struck down by a raging rhinoceros. They followed the plot as matter of factly as one can, and delighted in the everything-turns-out-right in the end.

Bunnicula Strikes Again (on tape, read by Victor Garber). Dryly humorous, this book was a little too advanced for my four year old, at least the first time that we listened to it. My seven year old had actually heard the book before, last year at school (as read by her teacher.) Yet after having listened to this story once at home, little A wanted a second playing of it… and a third. It’s incredible to me that while it seemed to be so far above the younger one’s comprehension / enjoyment at first, both children delighted in hearing this story… THREE times. It’s so funny that I even didn’t mind, although I admit, I tuned it out from time to time, betting absorbed in my own thoughts instead.

No More Kissing by Emma Chichester Clark… Last but not least, a new-to-us picture book.  It’s a funny, beautifully illustrated book about a little monkey who’s had it up to here with all this mushy kissing stuff… until he finds himself with his snuggly little monkey brother.  Good thing nobody was watching! One of my kids finds kisses to be such a nuisance. She’d rather we let her be! So this was a fun book to read with her.

Happy Reading to all and to all a good night!

Seems like just yesterday I put up some photos for Wordless Wednesday, which oddly enough, everyone seems to do on Tuesday.  Since today actually is Tuesday, I am writing words.  Ha! What a rebel, huh?

Here are some photos from my vacation, though I can’t take credit for any of them.   Even if you feel entirely wordless, I welcome any and all comments!

Is it thrifty to garden?

The summer is drawing to a close; school starts soon and together with it a whole new routine of life. Two adorable new cloth lunch bags sit on our dining room table, one festooned with dragonflies and the other with white cats playing with a mouse toy. I’ve filled my Palm calendar with start dates, special events, school closings, and meetings galore. We’ve got our forms to fill and our supplies list at hand. And on our front steps sits a kind of deformed, but brightly colored Big Max pumpkin.

Big Max turned out to be a pretty big disappointment; the Vine Borers destroyed his chances to grow “up to 100 pounds!” as the seed package boasted. Our sole survivor of that esteemed pumpkin plant is about ten pounds and is lopsided because it was not possible to set it on its bottom to grow, because the vine was cracked and damaged. The stem is rotted and I am certain this pumpkin will no longer be around come October.

However, we do have two more pumpkins, the Connecticut Field Pumpkin variety, still growing in the garden, and one in our front yard. They are still green and appear to be still growing. Their vines are also damaged, but less so than Big Max. We may be able to harvest these last three pumpkins, and have them nearer to Halloween.

We harvested another Moon and Stars watermelon, which is juicy and pleasant, but not fully ripe. I felt so certain, when we picked it, that it would be ripe, so it was disappointing to split it open and discover pale pink flesh again. The first one we ate was actually sweeter and tastier. I chalk this one up to the fact that the deer broke into the garden (let’s face it, this garden is completely open to them, we might as well leave the door wide open at this point) and munched much of the foliage off the watermelon vine while the fruit was trying to grow. There are deer bite marks on the watermelon itself, but they failed to penetrate the skin. The damage from the deer probably stunted its growth and and lessened it opportunity to ripen. Plus, because I was out of town, my garden looks like it did not get enough water. I am just guessing, though, having never done this before.

We also harvested some lovely purple asian eggplants (3), a couple of greenbeans, and a funky little cucumber that was all plumped up on one side, and skinny at the end. Basil is still going strong as ever, and the marigolds look quite pretty along the edges of the garden. A towering sunflower that D planted is strong and tall and beautiful, its stem more than two inches in diameter.

Now I’m trying to figure out the economics of my garden. Did I break even? Was this purely a hobby, a pleasure to garden or did I actually produce enough fruits and veggies and to justify, in pure dollars and cents, the cost of renting a garden plot? I want to know because I am considering doing it again next year, and even expanding to getting two plots rather than just one.

Here’s how the costs break down, approximately.

Seeds: $10
Garden rental (not counting refundable deposit): $25
Tomato Plant: $5
Marigolds: $10
Organic Veggie Fertilizer: $5

Things I got for free:
Cantaloupes - they came up from seeds in the compost
Cucumbers - I swapped seeds with someone, trading some of my bush beans for cuke seeds
Eggplants - A fellow gardener gave me two plants because she had more than she wanted
Coffee Grounds - Improved the soil
Peat Moss - A friend was moving and gave me a big bag of peat moss that she no longer needed

Total Expenses… about $50 invested.

What I harvested or will soon harvest and the approximate market value:

Green Beans - maybe a pound or so, let’s say it was worth $2
Pumpkins - three. Figure about $15 worth of pumpkin.
Watermelons - two. $10
Eggplants - six. $4 EDITED seven. $5
Cucumbers - six. $3
Cantaloupes - five. $5
Basil - 3 large bunches or more - $4 5 bunches - $6
EDITED: 2 bouquets of marigolds - $2

EDITED to add at-home veggies:
1  little basket of cherry tomatoes $2
1 pumpkin $5
1 decorative gourd $1

Total estimated market value of my harvest: $42 $54

EDITED: Adding in the stuff I grew at home, plus the additional harvested items made me break even, even go over my expenses a little!!!!  

I think I’ll need to be either more frugal in my investment of money next year, or more fruitful in my harvest in order to break even. Here are some ideas for improving the returns on all the hard work I put in.

• Next year we will insist on a real deer fence. This year’s fence was obviously not up to the job! This may be more expensive, but is essential.
• Compost and coffee grounds - I will use more of these and they don’t cost a cent. I can even improve the soil with coffee grounds for my garden plot(s) this fall when we have the fall garden clean up day.
• More compost tea, to help feed the watermelon plants.
• A more co-ordinated watering schedule with other gardeners, so that when I go away for a two week vacation, my crops don’t suffer from too little watering.
• I have seeds from this year’s harvest will be mean I don’t need to buy as many seeds for next year.
• I can start the plants inside, and earlier, than I did this year.
• I can repel Vine Borers and other insects using techniques I’ve researched online. This may require the purchase of some Tea Tree Oil, and other non-chemical treatments, but it would go a long way to preventing the loss or damage of the harvest.
• Planning ahead really helps; it also will give my mind something to do when I’m longing for spring.

All in all, this was a really enjoyable experience, and there is certainly a value in that, even if it isn’t something you can put a price tag on. D and I had some really good quality time together in the garden, digging, weeding, and then sharing the delicious food. My children learned that veggies don’t grow in the supermarket and that green beans picked fresh are as delicious as candy. And I learned a lot of about how to grow vegetables and I now have a much greater appreciation for the challenges that farmers have always faced.

Speaking of farmers, here’s a link to a really wonderful farm’s blog which shares many wonderful fresh produce recipes along with beautiful pictures… http://straightfromthefarm.wordpress.com/

I look forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts on whether it’s frugal to garden, or is it just another costly hobby?

When I have a few extra moments on the computer, I try to click an ad or two to help others out. If you like doing this kind of carpal-tunnel-aggravating charity, you might like to check out thehungersite.com where you can help click away hunger, breast cancer, illiteracy, and more.

Or just support your favorite blogger by looking and and clicking the ads they display.

My old college pal Stacie bore twins last summer; she’s chronicling her adventures in sleep deprivation and has reached a true milestone:  Tandem nursing 13 month old twins in public.  In honor of this, and because she was so sweet in claiming that mere advice from me (cause, like, it’s all about ME, right?) helped to towards this accomplishment, I am publishing this tome to her:

Say!
I do so like tandem nursing twins…
I do! I like it Pann-I-am!
And I would nurse them in a boat.
And I would nurse them with a goat…

I do so like
Tandem Nursing Twins!
Thank you!
Thank you,

Pann-I-Am

I really, really like being barefooted. I realized this a couple days ago when in the course of my vacation we made some plans to take a hike. Something which requires shoes, and good protective ones, at that.

Sure, it was a lovely hike through some pristine woods, and I enjoyed it immensely. But the sheer pleasure of taking off my shoes was enormous by comparison. How happy my little toes and soles to roam and sense the world! How pleased indeed!

Since then, I’m back to my usual barefooted summer routine. I am noticing more and more things about the house we are staying in based on the textures of the floors. There’s quite a lovely variety. Right now, I am sitting in the screened-in porch, the floor of which is tiled with what feels like some kind of genuine stones. They are smooth, but not too smooth, and quite cold. I don’t mind having my toes be a bit cold, as long as they are not too cold.

The majority of the floors are hard wood, and in wonderful condition; smooth and shiny, with a slightly springy feel to them. My feet walk along the surface of these wooden floors, taking in that comfort of smooth wood. There are two dogs staying here with me, and my feet tell me there’s little clusters of dog hair and this is sometimes irksome, so I did a bit of sweeping up not long ago.

The staircase has a soft and tasteful oriental carpet tacked down to it, which runs up the middle of stairs. There’s enough room on either side of the carpet to see and step on, if you like, the hard wood that runs underneath. Knowing that smooth wood is there makes me feel pleased.

Some throw rugs complete the flooring. This is great for when you get a little gunk on your feet and you just have to tread gently across a more absorptive surface, something that you can brush off the doggy hair onto. The floors in my humble home are far from fun to tread on. There’s cracked wood, even holes in places; and what’s more it seems to be pretty much always sticky.

Outside, there’s a lot of grass which is kind of dried out, but still pleasant to walk on. It hasn’t been watered much this summer, I guess, and that’s ok with me. There’s just too much lawn here to be wasting water on it. The result is a brownish lawn, but soft if scraggly on my feet. There’s an occasional pine cone that I have stepped on, but my soles are tough enough to tolerate that.

My soles do not like the rough gravel of the driveway, but the brick path to the  car is nubbly and rough in a good way. Across the wide lawn of grass there’s a place we’re calling the Fairy Glade. You walk on a soft, pine needled covered pathway through the trees, and there’s an Adirondack Lean-to, a rustic little stage that is made of rough-hewn logs. As long as you don’t get a splinter, the texture is also interesting to walk on. Barefooted.

There’s a hot tub under the deck, with a marvelously textured bottom. It is not smooth, but slightly studded, rough but not scratchy. It’s got to be the nicest hot tub I’ve ever had the privilege to be in. Barefooted. Bare naked, too, if you want to know the truth.

Someone not long ago, on a blog I read, pointed out that if you have twins, you have to learn to do stuff with your toes because your hands are full. I am not a mother of twins, but I have been known to have my hands full on occasion, and let me tell ya, using your feet for things is great! I pick things up with my toes a lot. So being trapped up in dratty old shoes is just not good for me.

It will be another story altogether, when winter comes and my poor little piggies will have to seek refuge in fuzzy warm socks and shoes.

I did not know that my kids knew how to use this software; I found a bunch of portraits that they took of themselves, experimenting with all the funky options available. The results were often stunning. This image, though, was my favorite.

We just finished eating it. It could have stayed on the vine a few more days, but it was super delicious, very juicy, very sweet and has wonderful big seeds that are GREAT for spitting! This has got to be the juiciest variety of watermelon I have ever had the pleasure of eating.

Hear No Pesticides, See No Pesticides, Taste No Pesticides!