love in the time of cholera

last night we watched the movie adaptation of love in the time of cholera and i have to say, wow. it is probably the most honest novel adapted movie i have ever seen - didnt stray from marquez one iota. why would you stray from marquez? but i was sure the movie would. they always do. not this time! and the casting was, in my opinion, fabulous. it really was an artistic compliment to the book. so, if you love the novel, dont fear the movie. its yummy.

Babies in the Garden

I planted lettuce haphazardly, sprinkling the little seeds all about, so they grew in clumps. it was so sad to thin them out! these are still too close but i cant bring myself to pluck out baby lettuce. there are many more. im going to let them grow awhile and see what happens. ditto on the spinach (whose picture wasnt so great)

i have high hopes for this little broccoli and his two siblings. I planted him from seed and i havent had luck with broccoli yet (in my oh so short gardening career). he is still way to little for this time of year. well see. i guess he needs a bit more compost mulch about him. i wish i had a continuous composter, waiting for it to cook is annoying - gardening is demanding that i work on my patience, which has always been short.

Teeny-tiny baby baby grapes!

A baby tomato plant (pictured sideways...), we planted so so many tomato plants. there will be zillions of salads, tomato pie, salsa, sauce, anything we can think of, and still plenty for the neighbors.

and here are some short beans, not yet climbing up the lattice.

Though i took more pictures, this will do for now. grow babies grow!

ps i finished Maps for Lost Lovers and, well, its not going on my "favorites" shelf.

reading in the sun, watching the baby grapes

hm, hello web. i suppose in the end i really am a yoyo blogger. my favorite garden blog has also been mia for quite some time, and she is a much more impressively wonderful blogger than i, so that tells me its ok. and today i feel like a return.
rach has declared the summer to be dedicated to russian classics, and this gets me thinking about my summer reading list. the weather is so beautiful and so perfect for reading in the sun, by my garden. tim and i especially like pulling our camping canvas collapsable (suprisingly comfortable) chairs over to the garden edge, facing the gloriously growing grapes with ever-so-tiny little green grape bunches and reading while the sun goes down, or while it is up high, anytime really. often we are reading academic material, but lately ive enjoyed branching out to fiction again. i started the summer with Mrs. Dalloway. slightly embarrasingly, i had begun this little book a few times before but this is the first time i finished it. at least i think so. and im not sure why. Orlando is one of my most favorite books ever, and the one i have read over and over more than any other. so, really, i should read more woolf, no? im currently 3/4s the way through Maps for Lovers by Nadem Aslam. there is a fabulously adorable, small bookstore/coffee shop near here where i picked this off the shelf mostly at random (and because the back cover begins "if gabriel garcia marquez had chosen to write about pakistani immigrants in england, he might have produced a novel as beautiful and devastating as Maps for Lost Lovers...) it is very good, though not quite marquez. but it fills me with such gratitude for the life of freedom that i live. anyhow, i am going to begin a list of the books that i am reading, and those to get to and keep the tv off for the indefinet future (well, ok, ill still tivo the office and maybe one or two other treats).

tomorrow i think i will post pictures of the vegtables and flowers ive been tending.