Memorial Day weekend

A real nice weekend, a mix of reading outside in the yard(Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, 1965, about a fictional Swedish Detective Martin Beck. It was very good, set in the 1960s when people got telegrams and sent letters and had to wait around for information) and some minor miscellaneous odds and ends. Also ate chips and dip, ice cream sundaes, pizza, homemade cinnamon Nutella rolls, and chicken wings, drank beer, mint Mojitos and Mimosas. A real nice weekend.

Had an idea for a new trough design.
In place of using hardware cloth(wire mesh) as a frame,  I though I'd try to sandwich fiberglass mesh tape normally used when taping drywall between 2 layers of the hypertufa mix.
I made a 1:1:1 mix of Portland cement, feather stone dust and sifted peat. I also added some fine vermiculite, some extra Portland and added a concrete bonding additive for additional strength.
I used a plastic container as a mold and put in a thin layer of mix on the bottom followed by strips of the fiberglass tape.

I then added additional mix over the tape and worked it in so both layers fully encapsulated the mesh. I then went up the sides of the container in the same way, sandwiching the mesh between layers of the hypertufa mix.

Hopefully, the trough will be strong and lightweight.

Current Blooms:
Clematis, Nellie Moser

 Hardy Geranium, cinereum 'alice'

Our newest Peony, Scarlet O'Hara, it fades after a few days to a pink.

Dwarf Coral bell - Heuchera grossulariifolia

Beers in the Fridge:
Nothing new, running low, need to pick up some summer beers.

New Plants 2014

New plants(so far) this year are from

• Stone Crop Gardens Alpine Plant Sale
• Belle Mead Coop
• Ambleside Gardens and Nursery

New Plants for 2014:

Erigeron linarfolia?. Yes, the "?" is on the tag.

Two new Erodium, I have had them in troughs before, but they didn't overwinter so I have them right in the ground as under plantings in the Peony Garden.

Trough with 2 new Primula, existing Dwarf Coral Bells and Dwarf Coreopsis - alpina 'Alba', Tickseed.

Trough with all new plants, Capanula Saxifraga, 2 Saxifragas and an Arenaria. The Saxifraga didn't do well last year in this trough, but I think the plants didn't have enough soil and were too high above the top of the trough.

After the soil settles in the troughs, I will add gravel to retain moisture and keep dirt from splashing up onto the leaves.

 Current Blooms:

Armeria Juniperifolia, Thrift/Seapinks

Lewesia

Coral Bell

Star of Bethlehem in the East Foundation Garden

 Lily of the Valley

Dianthus

Spanish Blue Bells, are growing in several of the garden areas

Yard Changes

Busy Saturday, moved the Red Twig Dogwood, planted the Hardy Banana, first grass cutting of the season, raked and planted grass seed, prepared one of the garden beds for crops, cleaned gutters, weeded and cleaned up some of the troughs in preparation for new plants purchased at Stone Crop Garden's Alpine Plant sale last weekend. In the evening saw Greg Proops perform a live podcast at The Bellhouse in Brooklyn. A very nice venue with an odd quirk, you have to turn in your ticket, get your hand stamped and then wait on line to get in. Greg was thoroughly enjoyable, he has an amazing memory and quick wit. We first saw him on the British TV show "Whose line is it anyway" hosted by Clive Anderson years ago.

Planted the Hardy Banana outside, the Gardens at Snug Harbor have Hardy Bananas planted outside so I figured I would give it a try, plus I am tired of caring for it in the house.

The Red Twig Dogwood new domicile.

Grape Hyacinth

Houstonia caerulea L. Azure bluet. Purchased last Year at the Stone Crop Gardens Alpine Plant sale. Have it planted in a trough.

 Japanese Ghost Fern

Beers in the fridge:
Bought a sample of Wolaver's Organic brews which are brewed by Otter Creek in VT. The Alta Gracia Coffee Porter was very good, had a nice coffee flavor, it would go good with bacon and eggs at a brunch. The India Pale Ale was my next favorite of this bunch, not too hoppy. The Brown Ale and the Oatmeal stout were both too sweet for me, I prefer Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout and Nut Brown Ale better. That they are organic didn't matter to me, a friend from work said Wolaver's had good beer so I gave them a try.

If I had a week to kill

I once met a German while on vacation on a Caribbean Island, we got to talking about what sights I had seen in the USA and I said America is a big place and that I only had 2 weeks of vacation. He laughed since of course he had about 5 weeks of time off.

Now I get 3 weeks of vacation and like to save some of it for around Christmas and you need to take a day off here and there, so the 3 weeks gets used up pretty quickly. Next year I get an additional week of vacation.

So what would I do with a spare week?

Summer Courses at Oxford or Cambridge in the UK.
Now you can say you've attended "choose your favorite". We visited both cities and I preferred Cambridge. Definitely did not like the B and B we stayed in at Cambridge, but really liked the city. Missed seeing a few of the smaller University Museums and the Botanic Gardens. Both Universities have 1 week courses, they open for enrollment in January and book quickly. Caution, depending on the course and the University your select, your room may not be in an older college.

• Cambridge Summer School Programs
• The Oxford Experience
• The Oxford Summer University for Adults

Working with a Trail Crew, building or maintaining hiking trails.
In the Northeast there are several groups which have volunteer opportunities ranging from a day to a week or two.

• Appalachian Mountain Club
• Appalachian Trail Conservatory 
• New York New Jersey Trail Conference

 The Mid-Atlantic Trail Crew is doing a special project in 2014 in Bear Mountain State Park constructing a new trail and according to them "Work will include splitting and shaping stone, transporting it with rigging equipment...", sounds like fun.

Trans Atlantic Cruise
Most Cruise Lines leave from Miami, Royal Caribbean leaves from Boston, only Cunard leaves from New York. Spend some time catching up on your reading, do some self reflection and maybe teach yourself a new skill.

• Royal Caribbean Boston to Cork Ireland, then 6 more ports ending in Copenhagen Denmark. 
• Cunard, NYC - Southampton in 7 days

 Outdoors Leadership Training
You know for all those Expeditions I lead.

• Outward Bound
• NOLS National Outdoor Leadership School
• Appalachian Mountain Club

 Less stressful is this hut to hut 4 day hike Botanizing in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

• AMC Alpine Wildflower Guided Hike

Adult Summer Music Camp
Almost sounds like fun, but I think I would tire of any genre in a week, plus I am limited on selection since I don't like folk, bluegrass or country, can't play a classical instrument and can't see going to a rock camp since I could just find some people to jam with on my own. If I was so inclined.

• Django in June, Gypsy Jazz in Amherst Ma.
• Tritone Jazz Summer Camp, in vibrant Rochester, NY.

Making housework fun with an air compressor

Another nice weekend, though I did work most of Saturday.

Took our first bike ride Saturday and I lost my Fitbit (activity monitor) so I went back and walked the paths we rode and found lots of other stuff, but not my Fitbit. Back home we tried syncing to the Fitbit and it connected, so the smart one downloaded an app to her iPhone and we searched for the glorified pedometer near the truck and in the house and we finally found it clipped to the spokes of her bike in the basement. The fit bit had been clipped in my pants pocket for our ride and must have been transferred when I unloaded the bike at home.

Sunday, we cleaned the windows and screens on the first floor. We washed the screens in the tub and dried them using the air compressor. It worked a treat. I inherited the air compressor when the farm shut down and I generally just use it to fill tires. This positive experience has got me thinking I should look for other household chores that could be made more fun using an air compressor. Drying dishes, dusting bookshelves and ceiling fans immediately spring to mind.
After we had Mimosas along with mini grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.

Now to this week's flowers;

Periwinkles, as suggested by Beverley Nichols(dead author)

Lewesia in bud

Grape Hyacinth

Grecian Windflowers "Anemone blanda", West Foundation Garden

Glory of the Snow "Chionodoxa luciliae", past its prime, also have blue which looked worse, Front Garden

Variegated Brunnera, Front Garden

Sweet Woodruff, Border Garden, smells great when there are a lot of blooms.

Sweet Woodruff is used to flavor May wine, a German beverage using Rhine wine or other white dry wine.

More Spring... and some beers

Yard Updates:
Planted Spinach seed Saturday, the dog lay out in the sun for a bit, it was nice but very breezy so there was still a chill in the air, she had a longer spell at the front door till she got overheated.
Sunday was the nicer of the 2 days allocated to us cogs, though I did do some work some on both days. The dog got to lay outside twice Sunday while I did some more yard work, picking up leaves, some minor pruning and I planted some paper-whites I had forced during the winter.

Siberian Squill, scilla siberica in the Lilac Garden

Activity Update:
Had the tracker since March 20 and received the first weekly email update from my Fitbit One for March 24 - 30
Daily Averages
3400 steps, 11 floors, 6 hours sleep, awoken 5 times a night, 6 minutes to fall asleep. Still have some extra winter/holiday poundage lingering so I may have to up the activity.

Beers in the Fridge:
Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbeer
A smoked beer from Bamberg, Germany. I tried the Marzen and liked it. The sales person suggested it was really smokey, but I didn't think it to be too smokey. Reminded me of burnt leather and maybe Mescal, it was slightly sweet and not at all hoppy. The smoke essence is created at the tail end of the barley malting process when beech wood is used to dry the sprouted grain. After I tried the Marzen, I picked up the Urbok and Weizen varieties. Would be a good addition when making chile.
Couldn't wait and I had the Urbock along with a bauernwurst(pork and beef) and some pickles for Sunday lunch. I couldn't tell much of a difference between the Urbock and the Marzen, even so I preferred the Marzen. I've read that some people think you need to get used to these beers... poppycock I say.

 The brewery is in Bamburg, Germany they have a website here and a tavern in the center of town. Bamberg is a 2 hour train ride north of Munich.

Samuel Smith Chocolate Stout

photo from Sam Smith website

It is like a Belgium Fruit beer, I don't think it is brewed with chocolate, but I think the chocolate is added after brewing is done. It tastes very chocolatey and would be great to use when making a variation of a Chocolate Guinness Stout cake. While drinking it I thought that a scoop of vanilla ice cream would have gone great in the mug (Editor's Note: yes he drinks booze out of a mug). I think I may like Young's Double Chocolate Stout better, but this has true chocolate taste. Sounds like a side by side comparison is called for.

Spring

Health Status:
Lately I've been working a lot and not sleeping and in general being very stressed out*. Two Fridays ago we attended a wedding, I received a few compliments on my Black Watch Dinner Jacket, but looking at the photos my face looked bad. Like Riff Raff bad, like I need a tan and a vacation.

The jacket looks like this but with a shawl collar.

This week I received my Activity Tracker and started to use it.

It is a Fitbit One model and it tracks steps, flights of stairs traversed, sleep patterns and displays the data on the display. Periodically, the One displays  words of encouragement(think conversation hearts).

 

The data is uploaded to the website where you can easily monitor your activity/inactivity levels. It is 2 inches long, discrete and easy to lose. Setup was a snap, a receiver plugs into the USB on your computer, you enter your height and weight and off you go. The One will sync with your computer when it is close enough. I also realized that somehow it was syncing while I was at work which is equal parts cool:curious:scary.
The One fits to a clip that allows you to wear it on your pants or your bro/manzierre during the day and at night to track sleep it slips into a wrist band seen above.

Garden Status:
 After the heavy snow pack and low temperatures, the gardens seem to have fared well. The snow drops are still up, the witch hazel is blooming and smells nice if you get close enough to it, all the Heaths and Heathers made it through the winter and need to be pruned and all the other spring bulbs are starting to come up. The crocus are already in bloom
 Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis), I'm forever planting these, they never seem to last long.

In the Front Garden

amongst the Cyclamen in the Peony Garden

 Crocus

Beers in the Fridge:

My Oatmeal Cookie Stout, it isn't bad, but not as good as I had hoped it would be. It is a bit thin and doesn't have any flavor from the cinnamon and star anise I added. On the plus side, the carbonation level is just right for me and it's not too hoppy.

The ale on the right from Saranac, my second favorite Brewery, has a nice aroma and citrus taste. The other bottle, from Dogfish Head Brewery is an Imperial Pils. I received it from a coworker as thanks for work above and beyond. Quite unnecessary since I don't just work for the fun of it. Have not yet cracked it open.

*  I am attributing some stress to the lack of communications from our Youngest.