Patio Garden

My patio faces west, so I was concerned that herbs wouldn't get enough direct sunlight and wouldn't grow. But I wanted a patio garden so badly that I started buying plants anyway. I intended to just get one or two plants, see how they fared, then get more if they grew and seemed happy. That intention didn't last longer than first contact. I loved having plants on the balcony, and I'd buy two to three new ones every couple of weeks from February through April.


I've had the spider plant, aloe, and rose bush the longest. But the pineapple sage and a rosemary plant that didn't make it were the first herbs I bought. Now I have basil, thyme, mint, oregano, catnip, rosemary, lavender, sage, pineapple sage, and cilantro in my herb collection.

The cilantro was the first herb to flower. I was surprised, because I'd never seen cilantro flower. Those little white flowers smelled so good, like cilantro times ten. Unfortunately I didn't photograph them. Now the catnip (clustered white) and pineapple sage (tubular red) have flowers.

This padawan has a long way to go when it comes to listening to plants, but at least this patio garden appears happy and healthy, with pretty little flowers.

Inked, Part I

After two hours of Sharpie drawing, one and a half hours of needles, and a couple of days of laying around on my stomach, I am a card carrying member of The Inked. It's not close to done yet. I anticipate at least two more sessions to finish my tree, but the first one went well. I have a trunk and branches, with more growth (filling out) scheduled for June 4th.

It doesn't hurt nearly as much as I thought it would. Okay, the application of said tree hurt a lot. The hour and half of needles was a limit imposed my ability to stay still and take the pain. I didn't bleed much though, and it hasn't hurt much at all since the needles went away. No shirts got stuck to my back, and the first lotion application occurred this afternoon right before the picture.

I love the trunk and branches, but I want my leaves.

Bargains

I made my first bargain with the gods about a week ago. I hiked out to a waterfall where spirituality bubbles easily to the surface with a friend. It's a very easy place to meditate, and the surrounding forest is an important spiritual place to me. I'd been planning this bargain for a while, but I decided that was the best place to make the promise.

I promised that I wouldn't prepare any food for self consumption with dairy or egg products for one month if the gods would help me deal with the pain of being tattooed.

I left in a clause that I could eat food with dairy and egg products if other people prepared it, but I'm also making sure that I don't abuse that clause. I've eaten some dairy and egg products at one restaurant since then (a sushi place with great vegetarian sushi) and a small pastry at work. I see cheese and awesome looking cakes everywhere since I made this promise, so I have made some personal sacrifices to keep my end of the bargain.

I'm also learning how to bake and cook vegan though. I didn't start cooking until after I went back to being vegetarian, so I'm looking up recipes and vegan cook books and generally having a lot of fun searching for good vegan brownies, cupcakes, and frosting.

It's an experiment, and after the month is up I may keep going vegan for one week out of every month. It'll keep me from ever taking half & half, eggs, and macaroni & cheese for granted again.