Greens in the Garden

Washing the greens

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

One of the advantages to being out of work is one gets to work in the garden.  An extension of that is cooking the produce and putting some of it up for the winter.  Going into the garden is a satisfying pastime that gives me great pleasure.  I am not sure if I would call it a substitute for the gym but it seems to give me a similar relaxed sense of a physical workout as well.  Probably all in my head (I hate the gym) but I seem to be losing some weight and redistributing the weight I have.  After walking the dog and having my coffee I try to put some time in to make the garden productive and attractive.  Productive-obviously, because that is what a garden is for, growing stuff to eat.  Attractive-the purpose of that is less easily defined.  Garden as art?  A farmer might scoff.  I find that I must work to that end because…well, again, I’m not entirely sure why?  It makes it more pleasing to be in an ordered, attractive place?  Sure.  It runs against my grain to do dis-orderly things.  Yes.  Tight assed guy- I guess so. 

Anyway, this is this morning’s project-cookin’ up the greens. Mustard greens, basil, garlic, onion, spices...

And clean it all up when you are done cookin' (the most important step in the process!)

Ready to freeze for the winter

Sony Mavica

You can go back in time--on Amazon.  I mean, not really but sort of, by reading the reviews written by people who purchased the Sony Mavica camera back in 1999.  They are still there on the web site.   Unlike the storage media of the Sony Mavica camera (3 ½ inch floppy’s), Amazon has plenty of server space to maintain the obsolete reviews from thirteen years ago.  And the reviews are eye opening. 

In its day the Mavica was state of the art.  It had a Zeiss 14x optical Lens standard.   Combine that with the floppy storage, a great viewfinder and an LCD screen and you had a potent tool.  The ‘hi-res’ photos that Mavica shot back in the day are tiny compared to the photos you can get on any cheap digital camera today.  But even so, back then, the Mavica was considered a quantum leap in technology.  People were amazed at being able to walk around with a stack of floppys in one’s pocket and shoot the equivalent of half a dozen rolls of film.  To be able to delete shots on the fly.  No developing film.  The joy of seeing the images appear on the screen of your blazingly fast 486 PC…the floppy clicking and dumping the bits onto your hard drive…and sending the jpegs to your friends via e-mail!  It was amazing!

The Clothespin Bag

 Back in 1991 I had one (I still have it).  It seems like a boat anchor now but back then I was thrilled to carry the thing everywhere.  I bought a cordura fishing tackle box in K-mart and padded it so I could carry the camera, floppys, spare battery, charger and cord to the beach or hiking or on the back of my red, white, and blue Honda Transalp.  Everywhere I went I remember many, many people stopping me and asking me about the camera.  Asking me to snap a photo of them and giving me their e-mail address so I could send it to them.  Many, many people. 

I also took photos of the job.  Of wildlife-birds, turtle nests, chipmonks and ants-and of motorcycles, friends, my sons, no matter what I did it seemed like the camera had to be a part of the process.  The Sony was to become like a friend and I think I will never take more pleasing photos with any other camera.  I know these images are small and grainy and the Mavica is technologically out dated but when I look at the images I love them.  I have had a half dozen cameras since and none of them has given me the sense of confidence or consistently pleasing pictures the way that old Sony did.  Today I took out the tackle box and charged the batteries-each of which is about half the size of a modern cell phone-and then I popped a floppy into the ‘Beast’.

As I expected the shots of Lizzy’s Mom were very grainy but the low light shot caught her perfectly.  With a tiny bit of light this old camera could always take a nice portrait, especially very tight in.  Also, as expected, the close shots of the do-dads on the porch were nice too. It was always fantastic at extreme close-ups.  The weakest shots were scenes, and even those pleased me some.  So, despite my fairly regular urge to ‘clean house’ and ditch old technology including the Mavica, I hang on to it.  The laptop I am using right now and the one that will follow it and the iPad that will follow that will probably be in the trash (uhhhh, excuse me- be recycled!) long before the Sony Mavica hits the landfill.

 

Berry Season

(skip this top part if you are only interested in the berry picking...)
It is hot.  I mean very hot!  In the early a.m. before the sun gets too strong I work in the garden and do my outside chores.  This includes soaking the garden plants and weeding and plucking off the dead parts of the tomatoes and etc… I have my system of collecting rainwater and, so far this year, have not had to use any well water for the garden.  That is about to change as we have not had significant rain fall since last week.  My six day supply will be gone tonight.  It will take a good downpour for at least an hour for the three rain barrels to fill and that won’t be happening for the next couple of days.  This evening I will fill one of the barrels from the well.

It takes a lot for me to hide in the air conditioning but this summer I am happy to have the cool, electric breeze.  The only thing better would be a swimming pool but I don’t have one of those so I have to find alternative, indoor activities so I can stay in the ‘cool’.  My journal is one.  House chores is another.  Watching TV and reading fill a couple of hours but I hate watching the TV.  This morning I finished the outdoor stuff and instead of hiding in the A/C I took the bike and headed out for a ride through the state park.  I packed my backpack, a banana, a yogurt, some ice in a baggy and headed down the road. 

My destinations were vague.  My first stop was in Fort Montgomery at the motorcycle shop where I drooled over the bling.  They had a nice used BMW Roadster (a 2012 with under 2K miles) which they took on trade for a ‘Multi Strada’.  (must be nice to have bucks!) Tempting, but too much money for a bike in my opinion.  If it had been a clean ‘California’, a little bit older and a lot cheaper, I probably would have been riding a different bike this afternoon.  I did find out there is a group of retired guys who meet at the shop every day and go for a ride together.  Sounds like something I should try out next week. 

I left the bike shop and took Firefighter's Memorial Drive through the military academy at West Point and then 293 to the parkway.  Nice back woods road with no traffic.  Speed can be a problem as there is a lot of wild life but I was in a slow-goin’ mood and the cool breeze made me feel wonderful.  After that, on the Long Mountain Pkwy, I didn’t even mind the idiots who were tailgating me –and I was doing seventy!  I left them when I took the turn off to old route 17 heading to Tuxedo-another old four lane highway that is long legged and relaxed.  I stopped for gas in Tuxedo and turned around.  I was getting tired and the heat was coming off the asphalt in waves.  I retraced my steps back towards home. 

When I got to the ‘goat path’ (the name given the approach road for the Bear Mountain Bridge from the Annesville Circle) I took advantage of the fact that there were few cars sharing the road and I could do it the way it should be done.  This twisting, curving road is a bikers dream.  If you don’t have at least one nerve jangling moment where you think you might not make it out alive then you didn’t ride it right.  Call me an idiot, I don’t care!  Anyway, when you are almost down to the Annesville Circle there is an old historic toll house.  I turned into the gravel parking lot outside the toll house and parked under a tree. 

I know from hiking there with Benny that there are the most magnificent berry patches right out back of the house, hidden in the woods.  The berries are protected by gobs of poison ivy and their own prickly thorns.  But if you know how to pick them and how to avoid the ivy you can eat your fill.  I unlocked my top case and took out my lunch.  I sliced up the banana and stirred it into the yogurt.  I walked into the patch and as I ate the yogurt I picked the sweet raspberries and plopped them into the cup.  Eat, pick, stir, repeat.  Un-fu*king believable.  The berries were so ripe that they were sticky with their own sugar.  They melted like chocolate on my fingers.  When I was done with the yogurt I went back to the bike and took out the bag of ice, which was three quarters melted.  I drank the icy water out of the bag and then proceeded to fill the bag with more berries.  When it was filled up I put it back into the insulated lunch box and into the top case.  I brought them home to eat later. 

Back in the house, my shower was great.  I have some DVD’s from the library and some primo left-overs in the refrigerator for diner.  I have my hand picked dessert and tonight’s Shabbat service (with my friends) to look forward to.  The heat is tough.  But today was good.  I am one lucky Fu*ker.