Plea for gardening advice

I planted this baby carrot from seed in late spring. It somehow survived the Evil Squirrel Excavations of May and the Great Groundhog Scourges of July and August. I carefully watered and weeded around it, showered it in encouragement and nurturing thoughts. I was encouraged by the healthy-looking leaves above ground and decided to harvest it before the frost.

I know it's supposed to be a baby carrot, but this looks more like an embryo carrot. I SO do not have a green thumb.

No wonder the groundhogs and squirrels left it alone; it wasn't worth their time! They were probably laughing their guts out.

I've never had a particularly green thumb. I also planted a tomato plant from seed. Like its baby carrot counterpart, my tomato plant seemed to flourish. Yet I've only managed to harvest four (4) baby tomatoes so far, while my neighbour's baby tomatoes are practically jumping off the vines because they're so heavily laden with fruit.

I'm not quite sure what I'm doing wrong. One possible problem is that I'm using planters. Another theory is that the plants know that they're just going to get dug up and eaten by the neighbourhood groundhog, so what's the point anyway? But that doesn't explain why my neighbour's vegetables are doing so well and mine aren't.

Gardening advice welcome!

Babylon Five Virgin

SPOILER WARNING: The blog below focuses on my reports while watching Babylon Five for the first time. An LJ feed is also available. If you haven't seen B5 yet and don't want spoilers, please DO NOT click below.

For those interested, I've been gradually updating my blog again. Jeff and I are on the last season!

Spastic kittens, UT practice and Dr. Horrible

Allison's and John's kitten Kara was in fine form last night at our Urban Tapestry practice. What is it about kittens? Kara is super-cute and she knows it.

Throughout the practice, Kara was jumping and leaping all over the place. One minute she'd be checking out my flute and trying to get into my bag. The next she'd be practically sitting on Jodi's shoulder, peering around to look at Jodi's face while Jodi was singing. A minute later she'd be dashing madly up one side of the couch, across the back behind Allison, then down the other side.



Kittens are spastic balls of energy, I swear. Allison showed us the remains of a planter that her kitten had knocked off a table:



I took the photos above with my iPhone during the practice. We were rehearsing some songs for our upcoming gig at the CIBC Run For The Cure (10:43 am - 11 am on Sun. Oct. 5th in Nathan Philips Square, main stage).

Anyway, the practice went well. Allison learned the new CIBC Run For The Cure song I sent her THE DAY BEFORE (she is a very very patient music partner) and we recorded it for Jodi to figure out some harmonies.


We're also learning My Eyes, a song from Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog (not for the Run for the Cure but just for fun :-). Allison and Jodi ran through their parts; it's a great song with intertwining lyrics / melodies. I love hearing them perform this song, and continue to feel incredibly lucky to be part of Urban Tapestry. Even after all these years, I'd be happy to just sit and listen to those two sing forever.

Another song I loved hearing them perform is "The Way I Am" by Ingrid Michaelson. Jodi sings lead, and Allison will add harmonies. I haven't decided if I'm going to be adding harmonies and/or flute on this song.

Happy birthday to my sister

Photo by Allison

A very happy birthday to my sister Ruth today.

I'm lucky to have the coolest sister in the world. Here are 20 Things I Love About My Sister.



She won't be at Toronto's Word On The Street this weekend, as she has been in past years. Instead, she'll be presenting at Kitchener's Word On The Street, at 12 pm in the Children's Reading Tent.

Beckett draws

Woohoo, Beckett has made her first post in Curiosity: A Graphic Novel Project by Beckett Gladney and Debbie Ridpath Ohi.

From Beckett: "We’re in the ongoing process of developing the look and feel of this graphic novel, so I thought a description of our working methods might be of interest."

I'm SO enjoying working with Beckett, by the way.

We have a good chemistry and most importantly, we're able to be upfront with each other about what we like and don't like. Both Beckett and I tend to be introvert/empathic types, but I think we both realize how important it is for both of us keep an open communication. Our working relationship reminds me a great deal of my working relationship within Urban Tapestry in that we offer critique when asked but know how to do so in a supportive and constructive context.

We also know when to back off and trust that the other person knows what she's doing, even if we may not necessarily agree completely. There's a very fine line between giving an honest critique and being too aggressive, but there's also a danger of being too afraid of hurting the other person's feelings and not being aggressive enough.

I feel pretty lucky to have found Beckett. :-)

Anyway, do check out Beckett's post.