Good morning! Welcome to #WeekendCoffeeShare, thank you for joining me on this Saturday morning, hopefully in my garden.
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Tag: Journal
WQ#22: Hello June 2023!
Tuesday Thoughts
First, I’d like to apologize if I seemed a bit absent the last few days.
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#WeekendCoffeeShare – End of May 2023 Garden
Good morning! Welcome to #WeekendCoffeeShare, thank you for joining me on this Saturday morning, hopefully in my garden.
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UK Trip 2023 Reflection
Overall, even with all the frustration and anxiety, I suppose this has been a good trip.
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UK Trip Day 11
Guess what? We are right back to where we started – The British Museum.
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UK Trip Day 10
It’s another down day as we spent another day at mom’s friends’ house. I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired, spending the day on the couch, cycling between editing pictures, blogging, and napping.
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UK Trip Day 9
UK Trip Day 8
UK Trip Day 7
The thing about Glasgow is the weather. We were there for three days and for three days, all we saw was clouds. It was like the first few days when I visited China in 2017. I kept expecting blue skies and sunshine but got none. So I decided to turn the photos into monochrome.
According to YouTube, there’s not much to see in Glasgow. It doesn’t seem to be a popular tourist destination. I tried to plan the trip for Glasgow the same way as Edinburgh and London but couldn’t. Most YouTuber talked about food, whiskey, and shopping when it comes to Glasgow but surprisingly, the city is chock full of history. There’s a story behind every building and street.
We decided to join a tour on our final day in Glasgow, one of those hop-on-hop-off sightseeing buses. We were tired of walking. According to my Fitbit, I walked about 50 miles last week. That’s a lot of miles.
We went around the city 4 times. We went around all 21 stops the first time listening to the audio commentary. Then mom got cold, so we made a pitstop back to the hotel to grab a coat before hopping back onto the bus. On the second go-around, we got off at the 12th stop for the Riverside Museum, which is a museum dedicated to the everyday life and transportation.
I was thoroughly intrigued and surprised at the advancement of transportation in the UK. For a moment there, it seemed like the US was a little behind at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.
After the Riverside Museum and seeing the “Tall Ship” Glenlee, we hopped back onto the bus and headed for the People’s Palace. This is the fountain outside of the People’s Palace. It’s said to be the largest terra cotta fountain in the world, according to the tour guide.
The People’s Palace is another fascinated place for history geeks like me. It detailed the everyday life of people of Glasgow in the late 19th and early 20th century. I particularly loved the photography exhibit. It was a project of 80+ photographs detailing a day of life in Glasgow in 1955.
These two places were definitely the highlights of Glasgow.
We hopped back onto the bus one last time before called it a day. This time, we encountered a live guide. It was super helpful to have someone point out each and every buildings and landmark instead of having to guess according to the recorded commentary as sometimes, we get stuck in traffic or if the driver was driving too fast.
Like I said, Glasgow is an absolute fascinating place for history geeks.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #250: Skyscape or Cloudscape
Happy Sunday! Amy from The World is a Book… is the hostess for this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge and what a great theme she’s chosen for this week – Cloudscape or Skyscape.
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#WeekendCoffeeShare – UK Trip Day 6
Good morning! Welcome to #WeekendCoffeeShare, thank you for joining me on this Saturday morning in the beautiful historic city of Glasgow, Scotland.
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UK Trip Day 5
I watched the sunrise from a train this morning as I headed to Scotland.
Before I left for the UK, I remember checking the weather daily only to feel disappointed because it would forecast rain but 4 days in London, there was mostly blue skies and sun with afternoon clouds and a few minutes of drizzle, that’s it. I was surprised by the weather and now I got to see a sunrise?
I arrived, at last, in Glasgow after a 5-and-a-half-hour train ride, well, 4-and-a-quarter with about a 30-minute layover in Edinburgh.
If there was a day to feel extremely overwhelmed, it was today.
Firstly, my alarm went off at 4 AM. Everything was going fine until mom and I got on the train. When I bought the tickets online the week before the trip, I had seats reserved for the train but mom decided she didn’t want to sit in our assigned seats. She put her coffee on the table but decided to sit in the row behind. So I decided to do her a favor and carried her coffee.
Who would’ve thought the moment I grabbed the coffee by the lid, the cup would fall beneath, spilling coffee everywhere. Mom was furious. “Why did you touch my coffee?” She growled.
“It’s an accident,” I told her. I was trying to be nice but she just made me feel bad as I stood there, paralyzed as she cleaned up the mess with napkins. I was afraid to move, paralyzed by anxiety and fear, afraid if I intervened, more would go wrong.
Was I wrong to stand there like a deer in the headlights?
Probably but didn’t I have the right to be afraid?
Fortunately, the train remained quiet until we reached Newcastle when 4 people came aboard and insisted in sitting in our seats, which meant we had to move. I took a row while mom took another.
To be honest, one of my fears on this trip was not being able to understand the Scottish accent but it wasn’t difficult at all. I knew exactly what the man said when he told me to pay at the “till” and exactly what it meant when the meat is labeled at “minced” (maybe it’s also an English thing, not a Scottish thing).
I actually think the Scottish accent is one of the most beautiful accent I’ve every heard. Of course, despite constantly bragging about learning to speak English by watching the BBC, mom hasn’t been able to understand a thing since we arrived in the UK.
At first, I thought it was the slangs that’s getting her but I’m starting to think she’s just like her family – lazy and just wanted to rely on me.
#WeekendCoffeeShare – Fun at Work and Travel Anxieties
Good morning! Welcome to #WeekendCoffeeShare, thank you for joining me on this beautiful Saturday morning.
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Friday Thoughts – The Day Before…
Actually, it’s 2 days before. Tomorrow will mostly be spent in travel with a 90-minute flight to Los Angeles, endure a nearly 4 hours layover before hopping on a 10-and-half hours flight to London.
Last night, when I found out our seats got assigned, I thought, that just made the trip more real. We’re flying to London in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. I’ve flown on the 777 before and didn’t like the seats at all – too narrow and not enough legroom. I’ve also flown on the Airbus. Personally, I prefer the Airbus with its roomier leg space. I’ve heard good thing about the Dreamliner though, so I hope it doesn’t disappoint.
There are 9 seats per row and my mom and I are in the middle. Since we went with the cheapest option, we didn’t get to pick our seats. So far, there’s no one sitting in the third seat and there are 40+ empty seats on the plane. I hope it’ll keep it this way, then mom won’t be squished into me. I like my personal space, if you haven’t noticed.
* * * * *
I planted 9 tomatoes last night. 9!
If you told me I would be able to plant 9 tomatoes in an hour a year ago, I would’ve told you you’re crazy. I probably wouldn’t be able to stand the next day.
My back has been sore since December and I’m currently going through physical therapy. My therapist has been teaching me to stretch in the appropriate places follow by electro-stimulation at the end of the session. The stimulation is nice. It’s like 4 pairs of gentle hands loosening my tight back. I feel better afterwards though it’s always been temporary. Oh well, I have 18 more sessions to go.
Anyway, back to tomatoes. Thankfully, I invested in a set of auger that can be attached to the drill. It’s a lot easier to press a button than to dig the hole myself.
I’ve also gone minimalistic when it comes to the amount of amendments I put into the planting holes. Last year, I’d put bone meal, blood meal, vermiculite, perlite, so many others but last night, I just scattered a few handfuls of worm castings and fertilizer. As much as the initial planting matters, I now believe in the importance of subsequent fertilizing. Besides, after spending so much time and energy last fall adding manure compost and amendments, the soil was incredibly rich and full of earthworms – a sight any gardeners would love to see.
Anyway, I just drilled, threw in worm casting, fertilizer, and plop went the tomato plant. I’ve also put cages around the indeterminate tomatoes, hoping to keep them tamed this year. Wish me luck.
As a documentarian, I have to document the garden before my trip. Otherwise, what would I have to compare when I return 2 weeks later?
I will also note that 2 of the broccoli plants in the new raised bed is beginning to head, will I return to beautiful broccoli heads?
#WeekendCoffeeShare – Tomato Seedlings 2023
Good morning! Welcome to #WeekendCoffeeShare, thank you for joining me on this gloomy, cloudy, and/or rainy spring day.
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Hello May 2023!
#WeekendCoffeeShare – The Anticlimactic Spring
Good morning! Welcome to #WeekendCoffeeShare, thank you for joining me on this summery-feeling spring day.
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#WeekendCoffeeShare – Seedlings Starvation and Another Trip Planning
Good morning! Welcome to #WeekendCoffeeShare, thank you for joining me on this hopefully-better-than-yesterday spring morning.
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#WeekendCoffeeShare – Simple Pleasures and Garden Woes
Good morning! Welcome to #WeekendCoffeeShare, thank you for joining me on this beautiful cool spring morning.
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Monday Thoughts – Panic Mode
It appears Mother Nature has heard our prayers.
The snow had ceased as of last Wednesday but I think Mother Nature might had turned the dial on the thermometer a little too much because it was hot this weekend even though it was only 60-degrees-Fahrenheit. It went from 30-degrees on Wednesday to near 60 on Friday. If I feel this hot when it’s 60, how will I get through the days when it’s 90+?
Anyway, the foot of snow in my backyard finally melted on Saturday and I spent the weekend catching up on my planting. I’m so late this year. The peas were supposed to be in the ground in the middle of March and so were the cold-hardy vegetables. I was in panic mode for other reasons as well. As of Saturday, I’m 4 weeks aways from my last frost date. There are many things that should be planted at this point but what? My mind was drawing a blank, which it’s what happens when I’m in panic mode.
I was also in panic mode because not only there’s a crack in the hose splitter, I still haven’t purchased the material to reconnect my drip irrigation system. I had to cut a large chunk of the system because my current design doesn’t fit the 2 new raised beds I installed last fall. With mom wanting to follow me everywhere I go, I might need to take a Thursday off from work, get the material, and install it myself.
Also, with Mother Nature turning up the thermometer, I hope I’m not too late with my tomatoes. I started them indoors on the 2nd of April and they are just now popping up. I’ve grown tomatoes for the last 2 years and I’ve transplanted them just prior to Memorial Day (last weekend in May) in time to let the cold-hardy crops finish up.
Oh, I’m so sore today, definitely overdid it this weekend.
- The Johnny Jump-Ups (viola) began blooming on Saturday. They are such pretty flowers and so cold-hardy.
- Poppy and alyssum seeds scattered in the backyard, in hopes that it’ll create a carpet-like groundcover to deter weeds.
- The soil in my Greenstalk towers are loosened and amended before popping the remaining 6 strawberry plants in there along with some lettuce and spinach seedlings. The seed potatoes I planted before the last freeze still hadn’t come up. I hope they are okay.
- Planted snow peas and shelling peas in the L-Shaped bed and Napa cabbages in the new raised bed next to the broccolis, which miraculously survived the last freeze.
- Planted the remaining seed potatoes in 10-gallon grow bags and placed them in the front yard to take advantage of the southern sun. Getting to plant beneath the southern sun is such a game changer because my front yard gets full sun and facing south, it’s much warmer than the backyard, which at the moment, it’s highly advantageous as I’m in a hurry to play catch up.
- A 15-gallon grow bag was also filled and placed in the front yard, in which I sowed carrots and some Asian greens. I’m looking forward to those.
Now, I just need to locate a couple of blackberry plants to plop in my backyard.
#WeekendCoffeeShare – Spring Weather and Instant Regrets
Good morning! Welcome to #WeekendCoffeeShare, thank you for joining me on this surprisingly beautiful spring morning.
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Hello April 2023!
I feel like even before it begins, I’m happy that a new month is here. I have good feelings about April, is that too presumptuous or did I just jinxed it?
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This is Another Story 