Hans&Oscar, and 17 Rooftop Friends

Last week, Hans started sleeping in my closet, behind my skirts, above my little plastic dresser. Its almost time to shave him down!

The CSA started last Thursday! Erika is on vacation, and last minute Celia went to visit her grandmother, and Elizabeth is too busy to collect her share: leaving me with 4 CSA quarter-shares to consume myself! But I made some kale chips, and have been eating a lot of mixed greens salad with strawberries, and tonight I made some zucchini casserole, so I can freeze some and give to the others.

I also made mulberry muffins, after being informed by my ex-downstairs neighbor Nicole (she moved back to Massachusetts this morning) that the trees outside our building are in fact mulberry trees, and quite edible and delicious!
I finally bought my herbs from Greensgrow, the same day I got my CSA! What herbs do I have? Left to right: dill, parsley, marjoram, mint, oregano, and tarragon; catnip, cilantro, basil, thyme, and lemongrass; sweet fennel, rosemary, St Johns wort, chamomile and lavender. Scallions are separate, but I need to drill a hole in the bottom of that spare bed riser!



I haven't used any of them yet, as I want to give them plenty of time to adjust. I am determined to learn the art of drying so I can have tea all winter! And Hannah has gotten me so excited about making wine and preserves, so I might have to do that too! Now I know I have mulberries, and the leaves make good tea too! And I think I'm going to get a goji plant, I have a hook above to the right of my window, for a hanging basket. Goji's are really big right now, and I actually have a credit to use at Greensgrow: the very helpful girls sold me a block of coconut peat moss or something like that, to mix in with the mushroom compost. But as I only had about 2 hours to plant everything, before work on Friday, chopping from the brick was awful. I only used a little bit of it, and ended up having enough potting soil to mix, and then I added more from the NKCDC nursery that evening, since they were open after work and I was able to buy a big bag from them. Ah, sometimes I think I do too much. Anyway, the folks at Greensgrow said I could bring the partially used brick back in exchange for a plant or something, so I intend to do just that.

In other news, Hans has finally met his new boyfriend Oscar: Lizzy's cat.

Their meeting was rather chill, with Oscar hissing just a little, and then them mostly ignoring each other. Hans finally showed that he is submissive in Oscar's territory and also since Oscar is two years older and several pounds heavier.
Since that day they've hung out a few more times, mostly sitting on opposite sides of the table until Hans tries to play with Oscar, something in which he has yet to succeed. Soon though Hans, soon.