Accidental pumpkin patch

Since I've been more active on Facebook in the last week or two, I've been neglecting this blog. It wasn't just Facebook, actually. First we had a late Spring freeze, and the unexpectedly cold weather. Then we had rain for the better part of a week. And NOW we have unseasonably HOT weather. Well... what happens when it rains alot and then gets really warm? Stuff grows! And my stuff is no exception.

A couple weeks ago when I was moving my compost bins, I found these little seedlings growing where one bin had been. (One bin had been, try saying that three times fast) This past October, I helped my kids carve pumpkins for the first time in their lives. We recycled pumpkin goo by chucking it in the compost pile. Well apparently quite a few of the seeds were viable because a few pumpkin plants sprouted up where I spread some compost-mulch. And now a couple little pumpkin plants have sprung up over by my shed where the compost bins were. I have put some compost-mulch around them and will leave them to become another accidental pumpkin patch. We'll see how they do but already I noticed there are tiny buds on these seedlings like they might come into bloom unusually early.

I probably won't be writing here much anymore. But I will try to keep photo-documenting the growth of my "garden" (aka plants free-range growing wherever they'd like around my yard).

Nothing profound, just green

I spent a couple hours outside this morning, enjoying the weather now that it's heated back up to Spring-like conditions, listening to my MP3 player, pulling weeds and getting dirt stuck under my cuticles. I don't know how I managed to pass hours out there, I didn't even really get much done. But I thought I'd post photos of what's new in my yard anyway. Here is my tomato patch just downhill from our patio. A couple years ago this used to be rose bushes that were wild and unruly and always seemed to be getting black-leaf diseases. I'd always chop them up and then they'd just keep coming back. Finally I dug out their roots and now I have a place to plant something much less romantic and much more practical. Tomatoes. We have one rose bush remaining in the far corner down there. It has some oregano growing under it, which I don't actually use but it makes a very pretty ground cover that spreads at a nice pace (not too fast to get out of control but fast enough to fill in spaces). So I planted a double row of tomato plants all down this bed and we'll see how they do. I had to pull two out already because we had that cold spell this week that actually managed to freeze two of my plants. It also killed the basil plants I had, but I can replant those later when I find some space for it. I have a big baggie full of basil seed I harvested from my basil last year.


Here is something that looks like a rather boring photo but it's actually pretty exciting for me. It is my baby spinach that has come up and is doing quite well in some spots. I plucked a leaf off this morning after watering them and ate it. Very tasty.















My grapevine got its leaves! And many tiny little clusters of potential grapes. I'm really excited about that. It's produced grapes before, but as soon as they'd ripen, birds would eat them before we'd have the chance. (Plus last summer I was in Egypt during the fruit season so we missed our chance) Maybe this summer we'll miss our chance too, with our summer road trip plans, but it's always exciting to know that we have the potential to grow our own grapes.













And here is what our grapevine arbor/trellis looks like overall. It doesn't look like much but remember- it's only March. These are the "before" photos!

Gardening updates

These photos are actually from last weekend but I didn't have a chance last weekend to sit down and upload and write about them. This is the outside of our kitchen window looking out to the backyard. I planted petunias there and they are really thriving. So we get to look out at them when we stand there to wash our dishes.
















Here is my herb garden area. Up against the fence there you can see that my row of snow peas has indeed sprouted. After this week's rain, they are already much taller than in this photo from last week, and actually trying to climb up my cilantro plant at the far end. Bad peas! I have one net trellis up for them that the honeysuckle is already climbing. I have to make it out to Home Depot to get another one of those things.













The leaves on my pomegranate bush came out :-)

What lies downstream

Yesterday as I was getting ready to pray, I started to wonder what I would blog about this weekend. It'd been raining here for the better part of 5 days so I didn't get any gardening done and the weather this morning is still overcast and isn't conducive to photo-taking. As I stood there washing my arms, I thought about what I wrote last week about how we have a plan and how God has plans and I was again reminded of something.

It seems like I've always been encouraged to make goals and plans for my future, that's what we're supposed to do. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" I think sometimes we get so caught up in choosing a goal and then feeling like we are stuck trying to attain that goal that we sometimes get there the wrong way. If we get there the wrong way, then doesn't that mean we're actually in the wrong place? If we set up goals for ourselves that cause us to... neglect our families, take what's not ours, live against our principles or worse yet, live in denial... then is it worth it? Does the end justify the means? The answer is "no". The means are the important part. It's not the destination, it's the journey. It's not where you end up, it's how you got there that matters.

So I was reminded that while I have things I would like to see in my life or in the world, it's better for me to focus on each step instead of the final destination. The destination will take care of itself if I just take each step with care and intention. I think that's what faith is all about. If you do the right thing, you believe in this unseen force that will guide you to end up in the right place. Or better said: wherever you end up, it IS the right place. If I live according to my principles, wherever I am, that's where I should be.

But I'm not saying you just stop paddling and just simply go with the flow. Not at all. I still plan to steer my vessel, steer away from dangerous rapids, and towards pretty scenery. But I can't predict the current and I'm definitely not foolish enough to try to row upstream.

Bloom where you're planted

This week was interesting. I spent four of the five days at my children's school, chaperoning a field trip one day and filling in for a teacher two days, and then sort of doing the rounds on Friday (starting off with a long and much needed talk with the principal, then helping out another parent who was subbing, then watching the little kids at recess, then helping out the first grade teachers and making a very cool tie-dyed coffee filter and then... as the finale... ending the day supervising the high school PE class where they played a very brutal version of dodgeball which it worries me to say I found very entertaining.) It was almost like being at my hippie summer camp again, and indeed I'm often reminded of the New Hampshire woods when I walk through Treetops' campus. Watching the gym class, the thought ran through my mind that I never really know quite how I get to where I end up. (you know, in other words, I paused and smiled and mentally asked myself, "What am I doing here!?") We never know what lies ahead on the road we're on. It's like that analogy in "The Secret"- you're driving on a dark road at night. You just keep following the road but you can't see what lies ahead. So you just keep going and trust that it will get you to where you are supposed to be.

I spent a lot of time gardening during this unseasonably warm weekend, which always gives me the quiet time I need for my thoughts to take root and grow, not to mention basking in the ample sunlight which burns off any negative stuff I might be carrying around. And I admit I was carrying around some negative stuff. But I think I'm at the place now where I can submit and accept that wherever my road leads, wherever I end up tomorrow, next month, next year, it's ok with me. We work hard to cultivate our lives but some things simply won't grow in some environments. We try but some things weren't meant to be. That's ok. We have to trust that we will end up where we were meant to be. I think I lost sight of that but I was reminded of it while thinking about where to plant things in my yard.



Here to the left is the southwest corner of our property. This apparently at one time had been a flower bed, as there are decaying wooden landscaping beams marking off the area, but as you can see in the photo, the sunlight never really falls directly into that area. I thought that in the hot dry Texas summers, this *could* be beneficial as things wouldn't dry out as fast and they are still getting some sunlight because weeds sure find a way to grow there. I went ahead and started pulling out those weeds and turning over the soil and decided that this is going to be my experimental garden this year. All those little tomato seedlings I photographed last weekend have to find some place to root so I started off by planting some here in the corner in mounds of my home-brew fortified leaf mold composted mulch stuff. We'll see how it works out. If they look like they're growing, I'll plant a few more back there next weekend or during Spring Break. Like I was saying, if they don't grow there I won't push it. You just try stuff out... if it doesn't work, it's ok. Tomato plants weren't meant to grow just anywhere.



This is the view of the pathway behind our house that connects the two side yards. When we first moved here about 8 years ago, I had a vision of all these ivy-covered trellises covering the walkway so I slowly started working on that. Boston Ivy grows relatively quickly but I started with just about a half dozen 4" pots planted at very intentional intervals. The trellises are really cheap- you can get them at Michael's for about $15 and then you know, there's that 40% off coupon every Sunday for any item. :-) So it's really nice to see that the ivy just keeps growing and as the years pass, my vision is being realized. Ivy was meant to grow there. I planted a Camelia bush at the same time in that area. Its tag says it does well in partial or full shade. It hasn't died but it's never grown in 6 or 7 years. Maybe it would have been better off someplace else.

Lessons in Gardening

As the weather turns more and more pleasant outside, my thoughts once again turn to all things green and rooted. I decided today that I want to document my meager weekend progress through photos and notations and what better place to do it than here on my defunct but well-intentioned blog. That way I can pass this off as simultaneously keeping in touch with family and friends and convince myself I'm killing two birds with one stone. (That's just a saying, I'd never really kill any birds with any stone. Killing a chicken with a kitchen knife was just too much as it were.) I imagine I'll also occaisonally add an anedcote or two about my experiences substitute teaching here in the local school district. I'm starting to learn that there are many things in common between students and vegetative matter. See.... I know you already agree with me.

Let's start with odd names I run across as I call roll in different classrooms across the city each new day. The first name that comes to mind is one that made my ears perk up when I first heard it. I was "helping out" (at least I wasn't sleeping, like the *other* sub sent there to help) in OCS- that is "on campus suspension" when the attending teacher started the roll call after lunch to make sure no one got uhm... accidentally left behind (or jumped ship is more like it). She got to the name and my ears perked up. "Velvet Flowers". Wow. What a pretty name, I thought. My mind immediately imagined a teenage version of my daughter- white or tan skin, long curly frizzy hair, bead necklace, embroidered hip hugger jeans. But lo and behold, the reply of "here" came from someone of a totally different gender, race and definitely NOT of the hippie persuasion. I wonder now on a daily basis what people are thinking when they name their kids. I spied the name "Questian" on a roll sheet at a junior high school about a month ago. Please tell me there is another possible pronunciation of that word. And I swear to God, I had a child in class yesterday named Dorcus.

So let's leave it at that and get on to my garden. I'm not very good at this blog type thing and couldn't really place the photos exactly where I wanted them but we'll make do. The first photo up at the top is illustrating my composting system. For anyone who hasn't been to my house here, we have a very odd shaped property. Our house is on a circular cul-de-sac so our property is shaped almost like a slice of pizza. (Just imagine that someone has bit the tip off.) The short side is our front yard, point in toward the circle. Our house is a perfect 40x40' square that butts up almost to the back of our property. This means we have two side yards and just a walkway between the two from behind. The photo of the green chair and wire cages is in the side yard on the west side of the house. My husband rarely goes over there, he pretty much even stopped mowing over there. So that means, I can do secret experiments out there and he never has to know about them (or smell them, which is what he is trying to avoid). I swear my compost piles really have no odor at all. They are like 90% dried leaves. In fact, the compost I produce is something akin to a fortified leaf mold. So what I did this year was demand double duty of my tomato cages in the off season. I alternate layers of kitchen scraps with dried leaves (we have a virtually unlimited supply of dead leaves thanks to 3 very mature oak trees). The cages to the right house older material, hence you can see that they have compacted a bit and the ones to the left I have just added to in the past week. That's why you can see there is still some green material in them. When I want to turn the compost, fluff it up and what have you, I just pull the cage off from the top, shake out the contents and then use my pitchfork to shovel it all back in again. I water the cages about once a week to ensure they have enough moisture to aid in the decaying process.

Ok, the next photo is in the Eastern side yard, where we have a large sliding glass door and concrete patio. On either side of the patio, I created triangular shaped beds. This bush is the miniature pomegranate my Dad bought for me when we first moved into the house about 7 or 8 years ago. I just pruned it last week and it's started to get its first Spring leaves. In front of it, I planted some Amaryllis bulbs that I got for free from another Curves member last Spring. I hope they bloom this year. They've already started to just poke out of the ground and are a couple inches tall now.


This photo is alongside the fence between our house and the neighbor to the East. I planted these herbs last Fall and they've survived, and indeed thrived, all Winter. From left to right is a huge parsley, then oregano, then a tiny catnip plant (tiny because every cat in the neighborhood rolls around in it usually at 3am as it yowls loudly), and then a cilantro plant. On the backside of those herbs is a honeysuckle bush that used to be just huge. I naively planted it 6 or 7 years ago and let it run
its course. It took over. Last summer, we just cut it down to the ground thinking it would die but it just keeps coming back. So I'm leaving it but will "keep it in check" this time. Along the fence line to the left and right, I planted snow peas. I'm waiting for them to sprout and when they do, I plan to buy some plastic netting to hang on the fence for them to climb up. Then when the peas die, the honeysuckle is welcome to take over the net.


Here is the triangular shaped bed on the other side of our patio. This is a fig tree that has grown a little bit in the past 4 or 5 years but has never produced fruit. We have another one that does produce fruit but this one must be a male. Around the border I planted petunias last week. And then in a row between the petunias and fig tree, I planted baby spinach seeds. They also haven't sprouted yet but there's still time before I give up on them. I used two bins of my homemade compost to improve the soil there last weekend. I used another two bucketfuls as mulch around the plants. That's why the ground looks so... leafy.









And here are my babies. And there aren't just 8 of them. In the white plastic dishes are many tomato seedlings leaning into the sunlight, checking out the view of the backyard where they yearn to run free. In the blue dish are pepper and basil seedlings. The big black container is where they all came from. There are still unsprouted seeds in peat pellets in there so it looks like we are off to a good start!

Why I'm thinking to move back to Egypt

This is a copied note from my Facebook profile.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple people have asked me why (on Earth) am I considering moving back to Egypt after being in the US comfortably for the past 18 months or so.

First, I have to point out- I call both places home. We have two nests. I could never make the decision to ONLY live in ONE place the rest of my life while giving up the other totally. I just can't do that, and I don't want to anyway and I don't want my kids to have to do that, either. We really have pieces of our hearts in both places.

Maybe the most pressing reason for me to consider moving back right now is going to sound ironic to my friends from Egypt. I think I need to move back to Cairo for the sake of my health. Ok, have you stopped laughing yet? Tayyib. Honestly, for whatever reason, my blood pressure has been very high here in the US (and that is while I'm on medication). When I was in Egypt in the summer, it was low, and that was without medication. Yah, a summertime vacation lifestyle has something to do with it. Maybe here in the US, I am eating too many processed foods (and consuming too much sodium in the process, I don't know). And I know that stress plays a large part. I have tried to reduce the stress in my life here but there are some things I can't change, and can't look at differently, and just simply need to separate myself from. In other words, I believe my blood pressure here will only go up (my health will only get worse), but in Egypt I believe I have a good chance that it will go down (my health will be better). On top of that, my prescription in Egypt costs $4 a month. Here it is $60 a month. That's a huge difference. I hit a turning point last Sunday night when I had bad chest pains and sat wondering at 10:30pm if I can afford to go to the ER or not. In Egypt, we can afford healthcare. I also had another tooth extracted this week because we don't feel like we can afford another root canal, crown and bridge, and an extraction and partial denture (wahhhh sniff sniff) is cheaper so we went with that. I don't want to have to make health decisions based on what we can or can't afford. In Egypt, our money goes much further. I'm not decrepit but alas, sadly I am aging. The decaying process has started. (holding back the tears)

On top of that, as some of you might have noticed... the economy sucks right now. Really sucks. My husband's income is based solely on commission. If people don't buy cars, we don't buy groceries. Or go to the doctor. Or buy other things we would like to buy. It's a lot cheaper for my husband to support us while we are living in Egypt.

Then there is also the concern about religion and heritage. I oftentimes feel very alone here in reinforcing our culture and philosophy to the kids. We don't have a large community of friends here that shares our traditions or even our beliefs. In Egypt, I have a network of people, friends and family, that I really truly love and admire (and miss!) and I can't help but think if my kids spend more time there in their childhoods, they will absorb more of that cultural and religious heritage to pass on to their own kids in the future.

I laugh more in Egypt.

So *if* I could have an ideal situation it would be that my kids could still be in a safe, supportive, friendly environment with friends who share similar beliefs and morals, and at the same time, I could be leading a safe, happy, satisfying life there where I contribute to society in my own little ways. Ideally, my plan is still to get a full time teaching position at a school in Egypt that will pay for my own two kids' tuition, plus extra money on top of that as a cushion to my husband's income. That's my ideal situation. And it's not a permanent commitment. I'm talking a one year trial run again. Most of my unhappiness the last year I was in Egypt was actually due to our school situation (both as a parent and as an employee/teacher). We just need a new school to be part of that won't stress us all out as much.

So those are my reasons. You can comment if you want.