Growing season is here

I have not been able to post any news these past months. Not that I do not have the time, well, I am actually do not have the time to write and post, I was busy getting ready for the growing season. Activities for me have been the same each day, weeks, months and years. Currently, I am waiting for the soil to heat up a little. AT this moment, the temperature is still below 40s F. I have started to sprout the seeds of my favorite plants like, zucchini, cucumbers, hot peppers, tomatoes and many more indoors. They are sprouting very well, but a little bit leggy due to lack of sunlight. They should be fine I hope. As soon as the soil is stable at 60 degree F, I will start planting peas.

Happy New Year 2020

Welcome to the year 2020. I am very excited to finally be part of the beginning of a new decades. A lot of experiences I have gained over the year and a lot more I am expecting for the year to come. As my age is adding another digit, I am feeling more humble, blessed and positive. About 2 years ago, there was a change at work and it was not a good change. The change was sending me a negative vibes, it was able to bring out the negative in me for a brief period, luckily I always my other half who always giving me inspiration and keep reminding me to let it go. Just like in the song in Frozen the movie…I slowly learned how to let go.

Two things I did to let the negative energy to go far away from my life…the first one is to channel my mind to Korean pop songs. It worked like a charmed. My favorite k=pop group is the led apple with their lead singer, Hanbyul. He has an awesome voice, great guitarist and their music was just soothing to my ears. I keep listening to their songs over and over. Thank you so much for the Wi-Fi and YouTube. I can listen to the music from my iPhone.

The second thing I did besides listening to k=pop music is to learn how to do makeup. Yes, I spent several hundreds of dollars just to try out different palettes, foundations, and skincare. The last thing that I add into my face routine are the brushes and beauty blender. Boy, it was fun. The beauty blender can be quite pricy but thank you to the Christmas sales. I am now own 2 beauty blenders and about 20 makeup brushes. I started with the mascara and eye shadows. Trying to perfect it with the right colors and the right products. After the eyes area, now I am into finding the right foundations to cover all the imperfections on my face. It was fun.

I am hoping the year 2020 will continue to give me more health, wealth and happiness. As long as the internet is easy to get and more people sharing their life stories on YouTube, and more products with glitters and sequins, I think I will be ok.

Happy New Year everyone!

Invasion of mints and sunchokes

The vegetables garden is doing well. I was not able to work in the garden for a week now due to the rain. The soil is too wet for me to work on. However, the peas have sprouted, as well as the beans, lettuces, radishes, beets, carrots, and kohlrabi. I jump start the growth by planting established plants of tomatoes, hot peppers, eggplants, red cabbages, and Brussel sprouts. Thanks to Karns for selling the plants at a cheapest price, 25 cents a plant. I went overboard and bought 48 of tomatoes and hot peppers. All the tomatoes plants are in the ground now and I have a few more hot peppers ready to be planted.

My vegetable garden, which I rented from the county has been invaded with lots of mint and sunchokes plants. I don’t mind the mint plants growing everywhere in the garden because they are companion to almost all of the other vegetables I am growing. I use mint leaves in almost everything. I like it in my coffee, in my tea and in my cooking. If the mint is growing in the area where I need to put other plant, I just chopped it or pull it out. I do not worry if I do not have enough mint. Mint can grow from a small piece of roots. They are easy to grow and less maintenance.

 

November month...

This website is really having cobwebs written all over it. The last time I wrote was in June. Imagine that. Well, I am back on writing. I guess when I have to write my school reports, might as well I write to my readers. The last class was interesting. I learned how to identify people’s behavior, how to bring different personalities into consensus, so on and so forth. The techniques are not hard to implement but the success rate might be low. It is all depend on how other people’s perspective, upbringing, life styles, etc. I was at a Cancer Institute program yesterday. The talk for the day was on colon cancer. It is very important to pick the diet. Some food might not look harmful but may create another genetic mutation that could lead to poisonous and lethal viruses. Exercise is very important and can help the food processing efficiently and healthily in the stomach. Lastly, the key point is to go for doctor’s checkup. This month is Thanksgiving month and I am looking forward to the good food and good family gathering.

The Spring has Sprung

The weather is still cold but the garden is open for another season of growing. I brought my toolbox over to the garden. But I have yet to find the time to set up the fences and to sow the seeds. The peas must go in the garden first among the lettuces and radishes. I have also started some seeds indoor like tomato, tomatillo, ground cherry tomato and cucamelon. They are too young to go into the garden. Once the soil temperature reaching up to 60 degrees F I can transplant them outside. By then the green beans and cucumbers can go into the soil.

I had a good time harvesting lots of cucumber last year. I am planning to use the same method this year. Last year, I grow lots of cucumber seeds and I let them rambling on the ground. The cucumbers are abundance and they are very juicy and sweet. I cannot wait to see what happen this time in the garden. My hours in the garden might be lesser but I think I can managed.

I hope I get lots of rain this season. It is difficult to water the plants everyday. The garden area is 30 by 60 foot. I had to use the pump and it usually take up to an hour to water all the plants.

I will deeply thinking of you Grandma when I am in the garden raking and hoeing the soil. May you rest in peace.

Lovely Snow

We were blessed with lots of snow last week. I spent more than 7 hours to clear the walkway and the driveway. I am glad no one is injured. The neighbor was nice to stop over and asked if we need help. We have 2 snow blower and a shovel, which was enough to handle. Winter is not going away for couple more months and I am already excited to start gardening again. This year, 2016 will be a challenge for me since it will be farther to drive back to the garden from work. But I am sure I can manage.

I may be printing my present on the web but to tell you the truth, I am a very shy person. My 30 year of high school friend was asking me to create a video about myself. I don’t know what to say other than I do miss them very much. 5 years we spent the time together brought us with so many memories. I will never forget them.

Baby it is cold outside...

I am away for a holiday and it is freezing cold here. Mr. Big kept telling me to bring a thick jacket as the weather will be in the 50 F. I do not believe him but he was right. The wind is chilling since we are near the ocean. But I love cold weather anyway. The more snow I get the better I feel.

 Here is the view at the pier. It is beautiful and calming serenity and just a bliss.

I would not trade this feeling with anything else.

Happy Holidays!

I know that I have not update my news in this site for such a long time. Things are busy around the house, work and holidays. I had a new unit added in the house to heat and to cool each rooms. Things had to be moved from location to another to allow the contractor to do their work. After the installation, I had to clean all the dust and move back the furniture.

I still didn't get the time today to light up the house for Christmas. I have bought the star lights but has yet to set it up in the front yard. I will probably do it tomorrow. Everyone was anxious to see the lights.

Today, I was using my muscle to unscrew the nuts from the flat tire of the treller. I had to take a break each time I turn the screw. It was too tight that I had to crank it up with my foot. I probably will buy a new tire instead of trying to fill the tire with air. The tire is about 20 years old.

Finally, I found the red dress that I can fit in and look nice for me to celebrate Christmas this year. I cannot wait to wear it. I will be seeing all of my family on Christmas. I request everyone to wear red outfit. We will take a big family picture.

Sometimes, I feel like I could be generous for the holidays, however, I have lots of obligations. It is really hard to make a decision. There are consequences after the fact. Whatever action I took today may haunted me in future.

Happy holiday!

Update After Syawal

It has been more than a month since the last time I posted my news here. A lot of things happened these past weeks. I was busy clearing the desk and wrapped up all the work from my previous job. I assumed a new position and am excited about the move.  I have been waiting for this opportunity for so long. Finally, it is my time to take the challenge and to step up in my game. I like the new environment. The people are very helpful, nice and valued. Although I have so much to learn but I enjoy every single minute of it. The business is different and so I need to speed up learning the process. The technical part is not a big deal for me since I have been doing it for many years. I consider myself as an expert in that area. My niece said I push the lift button myself for saying that. Meaning that I was bragging and boasting. I miss her. She is very smart. She is now attending her first year of college. I hope she will excel in her studies. Let me quote my other cute little niece favorite words…Oh! Well!

The garden has been neglected so far because of the heat. I could only work once a week and had to go to the garden as early as at 6 am. Usually by 9 am the sun start to radiate some heat and I would be sweating a lot. There are not much left in the garden except the tomatoes, lemongrass, eggplants and squash. I had tasted the cucamelon and they are very tasty. I wasn’t sure if the plant will grow indoor during winter. This plant is a keeper. I will try to grow more next year.

The eggplant plants are growing so well. I have harvested more than 10 pieces of eggplants from four plants. I am very happy with the harvest this year. Thanks to the rain that we received every week.

The Eid was celebrated merrily with some friends. I did the Eid prayer in the morning and then went back to work for the rest of the day. After work I visited some friends. It was really nice to be able to enjoy good food and good company.

Ramadan 2015

I feel like I have not been writing for so long. It has been hectic at work as well as on my personal life. Being a care provider was a challenge and I am glad my one demanding and fussy patient is recovering well. However, it feels like the job to care for the patient’s need is never ending. There are times I just wanted to scream out loud or to just drop everything that I was doing. Luckily, I have faith and patience and just moved on. Every day I have to make sure that my patient take his medications. I have to make sure the food I serve has the fibers and nutrients my patient needed.

I am fasting during the holy month in Islamic calendar, Ramadan starting on June 18th. The hours to fast this time are very long. In my neighborhood, it starts from 4 am and end around 8:40pm. By 6:30 pm I started to feel weak. I can handle not eating any solid food for a day but not without drinking any water. I keep reminding myself how the poor feel when they do not have any food to eat. Life is hard. I am very grateful with what I have.

The best part of observing Ramadan is the celebration at the end of the Ramadan month, Syawal. I can eat lots of good food. It was a victory after a hardship during the fasting month.

 

The vegetables in the garden are growing well. They have been getting a lot of rain water. I could not go to the garden today since it was raining from morning. Working in the garden with wet soil is never fun. I hope tomorrow's weather will be better.

 

My friends invite me to their house for breaking fast dinner. I try my best to go. It was fun to meet them and enjoy lots of Asian food. Unfortunately, I cannot stay for terawih prayer since dinner start around 9 pm.

 

Yesterday, I went to the departmental store looking for a nice dress. But I did not find any that I like. Today, I decided to cut and sewn my dress. I have a few fabric that I could use. It will be fun to use the sewing machine this weekend. The weather is not as hot as in the past. I can stay in the house without air conditioner and work on my sewing.

 

Happy weekend!

 

 

A trip to the Newark Farmer's market

I always like Saturday or Sunday market. Today's trip was to the Newark Farmer's market. I had so much fun tasting the cherries and nectarines and what not. Let's see what they have...

 Peanuts and all kinds of zucchini or summer squashes. I saw the eight ball zucchini, green zucchini, yellow zucchini and light pale green zucchini. They look so fresh and tasty.

 They do sell bitter gourd shoots. Yes, the leaves are very bitter. But it is probably good for the health.

This gigantic onions look so fresh. It was so huge. I wonder how they grow this giant vegetable.

 A huge garlic. It was so huge that I was afraid to eat them.

 There are so many varieties of kale and swiss chard. They cost about $1 to $2 a bunch.

 I like to see the shape of these eight ball zucchini. They look cute.

 Asparagus

 Super huge radishes.

 Another picture of the bitter gourd shoots.

Pennywort...yes, I found Pennywort at the market. This vegetable is super food for the health. It can reduce the blood sugar level. Another name for this vegetable are Gotu Kola, Centella asiatica, Pegaga, or Rau Ma. I like to juice them with an apple. Super delicious and good for health.

Early Planting 2015

This week was a wet week in my neighborhood. We had tornado watch and lots of rain the other day.  The temperature remains between 40 and 50 degree F.  This temperature is too cold for pepper and tomato plants. But I still planted my pepper seedlings and tomato plants in the garden.  I covered them with empty bottles from wind and cold temperature. I checked on them yesterday and they seems to be growing very well.

I have yet to see the lettuces and radishes seeds sprouting. Even the peas are not coming up yet.  I am sure the seeds will break out from their dormancy as soon as the temperature remains high for several days.  It surely does feels like winter at times despite being in April. For this year’s growing season, I will plant all of my cucumber and squash seeds. I have so many collections over the years and I think it is time for them to hit the ground.

I did sow the yellow pear shape cherry tomato and the Carolina Gold tomato. These two packets of old seeds sprouted beautifully. I am giving away some of them to my co-worker. I have planted some in the garden with protection from the milk jugs.  I still have some more in my kitchen that I am waiting for the soil to warm up more before I planted them in the garden.

Besides cucumber, squash, tomato and pepper, I also plan to grow more watermelon. I have a few packets of old seeds of watermelon that I need to use.  I have sowed about 4 30-foot rows of peas. They are mostly sugar snap peas. I will also grow snow peas for my mother in law. I still have a few more pea seeds that need to go into the ground.

A friend of mine gave kang-kung seeds. I am growing them in a container at home. The garden is too dry and might not be suitable for them. She also gave some red a-foot long beans. That is very interesting and I cannot wait to grow them. In returned, I gave her my favorite purple string beans. In the past, I never get any disease or bugs on the purple string beans. Their beans are prolific. The taste is great. The purple beans will turn green when cooked. It was very easy to grow them.

I have planted all of the onion sets. I hope they are going to grow well despite the cold temperature. In between the onion, I sowed the beet, kohlrabi and the carrot seeds. I am pretty much finished putting in the seeds in the garden.

Once the weather is warmer, I will plant the Malabar spinach, lemongrass and stevia plants. They are rooting nicely in my kitchen. Soon they are ready to go into the ground.

Happy gardening!

 

Spooky Halloween

Once a year, it should be ok for me to have fun and join the flow. This year's Halloween party was all out. It took us the same amount of time to put the decoration up and to take them back down. The food was great. The crowd was supportive and fun. Besides lunch, the attendees could buy raffle tickets. There are also Halloween trivia game, throwing hoop and pin the pumpkin.

 We were using dried leaves for real fall effect. I had a great time wearing this blonde wig and mask.

Curry Leaves Plant Seeds

My good friend Gert sent these berries of the curry leaves plant. I am very excited to grow these seeds. The berries have a sweet taste with a strong curry leaves smells. I soaked the seeds for couple of hours and planted them in a potting soil mix with some perlite. I moistened the soil. Following Gert's instruction, I then placed them in a zip lock plastic bag to retain moisture. It has been 2weeks now an I only see tiny green leaves. I couldn't take their picture since they are so tiny and might not show up on camera. I will update you when the plant mature. I have counted the seeds. I have about 21 seeds and am anxious to see how many of them will germinate.

The picture above is the curry leaves plant producing more babies at the base even after I have prune them last year. I will prune them again soon.

Brussels Sprouts

This year, I've decided to try again growing Brussels sprouts. Tell me if this is not the most beautiful picture of the Brussels sprouts I grow in my garden. Despite a month of neglect, they decided to survive strongly. I was shocked to see them after I cleaned out all the weeds around the plants. To find them this gorgeous, really making my day.

 

In the past, I was not able to grow this plant as I was hoping for the nature to take care of it. Well, that didn't work well. By a week, the young plant was totally gone. They were all eaten by the worm. My heart sank. Although I spent only one or two bucks for the young plant, but to see them die just like that was heart broken. I said to myself that this time around, I am going to do it right.

The first thing I did was to cut a square board and put it at the base of the young plant. This method is to prevent the cutworm from getting to the plant and finish them off. It seems to work. The plant was growing nicely. I also add some insect repellant every time I water the plant. I sprinkled some Epsom salt around and on the young plant once a week. I also water the plant with some miracle gro.

As the weather getting hot during the day, I decided to cover the plant with some cloth for shade. I am using an old curtain that I bought from the flea market for $1. I use a 2 foot fence and secure the curtain with cloth pins. The rain water can get to the plants but the nasty butterfly cannot get to the plant to lay their eggs. The cabbage worm could also kill this plant.

I was keeping these 4 plants under the curtain up until end of august. The result was amazing and rewarding.

I picked some of the Brussels sprouts that look bigger. As usual, I will try the vegetable by taking a small bite just to taste. Oh dear! The taste of these home grown Brussels sprouts was delicious!
I cut some of them and add them to my ramen noodle. The taste was awesome.
Next, I will try the recipe given by my coworker. She said she just sautéed the Brussels sprouts with butter and cover the pan for a minute. She said not to cook it longer as the taste will turned bitter.

This is really a great success in my garden. I hope I will be harvesting more Brussels sprouts up until early frost.

Fun around the family

 My sister and her family.

 This girl is the sweetest...

 Lovely dress...

 SPM this year...could she made it?

 Nieces and Nephew...

 They are cousins...

 Sleepy Adam missing the fun...

Priceless...

 This had to be abandoned for a few weeks.

Time to meet the family

Despite all the things that has hapened around me, I am very excited to see my family. I have to abandon my vegetable garden for a few weeks. I did pick some of the green tomatoes and give them to my mother in law. Green tomatoes are delicious when it cooked on a pan with some butter, salt and pepper.

I do have the brussel sprout growing wonderfully. I hope they will survive the summer without my TLC. The lettuces are about to bolt due to the heat. But they are still nicely growing. I am sure the leaves are good cook in noodle or rice.

The roselle are growing nicely. I cannot wait to see the flowers and the fruits. I will get a sweet surprise when I got back from my vacation.

The plants around the house and inside the house will have to learn to grow without me. I don't have anyone who I can rely on to water them besides the nature.

To all the muslims reader, I am wishing you happy ramadan, enjoy your eid celebration with your love one.

Family ties...

 Just 5 of us. We are very close to each other.

 This was the best time to meet. The weather in Dubai was not too hot. It was breezy. But night time was so busy. Traffic was the worst ever.

 We were at the Burj Al Arab. The food was delicious. The interior design of the building was superb.

 The apartment we stayed at.

 Priceless...I am the eldest yet...the shortest...emmm...

 The 5 siblings. I hope mom and dad are watching us from heaven. They must have a big smile to see us together like this.

 My brother in law, Zaini also joined us on this trip. We all have a great time.

 Posing and posing...

 Anita...

Anita's new front yard is ready for viewing. The fountain is flowing non stop all day. At night it was beautiful with colorful lights. Lovely!

Scenery in Dubai...

 It was a long trip for me, but I am happy to see my siblings. My brother and my sisters flew from Malaysia to Dubai. Anita and I flew from UK. Dubai was a bit hotter at this time but the scenery are so beautiful. We stayed in the 46th floor apartment and above picture was the view from our living room. I can see the Palm of Jumeira on the right.

 The mosque in Dubai.

 A quick stop at Hard Rock Cafe in Dubai.

 Beautiful building in Dubai.

 Anita and I.

 My little brother and I.

At Anita's house in UK. Ida cooked such a delicious nasi lemak. She used the banana leaves to serve the rice. My favorite dish was the sambal paru. She brought it all the way from Malaysia. It was really a nice treat. Yummy!!

Stay tuned for more pictures.