Patience is gold (a.k.a pumpkins)

I don't think before I do things... I get excited about an idea and I dive into it, like making decorative crafts, growing house plants, starting a worm bin etc. Sometimes there is not a lot of preparation nor research, just red hot enthusiasm! Hence in the middle of these projects, I make many avoidable mistakes, such as not having materials I need at hand, or end up with an ugly finished product because I did not have a plan in mind while I was making it. I have a couple of saving graces, I mean, I am relatively creative, so if I don't have the right material at hand I find a substitute: no electric drill? Hey! There's a fireplace poker in the basement. And I am relatively flexible, if I put a wrong stroke on a painting or drawing, I'm fine with changing the original plan and make that stroke work with the piece. If I have to sum up the whole point of this paragraph, that would be Elaine is freaking impatient and that gets her into trouble.

Like back in the day when I was trying to make Japanese cheesecake, I  didn't take my time to whisk the egg whites. The cake texture ended up feeling like a soggy sponge

In recent years the number of failed and unfinished works has been reducing, and I give credit to better tools and the internet. Taking art classes in College exposed me to skills and tools that work for specific materials, for example using different glues for wood, paper, fabric, plastic etc. No wonder things never seem to stick! And the internet is the perfect solution for an impatient person who needs a quick solution when she is in the middle of something she does not know what she is doing but something's definitely going wrong (run-on sentence intended). Last month I started knitting a baby blanket for my sister-in-law intending to make a building-block pattern comprised of different colors. Do I know how to knit building-blocks in different colors? No... Luckily many youtube videos offer tutorial clips.

Not a good picture, but you see the building blocks in different shades of blue right?

Looking back, it's not a smart decision, what was I thinking when I was paying for all these colorful yarn? I know what was I thinking: I want to start knitting asap, I'll make it work, but I don't want to wait. Maybe that's why I particularly like cooking and gardening, both give great training on personal patience. Like raising bread dough... you have to let the dough sit and rise for 2-3 hours, okay. And then, there's the second rise! $%^&*(&    When can I put the bread in the oven?!
A week ago, both of my pumpkin vines snapped because of strong wind, and I was devastated. The internet offered no help! People rarely propagate pumpkins (snipping a piece of stem and let the roots grow out), and when they do, they would cut off a piece of root with the stem. Both of my pumpkin vines are snapped from the base, and within half a day they were already wilting. All I could do was dig a really deep hole and plant the broken vine in, hoping that would keep it alive and the stem would slowly grow roots.

Before the vine snapped, all green and healthy

Pumpkins in Intensive Care, making a slow recovery

The wait was long and strenuous, every 15 minutes I wanted to touch it. Check the pumpkins and see if they're doing better, check if the stems were growing roots already, check if the soil's moist enough. But I know I had to wait so they can recover in peace, or die.





Thank god, thank god, by the third day the pumpkin vines stopped leaning limply by the wall, and started to stand on its own. Well, now I have to wait for another week and see if new leaves are growing out. If they are, then the pumpkins are likely to live. If not, then it's in fate's hands.

Because of the vine-snapping incident I started doing more research on pumpkins, and learned that they're not suited for living in pots at all. Pumpkins need vast space so they can expand sideways by gripping on soil. I can't do anything about that since I live in an apartment, but I do feel bad for not knowing what my pumpkins need when I started growing them. I guess another lesson learned. Plan better, know better, so my pumpkins wouldn't have to go through such disasters again.