I Love The Park

This love declaration, which I saw today written on the alley where husband and I run in the mornings, provoked me to write this post. Because I love the park too.

We are fortunate to live near the park of the students' campus - a small, but well kept park, usually visited by young people and families with small children. From the beginning of June we resumed running in the park, two or three days a week. We do get these urges from time to time to run in the morning and they usually dissipate in a month or two. We'll see how long this time will last...

After the rains the park was lusciously green in the beginning of June, but now that we are entering into a second week of heat, the grass and the flowers are beginning to wither.

It is the season of linden trees - the aroma is everywhere and running along my favourite alley feels a bit like swimming in a linden tea :)

I love the view to Vitosha. Hopefully we'll be over there near the patch of snow on Saturday.

A few random pictures of my current projects. My avocado tree - I put two avocado pits in water sometime at the beginning of the year. One rotted, the other sprung up into a plant, which grows literally before my eyes - I guess it loves the sunshine on the balcony.

A project for a bag out of old jeans and a knitted front. The knitting was the easiest part, now I'll have to find the time to takeout the sewing machine and do the rest.

A ribbed raglan cardigan. It was almost finished but I don't like the raglan yoke and I'll have to rip two thirds of it and redo it. The yarn is soft cotton - acrylic blend, the cardigan is for me, to put it on on colder summer evenings.

And a new cardigan for Gaby - a very cropped Miette with short sleeves.

Avocado

Though it must have been on the market for some 15-20 years, avocado is still a very exotic vegetable in Bulgaria - almost none of my friends, relatives or acquaintances eat avocado, even our children hate it. And because of the low demand, avocado is rather expensive here, sold by the piece. Still, my husband and I enjoy its exotic creamy oily taste, especially in a lettuce, tomato and avocado salad.

So - on February 13th I decided to start an experiment and grow an avocado plant from a pit. Following a few video clips on youtube, I placed the pit in a glass of water with three toothpicks stuck in it to prevent it from total immersion.

Nothing happened for more than a month. And then at the end of March a small root peaked from the bottom of the pit (March 26).

The root began to grow and a month later the first leaves appeared (May 08):

Now the plant began to grow fast (May 15):

And here the happy story ends. I suppose I should have planted it in a pot, but other issues occupied my time and mind, so I left it in the glass to grow, until it suddenly began to whither and died in the course of a week. I'm sure I must have mentioned it earlier, but I really lack the green thumb that other people, like my mother, obviously have. Luckily killing your own plants out of negligence and incompetence isn't criminalized yet, for I'd be claimed a serial killer :(
Still, I think the experiment was partially successful, and I might even try it again ...