Why September is so much better than August

Late September is prime time for the s.o.'s flower garden. It's close to the road so everyone in town can enjoy it--and indeed, we often get compliments on it. He is always improving it; the goal for next year, I'm told, is "to plant so many perennials that there's no room for weeds." A worthy goal.




And now that the worst of the heat is over, the vegetable garden finally has a chance to revive. These are the very first of the fall produce: a bunch of Jaune D'Or radishes.


The other big plus is that now the nights are cool and foggy. Interesting to drive in sometimes (where IS the road, anyway?), but much easier on the plant life and on the soul.

Bark in the Park

Here are some long-overdue pics of our beloved boy Cairo enjoying a baseball game at Turner Field earlier this month.


A couple of times a year, the Atlanta Braves have a promotion called Bark in the Park where they rope off a section of the upper deck for people with canines. It was fantastic--they had kiddie pools and misters and lots of water bowls and free dog-appropriate frozen yogurt (Cairo, the Dairy Dog, had two).


Amazingly, everyone seemed to get the clue that they should only bring sociable dogs. There was very little disruption, aside from a few outbreaks of excited barking. All the people and dogs just hung out and enjoyed themselves.


We'll definitely go again next time they do it. All baseball games should be dog-friendly. Don't you think?

Hello world

I'm connected to the internet WIRELESSLY, using my NEW COMPUTER!!!! Sweet, sweet, sweet. More to come, as soon as I play with it for a while. Oh, and get some arugula and mizuna planted...

Shot down in a blaze of I/O errors

I've ordered a new MacBook. My trusty eMac had been deteriorating fast--unexplained crashes, weird sparkly "snow," etc. I ran some cleanup utilities and thought it was a bit better, but then it locked up and destroyed 8 hours of work (probably the best writing I'd done in six months). I'm typing this blog post on the eMac, but I'm obviously not using it for anything mission-critical. I'm currently trying to remember the lost article and reconstruct it on my old "toilet seat" iBook. Argh.

On the bright side...NEW COMPUTER! AIRPORT HUB! SHINY!

As soon as I have a computer I'm not nervous about, I'll post some photos of the fall garden, which is coming along quite nicely.

It all comes out in the wash

Previously I complained that blister beetles had ravaged an entire row of my chard--which, indeed, they did. They skeletonized it. I was forced to cut it down to nubs.

But I can't complain too bitterly about the situation, because here's what that row of chard looks like now, after regrowing (click to enlarge):


Maybe those bugs aren't so bad after all. No, wait, they are. They also took out my Dragon Langerie beans (although the heat had damaged the plants pretty badly beforehand). And they've been making tomato-picking a harrowing experience.

By the way, note the young cabbages at the left of the photo. Also note the netted chicken runs in the back, draped with overenthusiastic vines of bottle gourd. On the right of the chard (currently not yet poking through the soil) will be a row of variegated land cress.

The fall garden is in progress. So much more fun than summer.

OLS 10

Another One Local Summer comes to an end. Which, I guess, means that summer is coming to an end, too.

OLS has helped us mark the ups and downs of a challenging season. When it comes to cooking, scarcity is as telling as plenty. What have we got, and what can we make of it?

Kudos to Liz for dreaming OLS up and for making it hugely successful. Ready for next year, my friend? Heh.

This was our final meal in the series:

PORK CHOP:
Pork - Dyal Farm, Cobbtown, Ga. (150 miles)

PANZANELLA:
Tomatoes - ours
Cucumbers - ours
Parsley and basil - ours
French bread - Luna Baking Co., Athens, Ga. (35 miles)
Red and green bell peppers - L2's (1/4 mile)
Vidalia onion - Vidalia, Ga. (130 miles)
Capers, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, seasonings - elsewhere