My FarmVille: Week 12

There was lots of growth while we were away in Michigan. The peas have overgrown the fence, bloomed, and have already produced some rapidly maturing pods:

The larger broccoli plant has a small head forming (as does the cauliflower):

The squash and zucchini are getting ready to climb the ropes:

And the rose exploded with multiple blossoms:

I put some shades over the spinch plants because they are starting to die off in the heat. I've lost 6 plants in the last week and they're going fast. I had to reseed some new ones in the shady area cause I neglected to arrange watering while I was away last week. Oh well! Time to buy a sprinkler timer for my soaker hoses.

Michigan ain't so bad after all

We went to Michigan to celebrate the end of Dave's semester and to visit our friends Eytan and Sara and their 10-month-old twins, who moved to Ann Arbor nearly a year ago. We drove there, surprised to find that it's less than a 5 hour drive from Pittsburgh.

Dave gives Avi his first piano lesson:

Virg constructs yet another tower for Maya to destroy:

Virg displays feats of strength after a picnic at the arboretum:

Our next stop on the trip was a cute lake town called Saugatuck on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.

This is the inn we stayed in overlooking the Kalamazoo River:

On our first day there, we attempted to drive to the famous Oval Beach, but the access road was closed and there was no other way to get there. Feeling desperate for adventure, we instead climbed this crazy set of 280+ stairs to see what was at the top:

It turns out that there was nothing but this nice view of Saugatuck at the top. We immediately walked down again, and our calves ached for the remainder of the trip.

A sign at the Dairy Daze creamery asked us to receive our ice cream in waffle bowls for environmentally friendly reasons. This is how it was served:

The next day we went to Sand Dunes state park to try and get to another beach. The trail map indicated we would have a 2.5 mile hike to the beach from the parking lot, but it took less than 10 minutes to get there. We enjoyed this beach on Lake Michigan until the tide suddenly swept up and over the berm, almost sweeping our shoes away. (A "berm" is a narrow ledge or shelf typically at the top or bottom of a slope.)

Kilwins ice cream (which we also had in Ann Arbor) was the best ice cream shop in Saugatuck. Look closely at the photo and you'll see two things: Virg enjoying delicious ice cream and a second Kilwins location across the street.

We enjoyed many loving strolls around town:

Virg glows in the sunset after succeeding in the final attempt to access Oval Beach (named for the oval-shaped parking lot).

MORE PHOTOS

My FarmVille: Week 11

Lots of growth in the last week. A couple of the tiny marigold plants have miniature blossoms on them:

The squash and cucumber pre-sprouts I put in the ground earlier in the week are coming up. Hello, butternut squash!

Today, I cleared out the bed beside the garage, formed a hill and furrow and put in the sweet potato roots.

Warmer weather is on the way and with it should come some explosive growth. See you next week!

Glorious Spring Weekend

We got some great weather this weekend, so we got to spend a lot of time enjoying the backyard and taking our weekend visitors around to some of our favorite places in Pittsburgh.

Jen (pictured below) flew in for the weekend, and Amy dropped by Saturday afternoon, so we enjoyed a lovely afternoon of sun basking in our rapidly growing garden, and a walk down Murray Ave for lunch and chocolates. Later that evening we enjoyed a sushi feast at Sakura on Forbes.

Sunday we took Jen around our standard Pittsburgh tour for first-time visitors. Above, Jen is enjoying the view of downtown from Mt. Washington. We stopped at Market Square (which is unfortunately in construction disarray), and toured Phipps Conservatory after lunch at the cafe.

The gargoyle exhibit made it that much more amusing.

More pics here.

Foot sore and feeling peckish, we decided to try a new-to-us ice cream shop in Shadyside called Oh Yeah! which features mix-ins and vegan soy creams. details are on the menu:

Our glorious weekend ended with dinner at the Silk Elephant and the best sleep I've had in awhile.

My FarmVille: Week 10

Wow! Time sure does fly when you're busy, and I have been very very busy in the yard the last 2 weeks.

I bought a whole bunch of plants from the May Market at Phipps last Friday, and they've all gone into the ground today, hence the row cover shields protecting them from the scalding sun (although there's not a lot of that today). Also, my impatiens and basil plants arrived from Burpee on Monday, so those went into the ground as well.

Here's the rundown on what's going in and popping up...

Transplants:
Little Fingers dark purple Asian eggplant (Garden Dreams)
Snowy white Asian eggplant (Garden Dreams)
San Marzano red paste tomato (Garden Dreams)
Supersweet 100 red cherry tomato (Garden Dreams)
Gourmet Orange sweet bell pepper (Garden Dreams)
California Wonder sweet red bell pepper (Garden Dreams)
Italia red ethnic sweet pepper (Garden Dreams) (got this one last year and it was the most productive pepper I planted)
Rosemary (upright habit) (Blackberry Meadows)
Munsted lavender (Blackberry Meadows)
Lemon basil (2) (Blackberry Meadows)
Thai basil (2) (Blackberry Meadows)
Pesto perpetuo basil (3) (Burpee)
Hot Mix impatiens (12) (Burpee)

Seeds coming up:
I've seen 2/6 corn (planted 2 weeks ago) and 3/8 marigolds sprout out of several seeds (including pickling cucumbers, zucchini, and pole beans) I sewed over the last 2 weeks. Kinda disappointing, but the ground may still be too cold for them to germinate, so I'm starting some more seeds indoors (the cucs sprouted inside in ONE day, so I know those seeds are good).

On the other hand, last Friday I planted a large number of sunflower seeds (Burpee sunflower forest mix) on the south side of the garage and in the crappy sloped area by the fence, and those are coming up really fast.

I also planted some more spinach and lettuce in the shady corner by the garage (where you can see the wire cages protecting the seeds from birds). I figured I better get those going before it gets warm again or germination might be a problem (spinach does not like heat).

The garden is almost fully planted now. There are two more spaces each for summer squash and butternut squash, a straw covered sweet potato patch (still waiting for my bare-roots from Burpee--grrrrr), and a pumpkin patch that are not yet planted. As soon as the yellow squash, pumpkin, and butternut squash seeds sprout in their little plastic bags in the net day or two, they'll go into the ground. I also have one more space for a climbing plant on the trellis, maybe another tomato (can one have too many)?