Home and Garden

HOW GROWS IT?: It's been awhile since we've posted any campus garden photos. 

We have dozens of tiny green tomatoes on the vine and plenty of blossoms, as well. It will be interesting to see what they eventually produce. We kind of (well, entirely, actually) lost track of what's planted where, so it will all be a surprise in the end.

Yesterday Annabelle and I transplanted the pepper plants, which seem to be doing pretty darn well. Peppers don't usually really thrive in Seattle gardens, so we'll see what happens with these. 

We have one lone dahlia bush along the driveway. The early June heat was hard on it, but it has managed three OKish blossoms.

These popped up along the driveway, as well. I don't recall them from years past. Google Lens tells us it's Mirabilis jalapa, also known as "the marvel of Peru" or "four o'clock flower." The latter name is apt as its flowers usually open from late afternoon or at dusk (between 4 and 8 p.m.).

Wikipedia reports it's "the most commonly grown ornamental species of Mirabilis plant, and is available in a range of colours. Mirabilis in Latin means wonderful and Jalapa (or Xalapa) is the state capital of Veracruz in México."  

The plant arrived in Europe in the early 1500s. I have no idea how or when it wound up along our driveway.

And then out of nowhere this four- to five-foot tall giant goldenrod offered itself up this season. 

According to the website illinoiswildflowers.info, "This perennial wildflower is 3-7' tall and largely unbranched, except at the apex, where the flowering stalks occur."

According to the Heart of Uwchlan (a township in Pennsylvania) website, "Goldenrods are an important fall nectar source for many pollinators including the Monarch butterfly, so it is unfortunate that these fall blooming natives are mistakenly blamed for hay fever. The pollen of Goldenrods is transported by insects. The pollen is not airborne does not cause pollen related allergies. Goldenrods are a critical habitat species in the fall landscape. Include them in the garden and landscape for their important ecosystem services as well as their glowing beauty!"

So, I guess we'll let the volunteer goldenrod stay.

We brought some of the outdoors indoors in the form of daises, of which we have hundreds.

They seem just perfect for my VW convertible planter.

ON THE MOVE: Yesterday when I was out watering, I noticed a *lot* of activity around one of our hives. Eventually, the bees started flying in a familiar tornado like cloud, and I knew they were swarming. Our westernmost hive is overpopulated, so the queen and hundreds of her minions took off, looking for more space.

Fortunately, they didn't go far. They would up clumping in one of our umbrella trees. 

Christian rigged up a way to try to get them into a box. The trick is you have to get the queen, so that the rest of the swarm follows. He tried yesterday afternoon, but apparently didn't get the queen, because the bees in the box returned to the tree. He tried again this morning, and the bees seem to be streaming into the box, so it seems like he captured the queen this time. Now, we need to get them into a new hive.

NICE BUNS: Yesterday we had company over for dinner on short notice, so we went with a super easy menu, burgers and brats. 

They were kind enough to bring the meat, so we made a big ol' batch of potato salad and Annabelle made some homemade hamburger buns.

She found a recipe online that promised it was simple and would take only 40 minutes.

We topped some of the dough balls with black sesame seed furikake, and others with Maldon salt.

They looked terrific fresh out of the oven. I didn't eat any, but others report they were great.

I found this video from the Guenther Bakery in Belgium about how they make 1.5 million (!) buns a day.

 

Working It

ON THE JOB: This past week brought a few firsts around MPA, as CJ and Annabelle each started their very first summer jobs.

They each have impressive resumes with a long, strong history of volunteer work, but now they are both eager to earn some money. They each applied to a few different opportunities, and they each wound up finding what appears to be a good fit.

Annabelle is now employed by King County Parks and Recreation. She is working as an aide for their Sack Lunch Program. Part of her duties involve helping make sure kids get healthy, nutritious lunches even though school is out. The program also has an arts and crafts component, so she helps assembly take home art kits. 

Annabelle's workplace is Steve Cox Memorial Park in White Center, which is just south of West Seattle. As part of her work she'll also be making tutorials for craft projects. At some point, those will wind up on a YouTube channel.

Meanwhile, CJ was offered a guest services position with the Seattle Mariners. That means when the Ms are in town, he's at the stadium, helping in a variety of customer service roles. 

Before he could even start the job, we had to go buy black pants, a black belt, and all black work shoes. I pointed out to CJ that meant before he earned a dime, there was an outlay of about $100. I pointed out to him that for some people, that is a real barrier to employment. How do you get the job if you can't look the part? 

Back when I used to work for WorkFirst, we would help job seekers get clothing vouchers. And while that was helpful, it could be a days-long process. That's not something that is going to work for some job opportunities where they'll hire you if you can start right away. Anyway, I realize I digress, but I just wanted to point out the realities for some people who are less fortunate.

CJ already has some entertaining stories from his first couple of days on the job. Guess that's bound to happen when your work involves interfacing with thousands of people each shift.

RED, WHITE AND BLUE: Speaking of the ballpark, we went to a Mariners game last Friday night. It was a notable occasion because it was the first time the stadium has been open (no COVID restrictions on seating) since the 2019 season. 

To celebrate, they had hundreds of tickets on the main level for $17.76, which is less than half their usual cost. So we snagged some of those and enjoyed the scene.

The weather was perfect, and our seats were great. We don't sit on the first base side of the ballpark hardly ever, but I remembered that at some point, the setting sun would shine through an ingress tunnel 

At one point, when he was on a break, CJ stopped by for a couple of minutes.

Christian also spotted him 'in the wild' at the top of the home plate seats.

It was a looooooong darn game, "thanks," in part, to a number of errors by Mariners' players. But they fought their way through, the game went into extra innings, and they won in the bottom of the 10th - four hours and nineteen minutes after the first pitch.

So, it was nearly 11:30 when the game ended, and then it was time for the big fireworks show!

During the ninth inning, we'd headed out to some outfield seats so that we could see the show better (where we were before, our seats were under an overhang that would have impeded our view).

It was fun sitting out there, as well. It almost felt like we were standing in the outfield!

I have to think Annabelle and Kennedy's rally caps helped the Mariners in the 10th.

Eventually the pyrotechnics got started. They did not disappoint.