Brown Thumb

There's something satisfying about spending an entire Sunday afternoon in bed doing nothing but drinking coffee while watching movies and eating scones. Even more so when it's hot as ass outside and the air conditioning is doing it's thang.

I don't spend a lot of time outdoors. I appreciate the outside world, but I'm an indoors kind of person. I like being cozy with a book on the couch, for example. Or sleeping in late snuggled up in my cozy bed. Or watching movies. Even the activity I like best is indoors: yoga, belly dance. When I was a kid my mom would take me on conservation walks and I'd give up midway through, plop on the ground and sulk because I hated being outdoors for the sake of being outdoors and walking for the sake of walking. Actually, any walking bothered me. I liked to sit. It's a wonder I was never a fat child.

Wasn't big on gardening either, or at least the gardening my mother did. My mom was a real pro with flowers. She made them grow with ease, even despite my presence among her plants. I have the brown touch. I really wanted a vegetable garden. Mom's flowers did nothing for me. I wanted something that had actual results, not just something you did your best to keep alive as long as possible. I think it's related to my disinterest in aimless walking. Screw the journey. I want a destination. I'm at point A, where is point B?

I think it's part of my planner personality. Growing vegetables is a plan to eat fresh veggies later. Growing flowers is a not a plan at all. It's more zen or something, like the shorter version of cultivating a bonsai tree. It's getting the nicest possible plant for no practical reason. Granted, I do all kinds of things for no practical reason, just not anything that might be good for me: like long aimless walks and gardening.

But the Dude and I did decide vegetable gardening might be fun. And we're at the point where we can eat the fruits of our labour.

Our red pepper plants.

Our tomato plants. We've already gotten a number of tomatoes off of these bad boys,
though right now things are looking slim and the plants are looking rough.

These are the Dude's herbs.

And some more herbs, plus some sort of vine thing he wanted.

Not bad for a first attempt. I've enjoyed this a lot more than trying to keep my African violets alive. Man, what a bummer it was when they bit the dust on me. It's such a sense of failure. At least when food plants wilt on you, you don't have to watch something beautiful die.