Hallet's Cove species count

Yesterday I saw three swans in the cove. This would be Hallet's Cove, in Astoria Village, where I live. Astoria Village:

Hallet's Cove is on the bottom left corner of the map. The wharfs are fenced off now, alas. This probably has something to do with the housing project that they abut. But even though I don't get to dangle my toes off of a pier as if I were some kid in the country, I do get to bird-watch alongside the coves, and yesterday I saw three swans, which was cool, because I had never seen more than one swan in the cove at once before. One swan was bigger than Ruby (my rottweiler), which is a damn big bird. When Ruby spotted the swan, she raised all the hair along her back and stood on the riverbank, posturing and growling. Meanwhile the swan, which had been serenely floating on the water, puffed up all the feathers on its neck, and started swimming towards the bank. So I called Ruby off of the swan, and because she's a good girl, she listened to me. I didn't really want to see blood-stained feathers everywhere. I mean, I kind of did. But my better angels didn't.

Last week I planted garlic in my garden. The "Italian Late" Variety. I should be harvesting it in what? August? I don't know for certain because I've never grown garlic before. But it is a very uncharacteristically optimistic thing for me to do- sow for such a distant harvest. (Edit: It's not actually called "sowing" unless you put a seed in the ground, is it? What's a poetic way to describe putting a clove in the ground?)

And tonight I cooked dinner!

**The Ornery Mechanic's Sublimely Delicious Turkey Stew**

Soak chickpeas: Take chickpeas, wash and pick over, put in a pot, add plenty of water, bring to a boil and boil for a few minutes, cover pot, put in refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, put the following ingredients in a crockpot:

• Soaked chickpeas
• Smoked turkey wings
• Cubed potatoes
• Tomatillos (from my garden! still!)
  
• Garlic
• Vegetable bouillon
• Kasuri Methi
• Fresh herbs (from my windowsill!): Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme
• Chili powder
• Salt

Go to work. Come home. Examine the content of the crockpot. The flavors will have melded by this time, but if the chickpeas are not yet fully cooked, put the content of the crockpot into a pot on the stove and simmer for another half and hour or more, stirring occasionally. While the stew simmers, remove the turkey wings from the pot, scrape the meat from the bones, return the meat to the pot and give the bones to your salivating dogs. Make a beautiful salad of baby spinach, tomatoes, red onion, avocado, orange pepper and fresh parsley from your windowsill. Make a salad dressing of tahini, water, lemon juice, garlic, brown sugar, salt and black pepper. Cut up a hero roll and toast it.

Serve stew, salad and bread. Put away mucho leftovers.

The joys of motherhood

My 80-pound Rottweiler puppy, Ruby, got into my toiletries on Sunday. This was 100% my fault, of course. I was the one who left the drawer open when I went to work, even though I've always closed it before. Anyway, this curious doggy helped herself to:
- A jar of vaseline
- A bottle of aloe vera
- A BIG bottle of mineral oil
- A bag of antelope musk perfume (I liked that stuff too, I got it in Morocco)

So, explosive diarrhea and vomiting all over the apartment of course. A very sad and sick dog with her entire rear end encrusted with mineral oil and feces. When I called the veterinarian, the receptionist panicked and told me I had to take Ruby to the animal emergency room so that they could induce vomiting. But luckily, she had already vomited. The first line of treatment (M.'s idea) ended up being bubblegum flavored Pediolyte, which is like Gatorade for babies. Ruby recoiled from the flavor, but for 36 hours I offered her Pediolyte and no water, so eventually she drank it down and started shitting solids again. Which is a good thing, because this is a big dog. We already call her turds "Mount Ruby", and I much prefer dealing with Mount Ruby than dealing with Toxic Sludge Lake Ruby. I ended up spending most of the day yesterday cleaning the dog herself and cleaning the apartment. And Ruby's not out of the woods yet. Even though she's energetic again, and she's eating, her bumhole is red and inflamed, and she cries in pain whenever we lift her tail to inspect it. I'll be taking her to the vet this afternoon, so that they can shine a light where the sun doesn't shine. The whole experience has left me well-trained, as I will NOT be leaving drawers or cabinets open again.

In other news, M. and I are still harvesting eggplant, tomatoes, and tomatillos from the garden. The eggplant are even still flowering, so I'm going to fertilize them once more with our homemade compost tea. (Take food scraps, leave in a sealed container, wait 3 weeks, drain the liquid off of the bottom, dilute 8 oz liquid in 5 gallons water, fertilize with 1-2 cups of dilution per plant.) M. has proposed sheltering the plants through the winter using shelters made of chicken wire stuffed with leaves. Always thinking, that one is. So, perhaps I'll be eating eggplant all winter. Which is good, because my eggplant are so much more flavorful and succulent than anything you suckers are getting from the store.