Little Grey Speck

Pumpkins

I think the expression " growing like a weed" should be changed to 'growing like a pumpkin vine"....... .

more importantly, may the harvesting begin....

:

more importantly, check out my rose

Is this blog going to turn into a gardening blog?

Actually, my brain has been taken over by gardening, so by default everything around me has some relation to gardening.  Margaret Roach's ( garden editor for Martha Stewart) country home and blog, A Way to Garden, was highlighted in today's NY tImes I am now completely inspired.

So, to start, Grape Vines are weird......they grow like wild fire, but the vines are very fragile. There is an ancient grape vine in my garden plot that was cut down to the quick and shoots are popping up like crazy. Everytime I went near these shoots they would fall off in my hand. 

Thanks to Flatbush Gardener, I found Cornell University's site for home gardening and have begun to figure out what to do. Keep trimming all the shoots but one, don't let any grapes grow the first year, and get an arbor.

Thanks to some annoying, but determined vole I need to defend my brussel sprouts. 

And just when I start to feel frustrated I turn around and see this...

and this ........

Sammy has to wait in the car, but he gets the last laugh

.......busy in the garden

I've been so busy in my garden, or should I say gardens? From famine to feast.....I have been yearning, whinging, whimpering, begging for a garden since I moved to NYC. Ten years of envy and dark thoughts. I have been on the waiting list at one plot for 2 years! Then one day my neighbor gave me the number for the president of the Campus Garden at Brooklyn College, and next thing you know I got a plot! It's 7'x7', and it's in the shade most of the day, but it's lovely nonetheless, and it is 3 blocks from my apartment building! It is a wonderful community of people and restorative in many ways. Then, out of the blue,  I got a call from the Floyd Bennett Field Garden and got another plot! So here I am running all over Brooklyn, buying plants and seeds and reading books and combing the internet for anything and everything related to gardening.

Here is my FBFG plot - 10 feet by 20 feet with vegetables, flowers and herbs... there is also an old grape vine from the previous gardener ( he was there for many years apparently, and made small batches of wine every year!) and I am busy trying to figure out how to promote my vine!

 

there is also a buddha, who lends me a mental hand.

 

It makes me so inordinately happy...

Floyd Bennett field also makes my dog so inordinately happy

 I still can't believe we're in Brooklyn when we're out there....

or here...

I haven't forgotten about knitting...the lace ribbon scarf from the spring Knitty

Spring in Ditmas Park, Part II

Spring is here. There's no turning back, a freak snow storm will not change the fact that spring is here ( although I wouldn't put away your winter boots just yet!).

Creatures lurking everywhere......

Brooklyn College Parrots

clematis coming back to life ( a lesson in pruning)

Where angels fear to tread? No.....

my photo assistant

"Sammy, please, hold onnnn! Wait, I just want to ta...stop, no, leave that cat ALONE!!! STOP! What's in your mouth?!?!What do you have?!?!? Put that down! LEAVE IT! "
He is no help, really, but it creates a challenge that adds to the drama of the photos, I think. At least that's what I tell myself. I should at least have him carry extra batteries.
One issue with Sammy is that he does not like to look at the camera. As soon as he hear's the beep-beep-beep as the camera goes on, he looks away, anywhere but at me:

"Hey Sammy! Look at your mama!"

"Hey Sammy, are you......hungry?"

You still want to move? NO!!!

Flatbush Gardener asks me the question, "so you still want to move? "

My previous post, in its ambiguity, points to this question ( in addition to my whinging and whining). I answer emphatically, NO! I love Ditmas Park, I really do. I love that I have lived here for ten years and watched things change and grow. I have a sweet apartment in a building I could grow old in. Even though I live in an apartment I can garden! I wished for a proper restaurant and I got three! I wished for a cafe and I got two! I wished for a better food coop and I'm getting one. Best of all, I wished for a great community of people and I got one! All that being said, I read this piece recently and could not swallow the adoration it espoused. Ditmas Park is not the 'Brooklyn Hamptons,' ( thank goodness, I hate the Hamptons). This piece goes on to describe Ditmas Park as 'mini urban wonderland,' and this caused me to comment anonymously and sarcastically on my local blog, something I usually try not to do. But now I think I misspoke - what if I lived in Katonah, NY, for instance, what would I think of Ditmas Park? I would think it is a bit of a mini urban wonderland. I can answer this because I grew up in Katonah and all I ever wished for was to live in a cool city. When I first moved to Brooklyn, a neighborhood guy asked me where I grew up and was aghast at the idea that I would reject the suburbs for Brooklyn. After all didn't my parents leave NYC for the bucolic suburbs?!? But I love it and won't leave. I wouldn't say no to a nice little bungalow that I could escape to on weekends, but I will always need to be able to run back to NYC.

My husband and I took a walk around the neighborhood this afternoon to enjoy the beauty of Flatbush in the spring:

Ditmas Park update

In the wake of the opening of our new French bistro I am inspired to go back to 2006 and review the progress of our hood. In an early posting describing Ditmas Park I reviewed the high points of Ditmas Park. Since then we have moved, only a few blocks away, and many things have arrived, left and transformed.

As far as food is concerned, back then I reveled in the opening of a new restaurant, The Farm at Adderly. While I continue to love the Farm, and have waited copious amounts of time to get a table, I need more. The Picket Fence is no longer an option. I could tolerate the new and strange decor if the food was any good, but it's pretty terrible. We are waiting for the new Tibetan take out ( momos!!), and San Remo keeps threatening to open a sit down restaurant, what else is there? Cinco de Mayo- great Mexican take out- Mama Lucia's -mediocre Italian- and a score of Pakistani-Indian restaurants - I've tried some but I haven't loved any. Now we have Connecticut Muffin ( I'm not sure why I was so excited when it opened?!?), Vox Pop still stands, and Pablo's down in my neck of the woods is OK for eggs. Hmm, that's not really so bad.

Shopping: big news is the food Coop is moving into the old Associated store - that is huge and exciting! I kind of like the new Natural food store but wonder how it can sustain after the coop moves? Brooklyn is now becoming spoiled for choice, what with Fairway, Union Market in 2 locations, the upcoming Trader Joe's, Fresh Direct delivering to south of Ditmas Ave ( I'm not biting since hearing about their treatment of workers), and the much-anticipated Whole Foods. What will I have to complain about? Call me lame, but I am so darn excited about our new Target, I can't stand it. I went there twice over the weekend, just cause I could. Lame, but honest. TB Ackerson's is nice - pricey but a lovely selection of wine and knowledgeable staff. Still no great bakery - John's is OK but I want great bread!

Still no bookstore, still no yarn store, still no nursery, still no pub. There I go winging again......there's not much else new, but things have changed so much since we moved in in 1998 - so I will keep my hope alive and wait for the bistro!

January 2008

After a nearly year-long haitus I am back....I have kept thinking I need to figure out why I have a blog, but then I realized that it's because I like it,- it's fun! And in the words of Stuart Smalley, I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, People like me!

One of my inspirations for blogging is the Pioneer Woman, from whom I recently received an honorable mention in a caption contest. When she put a link in her blog to mine I realized I really did kinda wanna get back to this!
So here goes!

July

fits and starts

WIP's ....

Raglan zip-up for my long-forgotten husband (I'vbe never knitted anything for him before!!) in Manos Del Uruguay

and a baby sweater ...

and then my wonderful sweet pup! I can't take credit for creating him but I l do love him!