National Watermelon Day

I can't believe I actually have a watermelon in my kitchen on National Watermelon Day. I never knew there was even a special day for watermelon. My melon is labeled Bea Sweet. I know I should have it chilling in the fridge but I usually cut, slice, chunk and then chill. I like taking a big container of chunks to work. Especially on stinking hot, humid days like today.

Today is going to be a BAD day to be working. In a greenhouse. Trust me. Very Bad.

So lets' talk about different things today. I got my car registered at the town office yesterday. Which means I paid the town tax for owning a car. Tomorrow I get the car inspected. Another tax on owning a car. And I pay highway use taxes for the state of Maine with each gallon of gas I buy. We have very high use taxes for our highways. This is to pay for the "slap a coat of asphalt" over the potholes instead of actually fixing anything long term.

I noticed that my employer is doing likewise. A large hump of asphalt that trips customers and employees has been dug up and removed (finally) and replaced with a tractor scoop of large stones. In the "improvement" category: the hump is gone and the stones are level. But will the stones stay inside the hole? This is always the tricky part of filling a hole with something foreign. Getting it to stay.

One of my newly planted hydrangea is wilting badly. It may not want to "live". The other is doing just fine. Not an Endless Summer. These Endless Summer hydrangea are being returned to the store quite often. Wilting. Not blooming year after year. Spotted leaves. I think the hybrid may have been misnamed. Endless Bummer. I have two Nikko planted and I hope for blooms like Terry's. Deep, dark, blue. Eventually.

We will be having Cherry Tomato Pasta tonight. I finally have enough Sun Gold tomatoes for a nice sauce. I measure the tomatoes in a metal pie tin from Baker's Square. When the tin is full, I have enough. Last year, we had no tomatoes from the garden and therefore, no cherry tomato pasta. A very sad summer last year. This summer looks brighter. My garden has the potential to provide a number of pasta meals. Plus salsa. And tomato sandwiches. And, at the end, fresh tomato soup.

In an interesting garden development, I have a bushel load of volunteer baby squash plants sprouting out of the composted remains of a butternut squash. The little "sprouted seeds" are now about three feet tall and exuberantly growing into the garden path in front of the compost bins. I continue to add kitchen waste to the bin. And water. We'll see if they have the time or energy to produce any butternuts. I have found, over the years, that compost volunteer plants are wicked strong. Determined to succeed. When I lived and gardened in Illinois, I had an interesting selection of tomatoes growing in my compost bin from all the seeds of tomatoes we had eaten over the winter. I had TONS of tomatoes it seemed. That was an amazing garden and it was very small. Just enough to be enjoyable but not big enough to be "work".

Well, enough for today. I have things to do before work. And it's heating up here in the house and the dog is sighing. He wants attention.