It's Raining And The Squash Are Growing!!

I've already used two large zucchini to make a "pizza" type casserole from my low carb days and Saturday I made a very large pot of ratatouille using up three very large zucchini, 2 eggplant (from store), two bell peppers and an onion.  It is very tasty just by itself or served with rice or pasta.

I'm sure, if I went out to the garden, between raindrops, I would find a few more yellow squash.  As soon as I have enough "poundage" I will be slicing and frying it down with butter and onions. The only thing keeping me in the house is the mosquitos.  Masses of them.  All wanting to bite me.

The cucumbers are starting to grow also.  I have two kinds.  Burpless and pickling.

I am working on my 1200 calorie diet.  Some days it's easy and other days (it's only been a week) I go over, not much, but closer to 1500.  I don't see any movement on the scale but...... I still have to try.   My knee doesn't hurt so much today but my face (around the eyes) is swollen.  Looks like I got punched.  Like last fall.  Only it's not red and itchy like last year.  Red itchy goggles is what it looked like last fall.  It's always something.  I'm getting very tired of it.

I worked on my 10 by 10 art today.  And started the second piece.  I stopped about 25% in, to hang it on the wall and decide what it needs.  That worked with the first piece, which is ready for the hand stitching part.  The "details" so to speak.  While I was threading and rethreading the machine (it doesn't like invisible thread) I noticed the maidenhair ferns have flowers on long arching stems (who knew they flowered?).  And the Carol Mackie Daphne is looking very good.  Not bad for a $5 yard sale shrub.  If I hadn't gone into my work room to sew--I would have missed seeing both of these things.

And the heather is flowering beautifully (in pink and white).  And it's gotten really big.  I may have planted too many of the small ones, too tightly, but I can always dig them up and move them.  But I had no idea they would grow so fast and so thick. It's really amazing. They were in small 3 inch pots in 2012.

I've found a few good perennials for my garden.  Or, more likely, eventually I moved them to places where they actually like growing.  The heather which is new to me, the Pig Squeak (bergenia) which is finally happy, and the maidenhair ferns.  Gardening looks easy but it's not.  You have to pay attention and move things if they aren't doing well.  And then move them again.  When it works you feel like a garden rock star--when it doesn't you feel, well, not so great.

I also discovered the flats of 9 dahlias that we have been selling for as long as I have worked at the greenhouse.  Who knew they got so full and bushy and covered in flowers?  Everyone but me.  Most of my window box customers got a few in each of their boxes.  I needed yellow and we were temporarily out of marigolds.  Next year, I am getting the pink ones.

Bountiful Perennials & My Doctor's Rant

It's the season for flowering perennials.  The ones being delivered to me at work (to put out for sale) are very full, very tall and very interesting to bees.  Yes, we have bees.  Lots of them.

I like this border in front of the white picket fence.  Salvia, Lady's Mantle and climbing pink roses. Repeating a pattern along the length of the fence is very attractive and also very expensive.  Few regular customers are able to afford this, but the landscapers regularly purchase multiples for their clients. Why are we more likely to spend money if someone else is doing the work?

In personal garden news, I have more weeds than flowers.  Ugh.  This is due to a lack of ground covering mulch.  When I was at home (not working much), gardening, everything got mulch.  G doesn't mulch.  We have a huge pile of composting maple leaves--an excellent mulch-- but we aren't using it.  At times like this, I wonder if it would be better if he worked for a living and I stayed home to garden. Both of us at home isn't going to work for me. I like to be here alone some of the time.

The vegetable garden is finally getting ready for super production.  My basket, the last time I collected produce, contained zucchini, one yellow squash, four cucumbers, five tomatoes, 2 cups of blueberries and five raspberries.  I ate the raspberries right away.  Finally!  Produce.

I am planning to go to the supermarket and get an eggplant and make a baked ratatouille.  Not the stewed one.  More of a layered casserole.

My other "news" is that I returned to the doctor who drove me to tears (you are obese) and the 1200 calorie diet in 2007.   I expected the "my God, you have gained 50 pounds!!!" rant.  But I also was given orders to get my knee and hip X-rayed (done) and also to make an appointment with a foot doctor (done).  My doctor thinks all my leg and hip problems may just be caused by my feet.  "Awful" feet, in her opinion.  I won't disagree.   And she has told me to limit myself to 1200 calories and no salt.  I am supposed to have lost 2 to 4 pounds by Tuesday (not).  A week since I last darkened her exam room.  I don't need to express my opinion that she isn't wildly popular as a doctor around here.

I told her I didn't think it would work.  She just looked at me over her glasses.  This time around I am more inclined to eat products that have only 5 or less ingredients.  My Bran Flakes have 5.  The lower the calories on manufactured foods--the larger the ingredient list on the package.  Mostly chemicals. So, that leaves me with mostly fruit, vegetables, eggs and small amounts of meat.  Dairy is a problem as it is high calorie in it's simplest form.  Low fat or non fat isn't actually "food".  Read the side of the container if you don't believe me.  So, I have soy milk for my cereal but finding a soy yogurt here in my Town isn't easy.  I did find a plain nonfat organic yogurt with only 2 ingredients.  I haven't tasted it yet.

Well, I have to get going.  I have 30 minutes of cardio to do (planting some things in the street side plot), the grocery to visit and the garden to pick and weed.

Guess what?  Been a whole week and NOT A PEEP from the appliance repair people.  No part.  No guy to install part.  Nothing.  Not pleased.

And, it's Monday

I have wanted a cozy little kitchen like this one in many segments of my life.  I think a small, tiny space is safer when my life is out of control.  I once had a metal shelf unit with cream and red containers.  I sold it last September in the yard sale on my daughter's street.  At the time I was feeling like I was in control of my life--then it went off the rails and is still causing me panic.

It's Monday.  3:23.  The service tech never showed up to repair the fridge.  I didn't think he would.  G has replaced the first block of ice in the fridge with a second one.  We are getting used to going out on the porch for milk and butter.

I purchased two flats of very tall, overgrown annuals yesterday.  I had to cut the mat of roots off the bottom and then cut each flat into 12 blocks with a very big knife.  Each block contains one very tall ageratum or cream marigold.  The ageratum can possibly grow to 30 inches and the marigolds to 15.  I planted younger (June) marigolds in one of the parking lot containers at work.  I was impressed with how great they look.  Both flats cost me all of $3.84.  Perhaps they will impress me and look great here in my garden as well? I'm sure they are happy to be here in my garden and not in the dumpster at work.

I have harvested 6 nice heavy zucchini from my garden (one was shredded for a chocolate loaf and two went into a zucchini crust for a meat pie), 1.5 pounds of small yellow squash, all my heads of garlic (last year I waited too long and the cloves opened so I pulled early), one onion and the last of the peas. I also pulled up all the pea vines and added fertilizer and planted my pole beans.  Too many.  But I like the beans to look more like a carnival or circus climbing all over the pergola. Four of my tomatoes are changing color.  And they are big tomatoes.  I have not picked the large green peppers as I am waiting for them to turn to red as well.  My row of tomato plants is now nearly as tall as I am. Siberian Reds, Green Zebra, Abe Lincoln, Purple Cherokee, Sun Gold along with the shorter, Early Girls.

One single raspberry has ripened.  But it was very good.  The others are coming right along.  I can see future blackberries on my vines.  It will be weeks yet before I pick them and end up with bleeding ankles and arms.  I intend to make a blackberry pie this year.  I actually could make one now, as I have bags of blackberries in the freezer.  I haven't been able to make a dent in the fruit in the freezer, even eating fruit with yogurt for lunch 3 days a week.  And it's all from my garden.

The blueberry bushes are loaded with fruit.  Not ripe yet.  Still green.   My friend Patty has tons of grapes on her vines.  I am begging her to give them to me so I can make grape jelly again.  It was messy but the jelly was so good.  And we've run out.  I could also try making something out of the blueberries.  Preserves?  There is nothing quite as awful as cooking jelly on a hot August evening and then making a water bath and boiling the jars.  Then doing the dishes.

My fig tree has started to make figs.  I was worried that it wouldn't but a few weeks ago I started seeing little bumps above each leaf.  I think there are 20 or 30 of them.  I am watering and feeding the tree in hopes of them ripening this time.  G likes fig preserves.  Another set of hot jars.

Do you make jelly and preserves?  I tried tomato jam last summer and that stuff was amazing.  If I don't have enough tomatoes this year I will look for farm stand boxes for canning.

And then there's the Brandied Cranberry Sauce my neighbor gave us last Thanksgiving.  OMG. Which reminds me to add a bottle of brandy to the shopping list in November.

Update:  Repair guy showed up at 4pm.  Took all the shelving out of the fridge ( G and I just finished washing and drying it), used my hairdryer to melt the ice clogging a vent and then left.  He needs to order a part (a three way valve switch) and that will come in whenever it comes in.  So, we are making friends with the fridge on the porch which now has everything in it.  It may be days.  It may be weeks.  It could even be months.  The freezer and ice maker are still working.

Dinner out by the Atlantic Ocean.  The Dolphin.  Lobster.  But before that, a nice gin and tonic on Patty's deck, under the grapes.  I will take the camera and stun you with the sights here in Maine by the ocean.  This really is "the way life should be"  except for appliance repair.

Mid-Summer, sigh.

I long for muted, cool places.  Out of the sun, humidity and grit.  I am sticky and gritty most of the days at work.  Cleaning petunias is just about the worst thing to be forced to do.

I collected this photo of a bath with shower for my carpenter.  I want the baths to be about nothing.  The absence of "stuff".

Now--to the meat of this post.  My refrigerator.  A RANT!!!  Naming names.

My fridge is less than 18 months old.  The fridge part has stopped "holding temperature" while the freezer part continues to work.  I got this phrase from G who was in the restaurant business for over 30 years.  He knows about failure to hold temp.  Food gets warm.

We called our service warranty provider.  It will be 5 days or more before they can sent a technician.  They tried calling the two providers that are local.  One no longer has any employees trained to fix anything and the second didn't answer their business phone.  Five days with a fridge that won't hold temperature is a bit too long.  In July.

G then asked to speak to a supervisor. After 40 minutes he got one. In Michigan.  That's when we got an appointment.  In 5 days. Because we live in a "rural" area.  And she also gave us a 6 month "free" extension to our warranty.  Now, from my point of view, that warranty is worth nothing.  More of it?  Less than nothing.

G then called Loews where we bought the fridge and the warranty.  By then we wanted to "return" the fridge and get a new replacement.  They said no but offered us a "loaner" fridge for the 5 days.  It would come the next day between 2 and 5 pm.

We waited.  5pm came and went.  Then, at 8:30, I saw the Lowes truck.  Two guys brought in a very nice utility fridge and strongly suggested we put it on the back porch and not the garage.  From experience, they knew we would be using the "loaner" far longer than 5 days.  Cause they can't get "parts".  They said "keep it" as LONG as you want.  Just call when your  fridge is fixed.

We were also told we are "lucky" to have bought a Whirlpool.  The "unlucky" are the folks who purchased Samsung fridges ( I almost did) because there are NO technicians who can service Samsung in the entire state of Maine.  Which means none of the ones that have failed to hold temperature are even waiting to be fixed.  They are just broken.  Period.

They guys who delivered the loaner had been out since 7 am and still had two loaner fridges on the truck to deliver.

The point of this post:  buy local from the guy in your Town or city who hires and pays a guy to service your purchases.  Whirlpool couldn't care less (from our perspective on a 45 minute wait to get to talk to someone about service and then another 40 minutes to wait to speak to a supervisor).  Lowes was at least nice enough to give us a way to have cold food while we waited.

It was very nice to have cold milk with my bran flakes this morning instead of room temp milk.

In Garden News.  I have four lovely, shiny, heavy zucchini in the loaner fridge and I am making chocolate zucchini bread tomorrow (day off) and a pan of zucchini brownies.  I didn't get any zukes last summer and I am very happy with my harvest so far.  I might have enough to make a few jars of zucchini bread and butter pickles.   The cucumber plants are climbing the trellis.  Yeah!!!  And my yellow onions are about 3 inches in diameter.  I also have two little turnips.  I had three but I ate one. Raw with salt.

Snakeroot

I found this picture of Fennel and Snakeroot on one of the blogs I get in my "mail".  I believe the snakeroot is South African and therefore not grow-able in Maine.  But I like the "wispy-ness" of the orange flowers and will do research to see if there IS something like this that does grow in Maine. I have an abundance of nasturtiums in orange in the garden (safely fenced) which are lovely and taste peppery.  Good for a summer salad.  The garlic is nearly ready to pull.

Right now we are battling the DEER.  They have just birthed new babies--usually twins--and everyone is hungry.   They have finished off the hosta, eaten all the rose buds off the roses (we do have them circled in chicken wire cages) and are now munching on the flower buds of the day lilies.   No flowers makes Joanne a very sad girl, indeed.

A solution is to completely fence our four acres with chicken wire.  This has sounded like madness in years prior to this one.  Now, it is sounding like a very good idea.  G is spraying repellent every 4 days.  I am 5 to 10 minutes outside of Town.  And we are overrun with wild animals.

The humidity has risen.  So I will be happiest in the sewing room hemming pants.  Perhaps to work on my 10 by 10 art quilt.  Perhaps to string beads and bells on my "artistic" idea of a wind chime made from the frame of a lamp shade I found on the street one day.  I saved about 20 toothpaste caps in a pretty shade of sea blue which G has kindly drilled holes in.  I have a coupon for JoAnn's and will see if they have bells.  Nice bells that make a lot of jingle.

It seems sad to not be happiest outdoors on summer days.  It was quite lovely yesterday with a brisk sea breeze blowing thru the greenhouse at work.  But that same breeze was also blowing all the plants over and drying them out faster than we could water.  Yin and Yang.

We are barely eating.  Last night it was some fried potatoes and leftover sausages.  What is happening is--I am searching inside the freezer for things to thaw and eat.  I found two containers of chili which was nice.  Fruit from last summer for my yogurt lunches.  Last summer's frozen peppers with thawed chicken breasts.  I think there may be steaks hidden in the depths of the bottom drawer?  Who knows. G did buy himself a rack of lamb at Trader Joe's.  It's in the freezer.

 I made rhubarb syrup with the stringy stems of rhubarb in the garden.  G bought me limes.  I'm ready to try a Rhubarb lime Fizz.

I'm Dreaming Of A Clean Table Top

G cleaned out all the history and "cookies" and I was unable to find my picture file.  This picture popped up all by itself.  Good enough.  My actual table is full of clutter so I will enjoy looking at this table.  In all it's bare wood goodness.

My friend Trisha clears her tables after each and every meal.  Everything gets put away.  She does have a lidded box on the kitchen counter (the only thing on the counter) which she fills with anything she finds that doesn't have a "spot".  This is where we all (on vacation) look for keys and sunglasses and pill bottles.   We are all "a certain age".

Strawberry season is over.  Peas are coming in nicely.  My tomatoes and potatoes have never looked nicer--just in time for alerts of late blight.  Which will certainly kill everything.  It's really hard to be a gardener.  The line between success and utter despair is so thin, barely there.  And I don't like green tomatoes.  I have many small figs on my tree--like last year.  I am hoping these ripen.  I keep up with the watering and fertilizer.  I'm not sure I even like figs.  But G does love fig preserves. There may be enough for one small jar.

I am thinking of making Rhubarb Lime Fizz.  Rhubarb syrup, lime juice and soda water.  Perhaps some gin.  

We are in that particular summer "zone" when I lose any incentive to do anything but take showers, dress in loose clothing and recline on the couch.  I am fascinated with World Cup Soccer and have recorded the games to watch after work.  Only two more games.  It's like winter olympic curling.  Odd choices for me.  Unexplainable.  Even to myself.

Work.  Hot.  Depressing as the summer plants go "past" and it's not time for the autumn.  The perennials are blooming, needing deadheading, water and moving from back of store to front of parking lot.   The difference between the new stuff coming from the mother store and our stuff is astonishing.  We don't have fertilizer in our water.  Our stuff is short.  Theirs is so tall.  Hours are being cut.  Mosquitos.  Sunburn.  Temps of around 100 in the area of the potting bench--where I spend 80% of any day.  So many returning customers.  To see me.  It is gratifying.  It is also nice to be repotting a plant for the third time.  It's still alive, still growing, still bringing joy to the owner.

I have a pile of 20 cent pants (from last year) to cut and hem for G.  I stopped caring about the length and just looked for waist size.  Twenty cents!  Really, why be picky.  None of them are "dress" pants. Just work pants for a retired guy.  But before I can hem pants I need to clean space on the floor and cutting table in my sewing room.  It's all piled HIGH. 

I will be going out to pick (pull) rhubarb, check on my peas, pick parsley to wash, dry and roll for my freezer, pollinate squash, tie up tomatoes, check on the blueberries and blackberries, water the fig, check on the "jewels of opar" and water the hanging ferns on the front porch.  By then I should have enough mosquito bites to make me itch the rest of the day.  Then I will tackle the sewing room. Work on my 10 by 10 art.

Dream of ice cream later today.  And a Rhubarb Fizz.

July Garden Report and The Peas Are Nearly Ready

These peas are from another year.  The ones this year are still small in the pods.  Not that that keeps me from picking and eating (right there in the garden).   All the Fava Bean plants are covered in pretty white flowers with black centers.  Future beans.  I must have planted at least 4 weeks later than I should have.  In Maine we eat peas on the 4th.

Yesterday.  Oh my.  I was supposed to work.  I woke at 6 am as usual and my head hurt so badly.  A migraine.  Nausea.  I tried waiting till 7:30 to call out at work--but instead took a pain pill and crawled back into bed.  Woke at 11.  Still feeling terrible but I called work.  They didn't seem to need me, so back to bed.  Woke when the phone rang at 2:30.

I am NOT a napper or daytime sleeper.  Ever.  So these long sleeps indicate better than words how badly I felt.  A big line of thunderstorms moved through at dinner time and overnight we seemed to have gotten rain.  Summer weather affects my head.

I did pretty much nothing for the rest of the day but managed to prepare a Caprese Salad of tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil leaves and good olive oil and vinegar.  I even toasted a small baguette to soak up the good juices.  The tomatoes, bread and basil were from Trader Joe's on Saturday.  I had a bowl of ice cold cherries later while watching television.

Today--another day off, scheduled this time.   I could get used to this not working thing as I had the 4th off, then Saturday, half a day work on Sunday, sick day Monday and now another day off.
G watered the garden, walked the dog and napped in his hammock.  Riley was in and out but mostly in as he is black and it is 84 degrees outside with 64% humidity.

 I replanted my Jewels of Opar seedlings.  They started out as a few little black specks.  Then they were tiny little stems with tiny little leaves.  Now they have secondary leaves and are about 2 inches in diameter (if looking down at the plant).   I have seen them on the 66 Square Feet blog and hers are tall with flowers.  I have many weeks to wait for that, I think.  But they look healthy and, in the way of things, I should be proud to have gotten them from specks to the size they are.  They are now in deeper pots with fertilizer.

My second planting of beets amounted to zero.  Again.  But the carrots we "seeded" on the toilet paper strips are up and looking positively carrot like.  I pollinated two zucchini flowers by hand.  Last year was the first year my squash plants failed to get pollinated (less bees).  So I had tons of leaves and flowers but only a few actual zucchini.  And no yellow squash so I made stuffed, fried blossoms.   The cucumber plants are attaching themselves to the trellis.  Yeah!!!  The potato plants are up and over the top of the black tubs I planted them in.  I need to "hill" them up with some soil.  Better soil and lots of fertilizer this year hopefully will mean more potatoes.

The Early Girl Bush tomatoes I transplanted in one of my April classes has an abundance of large tomatoes on each plant.  I think I might actually have garden tomatoes to eat by the end of the month. My fennel and parsley seedlings are looking good.  The garlic looks promising as do the yellow onions.  I have green peppers about 2 or 3 inches in size on all the plants.  They seem to be enjoying the sulfur I added to the fertilizer in each planting hole.   The tomatoes are enjoying the iron I added to their planting holes.  Now I wait to see if the taste is better.  The added sulfur and iron are this year's experiments.

Well, I have cucumbers to peel and slice thinly.  I also have Riley asleep on the cool wood floor next to my desk.  He has been staying close since I woke up feeling ill.  He slept under my bed yesterday and refused to go out until I was awake.  I can see his eyes are open--watching me.

Summer Is Moving Quickly

Peonies are a thing of the past.  Strawberries have a few more days and that will be done as well.  The garden has a few pea pods (it's early days for them) and fava bean blossoms.   I've cut all the flower scapes off the garlic and will harvest bulbs in a few weeks.  My friend says my garlic is short.  But, really, it's better than it has ever been in my garden.  No complaints.

It has rained for three full days.  July 4th and all the celebrations had to manage with a few cloudy intervals.  No fireworks.  I went to bed listening to the rain and woke to the same.  It's wet.  Dark. No sunshine.  The blessing is that rain is good for the garden, the earth and it's better than snow.

And I wasn't working.

The AC unit in our main room has stopped working.  It was working last night and now it isn't.  I think we bought it 10 years ago.  The August my dad was here, which I think was 2004.  He had pneumonia but we didn't know it.  By December he was in the emergency room and then intensive care and then rehab.  When he got out, I spent 5 weeks with him.

The AC unit brings all those memories back.

Update:  We are back from Trader Joe's (12 boxes of Bran Flakes) plus a trunk full of other stuff.  G pulled the Ac out to check it, plugged it in (to another socket) and it worked.  So we are back in the cooling business.  Lunch was Whole Foods pizza for G and Adoba bean and cheese enchilada for me. we are having sweet corn later for supper.  And I am having a bowl of strawberries with cream.

Fresh Produce

Not yet.  But soon.  My red onions are still tiny.

We are up to our ears in cucumbers.  And that's a very good thing as I love eating cucumber salad until it's time to eat tomato salad.  The tomato plants are looking robust.  Little tiny baby tomatoes. Big strong green stems.  I am feeding them epsom salts and iron.  This year's "experiment".

We have corn (from Georgia via the grocery) and cherries.  Strawberries from my friend's garden dropped off late at night.  I will be eating them with heavy cream tonight.  A thank you for finding a new home for her last chicken.  I am the "finder" of solutions.

I need sleeveless tops for work.  Loose, light clothing.  I wish I knew how to take the clothes I have and change them into the clothes I need. I should have paid more attention in 7th grade sewing class.
Being able to remake clothing is a real life changing skill.  Having exactly what you want.  Wow.

It's rained a bit the past two days.  Taking some of the "heat" out of two back to back sticky hot days at work.  I did manage to get some sun on the tops of my shoulders and the backs of my legs.  Shorts and a sleeveless top (which I stained with a blueberry from my lunch muffin).  My favorite time of day is still getting home and taking a good long shower.

My haircut today is shorter than usual.  But I like it.  I may even "punk" it up with product.  I ran my head under the sink faucet to get rid of all the short "haircut" bits after getting back to work.  That felt great.

Now, I am off to start cooking dinner.  I have the next two days off and intend to actually cook and feed the two of us.  How unusual.  Have a safe and happy holiday.  Fly the Flag!!!!

This Green Has Become My Favorite In The Garden

First I bought it in a low growing shrub.  Then the heather which is this green in summer and bright orange red in autumn.  Now I have the flower heads of overwintered kale producing this color and it's good to eat.

The color palette of this garden is quite soothing to my eye.  I also add a bit of soft pink to the green to set it off.  I can imagine stepping from stone to stone, to reach the chairs.  I wonder what is in front of the chairs?  What do you see from those seats?

We have carpenters here today.  Finish work on the half circle arch above the French doors and the "boxing" and installing of the ceiling fan above the dining room table.   Twelve feet over our heads. G has already called the carpenter three times from Lowe's.

Yesterday, at work, was hot and terribly boring.  No customers.  Standing.  My back was so tight when I got home I had just enough energy for a shower and then I tumbled into bed.  About an hour flat on the bed and I revived enough to eat dinner and watch Mystery.  I don't know how many of these days I still have in this old (and getting older) body.  Doing nothing is so much harder than doing too much.  A body in motion.......

I have my peonies to clip.  The flowers just don't last long enough.  I have two rescued orchids to repot and re-energize.  I have plants to plant in my daughter's garden, but first I need to water them.
And I have my 10 by 10 to work on and a second one to think about.  Time is racing by.

A blog I read suggests I write three things each day.  What I value about myself that day, what I am grateful for, and what I am glad I spent my time doing today.  Today will be easy.  Yesterday I would have struggled to find things to value, be happy about and be grateful for.  But, perhaps I needed to be mindful.  Perhaps the day would have been better if I was thinking about these three things?  Looking for them in my day at work.  Perhaps that is the value in recording the three.  Paying attention.

What do you think?

Some Place Cool

The summer heat and moisture has arrived.  I walked out to the front porch to water my purslane hanging basket and the moist heat hit me like a heavy wool blanket.  Ugh.  The inside of the house is cool so I am staying in.

I had two overly ripe bananas so I made a loaf of "incredible" banana bread for G with chocolate chips and walnuts.   G purchased blueberries for me ( 2 pints for $4) but I don't really like them and have bags of them from the garden in the freezer (I feed them to Riley).  So, I have the bowl of dry and the measuring cup of wet standing ready when the loaf of bread is out of the oven.  They just went in.  I used the whole pint of berries not the 1 cup in the recipe.

I guess I will use the second pint for my yogurt and fruit lunches or more muffins?  I just finished the sliced peaches with raspberries (from freezer) and had blackberries (from freezer) last week.  I have a pineapple in the fridge and a bowl full of red grapefruit waiting.  More than enough fruit.  I also have five nice cucumbers to slice up for my favorite meal--cucumbers, dill and sour cream.  I have weeks and weeks to wait for my tomatoes.  The only thing my garden has produced so far is a handful of radishes.

I have some hand sewing to do on my 10 by 10 for the Art Auction.  I am planning to enter the work in the advertising contest they do.  I have the work pinned to the wall across from my chair at the table.  So, at every meal I contemplate what the work needs.  G suggests I make a companion or "mirror" piece as my second entry.  He feels that if someone wants one--they will want both.

I had to make the work more "realistic" and less abstract.  The buyers dictate what the artists make. The most popular items are seascapes, boats and houses with water views.  This is Maine.

Work has de-volved into "personality" issues.  This happens in close quarters with little to do.  It's July.  July is when I think I should take up smoking.  If I had regular "smoke" breaks up by the dumpsters, I could get away from the "issues".  I could just go up there and not smoke.  I am limiting my involvement in these issues to listening and nodding.  The nodding could get me into trouble but I have to do something to signal that I am listening.  Even when I am not.  Nursery has sod to water and that's a nice place to be alone for long periods of time, soaking the sod with water.  I have impatiens to clean of dead petals. Six tables of them at the exact wrong height (too low) so my back gets tight.

That's my story.  I changed the bed sheets, have the baked goods well under way, need to wash dishes and clean the counters, check the garden and put the tomato fence I found in the dumpster up against the fava beans (so they stop tipping over) and then work on my "art".  I also have pants to hem and some sewing of a more domestic kind to do---little pillow cases for my personal pillow.  The muffins are done.  Looking good.  Very juicy.

Thanks For Visiting, Come On In!

I'd have to have a closet removed to get this 'look" in my house but I like it.  I wouldn't like the coats hanging there.  G and I don't have coats that look nice.

Five Things:

1.  On Monday I looked at the house next to the work parking lot and said "I want my Thermos back" because it's been missing since I set it on the ground two weeks ago while loading my car.  We checked the dumpster.  G searched the car.  I searched the car.  I supposed the neighbors saw it on the ground and came and got it.

 I wanted it for yesterday at the Book Sale Set Up.   This morning, I was looking for my raincoat in the car, pushed up the back seat (which had been moved down to load boxes) and "what to my wondering eyes did appear?"  My thermos.

That is really a surprise.  More like a shock.

2.  The Book Sale Set Up yesterday was sort of like Homecoming for me.  People I worked with back "in the day" (18 years ago) are long gone but people from 10 years ago showed up and helped.  G came to help and he hasn't in many years.  The team I recruited to head up the sale organization arrived just in time to bid farewell to the guy they recruited to take over for them.

No one has volunteered to take the job for next year.  And movers had to be hired (and paid) to move the boxes of books.  Times change.  Perhaps the Boomers won't be much like their parents--The Greatest Generation--who still come to help--in their 80's.

3.  I walked for two whole hours with my friend on Tuesday.  After work.  My knee feels better and my leg hasn't been as swollen.  Not perfect.  Just not as bad as usual.

4.  My friend P and I went to the "retail store" on Monday evening.  She was shopping for her parent's 70th anniversary.   I was looking for linen shirts and linen pants.  I was greeted by almost every employee who I had worked alongside last winter, and some I didn't remember.  With smiles and happy comments, asking if I was returning.

It would have meant more to me if they had actually done that when I was employed.

5.  Tonight we are going out for French onion soup.  It's 60 degrees.  The heavy rain last night trashed my peonies.  The deer have eaten every single pretty plant in my garden beds.   The hosta are gone.  The tops of all the roses are gone.  The pretty blue flowers (whose names are not coming to mind) are gone.  I need some comfort.

French Onion Soup should make it all better.

Window Boxes Are The Best Decoration

It's like "eye candy" when done just right.  Shows off the house, the windows etc.  I try my best to send customers off with a great window box.  Or boxes.  I ask about the color of the house, sun or shade, watering etc.  All the facts!  I need to ask about shutters.  I love the pale blue green of these.  Like sea glass.

My hours at work have been cut again.  Down to 6 hours a day.  Which is okay.  Business is slow and it's hot.  Nice to be able to just leave.  On the way home I got myself a strawberry ice cream cone.

And on the road to my street, the strawberry pickers had set up shop for the first day, I think.  I didn't have any cash (I had spent it on the ice cream) so I had to get home, find money and get back in the car, with Riley, and by the time I got there, they were out of berries and rolling up the flag.  I reserved 2 quarts ($5 each) for tomorrow at 2:30.

I am CRAZY for fruit right now.  Bananas at work.  Cherries while watching television.  Red grapefruit with my yogurt for lunch (when I have lunch).  A pineapple to cut into chunks, also good with yogurt for lunch.  The watermelons (small seedless ones) were $6.99.   I skipped it because of the strawberry ladies.  I love strawberries.  Especially the Maine ones when they are deep, deep red.

Sunday wasn't a very pleasant day at work because of a nasty co-worker.  Today was better (she wasn't at work).  I need to get to bed an hour earlier and sleep more, even though I wake up long before I need to.  I'm not tired, exactly, but I think I need more sleep.

Book Sale set up on Wednesday, all day.  I hope they have watermelon chunks on the snack table.
We have 2556 large cardboard boxes of books to unpack and set up on tables.  Over 70,000 books. And it's my job to get all the volunteers trained and keep them working until everything is out of the boxes and lined up, facing the right way so customers can read the spines.  Then we sweep the floors and take the flattened boxes to be recycled.  Yes.  All in one day.  7:30 to 4pm.  It's amazing.

Tonight it's hot Italian sausages, fried potatoes and onions with a side of sour cream, dill and cucumbers.  Yesterday I had the last bowl of elbow pasta, heavy cream and melted sliced American singles.  It was so good, I was sad that it was all gone.  

I'm hitting the shower.  Doing a load of darks and then starting dinner.  Bye.

The Peonies Are Blooming

And these, are roses!!!   What a dummy I am.  But I have little time right now to go find the peonies, which are the same pink.

It's a beautiful Friday.  Not cold.  Like last week.  Not raining in buckets.  Like last week.

Riley and I walked about this morning, checking out the garden beds.  Some hosta has been eaten by the deer.  A new plant is in flower.  In all probability it's a weed but the blue/purple flowers are interesting.  The vetch is flowering (why such a pretty blue on a weed?) and I am pulling it up.  I may go snap a picture in the late afternoon.  Not now when the sun is too bright.

Did I just say that?  The sun is "too bright"?

Now to pack my lunch and dress for work.  We are suddenly busy at work.  Bugs, diseases and fertilizer will fill my day.  How will you spend yours?

Riley's View Of The Back Stoop

G built these square wooden planters years ago and last summer added the wood "bandaids" to hold the boxes together.  We leave the soil in over the winter which is not a "Good Thing".

I have two small pieces of a lovely pink dahlia in each box (in the center) and surrounded that with a selection of orphaned petunias and some of the Loew's zinnias.  The slugs or snails are working on eating the zinnias.  I also notice, now, a few yellow dahlias.  We sell them as annuals but they have a tuber so, technically, could be lifted and saved from year to year.

The terra-cotta (plastic) pots hold over wintered geraniums.  Still haven't made any flower buds so I will be surprised to see what color they are.  Over to the mid left you can see my three year old rosemary plant and, if the photo was better, my two year old Bay Laurels.

G re-covered the deck with a man made 'wood" decking.  Very, very hot.  No bare feet on the deck. I often worry about Riley's paws as he waits by the door to be let in.  I might have to add a throw rug. The white wire chairs are vintage IKEA.  1983 in Germany.  I still have the original chair pads as well.  In fact, I have all the IKEA stuff we bought.  And it's all being used.  I remember my brother visiting and he and G sitting and working on all the screws and little fasteners that came in the flat boxes. Cabinets with many drawers.  Still in use in my sewing room.

I am dressed for a very hot and humid day at work.  Very baggy, old lady shorts and a lightweight white linen shirt.  Yesterday "would" have been my first training day at the retail job.  Until 11 pm.  I am so thankful that I called and said I had changed my mind about working.  Today would have been another work day until 11pm.  And then the ride home.  Not in bed until midnight.

I used the hip and knee problems as a reason and it was a good call as both are acting up and causing me to hobble around like a need a cane.  The left hip, mostly.

I have a question.  If a person is telling a lie, which way do they look? Up to the left or right?  I have a co-worker who, I think, is not so much lying, but not exactly telling the truth.  And she looks up to the right when doing any talking.  Or is it just a defense mechanism?

Time to pack my bag and start off to work.  I have an order of 200 succulents arriving and I have to do what is necessary to keep customers from taking them before the owner arrives.

Views Of My Garden this Morning

This is the "heather garden" I began last Spring.  The heather turns yellow green in summer and then red orange in the fall.  At the back is the purple smokebush.  I have some day lilies there to the right.  I have mixed in sedum (green and yellow Angelina) and pink creeping phlox to give the bed some color "pop".  It isn't much and there is little maintenance but the results are so much more than the effort involved.  I love this little bed.

Here is another plant that has been moved several times.  I think it has finally found it's "spot".  Bergenia.  Pig Squeak.  It got it's piggy name because when the leaves are rubbed they give off a sound very much like the sound pigs make.   Bergenia puts up a flower spike in spring of the nicest deep pink flowers.  Quite a nice thing to happen here at the corner "of nothing happens in Spring". This is the area in from to the front porch.  The tall plant to the left is a pussy willow and behind that is a pair of Maidenhair ferns.   A nice shady area.

Here is the shed.  Looking quite British and neat at this moment in time.  Riley actually tried to get into every picture this morning.   We have bearded iris (given to us by someone who decided she didn't like them), Jacob's Ladder (variegated), to far left is a Japanese white lilac tree and to the very far right is a Beach Plum in it's second year with us.   It just finished showing off a million or so tiny white flowers.  I planted magenta SunPatients in the window boxes along with orange flowers.  So far, nothing.  We'll see what happens.

Here is the Herb Bed in the vegetable garden.  To the left you can see the escaping spearmint.  Feverfew is the white daisy.  Borage is the plant with the fat leaves.  Lavender in the large pot at the left back next to a David Austin Rose.   I have dill, calendula and caraway to the right.  Lots of thyme creeping about in front of the lavender pot.

Hard to take good photos in the morning sunshine.  Better to do it in the late afternoon.   The shed came out best as it is in the shade in the morning.

My knee hurts today because I knelt in the garden Saturday planting the last of the seedlings.  It looks like it will be very hot today so I am happy to be having a day off.  We seemed to have sold every thing worth having yesterday at work---so today the trucks will be bringing in replacements.  I hope I get a full order of the herbs I need.  Everyone wanted rosemary.

This happens every year.  They want rosemary around Father's Day and we have NONE.  Then, later, we have tons of it and well, the customers bought it elsewhere.

PBS had a very disturbing new mystery on last night.   The Escape Artist.  I loved the "look" of upscale London and the insides of expensive homes but the meanness of the murders?  I find it hard to comprehend the sickness of people who do these things, even though I read mysteries with gruesome murder in the plots.  It's harder to "see" the murders on the screen I think.

We had lovely baked potatoes, grilled steaks and roasted asparagus for Father's Day dinner yesterday. Our daughter purchased the food and dropped it off Saturday night as her gift for her dad.  Our son called and had a nice long conversation with G while he was walking Riley.

Riley found something VERY disgusting to roll in and there after got three complete baths (under protest) until he didn't smell like anything.  There is the great divide between dogs and G and I.  Dogs like smelling really, really bad.

My Town At Dusk

Maine Street.  The old paper mill is at the back by the river.  Twilight.  My little Town has  a small (20K) population and an enormous property tax burden.  We also have a popular Music Theater in the summer (that crowds the locals out of the restaurants in Town).  This month we have a Buddy Holly tribute.  I have read the reviews and I guess the "older" crowds rock the house with each performance.  Maine has the oldest population in the 50 states.  Baby Boomers.

My day off.  I have a nice piece of pork in the oven turning into "southern pulled pork" with a cider vinegar base(Martha Stewart).  I also have rhubarb bars baking along side.  I added more oats and, well, more of everything to Smitten Kitchen's recipe (which left much to be desired).   I have now tried two recipes from her site and will not be trying any more.  They are okay.  Not great.  The fried zucchini thing went down the disposal after I picked out all the zucchini and washed off the pasta.  Ugh!  Pretty pictures and dismal food.

I turned a few things lingering in the fridge into baked cheese manicotti last night after work.  It was so cold and wet at work--and customers wanted me to "take" them out to look at things.  In the pouring rain.  Not a drizzle.  A downpour.

So, a nice warm meal was what I wanted.  I mixed whole milk ricotta with egg and parmesan cheese then rolled it up in sheets of fresh pasta, covered everything with a large can of Trader Joe's marinara (very good stuff) and then the remainder of the whole milk mozzarella I got for G's pizza.  Could have used more mozzarella in the filling but there were no complaints when the dish came out of the oven.  We both had seconds and I'm sure we will fight over the leftovers.  Then we settled into the couch to watch Damages.  We were at the end of season two.  And now we are at the beginning of season three.

I have seedlings (that I started under lights a week or two ago) of cucumbers (pickling and burpless), yellow summer squash and zucchini to plant today.  I also have three eggplant and one yellow plum tomato.  One more tomato.  I chose the yellow plum to add another color to my tomato dishes.  Red, orange and now yellow.

G ALWAYS says we have too many tomatoes.  Now, I never have any extra tomatoes to give away.  We (I) eat them all.  So how could there be "too many"?  I used the not so nice looking ones to make jars of delicious tomato jam last summer.  G loved it.  And any overage gets roasted in the oven and packed in freezer bags for winter pasta dishes.  Well, now I am thinking two yellow plum tomatoes. I hear they are absolutely huge plants.  Covered in tons of little plum shaped yellow tomatoes.

G is out giving the hydrangeas a heavy "blast" of Bloom Booster. Phosphate. They should suck it right in after all the rain yesterday.  And the garden is getting more Miracle Grow.  I have to replant beets.  The first crop failed to thrive due to a lack of fertilizer at the right moment.  The seeds in the compost pile continue to germinate.  I have bok choy, arugula and now a mass of Sweet Annie.  Borage seedlings are popping up all over as well.  My blackberry bushes are covered in pretty white flowers.  Looks like a snow storm.  I guess they appreciated the 80 pounds of cow manure we fed them.  Sounds like a blackberry pie is in our future.  Yum.

I am wondering how my three pots of potatoes are doing.  Have to check on them.  They like massive amounts of fertilizer as well.  But never cow manure.  The spearmint is doing well in the herb bed and in the path next to the herb bed.  It escaped.  The thyme is everywhere.  I have a good crop of dill and caraway (for seed) and my tiny, tiny basil plants are starting to make some new leaves.  The Fava bean plants haven't made any beautiful white flowers yet (which is the reason I planted them).  They look like hibiscus when blooming.

It was supposed to be sunny today.  But it's overcast.  I had best use this perfect time to get my seedlings planted.  With fertilizer.  So, farewell.

Where Do You Sit To Unwind?

Wouldn't it be great to sit here?  On the beach.

We had chairs like this once.  Very difficult to get in and out of them.  And I had to sand and repaint each summer.  Finally, they were so "wiggly" we tossed them on the October brush pile fire.  Wowza did they light up things.  I think it was the paint.  Combustible.

I am not interested in buying any more of these.  But I still think they LOOK so great.

I ordered books from the library and G will be picking up Unwanted by Kristina Ohlsson for me. I think it was recommended by a Reader (wink) and I have you to thank for many hours of good reading.

I finally asked another Master Gardener for advice on my "failure to thrive" vegetable garden.  Things are alive.  But not growing.  Seems like all the stuff I added to the garden in October, was mostly for good soil texture and structure.  But not for soil nutrition.

Gardening isn't actually easy.

So today the garden got a big serving of fertilizer.  I can only hope it isn't too late.

Outdoor Shower

My friends in Florida have one, but right out in the open for all to see. They use it to wash off beach sand so it's not tracked into the house.  A good outdoor shower needs walls and a door.  And plenty of hot water.

I remember when the kids were very young and we were very poor, we went camping with a tent. We usually stayed at campsites with toilets and showers.  I would take the kids into the shower with me and scrub them down (and out of their bathing suits) and then push them out to G who would towel them off and dress them in pajamas.  Then he would take them off to the tent and I would have a proper shower and unlimited hot water.  Washing away sand, dirt and whatever else the kids had rubbed all over me.

Then I dressed and went to the tent and G took his shower.  By then the kids were sound asleep.

I never slept well on those trips.  I'm not a good tent sleeper and usually chose to sleep in the car. People are either "good campers" or they aren't.

The joke in our family is that I consider "camping" to be a hotel without room service.

But an outdoor shower?  When we have just finished digging in the garden?  Okay!!!

Summer Time Rooms

My actual bed is black but it's a four poster from Ethan Allen.  I have always like the "cannonball" style beds and this fat one in black looks good to me. I think the current Ethan Allen catalog has one just like this.  My side dresser is old Maine Camp, pine I think.  The black bedside lamp is hung from the wall as a sconce.  The chair is piled high with my basket of socks.  I do have a huge fluffy down comforter on my bed and this reminds me to add the white linen dust cover to the box spring.  I think I need a green print pillow to make it all "pop".  But then the pillow will spend most of it's time on the floor.

I am trying not to scratch all the mosquito bits I have on my ankles right this minute.  I was standing out on the porch with a June referendum campaigner discussing the annual rise in taxes due to the school district.  I am not a fan of the school teacher's union or the school superintendent.

G is cutting the grass across the street and then ours.  The weather has been perfect for growing grass.

It's also been perfect for mosquitos.

I managed a visit to Goodwill and got a nice grey tank top, a grassy green (roomy) quarter zip sweatshirt (which will be very useful for any chilly restaurants this summer with my capri black pants) and a pair of linen mixed fabric capri pants.  Large enough to allow breezes to cool me off at work.  Linen is really the best fabric on 80 to 110 degree days in the greenhouse.

Needless to say....... my tan is already dark enough, thank you very much.

I am trying to think of work I should be doing right now--but, actually, I just want to sit here in the cool house and veg out.  Work is so hot.  And, while Saturday was super busy, Sunday was not and we were just bored and hot and wanting to go home from 2 to 5 pm.  I stayed busy for some of that time by watering the entire perennial yard.  So now you know why my tan is getting so dark.

I think ice cream is on my menu for dinner tonight.  And I think, if I go out to the store, hotdogs.
I already had toast for lunch.  It's 80 and sunny.