Saturday, October 25, 2008

autumn crops

My little garden plot has transitioned into a fall garden (mainly by means of my ripping out all the old, dying plants and putting in new seeds for a fall crop), and I have noticed that things grow much slower in the cold weather! It seems to be taking forever for my miniature lettuce farm to grow me a salad.

James sneakily buried an avocado seed in the dirt one time in July when I wasn't looking. For a while the spot was hidden under the leafy jungle of the cucumber plant, but once that yellowed and withered, I discovered a mini avocado tree! I'm going to have to transplant this guy into a big pot before winter. The nighttime temps have not hit freezing yet, but they're getting close! I am more than stoked to have a bigger garden next year (I hope I get one), and I'll have whole farm for myself. It will be AMAZING!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

power ten to cross the halfway mark

What a gorgeous weekend for the Head of the Charles regatta. James and I moseyed over to the Weeks Footbridge on Saturday to try and see some exciting crashes as various eights fought it out for the lead along the winding river with its inconveniently-placed bridges. We definitely saw a few oar-clashes and some coxwains yelling at each other. Thrilling! I crouched down to look through the gaps in the bridge's stone wall to see the rowers faces as they raced away from us. It's amazing how many boats compete in this race! It couldn't have been a more perfect day - crisp, sunny, and autumnal.

In other news, club ice hockey has started, and we had our first two practices this weekend. I forgot how completely exhausting it is to even stand up on skates! I was ready to die after the first practice. Luckily, James and I cooked up a delicious brunch this morning and I had the needed fuel to survive the second practice. I really think hockey will get me back in the exercise routine that I need to stay healthy - I'd stopped rowing this fall due to classes and research commitments, and I think my paring-back of athletics left me vulnerable to this terrible cold I caught this week. I'm still sneezing it out. Boo.

Looks like it's also time to start weatherizing our apartment - temperatures are dropping to the 30s at night these days, and I'm starting to regret my lack of curtains. The problem is that I have this super-cool crafty idea of how I want to make my curtains, which means I'm putting off making them until I have time to really do them right. Alas, the curse of the DIY mentality.