29 Jun Monday Motivation: June Gloom Goes Turquoise, Garnishing With Pride, and a Grow-Light Herb Garden (From Paris, Y’all!)
With vacation in the air (insert multi-star emoji), the food is sweeter, the bubbly is bubblier, and Monday feels less Mondayish.
Here are five things we’re digging this week.
1. The Lilo tabletop herb garden with grow light…from the City of Light! Paris-based Prêt à Pousser (known for its grow-your-own-mushroom kits) has developed a stylish system for growing herbs, veggies and flowers on your kitchen counter. They’re grown from seed, aided by a nutrient-filled capsule, water and wavelength-optimized LED light system. Plant options include basil, thyme, mint, coriander, sage, poppies and peppers, with a dedicated app to help you cultivate your food and cook with them.
Get one of your own, via Lilo’s Kickstarter. The campaign — which has been a runaway success; the funding goal was reached in only four days — ends tomorrow.
2. Turquoise hair: 1, June Gloom: 0. Some days when you’re not sure what to do with yourself, our motto is this: Throw on a wig and see what happens. For the past few months I’ve been intrigued by the seafoam/turquoise/robin’s egg family of hair colors, so I picked up a cosplay wig with some kickin’ bangs to boot.
A steely marine layer rules the months of May (Gray) and June (Gloom) out here on the coast, so you have to innovate ways to get festive. And on the flip-side, when it gets sunny again, the wig will match our blue skies!
3. Garnishing with Pride. To celebrate last Friday’s monumental, humanity-affirming SCOTUS decision in favor of marriage equality, we mixed up a couple gin-and-tonics and added a rainbow twist. We sliced strawberries, cantaloupes, apricots, lemons, honeydews, cucumbers, blueberries and plums, skewered them on toothpicks, and served — just in time for Pride.
(Get our sage-happy Garden Gin and Tonic recipe here.)
4. Our Kaveri lily is about to bloom! Back in April we planted our Kaveri lily, which came courtesy of Longfield Gardens. According to the gardens’ co-owner Hans Langeveld, the flower is “a cross-breed [of] Asiatic and Oriental…combining the bright colors and bud-count of Asiatic with the fragrance, strength and size of Oriental.” This plant is growing with a vengeance, practically in front of our eyes.
We can’t wait for the flowers to unfurl…any day now?
Our friend Julian schools us on Internet-y things.
5. Taking meetings outside. Much ado is being made about “walking meetings,” and that’s great. The next time we send an Outlook invitation, the place just might have plants. (Which have been linked to higher levels of productivity.) We also like moving our laptops under the arbor in our yard, where the roof cuts the glare, and we get a prime view of our cacti and fruit trees. Just don’t forget the SPF.
—TH