Happy June!
Here Is The Envelope, And I Am Pushing It To The Max
June 1st is typically considered Calgary’s Safe Day To Plant Out Tomatoes And Other Delicate Plants, but Danger Is My Middle Name and so I planted out mine on May 31.
I do like to live on the edge, and so does Salvadore; he has been moved into the garden, specifically, into the zucchini patch. It has been so much fun, the past two months, as he has magically moved every single night after I go to bed. I never know where he will end up; I could open up the cupboard to grab my coffee cup in the morning, and his cute little face is peeking out at me, or he might be behind the television or hiding behind the yoga frogs. Last weekend I noticed the paper towel roll unravelling on the countertop, and I went to fix it, only to find Salvadore ensconced in paper towel.
Zucchinis For Days
I started zucchini plants from seeds this year, and the thing about me is that I have a quirk wherein I get very attached to all of my plants, but particularly the ones I start from seed. I start to refer to them, and I am not joking here, people, as My Babies. “Look at My Babies!” I will say to my actual children, who know I would never refer to them as my babies. What this means is that I have a very hard time thinning plants, which is why I decided to use seed tape for my lettuce and carrots this year. Last year I thinned exactly zero carrots, and the result was a lot of extremely tiny carrots.
Wouldn’t that be nice if that’s what baby carrots actually were, rather than whittled down regular carrots? Just smaller-than-normal carrots that were never thinned in the garden because the gardener was a little bit crazy? Instead, baby carrots are just manufactured out of regular carrots, which begs the question: what happens to the whittled off part of the carrots? Does it go through a grater and end up in bagged salad mixes? Does it just get thrown out? If so, how wasteful. I guess I could look it up but honestly, I feel like I have already given this too much brain space and I should really move on with my life.
Anyway, I ended up with six very healthy looking zucchini plants. If you have ever grown zucchini, then you know how prolific they are, and if you know me, which you really should by now, you will have deduced that I planted every last one of them and I am going to have a lot of zucchinis this year. I mentioned this to my friend Hannah (HI HANNAH), and she suggested I just grow All The Zucchinis and then give away or donate the ones that I cannot use, rather than killing any of My Babies. This is a brilliant idea as there is a Little Free Food Library at the end of my street, which empties out daily.
Flower Power
For the past several years, I have ordered plants from a fundraiser, first for my own kids and then for a friend’s. Don’t get me wrong, I still go to the garden centre, but I love getting big flower planters for my front yard from the fundraiser: they are great quality, well priced, and I can just get them loaded into my car directly rather than awkwardly maneuver through the garden centre balancing six large planters on one cart, which is a recipe for disaster. This year the plants arrived the day after my son’s grad, because why not do everything on one weekend? It was well worth it; the plants are gorgeous and my front yard makes me so happy.
I usually buy one other thing from the fundraiser, just for fun, and this year I bought a ten-pack of assorted vegetables. The pack included four different types of tomatoes, a cucumber, a Romaine lettuce, two peppers, and…a zucchini.
Hurry! Only One Day Until The Next Sale
My son had his grad photos taken back in January, and I was so excited to get the proofs – both emailed and in the actual mail – shortly thereafter. In the envelope there was a coupon code for 30% off photo packages, which was perfect; I wanted a big package for the grandparents, his aunts and uncles, and to have some for our home and for Christmas cards. I immediately ordered, they arrived, I framed most of them, I was happy.
Ever since that day I have been bombarded constantly by Limited Time Offers, both over email and on little postcards that end up in my mailbox every few weeks. Hurry! Order your grad photos now! I am not sure how many photos the company wants me to have, perhaps they think I should wallpaper my house with my son’s smiling face and cap and gown, or maybe send wallet-size photos to everyone I have ever met? In any case, I can’t unsubscribe because this company took photos at the recent grad ceremony, and I have been waiting for those to arrive, and I am way too anxious to take myself off their mailing list because I want the ceremony photos.
I realize that this would never happen, a company that sends out physical mail as well as an email every other day is not going to forget about me when it comes to possibly selling me more photos in a different capacity. But what if they do? I don’t want to miss out! Also, there will almost certainly be another, probably meaningless, coupon code. If everything is always 30% off, doesn’t it indicate a lack of mental capacity on my part if I actually ordered something at full price? The discount is always there, therefore, meaningless.
Step One: Cut A Hole In The Box
The house next door has had a new crew working on the exterior for the past couple weeks; they have been putting up stucco by hand. It is a very arduous process, and very quiet; the only sounds emanating from the house are from the softly-playing radio and from occasional communication between the crew members. They have been working long days; normally they start before six, and they are still at it when I go to bed at night, which, granted, is rarely past 8:45.
The other morning I was opening up the windows to let in the fresh breezes, and I could hear their music playing. I recognized the song. It was Dick in a Box.
I was kind of startled as I don’t think I have ever heard that song unaccompanied by video, but there it was. Hey girl, I got something real important to give you.
When I was in grad school, I was friends with a Norwegian girl who told me that she perfected her English by watching musicals and noting down words she didn’t know, to look up later. She told me she learned the word “devoted,” by watching Grease, from “Hopelessly Devoted To You,” among, obviously, other words. From hearing the crew speak, I know that English is not their first language, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they subscribe to the same methodology, and if so, well. “What does Backstage at the CMAs mean?”
Weekly Reading
Such Big Dreams. This was a very enjoyable debut novel about a Bombay street-kid-turned-office-girl for a human rights law office. The author so skilfully weaves themes of caste, corruption, slum life, paternalism, and the role of NGOs and foreigners in India. It’s a fascinating POV and very unique.
My Life In Full. I saw this woman speaking on BNN and I immediately went to put her memoir on hold. It’s fascinating! Indra Nooyi was CEO and chairperson of PepsiCo and under her leadership, the company transformed ethically, environmentally, nutritionally, and as a more family friendly workplace. This is an incredibly honest memoir that details her struggles with work-life-family balance, her work ethic that allowed her to rise through the corporate world, and her early life growing up in a multigenerational home in India. She never fails to credit her support system and her luck, but she also worked incredibly hard. It was really interesting to read so soon after Four Thousand Weeks; it was a completely different perspective. It was also really fun to read about PepsiCo’s transition from 1994 to today, all the inner workings of the company. For example, the logistics of shipping chips to different locations is incredibly complex, and if the company wants a sales boost, they introduce a new and For Limited Time Only flavour of chips, which I found fun to think about.
Tired As F*ck. I picked this up solely based on the cover, and so I didn’t realize this was a memoir; it’s really a series of essays that read like blog posts, so very quick and easy to read. This poor woman suffered years and years of physical and mental health issues, including a horrific dental problem and subsequent surgeries that made me shudder. Anyway, it’s about dealing with minor trauma and how stress can give your body a domino effect of problems. I liked it okay; I had her other book on my list but I think I’m going to pass on it for now. Why do I keep reading memoirs by very young women when I cannot relate to them at all? I don’t know.
First Darling of the Morning. This was an interesting collection of stories about Umrigar’s early life in Bombay, from her childhood in the 60s to her adolescence during the Emergency, to her activism in college and departure for America. I enjoyed this very honest and raw account.
This is my last week of classes, my kids’ last week of classes before finals, and it has been raining for the past two days, so everything is lovely and green. I hope you have had a happy start to June! xo
The whole dick in the box anecdote made me laugh! And your planters are gorgeous – as are your babies.
Thanks Suzanne!
Oh, Nicole! Your garden is so very lovely–huge planters, zucchini, Salvadore, and all. How impish of Salvadore to wander around at night. Might be have some accomplices in your household? 🙃 I’m very interested in that first book you mentioned and will put it on hold. I was impressed that Indra Nooyi used to wear saris to business meetings–I adopted that practice too.
Enjoy the last week of classes and I hope the summer is full of sweet rest and rejuvenation thereafter.
Yes, I loved that part about how she wore saris to meetings – she’s a really incredible woman! I think you would LOVE Such Big Dreams, it’s so smart and thoughtful and a really different point of view, but in a subtle way.
I thinned our carrots yesterday, but just by accident as I was weeding the patch. There were so many weeds I kept pulling out carrots by accident. I had to resist the urge to put them back in the ground, as I feel the same way you do.
Awwww! Babies!!!
Well, it’s nice to see pictures of flowers in your post instead of snow! Glad you were finally able to plant your garden. Have you ever checked out Sally’s Baking Addiction? She’s got a good recipe for zucchini muffins- I think you may need it!
i’m almost done with The Story Hour (omg the Secret about Lakshmi’s marriage!) i’d be interested to read Umrigar’s stories of her childhood.
I had the same thing happens with my son’s senior pictures- as a matter of fact I think I’m still getting emails from them (one year later.) I guess it’s time to take myself off their list!
Oooooh that secret about her marriage was quite the twist!! I have a few good muffin/ bread recipes but I’ll check hers out – I have a feeling I am going to need a few new recipes!
I can relate to all of this! I’ve planted the garden as early as the first week of May. I’ve certainly had my share of bad growing years but I’ve never lost anything to frost. I have lost a ton of plants due to overplanting. This year I was very very good any only got a few tomatoes and one zucchini plant so everything should be spaced out properly but I keep getting the itch to buy more plants.
Dick in a Box!!! I didn’t see the sketch when it first came out but when I heard about it on TV or read about it it was always referred to as “—- in a Box”. I always assumed that —- was another four letter word because why would anyone bleep out the work dick? Years later when my husband introduced me to Lonely Island I was very surprised to learn how mild the title was.
There are a few things I can plant in early May, like pea seeds, but not many. Mid-May is pushing it a little but some frost tolerant things can be planted. I tend to overplant as well – I like a full garden, what can I say? I’ve lost plants to hail, it’s a big problem here.
I don’t know what Dick in a Box is and I’m scared to click the link. I feel like I’m somehow missing out on some cultural moment, but I think I’m also probably okay with that!
Hahahah it’s okay, it isn’t p*rn or anything! It’s an SNL short with Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg.
I laughed at your middle name being Danger. No joke – I once substitute taught for a preschool boy whose middle name was indeed DANGER. The other teachers explained this fun fact to me during recess and I was amazed.
Also, when you said you found Salvatore near the yoga frogs, I thought for a moment that we had so much in common . . . that you TOO had an exotic frog on the loose in your kitchen. Then I realized, no- that distinction is mine alone. I do love how Salvatore has been hiding on the regular. It reminds me of a trick Coach played with my (well, my daycare’s) toy donkey. Promise to blog about that soon.
Those planters are beautiful. I planted some petunias yesterday in boxes that are on my deck and the box attached to our mailbox. I do wonder if I crammed too many plants into the boxes. I’m not the gardener that you are, but I love that you refer to your plants as your babies.
I am very interested in reading the PepsiCo woman’s story. I can see how the cover of that book would be intriguing. I often feel tired as *uck, (moreso before my Celiac disease was diagnosed) but not sure that book is for me. I am currently reading a book called THE WHISTLING SEASON. I love it SO much. I just started it over the weekend, but I am dying to know if you’ve read it.
Fingers crossed the frost is over in Calgary and your plants thrive under the watchful eye of Salvadore. Oh, almost forgot – the workers listening to THAT song, made me laugh out loud until Tank grilled me, WHAT? WHAT? I was unaware that that song would ever be played on the actual radio.
LOLOLOL someone named their kid Danger.
I haven’t read The Whistling Season but I’ll look it up for sure! I really liked the PepsiCo memoir, it was interesting on many levels. And yes, I had no idea you could just…listen to Dick in a Box?
I would find Salvatore’s adventures very fun indeed, gotta get someone in my house to do that for me…is that too much to ask? I think not. I always love your book recs. I am currently listening to Mariah Carey’s memoir, read by her and so far it’s sad about her childhood, but hoping/knowing it will get better!
I didn’t even know she had a memoir! I wonder if it’s worth reading or if it’s better to listen?
Well she does sing bits throughout the audiobook, which is cool. I actually don’t enjoy her reading voice very much. That sounds really mean, but she puts on this arrogant air and says “Dahhhhling” a lot. I think it’s supposed to be funny?
Look at you living on the edge! I love seeing pictures from your garden. I used to have a plot at a community garden that is about 1/2 a mile from our house but struggled to keep up with it after having kids. I limped along for a couple of years and then threw in the towel and gave up my plot last spring. I miss having veggies to tend to but don’t miss the guilt of how awful my plot looked in comparison to others (SO MANY WEEDS!). I planted 2 zucchini plants one year and my husband was like – what were you thinking planting 2! I did end up giving many away but I also found creative recipes to use up the zucchini. This summer I am hoping to go to a farmer’s market on a regular basis to make up for not having a garden of my own.
I love your traveling gnome!!
There will be time enough to grow a veggie garden when your little ones are bigger and not so much work, Lisa! You’re such a busy woman! Farmer’s markets are fun too!
I love your flowers — they are gorgeous! Funny because I have a bunch of zucchini this year, too! I got into vegetable gardening during lockdown and it was such a success that I went overboard. This year, I told myself I’m taking a break but I couldn’t help it. I loved my golden zucchini plants last year so I made an exception for those. Except my husband didn’t find zucchini seedlings so he got me 5 regular zucchini babies. But I really wanted the golden zucchini (so pretty!) so I decided to look one day and they had golden zucchini seedlings! So I now have 5 regular zucchini and 5 golden zucchini (and volunteer tomatoes that grew probably from seeds that fell from the prior years). Did you know zucchini flowers are edible? I assigned some of my plants to be my zucchini flowers suppliers and the others fruit suppliers! LOL
I had a golden zucchini last year too and I loved it…and I couldn’t find seeds for it this year either! So regular zucchini it is. I have heard that the flowers are edible but I’ve never tried it – I certainly could do that this year as I’m going to have a lot!
I thought for sure I saved seeds from my golden zucchinis last year but I couldn’t find them in my seeds drawer; probably got thrown away. It makes me feel like a real farmer to save my seeds for the following year and I’m so proud (specially as a newbie gardener), “Hey, look at what I grew from my very own seeds!” Alas, that didn’t happen this year but I hope to be able to say that next year!
I love this so much!!
Hello Nicole Danger Boyhouse. 😜 I love that you’ve got so many things planted (babies!) and all of the lovely flowers too; that would also make me giddy!
Salvadore. What a joy he is for you…and for us too.
I swear, I get some repetitive emails; twice a day? C’mon people. I can only SHOP SO MUCH. It’s very annoying. I also love when I do UNSUBSCRIBE to them and I always say under my breath: I never subscribed in the first place, this is bs.
Salvadore is very muddy right now since it’s been raining – is it weird if I take him inside to give him a bath?
Do your plants talk to you? Because mine do. They call me ‘Mama Farmer’ and they are my babies. At least that’s what I tell myself. You know so don’t seem crazy when I treat them like my children. Anyway….I am still baking my way through the shredded zucchini I bagged into portions for my zucchini bread recipe and froze. I guess we’ll be eating zucchini bread the next few weeks. Thanks for reminding me to do that! I love that you guys have a little free food library on your street. I should start one. And finally-I am so with you on reading younger women’s memoirs. I just can’t relate. Maybe that’s why I’m trying to write my own memoir. Because let’s face it the “sandwich generation” gets forgotten most of the time.
I do feel like our generation seems forgotten a lot of the time!
The little free food library was started during the pandemic and it gets used so much; it’s on my walk route and I notice when it’s full and when it’s getting low.
Zucchini bread is the best, and my plants talk to me too! Well, I talk to them, for sure, it’s just a conversation 🙂
I can’t stop laughing at how people are playing Dick in the Box in the wild. I’ll have to check Apple Music to see if it’s there.
Your date for when you can plant is two weeks later than ours. Your flowers are really beautiful. I can’t wait until summer to watch how your garden progresses.
You asked why people read memoirs when they don’t have anything in common with them. I think we keep reading because we are fascinated with human kind. And that’s a pretty good reason for it. XOXO
I will be posting lots of pictures for sure! Thanks so much, Kari! (also, let me know if you find Dick in the Box!)
Your flowers are lovely!
I read The F*ck It diet book by the same author; it was good, but I wasn’t quite sure how I felt walking away from it. Something just felt slightly off or unrelatable (for one thing all the pictures of the author have her looking very slim which is 100% okay, but it felt…weird to me since she’s talking about how everyone should be confident in larger bodies?!).
That said I am intrigued she has other books because I felt like I learned quite about about her personality/background from the first book but she didn’t go into ANY of the items you mention in your review. Hmmm. I’ll put it in the “Maybe-read” pile?
That’s how I feel about the F*ck It Diet…it’s a maybe, down the line. I don’t know, I liked it okay, but it was pretty unrelatable for me for a number of reasons. Her dental stuff is pretty sad and horrifying – she was born missing nine adult teeth, NINE, ELISABETH. So there was lots of surgery for her *shudder*
Ohhh you do like to live on the edge; edge of June I guess. Love that one of the boy house boys took the time to move Salvatore every single night. So sweet. I cannot believe anyone listens to Dick in Box just for the music?
Speaking of memoirs we listened to the audio book “The Boys” by Ron Howard and Clint Howard on a recent road trip. It is SO good – if you didn’t love Ron Howard before, you certainly will afterwards. They have great stories about show biz, their family, relationships. I loved the audio book as they narrated their sections themselves.
Oh, I haven’t heard of that book – thanks for the recommendation, Pat! That sounds like a perfect road trip listen.
Oh, Nicole! Your “babies” are gorgeous! After that long, long winter that you’ve had, I imagine you are enjoying them very much!
Thanks Gigi! I am enjoying them so much!
There is something amazing about watching plants grow from seed! Whenever we put a seed in the ground, we check on it MULTIPLE times a day, every day, including the day it was planted, just in case it’s already sprouted. Because you never know. And those flowers!!!!!! How do they bring so much joy? They just do. Love it!
And I loved your dick in the box story. And now that song is stuck in my head!! :p
Salvadore has charmed me beyond reason. I suddenly feel like my life is empty and that my garden will never live up to yours and Salvadore’s. Whatcha gonna do with all those zucchinis once they get here? I recently read an article about Nooyi and was intrigued. Will look for her book now.
Ally, I’m so glad Salvadore has charmed you. He’s charmed me too! I feel like we were meant to be together.
What am I going to do with all those zucchinis…I will grate and freeze a lot of them because that works great for breads and muffins. I could dehydrate some into “chips” and I will make a lot into stir-fries, that sort of thing. But I think I’ll probably end up giving quite a few away. Too bad we aren’t neighbours!
I love that you’re gardening. I am only trying my hand on a few things this year (I was late with the planting) and have only harvested ONE single strawberry so far… everything else hasn’t really come in yet. Last year I had three very nice zucchini plants, but they ended up yielding next to nothing, I was so disappointed. I am hoping to hear about a better outcome for you.
Also, every time you mention Salvadore, I chuckle 😉
I hope it’s a good year for gardening – it has certainly been a wet spring, so if we get some warmth and sunshine it will help!