a mid summer update

A wonderfully alien looking seed pod from love-in-the-mist. It's been years since I've had to deliberately plant these, and they still come up every year.

It's hot and smokey here (the smoke's from the fires in the B.C. interior, fortunately nothing near by is burning). The garden is happily growing and I've been keeping busy with a plethora of projects. Since I stopped my monthly garden updates a few months ago, I thought I'd give a general update of what I've been working on.

Growing stuff

I've cut the water to the beans in the front yard. They all have lovely pods, so if all goes well, they'll be dry enough to harvest by the end of the month. Potatoes are also ready to harvest, as will soon be my onions. The winter cabbages are putting on nice heads and we're getting all the cucumbers we can eat.

And check out my hairy melon:

Isn't it delightfully hairy?

I planted some bigger fruit producers late winter including an apricot, cherry, assorted currants and gooseberries. All are doing well. As is my deck based lime tree (which will come in for the winter).

So far the only seeds I've collected have been from the Alexanders (a perennial relative of celery) - we had enough to eat their shoots this year. Not bad for an early spring crop.

Other random projects

Miso - I started a batch out of soybeans with a friend last night (will have to wait at least 6 months to taste it). Now I’m thinking of making a batch out of my homegrown tiger eye beans - mostly because I could call it tiger miso.

Tempeh - we started a batch last night and I'm struggling to find a spot the right temperature for it to ferment. I have no idea if it'll work out or not.

There’s a watering system that needs to be put in - I have the stuff and having a working watering system would simplify my life. The hard part right now is most my ground is cement-like, so if I want to dig anything in I’ll have to wait until the rains start.

Writing

Settler Chronicles book 1 - I’ve started my final edit, at this point I’m just wordsmithing. My cover should be ready this fall (October) and I’m on track to release then. I also have the first draft of the second book written.

I put up the first scene on this blog a little while back (see here). Should I put up more of this book here? Perhaps the first couple chapters. Let me know in the comments below.

Deep Trouble - A current day action-adventure I’m co-writing with a friend.  I’ll put up the first chapter soon (it was titled ‘Benthic Adventure’ until a friend pointed out that most people don’t know what benthic means. Perhaps it is best I don’t try to surreptitiously improve readers vocabulary in a fluffy, fun action adventure story)

And I’ve started drafting another story for Wattpad - science fiction with lots of action (I'll share more on this soon).

Reading

Solitude - a non-fiction book by Michael Harris about how creativity grows out of solitude. So far I'm enjoying it. I'll likely write my own review, but for now there's a review here.

The Nakano Thrift Shop - a novel by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from Japanese. I'm trying to broaden what I read, so this one is quite different from what I normally read. It's about the relationships between the quirky staff of the thrift shop, and I'm quite enjoying it (although I will need a good action book when I'm done). There's a review here.