week 8

duck bath among so much more @ Thomason Family Farm.

amazing tomato trellising @ St. Joes Hospital in AA,MI

blogging has become a bit more lost in the jumble of things as work has picked up again. last night I went to Growing Hope's (in Ypsilanti, MI) Tour de Fresh. it's a tour of community gardens, urban farming, & such throughout the area. you could pick between biking or driving the tour route. i biked. it was a 10mi route & we visited 10 different places. it was really amazing to see gardens at homes & all the experimentation of what works & doesn't. not to mention, the enthusiasm and dedication that drives everyone and what they are doing. I was especially wowed by St. Joe's Hospital hoop house & their tomato trellising techniques. essentially it is a string fastened securely to the tomato vine & tautly to the roof of the hoop house. it makes for beautiful, straight lines and organization. those were also some well pruned plants! additionally, the EMU Giving Garden is a great initiative on campus. you can tell there is a lot of dedication in that garden too from the people & their plots. overall, everything was really cool and well done.

so, if you think all that sounds great & you're feeling bummed you missed out - have no fear! next week The Garden Project (Lansing, MI) is having its community garden tours. bikers, be ready tuesday 27 @ 5:30p. bus-ers, thursday 29 @ 5:30p. more info at our website or find us on facebook & RSVP (search The Garden Project).

on a more individual note, its been over a year since i graduated undergrad. i was thinking about how different, and how much better, it feels to be where i am now. i am no longer defined by my area of study & don't have to fight to take both science & english classes (how silly the division is between those areas of study). i suppose this is growing up, but it is nice to feel totally free. my decisions about what to do with my life & how to live are up to me. i'm not contained within a school schedule for once. the only restraints are money & time. so, perhaps that doesn't sound starkly different from being a student, but this is also the first time where my life and my work overlap in important ways. i'm not just doing homework and striving for an ambiguous future. i'm right here & now and my work is fulfilling those ambiguous things i was working toward. also, i'm not waiting any more as i was most of last year. be it to heal from surgery or get a tooth implant or for timelines and lifelines to run parallel. and so i say, hurrah to that.