missed another month. not a single post in august.

found myself sitting at the computer with so much to write and say and share, but no drive to actually do it. nothing in me.

though i'm here now. and writing. but it feels a little forced. i need this avenue of expression though, so for now thesecondlayer shall continue, if somewhat sporadically.


trying to ripen tomatoes...

my garden has grown to extreme levels. it's a jungle out there, literally. my five tomato plants are now well over ten feet tall and covered in little green tomatoes. i've counted about 50 or 60 tomotoes growing, but i'm having trouble getting them to ripen. i picked a bunch the other day and threw them in a paper bag with an apple. the apple gives off ethylene gas as it decays. the ethylene is a plant hormone which promotes ripening. it worked...after a few days in a sunny window, i pulled out a beautiful yellow (it's supposed to be) tomato and am going to eat it on a sandwich soon.


a yellow tomato...


a dahlia in the garden...


my garden water feature...

i found a plastic pot in the alley a few weeks ago and decided to make it into a small water feature on the deck. the drainage holes had been punctured already and i came up with the great idea to seal them with silicone sealant. it worked, the pot held water and i went to chinatown and bought a bamboo fountain and pump and picked up some water hyacinth and little frogbit and small lily pads from the nursery. i also went by the pet store and picked up five feeder goldfish. all was good, eveyone was happy, until well, the fish started dying...one by one. then i read the back of the silicone sealant tube and saw "NOT FOR USE IN FISHTANKS. SEEPS TOXIC SUBSTANCES."


at the goldfish funeral...

fish were all dead within a day. i bought a brand new, unpunctured pot from canadian tire and started again. i decided to skip out on the fish this time though. maybe next year.

the big news is that i'm going back to india. bought my ticket last week and am now in the process of getting visas and getting myself organized. i leave october 19th for almost two months, getting back on december 6. we're spending four days in beijing and the rest in india. my itinerary so far has me heading north from delhi towards the hill stations in the himalayas: shimla, kausani and daramshala (where the dalai lamai lives), then to varanasi on the ganges river, flying to mumbai, then goa for awhile, back up towards ahmedabad for my cousin's wedding, then through rajasthan. it's not set in stone, i'm waiting until the 12th edition lonely planet india comes out in two weeks to do the real planning.

Labels: garden

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