admittedly i have not been on my bicycle for approximately two years, so when i suggested that we ride our bikes out to our garden plot and greg remarked that today was definitely not a good day for a bike ride, i figured that a ride today was just the thing i needed to get back in the habit. if i could enjoy it today, then when wouldn't i enjoy it?
the first decision: what to wear? it was raining outside, so my first thought was, i must avoid 'the fudge stripe.' it's a term that, if not coined, then at least heavily used on mackinac island. i learned about the fudge stripe while working there for a summer. all of the native bicycles on the island have a splash guard for whatever the back tire wishes to kick up. many tourist bikes do not.
on a rainy day, where the only transportation is either walking, riding, or trolloping, and you happen to be riding, you want to have that splash guard... especially when what the trollopers leave behind gets wet.
with this in mind, i at first picked out my darkest color of jeans. although i knew this would hide nothing (as yesterday on our walk, i saw a fudge stripe on a man with black spandex on), i figured it was better than a lighter pair. but the dark jeans had just been washed which obviously meant that they were fitting a little tighter than comfort demands, so eventually i resigned to wearing my only pair of exercise-type pants. extremely nerdy. and i had to put a rubber band around my right ankle. i might as well have tight rolled them.
the old adage about never forgetting how to ride a bike held true and we took a route designed to avoid a particularly mountainous hill. there were still a few hilly hills though. greg--running, not riding--warned of the first such hill (for those experienced cyclists trying to picture this, you might do best to imagine something more like a gradual incline). perhaps this is a good time to mention that i'm not in... athletic shape... and i should mention that innate knowledge of mechanical gears is not something i possess (and any acquired knowledge--lost or missing after two years). so, as i begin the ascent on gears 3,7, i ask if there is a more appropriate gear for me to be in. "umm, no, that's the easiest.... no wait, hmm, let me think about it." "any day now..." is what i'm thinking as the old legs start to burn and the ascent gets slooower. "hmm... oh, you're actually in the toughest gear." eeek. but i make it... at 2,1... the gear at which your rate of pedal belies the speed at which you are actually traveling.
finally... the farm. well, the community garden plot portion of the farm. here are some views:
the first decision: what to wear? it was raining outside, so my first thought was, i must avoid 'the fudge stripe.' it's a term that, if not coined, then at least heavily used on mackinac island. i learned about the fudge stripe while working there for a summer. all of the native bicycles on the island have a splash guard for whatever the back tire wishes to kick up. many tourist bikes do not.
on a rainy day, where the only transportation is either walking, riding, or trolloping, and you happen to be riding, you want to have that splash guard... especially when what the trollopers leave behind gets wet.
with this in mind, i at first picked out my darkest color of jeans. although i knew this would hide nothing (as yesterday on our walk, i saw a fudge stripe on a man with black spandex on), i figured it was better than a lighter pair. but the dark jeans had just been washed which obviously meant that they were fitting a little tighter than comfort demands, so eventually i resigned to wearing my only pair of exercise-type pants. extremely nerdy. and i had to put a rubber band around my right ankle. i might as well have tight rolled them.
the old adage about never forgetting how to ride a bike held true and we took a route designed to avoid a particularly mountainous hill. there were still a few hilly hills though. greg--running, not riding--warned of the first such hill (for those experienced cyclists trying to picture this, you might do best to imagine something more like a gradual incline). perhaps this is a good time to mention that i'm not in... athletic shape... and i should mention that innate knowledge of mechanical gears is not something i possess (and any acquired knowledge--lost or missing after two years). so, as i begin the ascent on gears 3,7, i ask if there is a more appropriate gear for me to be in. "umm, no, that's the easiest.... no wait, hmm, let me think about it." "any day now..." is what i'm thinking as the old legs start to burn and the ascent gets slooower. "hmm... oh, you're actually in the toughest gear." eeek. but i make it... at 2,1... the gear at which your rate of pedal belies the speed at which you are actually traveling.
finally... the farm. well, the community garden plot portion of the farm. here are some views:
our neighbor's plot... under hay until june.the white sticks will eventually turn into a (take-what-you-want-for-free) heirloom tomato plot. in the foreground, about a third of our plot.
the only other gardener out today
the trusty bicycle
on this mother's day... a little one goes without.
and now, some plants in our plot! i know most of them look like weeds, and who knows, they probably are... but they're poking out in the spots where we planted them, so i'm going to assume they're vegetables:
cilantro: always comes up as two sprouts. i'm not sure why.
cilantro: always comes up as two sprouts. i'm not sure why.
garlic... these came from a neighboring gardener. she was happy to give us approximately 15 garlic plants and i think would've have happily given us 15 more. it is either the community spirit or a woman overrun with garlic sprouts... i think a combination of both. at some point in the summer these will give us garlic scapes which are long... sort of green onion-like in shape, but thicker if i remember correctly. then, when the green leaves turn brown, there should be a garlic bulb under each of these. if we leave the bulbs in the ground, they produce more sprouts.
salad greens and purples
herein lies our potato sprouts. i think planting them in this manner was foreshadowing their eventual demise. with all this rain, i can't imagine they won't get the blight.next to the potatoes: soybeans... who hopefully appreciate the rain more than their neighbors.
finally, spinach. can you see it? i'm not so sure i can either.
that's all for today. except for the posting below this one. oh, and i successfully avoided the stripe.
1 comment:
Very pretty design! Keep up the good work. Thanks.
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