Cruising the coast of Greenland

And now for a real time update...  picture taken 30 minutes ago off the port side of the ship.  Whipping wind, spraying sea, ice floating by...  quite brutal for summertime.  We are cruising along the south coast of Greenland today.  There was too much ice in the water for our ship to make it to the city of Qaqortoq, so we are sailing onward to the northwest coast of Iceland.  Wildlife sightings of the day are sea birds and a pair of orcas!

Bar Harbor in Cartoon

Hello again!  Been awhile!

I am back on the cruise ship and excited to share some of my experiences.

Here are some scenes from Bar Harbor that I caught with my new camera – playing with the color sketch feature.  Enjoy!

The Garden Begins

Basil

There are three reasons why I started seeds early this year. First of all, because some plants take longer to make food than the growing season in Wisconsin allows for. So, I need to have little plants, not seeds, ready to go into the ground after that last frost - which is projected to happen in early May. Secondly, I chose to start my own plants instead of buying them because I found some very specific kinds of food I'd like to try that I may not be able to find for sale. And finally, who doesn't want fresh basil as soon as humanly possible?

I ordered most of my seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (based in Missouri) and Jung's (based in Wisconsin). Some of my seeds are heirlooms, and some are hybrids.

A little about Baker Creek and this "heirloom seed" concept. In the past, I've found myself intimidated by super cool garden people who throw the this word around, but no longer! Fancy word, simple concept. With an heirloom seed, you can save the seed from the plant one year, plant it the next year, and get the same thing. There is another type of seed called a hybrid (remember freshman bio) which is a cross between two different parental varieties which will produce seeds that can't reproduce themselves exactly. If you plant the seed of a hybrid seed, it may be sterile and not grow fruit at all, or it may grow fruit with only the attributes of one of it's grandparents. Hybrids are popular because plant breeders create them for very specific attributes like resistance against a certain disease, or very uniform fruit. So, if you get hooked on a specific hybrid tomato, you have to buy the seeds each year - a great way for seed companies to make money - fair enough. With Baker Creek, if you buy a seed packet from them, you will theoretically never need to order that same seed again because you can save it yourself! It sounds like a self-sacrificing business model, and yet their business is expanding rapidly. The owners of Baker Creek travel the world looking for traditional varieties of fruits and veggies, along with discovering heirloom varieties in little known pockets of our own country. Not only will an heirloom seed produce itself all over again, but it is also typically a older variety that our grandparents grew, Thomas Jefferson (a lettuce enthusiast FYI), or perhaps even the Pilgrims.

Most seed companies sell a few heirloom varieties along with the hybrids they've developed like Jung's or Burpee. Local farmer markets are a good place to buy heirloom transplants, if you want to save yourself some work.

About two weeks ago, I dropped some seeds into a "seed starting mix" and let them warm up in the sun room. With the unusually warm spring weather we've had, I've been able to bring the seedlings outside during the day for them to grow in the sunlight and get strong in the breeze.

Amish Paste Tomato seedlings - from Baker Creek - and originally an Amish heirloom from Wisconsin!

Sherlock Holmes on Flowers

"There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion," said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. "It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurances of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers."

From Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Naval Treaty".

Back Home

After visiting Iceland, Scotland, Ireland, Greenland, France, Italy, Portugal, Morocco, Spain, Canada, the Caribbean, England and the Canary Islands, there is still no place like home. Here are pictures from our little suburban farm in Wisconsin. Roots and bulbs sleep under the blanket of snow, the John Deere is tucked away in the garage, and Whitetail deer dream of eating my veggies.

Meet Finley, my two year old Australian Shepherd who likely knows more words than I did at his age. Favorite activities include picking and eating green beans, chasing whatever you can throw, everything related to cheese, and following his people around.

Cottonwood down.

Fungus extraordinaire!

The valiant rosemary; last plant standing in the garden; defeater of deer, snow, and still smells like rosemary should.

Place for the big fire.

Place for the little fire.

Waiting for summer bonfires.

Raspberry buds hanging out in the cold.

Dad and Fin

And finally, the cast and stage crew after my final show on the cruise ship. It was an honor to make music with these wonderful people from Brooklyn, Colorado, Indiana, Ukraine, Philippines, and Indonesia.

Madeira, Portugal

This picture is from the cement wall at the dock.

Banana trees!!

Mountain style farming.

Hello!! Greetings from the high seas. We just set sail from our last European port and have begun crossing the Atlantic. I haven't blogged for awhile, so I'll try to catch up over the next week. Here are pictures from the Portuguese island of Madeira, mostly taken from the "hop on hop off" bus. You can see the tiered agricultural system that the people developed to cope with the mountainous landscape. Grape vines and banana trees were all over the place (those are banana trees in the picture). Madeira has been known for centuries for its wine - Shakespeare even wrote about it - one of his characters wanted to die by drowning in a barrel of it. Beautiful place, sunshine and warm weather in December!!!

Gran Canarie

I am sitting at a McDonalds in Palma de Mallorca, using the speedy WiFi to post some more blog pictures from the last week. YES - don't judge - I am an American and sometimes I need my fast food fix just like you do...

Okay, so I was on the island of Gran Canarie - one of the Canary Islands - a little over a week ago. It was spectacular! The first picture is of a flock of sheep in the mountains who make excellent cheese.

The next is a statue of Alfredo Krauss, a famous opera tenor, who was from the island. He is seen as the traditional tenor pose known as "the claw". As you can see, he overlooks the beach - where surfers floated around like lobster bobbers. Behind his statue is the beautiful performing arts center named in his honor (you can't see it).

The next picture is of a gothic style Catholic church...

Next, is a shrine to "Maria of the Pine Trees" from a different church. The people of Gran Canarie believe that Mary appeared on top of a pine tree right outside of this particular church. They will come to this church to ask for Mary's blessing when they have special occasions in their lives - like buying a new car, or starting a new soccer team, or having a baby.

Then, I am standing near the top of the mountains - among the famous pine trees - with cool rock formations in the back.

Then we have a little village in the middle of the mountains... they farm figs, almonds, citrus, avocados, all the wonderful things we can't grow in Wisconsin.

Please appreciate the excellent driving skills of the bus driver on the turn. According to the knot in my stomach, there were about 1,037 of these precarious turns throughout the tour.

And finally - sand dunes! YAY!!!!!