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May. 7th, 2006 03:34 pmFinally, I have attacked the garden and more or less won the battle against the creeping vinca vine. The great thing about vinca vine is that it covers a lot of ground and chokes out most anything else that might grow there, so it leads to a low-maintenance yard. The bad thing is that it doesn't just stay where you want it to, but rather tries to take over the world and in the process tries to choke out all the other plants in the yard. My poor lavender was being engulfed. But I have freed them all, and hopefully can keep up with it throughout the summer. I also uprooted 5,072 (an approximation) of those damn ornamental onion things. They smell like onions when you pull them up. I think the little onion root balls catch a ride on the vinca vines in order to spread around the yard. I planted basil and parsley; I've never had much luck with parsley, but I've never tried it here before so maybe this time it will work out. And what else... I planted a hyacinth M's mom gave us at Easter, and some fuschia and purple petunias with lacy veinwork all over the petals. I definitely noticed a difference in my ability to garden comfortably thanks to these months of yoga, extra flexibility and core strength is a good thing when weeding. Last summer, 2 hours of that would have had my lower back aching but right now it feels pretty good.
Now I can relax for the rest of the day, maybe do some light yoga later to make sure I don't stiffen up after the yardwork. It's a good way to end the weekend. Friday night's show with Najmat's class was fun and a good bonding experience for all of us. I was able to see most of the dancing that came after us; it was a great mix of all kind of stuff, hula, Balkan folk dancing, modern dance to Radiohead, all of those different oddly named modern dance things, a karate exhibition, and I finally saw Shakti's tribal group. It looked like most of the women were pretty new to dancing, probably the first performance for most of them, but it was still neat. Not very high energy, but perhaps that could be put down to the group's inexperience. I had hoped to have a chance to chat with her at the reception afterwards, but she cleared out right after her performance. The reception was nice, I had a chance to catch up with a couple of people I hadn't seen in a while, and meet some new people.
Yesterday was the Kentucky Derby and a very fine race it was. I think it was probably the most satisfying Derby I've seen in years, where a very talented horse runs a very powerful race and wins authoritatively, no luck or chance about it. One has cautious hope for a Triple Crown... In an unrelated development, I made the best mint juleps I've ever made. I can't find a muddler anywhere, but I improvised with the wooden handle of a spoon and it made a big difference. Using nice bourbon undoubtedly helped as well. At the Derby, they were selling $1,000 juleps as a fundraiser, in gold-plated cups and sterling stirrers with boutique bourbon, ice from the Arctic, mint from Morocco and sugar from Barbados. Their version was more like a slushy and didn't have club soda. I bet mine tasted better!
Yawn.
Now I can relax for the rest of the day, maybe do some light yoga later to make sure I don't stiffen up after the yardwork. It's a good way to end the weekend. Friday night's show with Najmat's class was fun and a good bonding experience for all of us. I was able to see most of the dancing that came after us; it was a great mix of all kind of stuff, hula, Balkan folk dancing, modern dance to Radiohead, all of those different oddly named modern dance things, a karate exhibition, and I finally saw Shakti's tribal group. It looked like most of the women were pretty new to dancing, probably the first performance for most of them, but it was still neat. Not very high energy, but perhaps that could be put down to the group's inexperience. I had hoped to have a chance to chat with her at the reception afterwards, but she cleared out right after her performance. The reception was nice, I had a chance to catch up with a couple of people I hadn't seen in a while, and meet some new people.
Yesterday was the Kentucky Derby and a very fine race it was. I think it was probably the most satisfying Derby I've seen in years, where a very talented horse runs a very powerful race and wins authoritatively, no luck or chance about it. One has cautious hope for a Triple Crown... In an unrelated development, I made the best mint juleps I've ever made. I can't find a muddler anywhere, but I improvised with the wooden handle of a spoon and it made a big difference. Using nice bourbon undoubtedly helped as well. At the Derby, they were selling $1,000 juleps as a fundraiser, in gold-plated cups and sterling stirrers with boutique bourbon, ice from the Arctic, mint from Morocco and sugar from Barbados. Their version was more like a slushy and didn't have club soda. I bet mine tasted better!
Yawn.
