Friday, July 17, 2009

Day at the Indianapolis Zoo


This week mom and I were able to get to the Indianapolis Zoo for the morning, and we were so excited when Maranatha and Joseph were able to join us! We had a great time watching the Dolphin show, walking around looking at the animals, and even going for a carousel ride!!! Mom rode in the wheelchair which made it a little more interesting to maneuver around, and there was only one time that we though I was going to dump her forward . . . oops! For some reason she didn't want to go down stairs in the wheelchair, but thankfully the zoo is very handicap accessible and we just had to find the ramps.


Mom, Maranatha, and Joseph
Joseph ( I seem to always just miss his huge smile!!!)

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Thursday, July 9, 2009

My Urban Garden

I've had little experience at gardening - but have enjoyed trying. One year I grew zucchini and cucumbers and some herbs. Well, this year I thought I would try again, but the trick is that I only have pots to use for my garden. So, plants have been moving around from pot to pot trying to figure out the right size pot for the plant. Most of these plants I started from seed - the beans, zucchini, cucumber, spaghetti squash, and cilantro. I bought the basil and mint. Everything is getting bigger than I expected, and it's hard to keep up with the watering when the plants are in pots. The other day I decided that 3 cucumber plants were too much for the one planter because they are flowering like crazy but no cucumbers. I was contemplating just pulling up one of the plants to see if the other 2 would start producing cucumbers. So, the one day I just decided to pull up the middle plant and see what would happen. Well, once I pulled it out I got a better look under some of the leave and itty bitty cucumbers were growing =( i looked for them on the other plants and there were a couple, but not as many as were on the one that i pulled up. I was very sad, but quickly planted what was left of the root system and have been trying to see if I can keep it alive. So far the vine is alive and healthy although lots of the leave are all shriveled up and sad looking. Oops!





I have limited space, but somehow or another it seems to be working =) And so far no complaints from the neighbors =)!!!!!!!!!!!!!



This is one of the bean plants - I've had a couple small servings of beans. I just started a couple more plants to see if i'll be able to have a continued harvest of beans =)
I've been able to eat 2 zucchinis already and there is a third and possibly fourth that will be ready soon - this is a photo of one of them.

I was able to freeze some basil - I ended up with 3 of those plants and they are doing fantastic. Otherwise I'm just hoping for a little bit more fruit from the garden - and that they will stay alive for the rest of the summer and into the fall! This year was kinda random in what I planted - was trying to use up some leftover seeds. Maybe next year I'll be able to try again and be a little more prepared for planting a garden that I can handle!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

4th of July weekend

I have never been able to consistently celebrate the 4th of July holiday. One year I was in Guatemala, a couple years I was in Chicago sitting on the lakeshore, at Navy Pier, or in Grant Park amidst the millions of people, or at various locations like the fairgrounds near the town where I grew up. Last year I was in the midst of moving out of Chicago and was trying to get myself ready to go to Guatemala the shortly after and finish up a paper, som in the craziness didn't plan for celebrating the 4th, so I just watched fireworks on TV. Well, this year I'm living here in Indy, my mom is staying at my brother's house recovering from double knee replacement surgery and my brother, sister-in-law and her parents were all in town. I had thought it would be fun to have everyone over to my place and then walk a block or two and see if we could see some of the downtown fireworks. Well, then on the 4th it was rainy and cloudy and nobody was up for the adventure . . . good thing though because the fireworks were canceled and postponed until the 5th. So, the 5th was a busy day at my brother's house and once again nobody was interested in attempting to see the fireworks . . . except me! So, I just went back to my apartment (thankfully early enough that there was plenty of parking!) and about 5 min. before the fireworks started I walked about 3 blocks to Mass Ave. and had a perfect view of all the fireworks. It was great. Then they were over and I walked past all the poor people stuck in traffic trying to leave and back to my apartment. Next year I think that I will be planning a 4th of July party at my house - and I'll supply the fireworks =)
Here's the only 4th of july photo that I have from this year: