Green Gal

Yesterday, Green Guy and I embarked on a new adventure full of malted barley, gallons of water, hops, and yeast. We had our first beer brewing day and brewed up the ingredients to make an American Pale Ale from a Brewer's Best kit . I'd say the day was a success given that we did what we needed to do without too many egregious errors to create a wort and put it in a fermenter with yeast. It's sitting in the kitchen now, and I'm eagerly awaiting the first signs of fermentation in the airlock. Our beer is inside this bucket, and carbon dioxide should begin bubbling through the airlock on top by tonight. We'll bottle the final product in 2-3 weeks. We'll probably do a bit more research before determining which week to bottle it. After it's bottled, it has to sit for at least two weeks to carbonate, which will happen because we'll add priming sugar. Of course, success can be measured numerous ways, and we won't really know if our method created ...

We've been getting delightful rain lately, and it's led to a really lush green garden out back! Here are some photos from yesterday morning: Those tall sunflowers have gotten droopy! Their vibrant petals surround an enormous sunflower face.  So much green!  Nasturtiums have really taken over!  The younger sunflower finally bloomed.  Broccoli   Kale, green onion, and chard. The worms have also been doing well, eating through apple cores and other food waste slowly as the weather has gotten colder. I'm looking forward to January, when I can begin planting some new seeds again. Right now, I've just been tending what we have growing. The arugula on the living room window is super bitter, but I hope to mix it with other lettuce from the store sometime soon for a salad, or add it to pasta. A new project that Green Guy and I will be tackling in the new year is beer making! In celebration of our three year anniversary, I got us a beer ...

National Novel Writing Month is officially half-way through, which means I should be at 25,000 words... Sadly, I'm not, but I am doing pretty well at 18,354 words! It's definitely more words of fiction than I've written in the last two years combined! So now you might be able to guess why I've been absent from the blog since November began, and likely between now and December 1, I'll be spending all of my non-work typing time trying to crank out enough words to reach 50,000 before the month ends. You can learn more about NaNoWriMo here and read my author page on the site here . Despite knowing that I should be typing words on my novel right now, I wanted to share a quick story about how I've been able to go more than a week without turning on the tap specifically for watering the garden. I also want to share some photos of the garden. It rained last Sunday, giving my plants a happy dose of water straight from the natural source. It's only rained a few ...

It rained today at my house, which means my plants are happy as can be and the world smells amazing outside. Sadly, I didn't see or feel any rain today since I was indoors at work, but the signs and smells and evidence of rain was everywhere on my bike ride home and in the garden out back. Rain drops on leaves, damp soil, and the smell of wet earth and asphalt. Finally, fall seems to be here! (Knock on wood!) Sunflower and my mystery bulb, which I'm straining to remember if I maybe did plant... I planted a bulb in the plastic container in front of it after finding bulbs at the bottom of a dead flowering plant I received as a gift (it was alive when I received it as a gift!). I must have planted the second bulb in this spot. I feel silly for forgetting!  The mystery bulb has emerged!  Rain-soaked garden!  Look at those little rain drops! (Click the image for a larger view.) Today is also special because we harvested our first veggies from the garden t...