June 07, 2009
The Payoff
The carrots in this salad?: Supermarket
Tomatoes?: Supermarket
Lettuce?: Mine, all mine. Picked not five minutes ago.
Herbs sprinkled on top for no other reason than to look festive, especially because I’m not all that keen on how they taste?: Mine.
So, other than the pretty, what’s the real payoff?
Saving money? Oh, hell, no.
The joy of sifting warm, loamy soil through your fingers? Double ohhellno.
The exercise? Puh-leeeze.
Communing with nature? Meh.
The fresh air? Meh.
The distraction it provides? Eh.
So, then, what?
With apologies for the double negative, you’re looking at the fifth salad I would not have eaten if the lettuce had not been in the garden. That’s the payoff. Apparently gardening turns you into a flippin’ grown-up. I am not pleased.
Still on the subject of gardening, the salad above and the picture below are the good news:
These little beauts are sprouting on this now-familiar plant:
However, simultaneous with all of these heady successes, your blog mistress is also proving to be the one and only person, of the six billion on this earth, who can’t grow a Chia Pet. Think not? Have a look:
This growth can only be described as sad, scrawny and spindly. And unidirectional. For some reason the doggy’s butt is as flat as a Kansas prairie and all the growth is pointing forward. Even worse, it’s growing forward and sideways.
I've moved the Chia Pet to a different spot in the kitchen relative to the sun to see if the problem can be rectified but I think the damage has been done. If this dog were real, it would be being treated for mange. Or would've been sent to live on a distant-relative's farm upstate, wink, wink.
(P.S. A big hello and cyber-hug to my Nancy, my new stalker. Phew! I've gone waaay too long without one. Howdy, Nancy! Thanks for reading the blog and for leaving such a nice comment last time!) Posted by Ryan at June 7, 2009 09:40 PM
Hooray! Real salads rock! (And trust me, if I could figure out how exactly to grow ice cream, I'd be doing it.)
Posted by: Kristen on June 7, 2009 09:04 PMooh! Pretty pretty header! It looks like sherbet! Now, Ryan. How in bloody hell are you able to get fruit so big on your tomytoes already, living in the northwest?!? Mine are just barely getting fruit. I go out every day and cheer them on even though they are ALMOST pea sized.
And the gansey below? it is absofraginlutely beautiful! Guess i should trot over to ravelry and check things out. It's hard to keep up. Now that i am a member and can log on and everything without you holding my hand i got the big head and haven't visited it for a piece.
and (cough cough) no cat pictures. :-( for a Very. Long. Time. hint hint
Posted by: mtb on June 8, 2009 06:29 AMEating salad does NOT make you a grown-up. Just looking like a grown-up. As long as you can stamp your foot with the best of 2-year-olds, you are NOT grown-up.
The chia-pet is adorable, with his fur not growing in right. Remember, the commercials and photos are air-brushed and photo-shopped. Real life is what you've got, and he's adorable.
Posted by: Carol on June 8, 2009 07:31 AMThe Chia pet made me laugh right out loud.
So, how about shaving your chia pet and trying a new crop of catnip for your chia. Even if it works only marginally, you should get your $ worth of entertainment from the cats!
Posted by: Seanna Lea on June 8, 2009 08:09 AMWow, Ryan! Your tomatoes are doing great. I've got loads of flowers on mine but no fruit yet (at least none that I've noticed). Hooray on the salad green success, too. Your salad looks scrumptious!
Posted by: Denise in Kent, WA on June 8, 2009 08:15 AMSheesh! If that's all it takes to become a grownup, I would skipped gardening at age 18 and stayed there!
Be careful - it's a slippery slope! The next thing you know, you'll be exercising! LOL
Posted by: Norma on June 9, 2009 06:02 AMOMG, thank you for the chuckles! You have such a way with words....
Posted by: nutmeg33 on June 9, 2009 12:35 PMThat is exactly the way all Chia pets grow. You are doing perfectly. That is also why I'm so fond of the chia pet that is a man's head. The 12 year old in me giggles at the "bad hair" he grows.
Posted by: Laurie on June 10, 2009 07:27 PM