Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Midweek on the terrace

It amuses me that I come home from a day of drawing, thinking about, dreaming about, or standing in, digging in, or swearing at, gardens...and head straight out to my own little terrace and start, yes, gardening. With every appearance of pleasure.

This evening, after the obligatory post-New-York-day-and-subway-journey shower, I stepped out onto the gravel with a glass of dry white Noilly Prat vermouth, and started the little chores that I like so much. For once watering was unnecessary as we had a rainstorm in the early hours, and serious Weather is expected later. The storm radar glows promisingly red.

I cleared up some dead-headed Iceberg roses from yesterday. Cleaned the old lily petals and snipped their drooping stamens but left the still-small seed capsules at the base of their stamens. I am going to allow them to set seed. Maybe someone would like some. It will take a couple of years for a flower if they are grown from seed. Hm: 66squarefeet lilies? Cleaned some dead from the chives and pulled out a few of Estorbo's chewed grass plants growing in the Creeping Jenny. And pondered Lamiaceae. Ha! and have just satisfied myself, via Google. See examples below. After the vermouth and daylilies.



The fig is rallying. Dare I hope???


Back to the Lips: Lamiaceae, aka Labiatae...the Greek basil flower looks a lot like the...

...catnip flower, which looks a lot like the...

...plectranthus flower (and yes, you have seen this picture before). Eenteresteen', as the cat would say. All from the same family.

Below, the purple basil slowly turning not-purple, above Henry Street.
Greek basil, common thyme, tarragon, chives and basil. And the Long Island College Hospital in the background (sssshhhh: this is a trick to see if I can get Zippi, the Public Affairs guru at the hopital to leave a comment. I think Zippi Googles the LICH every day to see who's been saying what.....Zippi?)

And that's it. Life continues. Sweetly, relentlessly, coldly. Having a garden helps.

8 comments:

  1. Please put me on the seed list. Lilies are worth waiting for.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I saw your figs and had to leave a comment...I have a fig tree and so I was interested to see how differently your figs grow than mine do....yours stand up on thick stems and mine hang down on thin stems. I don't know much about figs (yours must be a different variety than mine)....just how to eat them! Mostly as fig preserves.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Centvingt, ooooui.

    Jane - I'll write your name on a capsule!

    Sara - the figs are still immature, so perhaps they'll hang more later...:-)Have you ever made green (unripe) fig preserves? - your potfull of ripe ones looked very pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hahaha....Did you think I wouldn't bite?!
    Of course I check the blogs. If someone says something nice about a staff memeber I like to let them know that, and if someone had a gripe, I address that with the staff and try to follow up with the patient, as well. In short - I'm the sizzzle - the doctors are the steak.
    Zippi Dvash, Public Affairs
    zdvash@chpnet.org

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hahaha....Did you think I wouldn't bite?!
    Of course I check the blogs. If someone says something nice about a staff memeber I like to let them know that, and if someone had a gripe, I address that with the staff and try to follow up with the patient, as well. In short - I'm the sizzzle - the doctors are the steak.
    Zippi Dvash, Public Affairs
    zdvash@chpnet.org

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh, Zippi! That's great. OK, I've had my fun, I promise not to do it again! And what is steak without the sizzle? Hm, now I want steak.

    Thew - yes, beware of my fig in windstorms if you're walking close-by. And it's probably my husband you should fear more than me!

    ReplyDelete
  7. No harm done - I had a good laugh at the sneaky way you inserted that in your post. Have a good weekend.
    all the best,
    Zippi Dvash
    Public Affairs LICH
    (718) 780-1234
    zdvash@chpnet.org
    PublicAffairsLICH@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete

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