New Stars In The Garden

The heirloom tomatoes, green peppers, last of the cucumbers and a few oriental, and very purple, eggplant which I think will star in a stir fry this weekend.  Tons of green peppers and jalapeño.  I wish I liked poppers.  I'm thinking I will pickle them.  I like the jalapeños with avocado, in salsa and on nachos.  Oh, how I adored nachos in my "other life".  Good nachos.  Loaded with melted, crusty cheese, topped with sour cream, guacamole, tomatoes and peppers.  I tried making a plate with all this and no chips, because all the toppings are okay for me to eat, just no chips.  It wasn't the same.

 Dinner tonight will be grilled steak, baked potato and salad.  I have a large bowl of sliced cucumbers salted, waiting for me to mix up the sour cream/yogurt/ cider vinegar/sugar to coat them.  I think this is the last big bowl (4 quart size) of cucumber salad out of my own garden.  I can truthfully declare that we (I) have eaten every single cucumber I grew this year.  LOVE them.

I am just on the edge of miserable.  I have had a rash or an itch or bug bites or something for the past few days.  My entire right arm is itchy.  I was out in the garden cutting plants back, tossing stuff in the compost, trying to support tomato plants that are tipping over from the weight of green tomatoes etc etc.  Any of these experiences could have caused me to itch.  And, no matter how often I spray myself--the mosquitos find me.  Swarming and buzzing around my head and ears.  Blood sucking monsters.  This is when I just give up on vegetable gardening.  Too much mess and bugs.  Yesterday I kept thinking I would see that huge garden snake in the leaves and stems I was hauling to the compost.  Gave me the willies.  Speaking of compost--- I asked to teach that particular class at work next month.

I just finished reading Garwood's new FBI romance.  Sweet Talk.  Not so good.  I had enjoyed Ideal Man last week and was happy to see the newest book in my pile from the library reserve list.  What a waste of reading time.  I kept Riley up long past his bedtime last night trying to finish the book.  He is still under the bed sleeping, poor dog!  Of course, it's raining and he doesn't care for rainy days.  I have two Norwegian mysteries on the book table waiting.  Bringing Up The Bodies is still far away on the list.

After I finish my coffee and read a few more news stories I will do some shirt ironing and then move into the work room and fiddle with fabric for a few hours.  There's the Maverick piece to start thinking about (someone who doesn't follow rules), the 10 by 10 and just about anything else as I have a whole pile of fabric to sort and work and play with, I could even paint more.  I should work on getting the pieces ready for some hand appliqué for the evening hours.  I just about decided to add four ovals (with pointed ends) on top of some of the circles I stitched to five inch squares.  Make things more varied and interesting.  I just need to make more freezer paper shapes and iron them to fabric scraps or extra 5 inch squares (of which I have many as I always seem to cut too much).

I was reading Art With A Needle and Katherine was explaining how she started writing her blog.  We all start out with a need to set our words and thoughts down, and then, as K observes, we become whores to the comments.  We get over that, well most of us do, and write for the few loyal readers, lurkers and family members.  BUT I still get such a thrill to find comments waiting when I open the computer, because they are so few and far between. What must it be like to have hundreds of comments each day?  And get offers to write books?  Such a wonderland for those with something to say.