Days of Our Lives

Isn’t it ironic that we have a dearth of chillies in New Mexico? Well, we’re particularly looking for bird’s eye chilli, and so far, I haven’t come across any yet, since there are no Asian grocery stores in town. I have come across Mexican chillies, which I have been using for years for my usual chilli paste, but the heat is not as we expected. So, out of necessity, we’re growing chilli plants.

I’ve never grown much vegetables before, mostly because university housing do not allow planting vegetables around the apartment to avoid rodent visitors. Every summer, they would open up gardening plots for residents, but I never took up any because it requires walking to the plot everyday, (summer days) to water and check on the plants. Which in turn mostly mean that I would have to do that in full outdoor attire. Not fun. I like to roll up my sleeves and not have my abaya be in the way. So I never took up vegetable gardening much before. I did grow green beans and watermelon, but only as one time tries.

Sun bathing the chilli, bell pepper, and container tomato plants during the day

Before we moved, when discussing what kind of house, and where in town we would want to live in, hubby brought up gardening. From our research, we already knew that there were no Asian grocery stores in town, and we found out that some part of town is cooler and more plant friendly than other parts. I don’t know if that is true, as I have yet to find out through experience. We knew then that I would want to grow lemongrass (a somewhat staple ingredient in our cooking), and a few other things that we can’t easily get in town. So when we looked at the house, I asked the landlady, well actually hubby asked her,

“Do you mind if we plant vegetables in the yard?”

“No, go ahead. You do whatever you want with the house, as long as you put it back as it was when you move out. You can even dig up the garden if you want.”

That was our green light. But I have no intention of digging up her yard, to avoid unnecessary extra work for myself, and possible damage to her property. Besides, I’m really loving the ‘rock’ garden. So, container planting we did. I had wanted to plant more vegetables, but after talking it over with my mom, I decided to have only a few, in case a thriving vegetable garden attracts rodents and in turn rattlesnakes.

Which reminds me of our little adventure last weekend. We have been organizing place/boxes to hoard items to recycle. It seems, that the only place in town that accepts plastic, is the landfill. So last weekend, we went there to drop off our cleaned plastic bottles for recycling. As hubby drove and turned into a dirt road, I said,

“Are you sure? This looks ugh..”

“It’s a landfill. You expect a landfill to look all nice?” he replied.

So we drove up a dirt road, and it slightly freaked me out because while it’s entertaining looking at the desert from paved roads, it does get a little too ‘wild’ being in the desert. As we turned a curve, we saw the recycling containers.

“Ummi! Beware of rattlesnakes! There’s a sign that says that!”

I looked around the place before stepping out of the van to help hubby. There were several blue huge recycling dumps and an area that lookeda possible snake nest to me, to which the sign was put next to.

In my mind, as I helped hubby dump the plastic bottles in the dumpsters, I visualized the rattlesnakes we had seen the day before at the Museum of Natural History at the mall. The kids hesitated getting out at first, but soon got down. They even, (as kids are usually wont to) went to the ’snake’s lair’ inciting warnings and shouts from me. Not fun. I hope there is another location where we can drop off the plastic for recycling.

From people we’ve talked to, the talk of rattlesnakes also came up. A friend told me that near her neighborhood, her neighbors have talked of seeing bobcats, coyotes, rattlesnakes fighting with their dogs, and what not. But she also emphasized that that area is right next to undeveloped land, and that all activities on that land probably disturbed the wildlife, sending them scattering to the developed land.

So far, I’ve also heard a lot of talks about desert critters in the summer. Not looking forward to it, but alas, what can I do? One thing or one point to ponder on though: I appreciate the du’a of Nabi Ibrahim for his child and Rasulullah sallallhu alayhi wasallam’s for his grandsons:

u’eezukumaa bikalimatillaahi taammah min kulli shaytaani wa haaammah wa min kulli ‘aynul laammah.

I seek refuge for you two with Allah’s perfect words from every devil, vermins (poisonous reptiles) and from every evil eye.

Living in the desert, you are exposed to these vermins on a daily basis (I’m thinking). I have always recited this dua for the kids even when we’re in Columbus, but more for the evil eye than anything else. But here, now I understand the significance of the inclusion of haaammah (poisonous reptiles) in it. Subhanallah.

That’s not the only thing that got me pondering. Those mountains really send me reeling into reflections. Surah Al Ghaashiyaah ayat 17-20. As Br Wisam said in class,

“Imagine you’re a bedouin and you’re sitting on your camel. You look up you see the sky, you look down you see the mountains and you look further down you see the earth.”

I had always wondered why the order of the things inthose clump of ayah was like that and now I know. When your gaze lowers from looking up at the clear skies, they land on the mountains first. And then you see the earth spread out below. Whenever we go out the backdrop is always open vast land with mountains as ‘pegs’. Subhanallah walhamdulillah wallaaahu akbar!

Initially I had them in individual pots, but when hubby pointed to the planter, I went for it. And the new look below...

In my kitchen, I now have a window herb garden. So far I only have curled leaf parsley and sweet basil, but I intend to grow chinese chives and green onions too inshaallah. I have always loved a window garden, especiallly in the kitchen. I tried to do that in our apartment in Columbus, but there was not much space, and the ledge was not wide enough. Alhamdulillah here, the ledge can accomodate the long planter I bought yesterday at Home Depot. I just have to put up curtains on those windows. My next project: shop for curtain fabrics and start making those curtains. Kitchen will be the first room to be curtained inshaallah.

The new look. I have two basil plants. I decided to have the other one in the individual pot. The empty spots in the planter is for the chinese chives and green onions inshaallah. Possibly mint too. We'll see.

Beansprouts. H is the only who loves them with a gusto. I have always wanted to sprout my own so I can have a fresh supply, but before, there was no space. Here, alhamdulillah, I am finally able to use my sprouting trays I had bought in a garage sale eons ago. Though, my mung beans do not produce long and thick beansprouts I usually buy at the store. I probably need to google up on this.

Mung beans sprouted. I tossed these in fried rice.

Catching up with everything has been what I am doing lately. This blog, I have abandoned it for so long, and it’s the one blog that I feel most compelled to keep updated because it practically documents the children’s lives. Well, our life. So even though I am still not fully caught up with stuff, this blog is getting a special treatment because life goes on and I don’t want to miss documenting them for too long.

Which reminds me, I need to get the laptop and upload photos from our move onto the blog. But first and foremost, now, I need to take a nap, to preserve my energy for my AlHuda class tomorrow and Thursday.