calendu-li, calendu-la

[piranha]

still cranky (still sunny). i am not really complaining about the weather; it's actually been very good this year -- lots of rain in the spring, a long spring to boot, and so far the summer hasn't been very icky either. just that it's too bright for me. :) and i have to water all my plants every day. no, i am not whining about that either; it's just that i mustn't forget, and i am prone to forgetting when my schedule is so weird that i don't mark 24 hour periods appropriately.

my first tomato is blushing! it's a tiny grape tomato. i can hardly wait. i had the first sugar snap peas today. very fine; the variety is "sugar bon". definitely gotta seed those out earlier next year. arugula is bolting; where i have it is not a good place for it.

and i am macerating calendula like crazy -- the oil is a beautiful golden colour now, and definitely smells of calendula (not a very strong smell in and of itself). i remember my grandmother making calendula salve, but she made it with goosefat. i ought to go and harvest some wild yarrow. also, sweet clover (though not for the same cream).

well, the book reviews are never forthcoming, no matter my best intentions. so i'm just gonna mention what i am reading at the bottom of my posts, and if anyone wants to talk about the books, we can do that.

books in progress:
nina kiriki hoffman, a fistful of sky -- about halfway through, and i am liking this tremendously so far.

mandy aftel, essence and alchemy: a natural history of perfume -- interesting so far, though my sensitive nose detects potential woowoo coming up.

Comments

[redbird]

Do serious sunglasses help any? I'm extremely fond of the Solar Shields that rysmiel showed me, which block much visible light and all UV, and are big enough to block light from the sides as well. They look kind of dorky, but I don't care.

sunglasses

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

sunglasses (not quite as serious as yours, but aided by a hatless brim thing to cut light leaking from the top, from where it "hurts" me most) help with the physical aspects of bright sunlight -- especially in california -- but they don't help much with the emotional aspects. i find sunshine cheering when i wake up, but when i want to work, its brightness starts to annoy me. i love my room, and i will love my space on the boat, because both spaces are naturally dark and have only relatively small windows (portholes) -- great for looking outside and being cheered by the sunlight, and at the same time blissfully dark for working, if said work can be done inside.

[pperiwinkle.livejournal.com]

Are your eyes sensitive to brght light? I hate bright, artificial lights, but I'm ok with bright natural light. I slink around with almost no lights on in the house, but I wallow in the sunlight. Must! Photosynthasize!

I grok your excitement over that first blush on a tomato. I find myself hovering over green tomatoes and peppers, willing them to get ripe. It hasn't been a good season for the garden this year, the spring was too cold and wet, and the summer too hot and wet. The fungi are running amok, and it rains almost everyday, so anything I spray gets washed away.

To wag my own tail, however, I did pick a 583 gram tomato this week.

What are you going to do with your calendula oil?

Re: calendu-li, calendu-la

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

yes, my eyes are sensitive to bright light. i actually get headaches from typical office fluorescents. sunshine bothers me less, but it still gets to me. our house is split between the light and dark realms, since the paramour likes light and i don't, *heh*. when we still lived in etobicoke, i picked the basement as my space instead of the second bedroom. it was blissfully dark.

wow, what a prize tomato!

i'm gonna make calendula cream. my skin tends to be dry, and i get a lot of cuts and bruises from working in the garden, playing rough with animals, and bushwhacking, and calendula has decent healing properties.