Happy Halloween

This year I know that I won't have any trick-or-treaters coming to my door. I live too far out in the boonies for little ghosts and goblins to come a haunting just for some chocolate goodies. At the same time, it's just too dark and scary to come out to my neck of the woods for some treats.

I guess this year, I'll just have to be content with staying in and eating all of the candy and chocolate goodies I've got on hand. I'm also trying to recuperate too. I think the half-marathon only further weakened my body and immune system. Furthermore, I ate at a dirty restaurant yesterday. This has left me feeling very sick and needing lots of rest.

So to all of you who are able-bodied and ready to gather some sweet treats or play some wicked tricks, I wish you a safe and happy Halloween!

Monster Dash

Earlier in the year I told myself that before the year was over, I would run a race that would require running more miles than there were in a 5K. I had missed out in signing up for a ten-mile race, but saw that I still had a chance to sign up for a half-marathon. I had never ran a half-marathon before, but I felt that this was my last chance. I don't know why I waited to sign up for the last half-marathon offered here in the Twin Cities before it got so cold, but I did. Before the summer was over, I signed up for the Monster Mash half-marathon that occurred this morning.

I dressed up as Wonder Woman and put together my own running costume. I felt very dumb wearing my costume before I got to the race, but once I got to the race parking lot, I realized that my costume wasn't good enough. At least I dressed up and ran the whole half-marathon in my costume (that included a gold belt, gold wrist protectors, a gold "lasso of truth" and gold headband).

I had a lot of fun. It was inspiring and a very good distraction to see all of the runners who ran in a costume. I must admit, the muscles in my legs were burning by the ten-mile mark, but I didn't stop. I jogged/ran the whole half-marathon and finished at two hours and twenty seven minutes. Despite the pain and how sore I felt immediately after the race (I WAS SO SORE that I couldn't even squat) I can't wait to participate in next year's Monster Dash. Now what to dress up as for next year? Any ideas for me?

Planting Garlic

Today I planted my garlic cloves. Based on my research, fall is the best time to plant garlic. I had intended to plant the garlic earlier in the month, but I got too busy and the weather was unseasonably warm. Thus, I waited a bit and decided that today's cooler weather was more appropriate for planting.

As I wrote earlier in the year, I went to the farmer's market and purchased several heads of garlic. Throughout the summer, I continued to buy garlic from the farmer's market. Each time I purchased a head of garlic, I would set aside the biggest cloves and I would cook with the smallest cloves. Apparently, the bigger the clove, the better the chance that when planted, it will produce a bigger garlic head. As you can tell from the picture, the garlic cloves at the top are a lot smaller than the ones at the bottom. I also believe that these garlic cloves would do well in Minnesota's weather because the garlic were locally grown by local farmers.

I cleared out one of the raised beds and amended the soil with more manure. I think I planted close to fifty garlic cloves. I wanted to plant more but didn't have room in the raised bed. Oh well, lets see what happens in the spring. I hope I didn't crowd the cloves and gave each enough space to grow. If these garlic cloves are of the hardneck type, and not the softneck type, then I'm looking forward to also harvesting some garlic scapes too (more information about garlic can be found at the following link: http://www.garlic-central.com/varieties.html). How exciting. Another reason why I can't wait until spring.

Blue Boat, Blue Skies, Blue Water

[Lake Superior, Chicago, IL, taken on September 3, 2011.]

Disappointing Fall Foilage

I missed the fall foliage by one weekend. I'm a bit disappointed. Last weekend would have been the best time to see this year's fall foliage in all of its glory. Yet, for whatever reason, I missed it. Many of the trees were bare and if there were any leaves still on the tree, it was either brown, yellow, or green. For the last several weeks it has been quite windy and I think the strong winds blew most of the colorful leaves off from the trees.

So, I took pictures of whatever colorful leaves that were available. I was also surprised to see lots of monarch butterflies. Their presence probably have much to do with this week's and last week's uncharacteristically warm weather. I hope it stays this warm for Halloween. I'm really keeping my fingers crossed.

Garden Space

When I was in Chicago, my friend and I visited the Chicago Institute of Art. We arrived a bit too early and the museum was closed, so she and I got some breakfast to go and ate it at a garden space located right next to the museum. I believe this garden space is owned by the museum. This garden space had lots of older trees, in which each tree was planted in a "container" and there were vines growing all over the trees. The space also had a fountain and a little pool.

The garden space was so enchanting. The trees filtered so much of the morning sunlight coming into the space and it felt so serene. It was my favorite spot during my stay in Chicago and I would love to go back to this garden space again. I said that if I lived in Chicago, I would try my very best to picnic there as often as possible, or even go and just sit in that space for the sake of being in that space. It would be my favorite spot.

I felt as if I was in some formal English garden, although the garden space was probably modeled after a formal English garden. I think Mr. Darcy, from Pride and Prejudice, could have owned a garden space similar to this one. What do you think?