Flight Anxiety

I am taking flight Saturday. To Kentucky. For a wedding. I don't fly well. I use to fly all the time as a child but since my teens I have had sever anxiety when it comes to flying. I have not actually flown since my grandmothers funeral in 2008 so Saturday will be my first flight in 5 years. My anxiety starts about a week in advance. I become moody and have trouble sleeping and all that fun jazz. I have tried to find ways to relax and try to sniffle the stress before it becomes to much. Hence, my return to spinning. Yarn, that is. This past weekend I broke out the spinning wheel and some Romney and spun! Spinning is so relaxing and I do believe it helped a bit.

 So following this return to spinning, I also decided to purge a bit of my disgustingly obese fiber stash. My stash occupies three Container Store bins in my closet. Its obese in part because I both spin and felt so I have both spinning and felting fiber. I bagged up about 1/5 of my stash and brought it to The Spin City meetup for "Fiber Adoption" day. Of course, I couldn't come home empty handed but I held strong and only came home with two fiber batts and a copy of "Mason Dixon Knitting" which I have wanted FOREVER! I swear someday I'm going to be a real knitter.

 I'm not sure I can bring my knitting looms on the plane, not to mention the major drawback of looms is that they are so big and cumbersome AND I'm only going to three days. Do I need a knitting project for three days? Most would say yes but as I am a poor knitter I'm not sure if I can justify it. I did find an old in progress scarf during my fiber purge so maybe I'll tote that along. Either way, I started a cowel on my biggest loom last night in another attempt to destress. I'm using "Cascade Eco Wool" that I bought years ago and knitted my hat with two weeks ago. I love this yarn. It's soft and wonderful and I just want to roll around in it. I decided to hunt for more online and discovered it comes is a crazy amount of colors! I'm already planning new projects. 

 Wish my luck in my travels. I've never been to Kentucky so I'm looking forward to it. And I'm hoping for a smooth ride.








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Up in the Garden: The Seedlings

I don't care if Spring has sprung or not. You hear that Spring? I'm starting without you! My seedings are growing comfortably on my window sill while I continue to toy with the issue of location for my garden. My roof is still out of commission and most likely will be till summer. My Aunt has offered me a space in her garden in New Jersey which is probably where I'll end up. While the thought of not being able to see my plants everyday is a bit of a downer, the upside is actual garden space and more of it! Always look on the bright side. For now, check out my first wave of tomatoes and summer squash.







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Up in the Garden: I HAVE TOMATOES!!!!

JOY TO THE WORLD THE TOMATOES HAVE COME!!!!!!!!!
That's right world, I did it! I present to you the first of my Yellow Pear tomatoes. I really never thought this day would come. I would like thank my neighbors for allowing me to keep my pants on the building roof. My family for watering my plants when I was out of town and myself for learning to like tomatoes enough to wants to grow them.  So far I have only gotten a few off. The weather has been chilly here in the city and although I am more then ready for Fall, I keep hoping for just a few more days of hot weather for the sake of my tomatoes.

On the downside...Something has put up residence in my tiny garden and is joyfully snacking on my tomatoes. I would come up and be thrilled to find a ripe tomato only to discover a big hole in it. I suspect it's a caterpillar but yesterday someone mentioned having seen a large slug and I found a half eaten tomato still on the vine. I sprayed everything down again and am hoping to have scared it off. Friday I got a lot off all my plants. Two Bell peppers, two smaller hot peppers and a bunch of tomatoes, some from my neighbors plants that they never check on and I water so I don't feel bad helping myself to their tomatoes this time around. I am debating bringing my Tomato plant inside once it gets to cold out to attempt to keeping it alive. We will see, I think I still have a few more weeks to make that decision. 

Up in the Garden: August 7th

I HAVE TOMATOES!!!! Honestly I never thought it was going to happen. My neighbors put a tomato plant up on the roof back in July and the damn thing has been taunting me all summer. It mocked me, I tell you! Being all like, "Hey, look at me and my awesome little cherry tomatoes. Don't you wish yours would look this good?" While my tomato plant (grown from seeds) steadily grew little by litte, never flowering, never blooming. But I can now proudly say to you, my day has come. The stars have lined up and I have tomatoes! Still just little babies but they exist and that's all that matters. I have no luck with tomatoes last year so I am super thrilled with my progress.  I also have bell peppers. My hot peppers have been thriving but I am just now getting Bells. Can I just say, I am very very proud of myself.

Up in the Garden: June 30th

I say "up" because my veggie garden is on my roof. In the last couple of years rooftop gardens have taken off and I'm somewhat proud of myself for starting a trend in my own building. I never really considered myself into plants much. To be honest I thought plants were boring. They don't move or make noise and you can't teach them tricks so really, what's the big deal? Then I bought an Orchid at a street fair last spring and somehow kept it alive for 5 months. I was so proud of myself I decided I wanted more plants. A friend of mine gave me a Bean and a Squash sprout and I kept those alive so I decided to get some Basil. I have decided Basil must be some kind of weed, because it took off and grew 4 feet. That was when I moved my plants up to the roof. By the end of last summer I had grown 6 beans, very small Squash and a tiny red Pepper and 4 hot Peppers. I was very proud of myself.


  This year I went a little out of control and when I say little I mean I have: 1 Basil, 3 Pepper plants, 1 Pimento Pepper, 6 Bean Plants,  2 Squash, 2 Tomato plants and 6 radish seedlings.
...Yes, I went out of control, but I love gardening and I'm apparently really good at it. Almost everything I have, I grew from seeds with exception of the Basil and 1 Tomato plant. I grew so many sprouts I ended up dumping some on my boss, my aunts and my doorman. I also have Lavender and Sage just because I love the way they smell. My one vice with rooftop gardening is lack of a water system. The people who live in the pent houses have a system for their plants but I have to water my own plants everyday and more then once I have gone up in the afternoon to find sad droopy plants in desperate need of hydration.

Right now the only thing producing is my Pimento pepper plant. It has about 10 peppers on it. What do I do with 10 pimento peppers? I've alerted my friends and family to be prepared for gifts of peppers in the near future. All my other plants are doing well with one exception, my squash, which I was SO proud of. Honestly, I treated this plant like the favorite child, I took so many pictures of it and it had grown to such a size I had to replant it but it has not done well since it's replant. It looks sad. I hope it perks up but Squash is tricky because it's a vine and it needs to roam and the rooftop is not conducive to roamage. (yes, I made that word up) Hopefully it perks up. I'll post weekly updates and pictures. If you have ever thought about gardening I encourage you to try. Start with a Bean or a Basil plant. Studies show plants and gardening improve your mood and it's good for the environment!