Climbing Plot Mountain

I have a co-worker who hums constantly as she moves through the hallways. (I observed to her once that she must live alone. She looked at me oddly and clearly did not follow my reasoning.) I tried to explain to her today, when she corrected herself and apologized for humming around me, that other people’s verbalized sounds distracted me because they intruded into my interior monologue...which got me to wondering how many other people have such a constant interior conversation going.

I’d be hell on telepaths.

I also realized, in the process, why I hate listening in to other people’s cell phone conversations, completely aside from the sheer lack of manners of holding some conversations in public. >:-) I really don’t need more distractions, folks. Trust me on this one.

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If I have enough brain cells left this weekend, I intend to try making either homemade ginger ale or switchel. It’s been really hot – hot enough that I did not sleep well last night – and I think we could all use a break from the ubiquitous iced tea (decaf, of course, since the object is not to dehydrate us further). If it turns out, I’ll report the recipe I used.

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Cucumbers, as I discovered two weeks ago at the end of the hottest and second-driest June ever on record locally, turn inedibly bitter without enough water. They’ve all been going to the chickens, and I’ve been watering daily to ensure the new fruit will be edible. The tzatziki sauce I made on Sunday is good, so I think the watering regimen is working – and it doesn’t hurt that we did get some rain on Friday night. And more on Monday. And on Tuesday. Yay!

I wish I’d written down the names of the tomato varieties I chose this year at the plant sale. The grape tomatoes are particularly excellent. Given that most grape tomatoes are still very much open-pollinated (e.g., not hybridized and thus producing true to seed), I should be safe just saving seeds from some of the nicer fruits.

The sunrise has visibly changed since Midsummer. At 5AM (when my alarm goes off on work days, and when my dog alarm goes off if the mechanical one doesn’t), there’s now the barest glow in the eastern sky – nothing like the don’t-need-a-light dawn we had two weeks ago. Sunset times haven’t started their slide yet, but that’s coming, and I will not complain.

And I’m reminded, by the change in daylight, that it’s time to think about fall crops. Renee’s Garden Seeds already has my order for kale, romaine lettuce, and cucumbers (for planting next year – they’re promised not to be bitter). Great seed company: http://www.reneesgarden.com/ I remember ordering from these folks when they still produced a paper catalog. I have never been disappointed in quality or service.