You Grow Girl™

So to make a long story short the new Fall Issue will not be going up until Monday because our hosting company sucks toenail scum and I can't trust that our server problems will be fixed by Friday so we have to wait. The timing is cruddy. I only wrote cruddy in that last sentence because I've been overusing the word 'crap' lately. I love Lynda Barry profusely so I can't stop thinking about cruddy after reading her book of the same name.
Special Message to Lynda Barry... Ms. Barry if you're reading this, which is possible since you are a gardener and like me have an interest in the mysteries of the natural world, but which you probably won't because I've read you aren't an internet fan; we would die to have you contribute to our little site here. We would literally pass out from the glory of it.

Okay so in other news I got a new chair which means my back is happy, and a new mouse which I haven't had time to take out of the box and a new book called Urban Eden which is very informative and they use plastic pop bottles for gardening just like us. I got all this stuff and more without leaving my desk. No I didn't use the power of the World Wide Web. I have a super terrific boyfriend who remembers me when he goes out into the world and gets stuff for me that I need when I don't have the time. Awww.

Just in time, the Nina Simone cd is finishing with the song "I Hold No Grudge". Too fitting. I swear I did not choreograph that ending.

Well knock on wood that everything goes smooth and the site actually works after all of this. If all goes well we'll have a new issue up on Friday and everyone's happy and I get to eat and sleep again.

The problem with living in a city like Toronto, and rarely leaving the downtown core as I do, is that it's impossible to gauge whether or not fall has come by the usual identifiers. For instance, the leaves around here just seem to get brown and drop. They don't seem to get that lovely red or yellow colour and tumble lightly to the ground like everywhere else in Southern Ontario. Actually I have on occasion seen brilliantly coloured maple trees, but that was on a 'nice' tree-lined street outside of my neighbourhood. Yesterday I went outside of my neighborhood and I didn't see any fall trees. I wasn't paying close enough attention though.

All this thinking about fall reminded me of a trip we took with Beate three years ago out to the country to do pick your own apples. I didn't even know such a thing existed until Beate suggested it. So I dug out the photos and I've placed a few here. I haven't included any photos of us though because my friends have a certain expectation of privacy that I'm not going to mess with. Except Beate who works on this site but I know she wouldn't want anyone to see the pictures.

Back to the day outing. It was one of those days when the sun was bright, the sky was bright blue with white fluffy clouds and the apples looked really good against all the green foliage. So naturally all the photos have vibrant colours. All the photos with people anyways. Since I'm not showing those, the non people, not so great colour photos will have to do.

Well in other news, yesterday I bought a cam for my new site donuty. It's about donuts in case you're wondering. It's going to have a donut cam, a camera fixed on a donut at all times. Unfortunately, I don't have time to get the site fully launched right now so I am testing out the cam here. I was hoping to do plant cam, which would be the camera trained on my plants all day long, but the camera I bought has a very short cord so it can't reach past my desk to the window where all of the plants in this room are kept. So instead I have the camera trained on my head while I work. The image quality is terrible and the colour is crap because the light is too dim but I'm not concerned about that right now. Most of the images will be of me with my head down or staring straight ahead blankly. Frankly I don't really see the appeal of cams, which is why I thought donut cam was funny. However, if you want to see my head or my face scowling at the screen as I work click here or there's a link on the left under Photographs. I'm here quite a lot and if I'm not well I'm sorry but I'm out having a life somewhere else. I'll only have this up for a month until donuty starts, so get it while it lasts.

Yesterday while I was out, I also bought a molcajete, a large mortar and pestle made from carved lava rock. It weighs a ton. Carrying it home was hell. I have been wanting one of these for a very long time. I finally found it at the new favourite Latin American food store that I still don't know the name of. To season it (prepare it for use), you have to grind rice and corn in it until tiny flecks of rock stop coming off into the rice and corn. I've been grinding the thing for hours since I purchased it and it isn't ready yet. I read somewhere that you grind in it until "the rice is white or red from your blood". I'm working on it in stages. I figure if I work on it while I watch tv, eventually it will be perfect. This thing will last a lifetime, so a bit of effort isn't going to kill me. It's great for the arm muscles. Why am I telling you all of this since it has nothing to do with plants? Plants are what I'll be grinding in this thing, to make salsa, chile paste and guacamole etc with. Why do I need such a special tool when I can just use the food processor? I like my special tools, that's why.

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