Summer Slow to Start

its been pretty cold and summer has not been poppin' off.

I researched gardening and rooftop gardening for a few days and came out knows very little because its a whole 'nother science and takes a lifetime to get good at but despite that I am taking a stab at a little rooftop vegetable garden.  I'm using self watering planters made by Emsco, bought at Lowes.  Growing tomatoes, peppers, and will transplant the salad greens in later.  Herbs too.  Dolomite (lime)? Fertilizer and PH?  Organic pesticides?  all stuff i had to look into and don't know what i'm doing.

It's on now.

there were already tons of red spider mites up on the roof and walls.  I've sprayed neem oil water mixture around the garden area and it seems to be working so far but it seems like there isn't really an organic way to get rid of them, only ways to discourage them from hanging out, like playing opera music at the local park so the teenage scum won't hang out there and smoke cigarettes.

this bread was $9 at Grindhaus in Redhook but it was delicious and worth it because fresh bread is one of the biggest things i miss from Paris.  They make it themselves and its hot and fresh and comes with that herbed butter.

The Olsen sisters rooftop in Williamsburg

the miracle of life, now playing on my windowsill.

gonna try growing the spinach indoors cuz it's not a summer sun crop.  The Japanese shiso and Korean shiso ggaennip (sesame) seeds too like 10 days to germinate and I was gettin' worried.  The buttercrunch lettuce grew like gangbusters and is heat tolerant but I planted it on the roof too soon and its now dead.  The two on the right are Japanese Mizuna red streaked mustard greens that turn red.  They are still alive on the roof but not looking good.  When I take a look later they'll probably be dead.  I gather that I should have sewn the seeds directly into the planters outside or hardened them off (each day putting them outside for a few more hours).  Also learned a general rule is they need 4 true leaves before you plant them outside.  I am discouraged but not broken yet.

Foo invited me to a thing put on by Cliff from Fat Buddha on the roof of 50 Bowery Hotel.  Summer still had not come and it was a little cold but what a view.

cool looking vintage Ouija packaging

jen has had this pink Nintendo DS Lite sitting in the closet the whole time!

transplanting greens too early and they died.  Me dumb

The gas company has been extremely difficult in giving us service and they are just difficult to everyone in the first place.  One policy is they will call you twice on the day of your appointment and if you fail to answer the phone they will charge you $38.50 and you'll have to wait weeks to get another appointment.  And that's just one complimentary nicety that they extend to one and all.  So after wading through an enormous amount of crap I finally got an appointment, of the all day kind where they can come anytime from 8am-6pm and you just bend over and take it.  Of course the guy calls when i've just started cutting my hair with the clippers and I have to ride my bike as fast as possible like a tour de france guy to the new apartment so we don't lose our appointment to get our gas turned on.  He's a very nice guy and all goes well until he sees this fumes pipe not actually over the hole and says it has to get fixed today or he has to shut off the gas.  Eventually the super, his contractor friend from down the street, and the national grid technician are all in the apartment telling me to tell the building management company lady to buzz off as i'm on the phone with her.  There are all kinds of condo rules and regulations.  I was stuck in the middle of it all and knew nothing about how condos work.  It was quite a stressful morning.  In the end it's all fixed and we can have a shower and cook and live like humans.  thanks for nothing national grid, except chris the tech, he was cool.