Richard Huff's Seattle Social Blog

What can you expect to grow on the deck of your Seattle condo?  Should you grow food, or should you plant flowers instead?  This year I was convinced that what our deck needed was an herb and tomato garden.  The start was rough.  My organic herb seeds were planted in a set of copper pots purchased at Smith & Hawkin.  Ignoring the "not for food" stickers on the bottom of each copper container, I anxiously waited for the first signs of basil, oregano, savory, and rosemary sprouts.  In the meantime I happened to hear a radio show about heavy metals in food, which prompted me to do some further research on the copper pots.  First, let me defend my decision to plant herbs in pots that warned they were "not for food".  That notice typically refers to using a container for serving food -- not growing food plants.  My follow-up research, however, indicted that the solder used to weld one corner and the bottom of each pot was primarily lead.  Furthermore, the lead could leech into the soil and be picked up by the plants.  There's irony in there somewhere: my organic seeds and soil were being tainted by lead (and possibly the copper, another heavy metal).  So,..I ditched the copper pots for earthenware ones. 

At the same time, I planted two organic tomato plants.  The herbs were doing well, and the tomato plants had several dozen flowers waiting to be pollinated.  And waiting.  And waiting.  It turns out that our bees (and other pollinating insects) were taking the summer off.  Joan (a coworker) mentioned needing to hand pollinate her tomato plants, so I followed her lead.  Shortly thereafter I had eight tiny green tomatoes.  The first one (pictured) has just started to turn red in the last couple days.

Is a condo deck garden worth the time and expense?  Unlikely.  I just hope that the taste of fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes makes the effort worthwhile. 

Gavin, Elaine, and Melissa got together last year and arranged for Segway Polo on my birthday.  As my luck would have it, the day of the event was met with a torrential downpour.  Since Segway's don't operate well in two inches of standing water and the resulting mud, we postponed the game.  Not once in the subsequent year did we find an opportunity to reschedule the game, so they came up with the brilliant idea of taking the Segway tour of Disney's California Adventure while on a recent trip.  What a blast. 

Two Disney cast members teach you how to use a Segway and then take you on a tour of DCA before it opens.  Why do it before the park opens?  In their own words, "People do one of two things when they see somebody on a Segway: they either run away from it; or, they run towards it.  Both are dangerous."

The Segway experience is like nothing else.  Although completely impractical, you'll want to buy one after your first try.  My recommendation is that you resist the urge.  It's fine to be a nerd in the privacy of the Happiest Place on Earth^sm (especially when no one else is around), but you might not want to be that nerd in public.

Boot camp had to do without me on Monday morning (Labor Day).  Instead, I headed out to Woodinville for the Super Jock n Jill half marathon.  It was the first time I ran this particular race.  It was also the first time I ran a half marathon since last years' Seattle half (November 25th).  So,...expectations were low.  The important thing was that I was out with running shoes on at the start of a race.  The weather was perfect.  The course wasn't bad.  My time (2:34:42) wasn't even horrible, considering how little training there was under my belt when the gun fired.

There now just over a month before the next half marathon: the Royal Victorian.

The second week of boot camp finished last Friday with a big sigh of relief.  I felt much more capable than I did during the first week, but it's definitely not an activity where you should expect to plateau.  I'm still near the tail of the pack, struggling.  There's quite a bit of head room for me to improve.  We met at Discovery Park on Wednesday and ran the 2.8 mile loop trail.   Halfway through -- near the sand bluff -- we stopped and did an exercise circuit.  Walking lunges in sand.  Push-ups that involve pivoting to one arm at the top of the push.  Side steps when your ankles are rubber-banded together.  Bench dips.  We did a little bit of everything before completing the loop trail.

Two weeks down.  Two weeks to go! (At least for the first camp.)