Summertimes

Hi there. It's been a month or so, and as usual, i've got some catching up to do. These pics were taken before we left for our trip, so around the end of June. The garden has progressed a lot in these pics but i really need to take some pics now b/c it's at it's peak....tomatoes and peppers galore. anyway, here's lita and her peanut butter jar.

In this picture you can see the mystery vegetable that is no longer a mystery. I thought it might be cucumbers but it ended up being butternut squash! and, as you can see, it's basically taken over the whole front of the garden and beyond. There's a picuture a few below this one that shows their size next to my foot, but now they are pretty much done growing except for a couple and i'll just leave them there on the vine until we are ready to eat or until the first frost...ha, probably until we are ready to eat then....first frost might not be for a few months...

I bought the dogs a pool to sit in while i'm in the garden on hot days. Donna was the first one in it after a long workout. Abe joined her. Lita hasn't figured out the joys of the kiddie pool yet.

I made blackberry cobbler one night. Abe decided that jeff did not do a good enough job cleaning out his bowl...and this is what I found the next morning when i walked out of the bedroom.

a neat little plant my grandpa stullken gave me...don't know what it's called.

baby zebra tomatos! I have to watch these around the squirrels. they keep getting them before i do. I read that if you put panty hose over them or sprinkle the plant with black pepper the squirrels won't get them. i'll have sexy sneezy tomatos this week if i want to have any tomatos at all.

more garden progress...the peppers are on the left in the back...they are HUGE now...and i have some dark purples ones which is fun.

those squash.

a compost project. I had tons of acorns and sticks in my compost that fell in from a dying tree but other than that it was ready to use, so i sifted it.

garlic harvest.

the trees.

we planted 9 thuja green giants along the back fence...one day we might not have to have a backyard lit up by glaring lights from Kroger and Burger King!

the garden.

the pole beans...just now flowering, almost all the way up the poles.

tomatos, peppers

i'm not really sure what this is...transplanted it from the compost to see what would happen.


mom, here's the vibernum and red maple behind/below it.

and the blue sage...blooming.

2 stages of compost, and leaf mold bin

lemon balm, basil


strawberry spinach

grandpa's admirer lettuce

rainbow chard

avocado trees, transplanted from compost

a salad.

One night last week i got ready to put a salad together for dinner...got the container of kale out of the fridge and discovered this...yuck. brown and sour tasting. so, i decided to venture out into the garden to see if i could finally pick enough stuff to make a decent salad.

And, I could! Grandpa's Admirer lettuce, blue dwarf kale, rainbow chard, strawberry spinach (with the little red berries!) and english peas.

then i went a little nutty and arranged it all on a plate, paraded the plate into the office, probably sang some sort of ridiculous song announcing mine and the plate's entrance and showed my little harvest proudly to jeff. and....he humored me and I went back into the kitchen and made a salad. what can i say, first summer harvest....i was proud, AM proud, okay?

Trip to Tom and Sharons

Last weekend the four of us (dogs and craven's) drove to Windermere to visit with Tom and Sharon and Kath and Kate. We had lunch by the pool one afternoon. It was a great visit, lots of long walks and movie going and all. Abe even jumped in the pool one day!

Catching Up

Today is Saturday, one day before our one year wedding anniversary.  Jeff and I are at Joe's...a little coffee dive in East Atlanta Village.  It's fairly quiet in here today.  Jeff is working on some writing and i'm finally catching up on this blog of mine.  the DINKS again post was starting to get on my nerves because it's been up for three months now.  It's raining outside, which i'm so glad about.  for the garden, and because it gives me an excuse to stay in and get some updates done.

If the sun comes out again today, i'll go outside and take some pictures of the back yard as it looks now.  it was fun to look at some of the pictures I took early this spring/late winter because we hadn't done anything to the yard then and now it looks so much better!  we did a little makeshift landscaping with dug up rocks and loads of mulch.  we planted 9 thuja green giants along the back fence, we started a new bean bed along the side of the shed (there's also okra in this bed) and the compost is finally somewhat organized....can you organize compost? 

I've got so much planted this year and can't wait for it to all start taking off.  Mainly at this point because i've got some little munchers that keep threatening to take down my tomatos and kale before it has a chance to get strong.  but, i don't want to use any pesticides.  and, i haven't gotten around to making this soap/cayenne pepper conconction that I've heard is effective.  

Clare, i also heard about the whole plant tomatos on their side thing...i'm trying it now.  we'll see how that goes.  and, my peas are like candy too!  I didn't plant a ton so i'm sure none of them will ever make it into the house for a meal, they'll just make for a great little snack while i weed.  

Mom, i planted the blue sage by the garden.  am still trying to decide where to put the blackeyedsusans...or were they cone flowers? can't remember.  

I'll take pictures of all this stuff and post when the sun comes out.

Now i'm going to read this book:

and make faces at this man:

this outfit

belonged to my mom when she was probably my age.  it ended up being the perfect attired for jeff when he DJ'd for youth group dance a couple months ago.  hot stuff huh?  oh, also, he's wearing my hemp necklace from highschool-heh.

Remember that time it snowed so much?

it was a sunday and it just snowed and snowed.  abe and lita loved and went a little bit bonkers in the yard.  i learned a few years ago that abe gets frisky in the snow (we were in north carolina and it snowed over christmas and abe played and played)

Dogs, Food, Massage and Food

These two like to keep me company when I'm cooking.  

I was making spring rolls.  The first time i made spring rolls, the recipe said to soak the spring roll wrappers for 30 seconds and then pat dry.  well.  that did not work.  i ended up with a big ball of wet, drippy, doughy mush by the end.  and out of a package of 40 spring roll wrappers, i salvaged about 6.  this time, i just let them thaw out, spritzed them with a little water from the sink sprayer and rolled away.  much much more successful.  these are old pictures, from during Lent.  when jeff is fasting, i sort of halfway do it and try to cook vegan meals so it gives me a reason to try new recipes that i wouldn't normally try...like spring rolls.  

Donna gave Jeff a massage one night.  she's so good at her profession.  

This was another lenten meal.  I think it was thai red curry with tofu.  can't remember exactly...it was a while ago.  this and the recipe for spring rolls (I think) both came out of the google cookbook that jeff brought home for me.  the chef at the google home office cooks healthy, organic, blah blah meals for the staff everyday b/c they have a theory that if the staff eats right, etc. they will be more productive, happy employees.  hrmph.  imagine that?  can i please work for a company that knows things like this and actually does something about it?  

Lita Beeta.