Wandering Soul.

Yesterday it was 3.7 miles.

Today I plan on 4.

Next week, it will probably be close to 10 miles per day.

Next month, I feel like I won't be sitting down much at all.

Walking... It's what I do.  More appropriately, wandering.  Sometimes I set out on a mission to the farmer's market down the street, other days I walk a mile to the pool where I swim, and often times, I jump in the car just to go park it somewhere else and wander.

It's not that I'm allergic to home-- I love being at my house, out in my garden, or hibernating in my pj's watching endless episodes of cuisine-based reality TV.  But when the weather is pleasant, and my curiosity gets the better of me, I can't help but wander.

I think I get it from my folks.  Those two can walk around a mega store for hours and find endless entertainment, just as much as they can a park or city streets.  Sometimes, when I visit, we wander together, not accomplishing much of anything at all, but nonetheless enjoying the scenery.  I find it to be an intriguing sport, one that stimulates the senses without over-tiring the body.  An escape from anxious thoughts and worries, walking and wandering are a release, no matter where I am going.

Next week I will be in New York City, land of wanderers.  On my last visit, I had no choice but to walk everywhere due to my location and my lack of vehicle.  This time I will have no choice due to the opposite, deep within the skyscraper walls of Manhattan, jam-packed with cars and people, all on their way to somewhere.

New York will always be a place of comfort for me because you can wander and walk and lose yourself in it's awesomeness, not matter what your plans are.  Going to the park?  Cool, let's walk.  Headed down to Shake Shack?  Word, let's walk, it's nice outside.  Hey, have you heard about that new falafel joint down on so-n-so?  Yeah man, let's head down there once I get my shoes on.  Sure, people take cabs and the subway, but they're usually on foot first.

The only time I'd grab a cab was when I'd already walked a few miles and was lost.  Whoops, I'm supposed to be 3 miles south of where I am in less than 20 minutes for a group dinner- waving hand furiously at pretty much every car I see on 5th Avenue, jumping up and down and finally flagging down a towncar.  It's a last resort for me when visiting-- there's just way too much fun stuff to see if I walk instead.  Of course I Heart New York, but I feel like I need a shirt that has a little shoe instead of a heart between the I and the New York.  Or footprints... Er, you know what mean.

Is there a point to this article?  No, not really.  Just a rambling of thoughts.  As I finish up typing, my tennis shoes stare back at me and I can imagine them saying, "Hey lady, where we going today?" (yes, in my world, everything can talk) and I feel like answering back, "Dudes, today, just the grocery store to buy stuff for cupcakes.  But next week, New York.  And in the upcoming months, who knows where the winds might take us..."

Time for a stroll.
Be well,
B

   

Awakening- A Garden Update.

Every morning I wake up, stretch, walk into my kitchen and look out the small window that frames our backyard garden, hoping to see something new and amazing.  Today was no different than any other day, but as I stood peering through the curtains, I noticed a treasure- through the rich foliage and spray of our mediocre watering hose, a shining yellow object about the size of a thumb, just barely hiding in a blanket of leaves.  I dropped my glass of milk with a "clunk" on the kitchen counter, slipped on my flip-flops and raced through the laundry room to the back sliding glass door.  In my rush to unlock and squeeze myself through the small gap between wall and glass (to keep hot air out), my skirt caught on the lock, tearing a hole, stopping me in my tracks.  Calm down, I babbled ... It's just a vegetable!

Just a vegetable indeed.  It's my first veggie of summer!!  A perfect baby yellow squash, clinging to it's mother plant, resting gently on the soil below.  There are actually three of these little gems hanging out and I'm absolutely ecstatic that they are looking so healthy.  With the extreme changes in weather, the plants have been growing like weeds, back-n-forth between sun and rain, growing bigger and bigger each day.  We've managed to keep the weeds out, which helps, but we've also noticed an unusually large amount of spiders in the yard this year, keeping most insects at bay-- thank goodness for our 8 legged friends.

Next door to the yellow squash is the happy orange pumpkin.  Not yet fruiting but looking magnificent, we're expecting the blossoms to fall off soon so round little gourds can start forming.  I'm a little worried that this plant is going to end up being HUGE, as it is growing at and extremely rapid rate all of the sudden.  That's just fine, I love the little chubby pumpkins.  They'll be great for baking, roasting, soups and turning into pasta.

Across the rows, the cherry tomatoes have started to form as well.  While the heirlooms are still flowering, the smallest versions are well on their way to being awesome snack machines.  The hubbs has been lovingly tracking their development, as these are his favorite mini garden grub yums.  We are both waiting eagerly for the big guys to show up as well, especially the giant hothouse tomatoes which we will use for sauces and salads.

The peppers continue to stretch toward the sun and have just started flowering, our green baking apples should be arriving soon since the trees are in full fledged post-pop mode, the plums and nectarines are already weighing down the branches of their collective trees (anyone love fruit?) and our meyer lemons need to be plucked as I sit here typing.

Keeping up with the garden becomes more and more complicated as the season goes on.  With temperatures rising, watering the garden becomes crucial, but at the same time we are very concerned with conserving water resources, so slowly but surely our entire yard (excluding the vegetables and fruit trees) will wither, dry out and go into summer hibernation.  These next few upcoming weeks, we will be saying goodbye to the majority of our blossoming shrubs, grasses and flowers-- thankfully our landscaping was designed to be relatively drought resistant, so we'll see them again next year.

As for now, we will be focusing on keeping the food we are growing in our garden healthy, pest-free and plentiful.  I'm excited to see what pops up next!

Be well,
B