What Do Chamomile Tea, Spinach Containers, Toilet Paper Rolls and Mason Jars Have in Common?

What do these things have in common? Well, they are all a part of my improvised, gleaned from Pinterest and work, what-can-I-dig-out-of-the-recycling method of gardening. 

Yes, gardening. 

It's true, I have trouble keeping house plants alive (even when those house plants are cacti and succulents...). But gardening has intrigued me for a while. Last year when I had considerably more time and space on my hands (and a much warmer climate!) I was thinking about, and even planning, a garden. Then, of course, I decided to go on an extended trip to Thailand and Laos with a friend during planting season, and that was that. 

This year, trying to escape a winter that won't end (more snow coming this week!), and working at a place that espouses the many benefits of urban gardening, I decided I'm going to give it a go. 

I signed up to receive free seeds and transplants from an organization called Denver Urban Gardens. At EarthLinks we collected the applications for our participants and dropped them off for them. Since I was the one to drop them off, I just filled one out myself. I mostly asked for transplants (thinking if the plants were already in adolescence when I got them I would have a better chance of keeping them alive). I was surprised though at what seeds I had ordered when I went back a couple months later to pick them up: 

Kale, cantaloup, and lettuce. Kind of random, but whatever. Making stuff up as I went along I decided to imbibe my seeds. (Not with alcohol mind you.) My supervisor had passed along an article about a gardener who tried soaking his seeds for a day or so and how they grew a lot faster. I figured, why not?

I poured half the packets into some random jars I had on my shelves. I planned on planting them the next day...but didn't get around to it. In my memory the article had said to soak them for 3-5 days. After  a couple of days I reread the article and realized, no, they said 12-24 hours. Oops. I figured I better get some stuff and get them planted soon...

After church I wandered around Lowes looking lost for organic potting soil and seed starting mix. I finally found what I hoped was the right stuff and hauled it out to my car, quite proud of myself (for no reason really). Then, I waited a couple more days...Finally on what seemed an appropriate evening (by which I mean there was a blizzard blowing outside), I sat at my desk in my pajamas with the spoon from my coffee cup, some toilet paper rolls, and the soil and got to work planting. 

At work participants usually carefully place three seeds in a triangle formation 1/4 of an inch into the dirt with tweezers (or something like that). My wet seeds were clumpy (and I soaked way too many) (seriously, how many kale plants was I going for?) so I just kinda spooned them in here and there. 

Making it up as we go along, folks.

The seeds all planted and cosy in their spinach container green house!

Then miracle of miracles, 2 and a half days later: 

A baby lettuce plant!

I really couldn't believe it! They were sprouting already. Two rows of happy little plants. It's so amazing and surprising that I keep forcing David and housemates (and anyone else I have any kind of sway over) to come look at them every day or so. It feels like magic. 

This is my little set up in the sun in one of our front rooms. I water them with a mason jar with holes punched in the top. I had seen someone water the seedlings at work this way--and seriously, it's mesmerizing how the water falls out of there in little lines as you shake it. I've also got a couple of tulips that were free give-aways, and a mason jar full of camomile tea. Apparently you can treat your seedlings for root rot (?) or something moldy sounding, by spraying them with camomile tea. I don't really understand that, but, again, why not? I couldn't find a spray bottle so I just squeeze the tea bag over the seedlings and sprinkle it on there. Good enough for me. 

Look at them go! I even have two little kale plants coming up now. Who knows what those cantaloupe seeds are doing under the soil (but honestly I didn't have much hope for them from the beginning). I did open my seeds the other day to find lots of fuzzy mold growing on the side of the TP rolls though. Hopefully that's not too bad of a thing. I've been leaving the lid off and giving them a good dose of chamomile--so we will see. Who knows how this experiment will turn out!

I have another batch of seedlings soaking in water (...for probably about a week now...): okra and bluebonnet seeds. It's my Texas batch. I'll hopefully get them in soil by the end of the weekend. But, we will see...

Anyway, that's my new little project. I felt a little hesitant about it in the beginning, but then I decided, hey if I kill them all--it's ok. Gotta take some risks, right? Even if it's just with free seeds. 

Finally, this week in workshop we used a TED talk for our "reflection" time. It's got me even more jazzed for gardening. We all enjoyed it, so I'll share it here too: 

Lemesos, Kourion and Say What?

I set these pictures to upload while I got some other things done. Then blogger tells me I've run out of space. Say what?! I didn't even know that happened. So you only get some of the pictures right now (it's ok, it's most of them). Also, who knows how to remedy this? 

PS. Dad remember how I joked about how it cost money to blog and you said you would send me money to cover it? I was only kidding then, but now...  : )

Lemesos, or Limassol (several cities in Cyprus have two names...which is confusing), wasn't bad. The crumbly colonial buildings were right up my ally. The Lebanese restaurants were a highlight. Overall though, while I enjoyed it when I was there, now that I have moved on I can say that the city was pretty "meh."The highlight of my time there was the trip I took out to the nearby ancient city of Kourion. The views were absolutely beautiful and the ruins were pretty impressive as well. 

Pictures of both below:

Saw this sign in town. That's harsh. 

Colonial facades 

Roman steam baths in the Agora section of the ruins at Kourion

These trees were everywhere with little yellow fluff ball flowers

Mosaic floors in an old palace

The theater 

These railings surrounded the stadium. As the wind blew through the area it would go through the tiny holes you can see on the underside of these rails and the wind would whistle. Especially with the acoustics of the theatre amplifying it, it was a cool but almost eery sound. 

The view--the water was so blue!

More mosaic floors

More blue seas

Just a beautiful area of the country

Remains of a really early Christian church. 

OK, and I'll get the rest of them up when I figure this "no more space" issue out. But don't worry--I already have one plan to try (and of course...it doesn't involve just getting over it and paying the money!). 

Troodos Mountains

This morning I loaded up my backpack, grabbed a bus and headed into the mountains. It took some effort to drag myself away from the coast, but I wanted to see a bit of the diversity of the island (which everyone keeps telling me about). Well it's beautiful here. We are over 3,000 feet up and there are pine and cedar trees everywhere. It's a nice change of scenery and a chance to get a bit of hiking in (not that I won't be getting more than my share of that starting next week!). My only complaint is that it's pretty chilly this high up! At the moment it's only 9 degrees out (ok, it's celsius, but still!). I'm all layered up and happy to be headed to the capital tomorrow!

Picture of my bus on the way up. You can see a bit of the scenery out the windows, but what I really wanted you to see is the drivers 'stache in the rearview mirror. 

The cold meant I had to try out the stifado--the local beef and onion stew. They brought out a massive amount of food (including a steamingly fresh Cypriot pita). 

A little hiking. After my last waterfall hike experience I opted for the less steep trail. 

Some mountain views and nature-y bits

Agia Napa

Now that I am here I can see how Agia Napa could be considered tourist hell in the summer. Thankfully though, it's not summer. It's spring. That means there's wildflowers everywhere and I had the beach almost entirely to myself today. It also means that I got a 200 euro hotel room for 40 (slippers and all!). Not bad Agia Napa, not bad. 

(The one thing my fancy hotel does not have though, is free wifi. So here I am at the cafe down the road drinking the cheapest thing on the menu to use their wifi. And let me tell you, this Greek coffee has some BITE.)

Oh, and one more interesting fact before the pictures: Any idea where Agia Napa gets its name? Agia/ayia we know is "holy." Napa anyone? Think napkin. The town gets its name from the monastery here which was named after the "holy handkerchief" supposedly used to wipe Jesus' tears with on his way to the cross. Interesting, no?

OK, moving on...

My spiffy digs

My balcony. Today was divided between laying out and reading at the pool...

then laying out and reading at the beach. 

Yesterday I went on a long walk (round trip I think it was almost 20 kilometers--which is good. That's the daily average for the Camino). 

The water, the views, the flowers--it was all beautiful. 

Up until this point of my walk I had been barefoot (I just continued walking from the beach). I finally put my shoes back on (sans socks/rolling my pants back down) to look at some cliffs and then just decided to rock the look the rest of the way. Yep. (There's hardly anyone but old Germans here anyway.)

The sea caves were breathtaking

Another look at them from the return

Fields and wildflowers

Just an overall lovely walk and lovely day.  

This morning I woke up early(ish) and went to the monastery here. This 600 year old sycamore tree is in the courtyard. 

The monastery--built 1570. 

Icons inside

More monastery 

Fountain in the courtyard that predates the monastery

And some religious kitsch for good measure. 

Tomorrow to the capital! That is...unless I decide to stay. 

Pueblos Blancos--Nica Style

It's the first of the belated Nicaragua posts! I really loved Nicaragua, so even though I am already living it up in Greece, I had to show it a little blog love (if for no reason other than so that everybody can see there is more to it than the civil war that ended two decades ago!). So here we go: 

One of my first afternoons in Nicaragua we took a little afternoon trip to the Pueblos Blancos (The White Towns) in southern Nicaragua. It struck me as strange that in southern Spain around the city of Granada there are clusters of white villages known as the Pueblos Blancos, and then here in Nicaragua, around their city of Granada, there were the same type of towns. Who knew?

After an helado (ice cream) we stopped in the white church in San Marcos. Our fearless leader Bergman leads the way!

The church holds one of only two "black Jesuses" in Nicaragua

Bell tower: we were all very tempted to pull that string...

Roof view

Street view of San Marcos with volcanoes in the distance

Another shot of the church

We visited a little farm that had every kind of medicinal plant you could think of. They also had all kinds of regular things growing--but things that most of us only knew in their processed state. For example, here Bergman is taking a machete to a cacao plant!

There are the beans--the cacao is inside them. You can suck on them, and they are sweet, but if you bite in, it's bitter. Very interesting. 

We also stopped in Masatepe, Nicaragua's furniture making capital, to watch them weave banana leaves into furniture

We then passed through Niquinohomo which is the birthplace of Augusto Sandino

Ah, and finally we stopped in Catarina to take in the view at the Mirador. The view was so beautiful that it was jarring (unfortunately my pictures can't do it justice!). From there you could see Laguno de Apoyo (a crater lake), Granada in the distance, Lake Nicaragua and the slopes of the volcano Mombacho (see next picture). 

The view was fantastic, the musicians were good, the company was lively and the drinks were cold. An all around good afternoon and beautiful part of the country. 

{...I'm not going to lie...I kind of miss Nicaragua}