rolled my lazy ass out of bed this morning and went for another run, my second of the week. the final few hundred yards i started to crap up a bit on my left side but i was so close to the finish line i toughed it out. it was a slow run, but i figured once i build up my endurance, i'll try to speed it up a bit. returning home, i went to the community garden to water my plants, picking a few cucumbers in the process. besides running, i also really want to get back into bicycling again, but i need to buy a few essentials first (night light, bike lock, a helmet if i can't finding my old one). also if i have time this weekend, i want to take a look at the goodwill store in davis square and start accumulating my soap making equipment (if the meth cooks haven't beaten me to them first).

it wasn't very hot today so i thought it'd be a good day to continue my fungicidal spraying of the squash and gourd plants in belmont.

although the squash and gourd vines have taken up much of the garden, there's only been a couple of fruits: a single calabash gourd and 2 mystery squashes. i really think the mystery squash is a butternut. if that's the case, it'll be easy to figure out when the fruits are ripened because they'll eventually turn a yellowish orange. already the older of the two squashes have started to turn pale and lose some of its distinctive zucchinesque markings. a third squash on the vine looks to have been unpollinated and will eventually fall off. when i asked my father about it, he said he personally hand-pollinated that one flower twice, but nothing happened apparently.

the cypress vine has finally bloomed, producing these small red star-shaped flowers on feathery green fern-like leaves. a pretty plant, i just wished more had germinated than just that one plant (although a single plant can still put on a pretty good flower show). something about the red stars make me associate this plant with communism (i also first saw them while in china).

i was in belmont briefly wednesday afternoon, and some the corn stalks were already taller than me. it's hard to imagine, but in just 2 days they've gotten even taller, approaching 7 feet. most of the tassels are out, but the female ears and their corresponding silks have yet to fully develop. i figured we're not going to be harvesting any corn until probably october-november, although they grow pretty fast, so i could be wrong.

finally, after inspecting all the garden plants, and giving each one a good drink of water, i sprayed the squash, gourd, and cucumber plants. yes, even the cucumbers have started to show some spots on their leaves which look to be the early stages of powdery mildew. we've had a few days of nice sunny weather so the mildew have been kept to a minimum. the leaves that were affected have either turned yellow or crumbled to a brown crunchy mess. i trimmed those off, hoping to keep the disease from spreading.

i had dinner in belmont in the form of burger king. i had their new angry whopper, which is a spicy burger with jalapeño pepper slices. i went with my mother to pick up the food. there was a mix-up with the order: when i told them i wanted onion rings instead of french fries for all the meals, they thought i meant onion rings and french fries inside all the burgers (i didn't even realize that was an option).

when it got dark, i went out into the backyard to get some photos of the night blooming bottle gourds. that's when i saw it. i couldn't quite make it out at first because my eyes hadn't adjusted to the darkness yet. i could've sworn i saw something hovering near one of the flowers. then while framing one of the blossoms, whatever it was i thought i saw moments ago came fluttering back, alighting on a few flowers, before disappearing again. i still didn't get a good look but it was big. like the size of a large butterfly, but it was definitely a moth (if i had to guess, Manduca sexta aka the tobacco hornworm moth). i stayed out for a while longer hoping it'd come back but it didn't. whatever it was, i want to see it again! i think i'm going to set up a black light trap.