The Flu Has Ended, Bring Forth The Garden!

After suffering from the flu for two weeks I felt pretty damn good this morning. That, coupled with the recent good weather (it was 64 degrees somewhere in the southwest the other day), made me aching to get in the yard. I haven't done much in the yard since Fall, so there has been a bit of pruning and clearing away of random crap, along with planting (the best part).

All in all it as very productive. I planted my onions next to the garlic I planted in the Fall. We had a strangely warm Fall (one day in October was 80 degrees), causing the garlic (the spindly looking green shoots in the back) to begin growing too early. I hope the garlic turns out, it is my first time Fall planting it. It may look like a small plot, but I put 18 onion sets into the area in front of the garlic

I started my tomatoes, melons and cucumbers indoors, in order to get a jump on them when it warms up enough to plant them out in a few weeks. I planted five varieties of tomato: silver fir tree (from Russia, and known to produce REALLY early), hillbilly potato leaf (big, orange fruits), Jaune Flamme (small, orange variety that dries well, I hear), cream sausage (a pale yellow, almost white, roma tomato; I am looking forward to white-tomato soup), and a currant tomato (very small, very sweet). I also planted a cucumber called Crystal Apple that looks like a pale green and white apple. The melon is a small melon called Queens Ann Pocket Melon. It is very small and yellow with orange stripes. It is supposed to have a 'lovely fragrance,' which is where it gets its name: women in Victorian times used to carry them in their pockets, in order to smell nice. I am growing them for their smell....they supposedly have no flavor.

Above, you will see some pots, along with my panty-mobile. I planted arugula (which the Brits call rocket, because the French word 'roquette' is what they try to emulate), cress, lettuce mix and spinach in these pots. I plan on salads in about 4-6 weeks! The site they are sitting on now will eventually be the home of two large tomato bushes, but not for a few more months. Since it was such a nice day I decided to dry my laundry outside for the first time since October. I like the difference between my colorful socks and the drab underwear hanging behind them...I will have to work on changing that.

You can see the two green bags full of yard waste from my tiny garden in this picture. For some reason I am now writing underlined, I have no idea why or how to change it, so enjoy the underlined goodness. To the right is my octagon of death...I mean of drying. I found that joining my two drying racks into an octagon prevents them from falling over, a common problem I had last year. The camellia tree is in bloom. Two notes on that: 1) I am not sure if that is a camellia, but I think it is, and 2) I like that tree from now until next week, when it will start to drop leaves and dead flowers faster than a than is humanly possible to clean up after it.

Another view of my backyard. While I was working today our new neighbors were moving in. I didn't talk to them, but from what I gathered (by eavesdropping), they are a young couple who will be getting married soon. I think they may have a dog! While I was gardening I listened to my audio book of THE BUCOLIC PLAGUE: HOW TO MANHATTANITES BECAME GENTLEMAN FARMERS, AN UNCONVENTIONAL MEMOIR. It is the story of the two guys from the TV show THE FABULOUS BEEKMAN BOYS: a gay couple buys a farm in a small town in upstate New York, and hilarity and heart ache ensue. I kind of love that show.

And finally, my laundry/strawberry line. I strung this line up last year when I needed more room to hang out clothes to dry; it now does double duty as a line for my strawberry baskets. That wall gets a good amount of sun, so I figured suspending the berries from the line made good sense. To the far right of the picture, on the fence is a netting I strung up today. It is too fine to see, but trust me, it is there. I planted peas at the foot of it and hope the little buggers will climb the netting, thus thriving and providing me with a delicious accompaniment to my mashed potatoes.

I will be adding zucchini, beans, more peas, more lettuce, cabbage and whatever else I see for sale at the garden center, into this garden. I am so excited.

Like usual, please excuse spelling and grammar errors: I am in a rush and don't have time/don't feel like going back over this. Love everyone!

Mustafa

Here is the publicity video of the show I am working on as a dramaturg in London. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv2EzRpb1Oc

Ok, I am not smart enough to add the video on here, instead you get the youtube link. ENJOY!!!

A repost from my friend's blog

This is what my friend Emma did when she was getting stressed from writing assignments. She is a PhD student at the University of Warwick. I feel that I may just have copy this idea in the future. This is also the friend that once said to me "I guess I should through this cardboard [from putting together Ikea furniture] away, instead of building a fort. It is a sign that I am maturing into a real person [read adult]."

"When the going gets tough...

...the tough build blanket forts.

Yepp. This is how I deal with feeling down....and you know what?

It worked.

To the Writing Cave!"

from epbandj2.blogspot.com

The Bathroom: The Room The British Forgot

If there is one room in a British house that is inferior to its North American counter-part, it is the bathroom, or as they call it here (if it has not bath tub), the toilet. I rarely will call something British inferior, but the bathroom truly is. Here is why.

Before you enter the bathroom, in some house, you must turn the light on. This may sound obvious, but in British houses, light switches are either on the outside of the bathroom, or, if they are on the inside, they are a dangling string, hopefully near the door. This is for what the Brits call 'Health and Safety.' Basically the person who thought up this law believes that touching a light switch in the bathroom will put you in mortal danger. They think that you will have a wet hand, and when you touch the switch you will electrocute yourself. I would believe this, except having lived the vast majority of my life in countries and houses with switches INSIDE the bathroom, I have never once heard of this happening.

Once inside you may notice a distinct lack of any kind of storage. Only a few bathrooms I have been in have built in storage, and that is, from my experience, never enough. I have a pedestal sink, which, though lovely to look at, gives no storage. We do have a closet in the bathroom, but it holds the gas water heater, and as such, cannot be used to store anything...legally.

There are no outlets in English bathrooms, aside from those made for electric shavers. I have been told this is for Health and Safety. This makes sense, as I have heard of hundreds of accounts of electrocutions from appliances in bathrooms...actually I have never heard of this. Water-based electrocutions are rare, as Ground Fault Interruptors prevent this. Anyway, if we cannot have normal outlets, why can we have the shaver outlets? Shaver outlet carry the same voltage as normal outlets, AND are never grounded, making them more dangerous than normal outlets. There is no logic in this!

And now we get to the water taps, or was we call them in America, faucets. Many places have a single, mixing tap, like back home. What this means is you have one tap, that lets out water whose temperature you can adjust. For some reason, many sinks and bath tubs in this country have not broken into the 20th century...even when those bathrooms where built in the 21st. My English friends tell me that the allure of this set up is that when one wants hot water, you get it quickly, while with mixing taps you have to wait. This is the ONLY merit of this set up. A merit that does not make up for the fact the when washing your hands you get the choice between ice cold water that makes your joints ache, or scalding water that has your screaming a falsetto note you were not aware you could reach. In my first apartment here, I had no shower, but I did have a bath tub with one hot and one cold tap. Luckily I had a Y-connector that pathetically and temporarily mixed the two...it is one of the main reasons I moved. Basically, the merit (for there is only one) of the two taps is like saying "Sure my car has no engine, but that means it uses no gas!"  Some of my friends say that all you have to do is plug the drain and fill the sink, mixing the water yourself.  However, many places do not have a plug. So you are supposed to....?  

In Bill Bryson's newest book, AT HOME: A BRIEF HISTORY OF PRIVATE LIFE, he relates a story of a woman who worked as a writer for a woman's magazine in London in the 1950s. She was told that she and the other writers where not allowed to write about bathrooms, as at that time in England, not enough people had bathrooms, and it might cause jealousy among housewives. So I would take this as a reason for the state of many modern English bathrooms, but then why not make changes when you can? If you are renovating your 50+ year old bathroom, why would you put separate taps in, or storage?

Like I said earlier, I do not usually compare English and American things, but this one has been annoying me. Every North American I have asked feels the same way, and many English people who have lived/spent a lot of time in North America as well. There are things here that are vastly superior: gun control, National Health Service, the availability of Indian food, laws that allow for cheap airline flights, people knowing where their food comes from, people who respect their history, ect. I love England, but I do not love the bathroom.

PS Please forgive any spelling errors, I am tired and can't be bothered to re-read and spell check.

Making Sauerkraut

I decided that I wanted to make red sauerkraut, so I went to the farmer's market (yay for buying local and seasonal!) and bought a few ingredients. I followed a recipe, but it still seems too salty, but I'll have to wait for two weeks, until the pickling process is done. Anyway, I only decided to post this because as I was washing the salt off the cabbage, I though the color of the water was really pretty. So here are a few pictures:

My Day in Chipping (Chicken) Campden

Patryk had Monday the 4th of April off so we went to Chipping Campden for the day. It is a small towne about 20 minutes from where Patryk lives. It was known for its wool trade, the way it became rich, and for looking so damn cute. About the title of this post: for some reason Patryk kept saying Chicken Campden instead Chipping, so the Chicken kind of stuck.

This is the market in the town. Everything, by law, must be built out of the local Cotswolds stone, so the entire town has this ambery look to it. Some of the buildings in Stratford have the same stone.

This is part of what is left of the manor house, which was burnt down in the civil war (by the Royalists I think). Cotswold stone turns pink when it is heated up, as you can see from the stones on the left. At the far end is a banqueting house. My guide book lied when it said this site is open to the public. Apparently we were trespassing, but luckily the people who lived there jus laughed and said not to worry about it.

This is the west door to St James' Church in the town.

Patryk and I after we ate our lunch. I felt like such a tourist that day!

After we left Chipping Campden we decided to go see Broadway Tower, in the village of Broadway. Patryk had tried to take me there twice before, but it was always closed. One night we even had a night time picnic in front of the gate when we found out it was closed. The tower is a folly built in the 19th century. It served no real purpose other than something for a victorian businessman to spend his money on instead of using his money to help people.

It Has Been a While

Ok, so it has been a while since I last posted. Oh well.

*My friend Victoria and I are moving in together next month to a house in the center of town, which means much lower cost of living for me!

*I have a job as a barman at Carluccio's Italian restaurant in town. I want to be a waiter, tips would mean i made about 50% more than I do on the bar.

*I have a boyfriend (yay!).

*My best friend is getting married in Iowa this summer and I am in the wedding party (double yay!).

*I love living in England!!!

Ok, so that is the basic news. I will also be applying for a research degree to start in the Fall. It will definitely be an MPhil (one year) that might turn into an MLitt (2 year) or PhD (3 year) thing, but just the MPhil for now. Right now I am looking at researching the roots of theatre in the church and try to determine at which point theatre became truly secular (there is more to it that that, much more, but I don't want to say too much right now).

I have also been sick on and off since about New Years. I had the Mumps for about a week, just one more 'who gets thats' disease for me to add to the list alongside TB. I am getting over a sinus infection now.

So long for now. Tootles!!!