Take What You Need

Today G and I celebrated (a day late) our 44th Wedding Anniversary.  Yesterday I worked all day and taught a class so no time for celebrating. I did bake him a pan of brownies.  Today I helped my daughter make chicken soup for her sick friend and we worked on her hair.  Then G and I drove down to Portland.  Whole Foods, Trader Joes and then a lovely restaurant lunch.  I ate too much.  And I "cheated" and had BBQ chicken nachos.  Worth every extra carbohydrate.

Only 6 more years and we'll be "Golden".  How the hell did that happen?  I thought "Golden" was for old people.

Lots of big events this month, including the seventh anniversary of this blog.  I'll be writing a celebratory post on the anniversary of the day I first learned how to "post".  OMG, I thought I had discovered cold fusion or something.  And the day I actually got my first picture to post---you don't want to know how excited I was about that accomplishment.  Jumping up and down and shouting was involved. Nearly as exciting as the day I drove to Augusta on the HIGHWAY all by myself.

The title up top should read "Take What You Need" with a subtitle of "At Your Own Speed".

My class on Saturday went well, I think.  There was a guy at the back who was nodding in agreement to all my points.  Made me feel less nervous.  I had more than 40 people in the class.  All the chairs in use and some standing.  Hydrangeas.  I knew it would be full.  We had what is known in Maine as an "open winter" (no snow cover most of the winter) which eliminated most of the fall buds.  The Endless Summer hydrangeas look nice and leafy but nary a blossom to be seen all summer.  Mine had nary a leaf as the deer visited 2.5 times and ate as much as they could.  This would be what you call "severe pruning".

Made a large pot of tomato basil soup for G to have this week.  With those little cheesy dumplings.  I found a beautiful head of escarole at Whole Foods and will be making Tomato Escarole soup for myself.  I am trying to use as many of the tomatoes from the garden as I can.  The green beans are so delicious, I don't have to worry about the two if us eating all of them.  I miss the cucumber salads. My 2012 Garden was a complete success.  I have great onions even though they are small. Six spaghetti squash.  Lots of potentially orange/red peppers. My kale seeds have sprouted and are now a few inches tall.  I'll have baby kale for omelets in a few weeks.  There are sprouted carrot seedlings (whoopee!)  I have plenty of parsley to roll into freezer logs for winter meals. I even have three cabbages that managed to outgrown the snails and slugs all summer.

I need to write down what worked and what didn't.  How much I planted and how much I actually needed to plant.  And draw a diagram of this year's garden and where everything was planted.  Best of all, the raspberries (the late fall crop) is getting ready to ripen.  Oh, I do love my raspberries.

It's been a great weekend.  Hope yours was the same.