Things I Didn't Know About Silk

Found this neat video about silk via True Up. The video is in Japanese, but you can get the gist anyway.

I didn't know that silk dupioni fabric actually comes from a different kind of silk, not just a different spinning technique - traditionally, it comes from cocoons with two caterpillars inside instead of just one.

Salads for Summer

A big salad with tons of toppings is a nice cool dinner for hot evenings. Mr. Mongie and I like to do it salad-bar style, so we can each have different toppings. Here are some of our toppings from one of those nights. I thought the variety of colors was great.

Urban Renewal

The herbs we were growing have gone kaput, so we have started growing tomatoes instead. I had a bit of trouble with them at first - they came up sickly and looked like they were going to wither away. Fortunately they survived, and the first tomatoes are ripening up now!

Here is how they looked two weeks ago, compared to a quarter:


And here is the same one now:

Update on birds

I forgot to write any more about our birds. They have long since grown up and flown away, leaving only an empty nest and a scattering of crap on the landing. I could probably turn this into a metaphor for human children, but considering how many boxes of stuff I have left in my parents' attic, it would cause a bit too much guilty queasiness.

The babies were much quieter than I expected. Each time we walked by - morning, lunchtime, and after work - they were silent. Whenever I looked in, they just sat there, usually sleeping. This pic is from a month ago:


Can you see two fuzzy little heads, and a third obscured? About two weeks after that, I spotted them perching out on the plants and the railing, looking essentially fully fledged. That weekend we overheard our neighbor saying they had flown away.

Independence Day!

This was our dessert two years ago. The literal take. :)

Gettin' Busy With the Birds and the Bees - Minus the Bees

Today, there is another egg in the nest!

I wonder what kind of bird it is - it's pretty small and brown, which is about all I can say about it.

Bird's Nest

A bird has set up shop in our neighbor's potted plant, right outside our front door:

How cute is that? Here is a photo from our front door, demonstrating how close it is:

Kind of a funny place for a nest - it gets traffic all during the day from us and our neighbors, has a porchlight shining on it all night, and seems like it would be exposed to racoons & whatnot. Well, I hope they do well!