Indoor Garden - First harvest!

Last week I posted that I was growing an indoor lettuce garden. And this week I did my first harvest! Following the tips from others who have the same garden kit on how to properly harvest the lettuce I went with the whole leaf method. On the right you can see the before picture. This shows that the Red Sails (the purple one) and the Black Seeded Simpson leaves were covering up the pod that has yet to fully sprout and the others were also fighting for light. So I cut them down a bit.

You can see here on the left what I kept on the plants after the harvest. I might still trim a few more but this was a start. They say not to take more than a third of the plant at each harvest so that it can recover and grow. The plants are quick growers so I am not too worried. Just have to figure out what to do with my small pile of fresh salad greens. Yes, make a salad is the typical answer for what to make with lettuce. And maybe that is what I will do. Start simple, to get to know the flavors then go more advanced in my salad making or lettuce uses.

It is nice that even while it is snowing outside I can still have my own bit of green and fresh produce. This is a great way to let kids see where food comes from, and grow their own salads and other veggies. Even if you don't get a fancy kit to create your own indoor garden there are other ways to start one. You can take empty food containers and fill with soil and plant seeds, get some small pots, or other recyclable containers, even toilet paper tubes can work for starting seeds. Take the tube, cut four slits on one end to fold over creating a cup, fill it with soil stand them up inside a cleaned food container, getting 4-6 of them in the container depending on size, and place by a window to watch the seeds grow. Remember to water them each day as needed. Enjoy your own indoor garden grow, Meet Me Outdoors.

Indoor Gardening 2021

My indoor gardening over the years has typically been some version of volunteer garden. Or basically whatever mysteriously grows out of my compost is what gets to be watered and nurtured and let grow until it is finished its season.  I have gotten squash plants and tomato plants out of it in the past. Not the best of produce but worked well enough. Last spring I did do some planting of basil seeds that I got and the result was quite nice. Fresh basil has been a great addition to my meals. Other seeds I tried planting a month ago didn't grow because I wasn't keeping up on my watering. That has been something I have forgotten to do even when I do walk by my window garden entering my kitchen all the time.

So this year I am trying something different. A garden system that will tell me when it needs water if I forget, and when to add nutrients, too. An AeroGarden. I am not one for brands or anything, but this is something I have wanted to try for many years. And now I have! It has been two weeks since I planted and four of the six pods have made some great progress. The other two I am giving another week before calling it, and the company has a guarantee if any of their pods don't grow by sending replacements.

I started this as a project for one of my classes, was hoping to do weekly check ins with my students to see how the plants progress over the semester. Then for fun I decided to do daily growth check ins in between the class time since the first sprouts were super exciting for me not to share. I took a couple pictures two to three times a day depending on when I was home or out. The resulting video was made with a stop motion app with eight frames per second timing.

I have yet to try any of the lettuce leaves, I am waiting until they get a bit bigger. For harvesting they say to just pluck the leaves and eat. Right now they are small so maybe next week or a week after that I will try one. I also have a plant your own seeds kit so I might add those in the spots where the plants didn't grow and see what may come out of it. I have some more basil seeds and some other herbs I can plant.  It is early for planting outside, but this has been a fun way to bring the outside in. Looking forward to watch this continue to grow. Try some new ways to plant your own indoor garden or start some seeds for an outdoor garden and watch it grow, Meet Me Outdoors.

Stuck at Home, But Having Fun

Feeling stuck at home? Well we all do these days. I have been working from home these last couple weeks and while it is a lovely day out and perhaps will go on a walk, I just finished a little project. I decided to use all of the random seeds I have been saving from various fruits and make a little fun animation. You can also make your own stop motion animations using found objects in nature and a camera. What kinds of fun nature art animations will you come up with?
I hope this helps you smile today, Meet Me Outdoors.

Exploring the Rain Garden

A few years ago I ran an elective class that helped maintain a garden across the field from the school. It has likely been as long since anyone really looked over it. The garden was designed to act as a rain garden and a learning garden. As a rain garden the plants are native to the region and everything grows without much maintenance. When I ran the elective I tried to have a section or two of the garden for a vegetable garden for the kids to maintain. With no one maintaining it over summer between school years the vegetable garden patches are lost among the rest of the plants. What brought me to the garden this time was that it was the end of the school year and I wanted to add my class's compost collection to the compost pile.

The path I usually take to walk through the garden was over grown when I arrived the other day. The alternated path took me over the water that runs through the garden. If you look carefully in the first picture you can see the bit of purple flowers that caught my eye.  You can see it the little dip in the garden that is where the water collects when it rains. I wouldn't say it is big enough to be called a creek, but it is enough that you have to hop over it to get the back main part of the garden. 

The plants may not seem like much from the distance, many are about waist height on me. I don't think I would let the younger kids I work with run through it now since most of the plants would be taller than them and I would lose sight of them. 

Along the edges of the garden, especially near the dip in the ground, I could see some interesting flowers of different colors. The one I could identify was that purple flower, you can see my attempt to take close ups of the flower with my phone on the left. The flower is a type of iris. I like the colorfulness of it. It is days like that one when I walk through the garden when I miss having one.  Right now all of my attempts to plant things from seeds has only given me sprouts but no plants from that. My geranium is the only plant that I have had for a few years that is still growing nicely, hopefully it will flower again soon.  While I may not have my own garden it is nice to be able to see other ones near by. Hope you also get to see what your neighborhood gardens have to offer this spring, Meet Me Outdoors.

Looking Forward to Spring

I decided it was time to do some repotting of plants for spring.  In the blue pot is my geranium plant that needed a bigger container. On the right in the green pot are some acorn squash sprouts my second grade class planted. The put too many seeds in the seed starter cup and when I put in a plastic bag too keep moist 7 of them grew. I put them all in the pot and hope that at least one makes it to a big plant and maybe even to flowering stage, but there are many more weeks until that happens. Until then... waiting for spring, Meet Me Outdoors.

Lake of the Isles Park - Minneapolis, MN

Beginning of this year's summer road trip traveling along the Mississippi River starts in Minneapolis, MN. Minnesota is known as the land of 10,000 lakes so I walked around Lake of the Isles Park which is part of Minneapolis Chain of Lakes Regional Park. 

It was a really nice walk even as it reached midday summer heat. I made sure to bring hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, and took water, which is important.

Between the walking path and the lake was perimeter of wild flowers where I saw some butterflies fluttering from flower to flower and other pollinators like bees. I saw some monarch butterflies and an Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly. Only the one that I was able to take a picture of was a monarch. Look for the triangular shaped thing in the center of the picture.

As I walked around the lake there were some rent a canoe spots and we watched as one group prepared themselves to start their canoeing experience.  There are two paths around the lake, one for those on foot and the other for those who are on bikes. The lake I walked had a very funny shape to it unlike another in the chain of lakes that is more circular.  The shape of Lake of the Isles when I mapped my waking was more like a duck head shape.  

The road trip continues following the river Southwards. I am looking forward the adventure. Go see what you can find at your local parkes, Meet Me Outdoors.

Spring is here!

I went on a walk during my lunch break and saw all if the cherry blossom trees were in bloom.  These were in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Baltimore.  The National Cherry Blossom Festival is going on in Washington DC is going on now through April 17. Since I can't make it down to DC to see the festival this year, finding the cherry blossom trees here is a treat.

This week at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore we have a new festival called Light City.  I might try sticking around after work to see it.  Enjoy spring time, Meet Me Outdoors.

Concrete jungle - New York City

On a layover in NYC after a conference. I was on a search for vegan food I found myself looking at the Chrystler Building off and in the distance. My walk took me in the opposite direction when I stumbled upon a street festival. Lots of cool shops and food option but my goal was to go to Blossom du Jour and I am glad I did. They have a great variety of vegan food and gluten free options. Yum!

The pictures are of my view of the city and of the street festival. As you can see even in a concrete jungle like NYC there are some trees. Maybe next time I visit I will have some more time to go see the Central Park or other green spaces.  Enjoying the journey, Meet Me Outdoors.

 

  

Why did the toad cross the road?

I decided to take a quick evening stroll down my street and saw something different in my path.  All along the way I saw many leaves and twigs scattered around the sidewalk and road. Then I saw a lump in the path that was out of the ordinary.  I stepped closer to the lump and it hopped! It was a toad.

I was able to get a picture of the toad. It is the green lumpy thing near the center of the image. When I first saw it in the sidewalk its green coloring stood out more compared to the white cement. On the mud it is a little more camouflaged, but still easy enough to see.

I am glad I took the evening stroll.  It's good to have some fresh air and get outside after being stuck inside from all of the raining over the last couple days. The surprise toad was a nice bonus.  Take a chance and go for a stroll what will you find, Meet Me Outdoors.

The Garden Needs Some (a lot of) Work

I was checking on the garden at the Sunday school after being away for the summer.  My friend was nice enough to take a picture of me while I was standing in the garden.  I was standing on tiptoe so she could see me better. I am not well camouflaged in my bright pink shirt.

Yes, most of what you are seeing is weeds. There are some baby fruit trees in the mix that are surrounded by fencing, but mostly weeds in there.  At this time I don't think I feel safe letting the children into the garden, mostly because anyone shorter than me... will be lost. I was having a hard time finding a place to stand having to step on plants to make my own path. 

One idea was to let the children just pick the flowers around the edges of the garden and we can work our way into it. Knowing the nature of children they will not say at the edges and likely would get lost in the field. 

I could take a weed hacker and cut it down to size, most likely would let landscapers do that.  A greener option is to rent goats and let them eat the weeds leaving me with a lovely garden and some natural fertilizer.  Not sure I have the budget for that.  Strap some tennis rackets to my feet and trudge out a path like I am snowshoeing... not so easy.

If I figure out a way to hack out a maze path in the garden like the corn mazes that are popular in the autumn, that would be awesome.  If anything I might see if there is a good corn maze in my area and trek out to one with some friends.  Find a corn maze near you and join the adventure, Meet Me Outdoors

Animals at Night

Tonight as I was walking from my car to my house I saw five deer. I saw the first one crossing the street, one trotting down the sidewalk away from me and three others a few houses down the road. It got me thinking about other animals I have seen at night when walking from my car to my house over the past month or so.

My first odd animal encounter was maybe a month ago when a fox ran right by me going around my car then up the road.  I watched as it crossed the road to the median then into the brush.  I then heard a squeak from the bush and out ran two foxes and they chased each other down the street.  I have seen one of the foxes since then crossing the street on a later night.

My next animal was with a bunny.  I saw it hop up my driveway and into my backyard a few weeks ago. Another day I saw one hop across the path I was walking to my door. It stopped behind a plant and posed for a picture... Ok, so maybe not posed per se but it did freeze in its position as I took the picture.  One adaptation of rabbits is they stand motionless and hope the predator doesn't see them. They also have coloring that helps them blend in with their surroundings.  (Bonus points go to whoever can find the bunny in the picture.)

In looking for activities to do with my nature class that I teach on the weekends I found something called "fox walking". Fox walking is a barefoot walking technique that helps you focus not on the ground but on your surroundings.  I read that for every deer you see, you likely passed ten others.  I was sure this time to look not just at the first deer I saw tonight, but to see if there were others. Sure enough when I surveyed the area I saw the other four deer.  Look around you next time you are outside and don't let animal encounters go unnoticed, Meet Me Outdoors.

Robinson Nature Center

Recently I visited the Robinson Nature Center in Columbia, MD.  There is a great exhibits with lots hands-on and interactive features, which is great for all ages.  A section that talks about the local wildlife through the Chesapeake area as well as how the land was used where the Nature Center is located. 

While many who know me would think my favorite part was the NatureSphere, a digital planetarium and dome-style theater (and don't get me wrong it is up there as a favorite) I really enjoyed the nature trails out around the Nature Center.  The building has a roof garden that rolls off with lots of flowering plants to the tree cover where the trails are found.  Among the garden and flowers I found butterflies.  The two you see in the pictures are of the swallowtail family.  They get that name because their hind wings have a little drop shaped part similar to the tails of the swallow bird. The swallowtail butterfly is the largest butterfly in the United States.  Most swallowtail butterflies are found in more tropical climates.  The two common ones you see in the US is Tiger Swallowtail, with the yellow and black stripes, and the Spicebush Swallowtail, with the colorful dots along the bottom of its hind wings. Other butterflies which seem to not want their picture taken are the little white ones.

 Butterflies are pollinators going from flower to flower spreading the pollen around as they enjoy the nectar for food. The second picture has another pollinator buzzing around the flowers, can you see it?  It's a bee! The nature center actually has a bee hive that you can see into as the workers come and go.  No worries, the hive is fully inclosed but outside in the gardens you can watch as they collect the nectar to bring back to be made into honey.

The trails weave through the forested areas, over and around creeks and along streams. Trails are all less than a mile to explore and are nicely labeled with little trail markers (blazes) of either a hiker or an arrow. 

Whether you are inside exploring the Nature Center's exhibit area, seeing a show in the NatureSphere or simply exploring nature itself this is a great place to do it.  Find a nature center in your area and have an adventure, Meet Me Outdoors.

A Day Outside: Berry Picking, Orioles Game AND Concert in the Park!

What a day!  I basically just spent the whole day outside.  What could have been a cloudy rainy day according to the forecast on Friday turned into a hot and humid day in the sun.  I brought my big sunhat, sunglasses and lots of sunscreen... still got a bit of of a sunburn but not as bad. Now on the aloe treatment.  Next time more sun screen!

Today started early with a trip to Larriland Farms were I met one of my friends and we picked raspberries.  They have both red and purple variety at this time of year and even blue berries.  We stuck to the raspberries and got over 5lbs worth that we split between the two of us to take home.  It was getting to be really hot out with the sun overhead so we didn't stay much past noon.  I have already eaten a bunch and the rest are in the fridge waiting for me to blend into a nice smoothie that may turn to sorbet if I decide to freeze it.  Seeing that the rest of this week is looking to be another lovely heatwave, having some sorbet might be perfect use for the berries... Boiling them down into jam is a great way to help preserve them, maybe even a fruit pie, but I enjoy quick and simple so blend, drink, freeze.

Right behind home plate!

 Midday, after I sorted and cleaned the berries I brought back I went to the Orioles vs Blue Jays baseball game.  I traded in the tickets (thanks Grandmom) for a seat that was in the lower level and with some shade.  Turns out I got a great seat, just a few rows below the press box and right behind home plate.  Of course there was a tall guy sitting in front of me who blocked my view a bit, but otherwise really good seats... My brothers might be a bit jealous, but I can't control that.  Because I didn't have too many distractions of other people I actually was able to pay attention to the game... O's won!

Panorama view from my seat

Even a dragonfly wanted to watch the game (it's on the wire)

The panorama view is from the game midway through. I took it from my seat above the head of the tall guy you see in the above picture to the right of the frame. My standard baseball game snack is cotton candy but I also got a fruit smoothie as a nice healthier drink choice that also is very refreshing in this hot weather.

After the game continued on to phase 3 of my day outside in the sun... interestingly enough it's a Sunday.  I moved on to Patterson Park for their summer concert series.  Today's musician was Ellen Cherry.  The concerts are held outside on the eastern lawn of the Patterson Park Pagoda.  Bring a lawn chair, picnic blanket, kids, dogs, munchies, whatever and chill out to some awesome music. Concerts are free and open to the public from roughly 6:30p-8:30p. 

Before the concert by the Pagoda

I tried to get a group of people together but only one person found me, it was pretty crowded.  There was a nice ambiance, for lack of a better word. We picked a nice shaded area below the Pagoda to sit and listened to music.  I brought munchies... including some of the berries I picked.

The picture on the left is from before the concert.  I was walking over a bit early and stopped in the shade a bit before climbing the hill.  Did I mention it was hot outside?  People do climb up inside the Pagoda to see the skyline view of Baltimore.  I prefer the ground level maybe a hill view as you can see in the picture below.  I guess you can call it the "after picture" because the hill is filled with people and you can see Ellen Cherry in the white dress on stage singing. The Pagoda is behind me.  As the sun got lower into what photographers "Golden Hour" which is when everything seems to have a nice golden glow at sunrise and sunset.  I wasn't quiet able to capture that effect in my own pictures, but I was able to observe it from my spot on the hill. 

After my long day outdoors I am happy to be relaxing indoors again wondering where my next adventure may take me.  Stay cool everyone, Meet Me Outdoors.

Little purple flowers

When I came home from work today one of my neighbor's kids was out riding her trike along the sidewalk.  She stopped when I pulled up my car and couldn't wait to tell me about some flowers that seem to have gone missing from the lawn of my house. Earlier this spring, maybe around late February or early March (I know spring is technically end of March but it was a mild winter) there were these nice little flowers that popped up around the lawn. They had broad petals, a light purple in color and were relatively low lying along the ground, should have taken a picture.  Anyways, my neighbor was eager to point out that they not there anymore, and wondered where they went. My answer was that the flowers may show up again later but for now there are yellow flowers in the lawn. She pointed to some other smaller purple flowers on her lawn that were near some yellow ones. I was happy that she was noticing all the different plant life in our area, even if most people would identify them as weeds. 

Between when I last saw the purple flowers of a few months ago and today there have been a series of mini-snow storms that could have frozen some of the early bloomers. However the daffodils in the median of our road toughed it out despite the bit of snow and are now in full bloom. Also in bloom are cherry blossom trees, I passed a few with white flowers and pink flowers on my drive. I hope to go out and take some pictures.  Keep exploring your neighborhood green spaces, Meet Me Outdoors.  

A Tampa Vacation: Downtown

I spent the day walking around in Downtown Tampa, FL. There is a walking path along the Hillsborough River including a great stretch of green space at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park.  Since I came in winter holiday time the park has a tented public ice skating rink, but that goes away after New Years. I noticed that the waterfront park is family and dog friendly, even has a playground!

The weather was great.  I decided to walk along the river and explore between stopping at various museums in the area.  Across the river I found the Henry B. Plant Park which is a historic park from 1891 which was a part of the Plant Museum.  Not knowing the area or the history of the Plant Museum, I originally thought by its name, like some of you may have as well, that it was going to be some sort of botanical garden.  Turns out it was a hotel called the Tampa Bay Hotel built in the Moorish style as a luxurious stop along the Plant system of railways, steamships and hotels and named for Henry B. Plant. Right now a part of the building it has been preserved as museum to show what life was like at the time it was built, the rest of it is part of University of Tampa.

Tampa Bay Hotel now the Plant Museum and University of Tampa

The Henry B. Plant Park has twisting paths and sculptures among some amazing trees.  IT was the garden for the visitors of the Tampa Bay Hotel. While the University was closed for the holidays and students not around at the time, I could imagine it to be not only a great place to sit under a tree and read a book or to get a few friends together and toss a frisbee.

The picture on the right with the squiggly sculpture is part of the park. The sculpture is in the park and the building on the right side is on the other side of the river but from where I stood they looked the same heights. I thought it looked cool so I took a picture.

While walking around in Plant Park I saw some interesting plants that I have yet to identify but I noticed there were roots that were coming out of the stem. Only other time I saw that was on orchids, however they aren't the only plants that have these types of roots called aerial roots.

The picture here is a closeup of some of the details of the Plant Museum. The top part the looks like a weird cone shape is called a cupola, there are 4 on the top of the Plant Museum and they standout in the skyline because of their unique design.

It was lots of fun to explore the downtown area of Tampa, FL, especially the green spaces along the river.  The architecture was also nice to see along the way. There is only so much one can do in a day.  If you live in a city or visiting one take a look at some of the pockets of green space.  Meet Me Outdoors.

Driving through the middle of nowhere...

Many days of this road trip that I am on have been spent driving through the middle of nowhere. From Spokane, WA to Salt Lake City, UT have been filled with roads that go through mountains and trees and more mountains. Some areas we went by have lakes, rivers and even farms.

These are just to give an idea of some places we drove through. While I couldn't tell you where half these pictures are from it has been an interesting time driving through and seeing the beautiful sights.  We soon discovered that calling out every cow, horse, tree and mountain can be tiring after the first ten that you see.  However, a quieter game of road trip bingo is sometimes needed for the sanity of other riders.  Sometimes its just easier to pick up a camera and record what you see, of course taking time to just enjoy the sights and sounds is just as good.  The road trip continues, Meet Me Outdoors.

Craters of the Moon National Monument - Idaho

After a long drive through a corner of Montana we made our way back into Idaho for the journey south and stopped in a really awesome park called Craters of the Moon National Monument. It a place like no other I have been to.  An area that was once volcanically active many thousands of years ago is now covered in lava rock.

While very desert-like as you look around there is some plant life in very unusual forms. The lichen that grows on the lava rocks come in all sorts of textures and colors, from bright green to orange to bright yellow. 

I liked how you can see ripples lava rock showing the flow of lava from long ago.  It was very different in the way it has ripples rather than more chunky, rocky texture of other lava in the area. 

The boulder near the top of the frame looks like a frog sitting on a rock. It caught my eye as I was taking in the scenery, just had to take a picture to share.

   There was a ranger there that was going around to the visitors to let us know that a program was going to start soon about bats, since there are a few caves in the area and the bats live down there.  It was part of a Junior Ranger program, but she said that you didn't have to be a kid to join in the fun. We had a limited amount of time here since we still had to get to the next town to find lodging, but the time we did spend was lots of fun.  

Since the landscape is so diverse and has an out of this world feel, astronauts from the Apollo missions trained at the park before going to the Moon.  They had to be trained on relaying their observations to the scientist back on Earth.  Imagine having to look out and have to describe what you see, from the shapes of rocks, big and small, to the way the horizon looks.  Do you think you can describe a scene for your friend to draw who isn't there to see it for themselves?  That's what the astronauts had to do when they went to the Moon. Try it on your next adventure, Meet Me Outdoors.

Vancouver

Fountain in front of Lonsdale Quay Market

 First full day in Vancouver started off with SeaBus ride to Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver.  The first picture is of the entrance to the Lonsdale Quay Market.  There are lots of great shops in the market: food shops, trinkets, even some toy shops. We, my travel buddy Kevin and I, got some apricots and apples from the fruit stand because they were both locally grown. The apple was from Okanagan... around 180 miles from the market, not bad for local.

The view from North Vancouver is rather nice even for a cloudy day.  On the first night we had walked around the convention center which is seen in the second picture on the lower left as the white sails. 

At the edge of the Quay is this look out tower.  For those of you who know me well, you would know that I would never in my right mind climb to the top of that thing... and you are still correct. I got to the top floor of the building it was attached to while Kevin climbed up more to get more pictures of the city and harbor.  Directly behind me from this picture of the lookout platforms is a large crane that blocked most of the view but with creative image selection we got some good pics.

They were setting up for a concert in the park area near the fountain as part of Summer Fest.  We didn't get to stay for the concert because were planning to go meet some friends across town and had to catch the SeaBus back. 

Fountain from above

This is a view of the fountain from where I was on the top floor of the market.  From ground level you can see details of the mosaic but from above the whole under water theme becomes more apparent. We used the fountain for a picnic bench while eating the apples and apricots and enjoying the view of the city between the crane.  It was a great way to start the day in the morning.  We saw lots of families walking about and enjoying scenery as well.

Walking along the harbor we came across various garden patches like this one on the right. Many have some historical connection in relation to unity among nations.  The plaque below the statue shows flags of both Canada and South Korea for this particular.

One of my favorite stops walking along the water has these carved Greeting Figures of the Squamish Nation.  They were at the entrance of a pavilion greeting visitors to the Trans Canada Trail.  The next few pictures show them from various angles.  Each of the carvings have a lot of great character.  The plaque on the first picture explains what each carving represents. This pavilion is located in the west of the Lonsdale Quay where we got off the SeaBus.

Black Squirrel

After leaving the Lonsdale Quay we took the SeaBus back and with a series of trains we arrived at Central Park in Burnaby, Vancouver.  This is where I saw my first black squirrel! Of course it didn't feel like posing for a picture, so you can see it running away in the picture here on the right.  I think I counted three by the time we got left the park. There were also gray squirrels at the park but those I can see any day.

Over all it was a great day in Vancouver, lots more pics that didn't make the cut but I may post them at a later time.  Next stop Seattle... Meet Me Outdoors.