While walking into the office yesterday, I noticed that one of the planters out front had been decoratively planted with swiss chard. I was surprised to see a whole lot of veggie goodness being used as decoration.
Shell Plaza and Tranquility Park has veggies growing in containers. But I wonder what they are going to do with the swiss chard when it gets too big?
I spent my time this afternoon away from my desk and gazing at seed catalogs. Even though it was a bit on the nippy side today, I wanted to be outdoors in my garden.
What do you have planned for your garden this year? I’m actually planning two gardens. One over where I have gardened for the last 3 years and another at my apartment.
I hope everyone had a Happy New Year and has set their intentions for the new Year.
I spent some time working in the garden today cleaning up the onion patch. Apparently, all that dry weather we had this past summer has activated the thistle seeds in southeast Texas. I’ve pulled some dooseys during the last few times in the garden and Mrs. B has been working on getting the thistles out of the yard and feeding them to the chickens.
One of my goals for 2012 be more hyperlocavore in my food choices. That means that I will be relying on my garden more for veggies/fruits and spending my food dollars on things I can’t grow myself (meat, cheese, and dairy) at the local farmers markets. One of my goals for this week is to start some Lettuce Seed (just a few actually). This is almost prime time for lettuce growing in southeast Texas (you can still have a freeze sneak in for the next couple of months) and the great thing about lettuce is it can be grown in a container. There are also some really fabulous red lettuces that are quite tasty. So look for a post from me about starting lettuce and a few other plants in the next few days.
The past few months have been busy. Lots of travel for work, but more importantly, lot of time thinking and acting on where I want to go in my personal and professional life.
In Mid-November, a writer for Change magazine contacted me about some of my lifestyle choices (the article will be out in Jan 2012). These questions got me thinking about the choices I’ve made over the past few years and how they affected me. When Reverb11 started at the beginning of December, I had further reflections about the past year and started thinking about what I wanted for 2012. One of the questions I asked myself is “If I had to pick a word of intention for this next year, what would it be?” The word that bubbled up to the surface from all this reflection was “deliberate.”
de·lib·er·ate [adj. dih-lib-er-it; v. dih-lib-uh-reyt] Show IPA adjective, verb, -at·ed, -at·ing.
1. carefully weighed or considered; studied; intentional: a deliberate lie.
2. characterized by deliberation; careful or slow in deciding: a deliberate decision.
3. leisurely and steady in movement or action; slow and even; unhurried: a deliberate step.
4. to weigh in the mind; consider: to deliberate a question.
The past few weeks have been spent contemplating and practicing living a more deliberate life. I’m starting 2012 off with a consumer cleanse – no new books or gadgets for the three months of the year. I have so many books and movies that I’ve bought but haven’t read or watched. Its time to do that instead of buying more. It’s time to use my large stash of cookbooks for cooking at home. It’s time to start using my exercise books and the olympic weights and dumbbell set I have to get fit and healthy. These are a start for my deliberate choices for the new year.
I’ll also be doing some clean-up and streamlining of this blog. It’s overdue for a realignment and I realized in my musings that I really want to help people live a more sustainable life here in Houston.