Halloween

I need to state at the outset that Halloween is my favorite day/night of the year.  It's more than a family foodfest, it's not about having to be (sometimes artificially) nice to people and relatives coming together once a year to celebrate.  It's a time when people assume the identity of someone/something else and live out their new identities. 

There is no event during the year that produces so many smiles among people of different cultures and faiths, so many imaginations, as we see kids dressed up as ballet dancers, pirates, sports figures, political spoofs, etc.

Last year I bought a costume the day after Halloween--in part to save money for the coming year and in part avoiding the difficult decision of what costume to wear when I usually procrastinate until the last minute before Halloween.  Here is what I came up with (notice the fake left hand that frees my left hand to manipulate the snake.

We also hired a professional pumpkin carver to give us some lessons on how to carve a pumpkin. Here is some of our work, under his sage tutelage and with the tools that he brought to our event.

David Infantino from Nonna's Restaurant on 85th & Columbus brought his tools and design ideas for pumpkin carving.  Look at the owl to the right--what a master piece!   The pumpkins carved by our group were then put on display at Nonna's Restaurant.



But....moving on to Thanksgiving....

Winter to Winter

Oops, so much time elapsed that I forgot that I already uploaded these photos and stories from Skiing in Bariloche.   Now I get to edit them! ;-(

Ed

Several months and holidays have passed since I updated my global explorations.    In the meantime, I have gone from skiing in winter in Argentina in September to considering skiing here in NYC as the temperature has now dropped below freezing.   Along the way, Halloween--my favorite of events during the year--has passed with me being a snake charmer (with a movable snake as you can see in the photo below) and I had the chance to spend Thanksgiving in warm Amman, Jordan.   And I'm sure you're all waiting for an update on my worms....

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.  I was able to spend four days skiing, which is by far my favorite sport, in Bariloche, Argentina with Alisa.  What an exhilarating trip to be able to hit the slopes and join an asado at which Alisa was the chief asadora.   Fortunately for both of us, Alisa's job ended the day I arrived, giving us lots of time for lots of hours of strenuous skiing.  Well, actually, it was more so for me, being much less in shape, and I couldn't keep up with her on the runs.... Beautiful days, with some new snow at the top each morning and some fairly bare runs at the bottom because we were pushing our luck with Bariloche spring skiing.

We also enjoyed some hiking in a town that has some of the most stunningly beautiful vistas in the world.  And we explored natural and locally-grown food stores in town where Alisa expertly picked out and knew the names of grains and herbs--ones that I would have had to look up online.  I was treated to wonderful meals, including an asado prepared by Alisa.   The role of an asador is traditionally one filled by men in this country, but that night we had an asadora!

It was fantastic, with not a scrap of the Argentinian beef left on the plates afterwards.  Rare, tender, scrumptious.

Well, enough about global exploring....back home in NYC, the worm compost is the top of my agenda.  The worms have done an amazing job--eating and composting every day that I've been traveling to South America, Washington, DC and to Jordan.  They just keep chomping away at the garbage and never stop making nutritious soil for my backyard plants.   Unfortunately, in the 2 months since I posted last, the temperature has dropped significantly and my plants are now dormant until March or so in 2011 (I'm looking for some ornamental cabbages to plant this weekend.  They can handle ice and snow!).  So, I'll just deposit the composted mass in and around the plants and hope that it helps next spring in the northern hemisphere.

As successful as the worms have been, I have now encountered a problem that many others of us worm composters face:  flying critters who love to lay eggs in fertile and garbage-infused soil.   In the past 3 months, the number of fungus gnats and fruit flies has counted in the hundreds (others might claim it's actually thousands, but I'm trying to assume a modicum of sanity amidst the flying critters.  First, let's look at what we're dealing with.  Those seeking advice on how to deal with them might check out the State of Massachusetts' resources: http://www.mass.gov/dep/recycle/reduce/flies.htm

Seen from a distance, fruit flies look black and are stupidly stationary, making easy targets for a newspaper or unwanted magazine from my junk mailbox pile.   But, examined up close, they are a different critter.

They are ugly, making it a joy to swat them.  I've been told that they can lay 400 eggs at a time, so this is not a laughing matter.  They are not something to be cohabiting with, even if they don't bite or carry horrendous diseases.  My fear is that they are laying eggs in the worm compost and producing like crazy--even though the worm compost box is supposed to be sealed and not allow this to happen.  Need to do some serious investigation into the box....

The larger numbers (but much smaller) of flying bugs, are the fungus gnats.  What a horrible name.  They're flying around, attracted by light and any sweet or fruity aroma.   One web site notes: "So there’s good news, and there’s bad news: The good news is adult fungus gnats only live about one week. The bad news is that in this short time, the female will deposit 100-150 eggs on your plant’s soil surface. These eggs are laid in strings of three to 40 and can hatch within four days of being laid."  Since I don't have indoor plants, this means that these eggs are being laid on my worm compost soil.  Since there are no plants to eat, logic tells me that they should not last long.  WRONG!  They're here in numbers.  Here is what one looks like:

But, this photo makes them look bigger than they are and, of course, they don't bit, suck blood or transmit horrendous diseases.  They're just an incredible pest--gnats flying around--often attracted to a computer laptop screen because of the light.  They don't land and cannot be swatted--despite how many times I have tried.  They can be trapped with a jar with banana peels, covered with plastic with holes in it.  They fly in, attracted by the tempting aroma of banana peels and then can't find their way out.  

I've tried the traps and they work, but don't capture all the gnats.  I've tried some people and environment-friendly insecticides with pyrethrins.  Hasn't worked.  Tried old and horribly offensive fly paper, which catches and catches them, but it doesn't get at the root cause of the flies and gnats.    So, I'm open to suggestions.

But, now it's time to think of Halloween and Thanksgiving so I can give some thought about what may happen toward the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011.