HBO, Seeds and Softball...

Yesterday was the first day in a long while that started out overcast and fairly cool. Okay, fairly cool isn't quite accurate. It was still in the 80s, though there was a stiff breeze that tricked you into thinking it was fairly cool...because the sweat dried faster.

I've had to put off lots of outside chores--and yeah, inside ones too--due to the very real possibility of nuking myself with heat stroke, dehydration or brain boil. So I spent the better part of the day mowing and weeding and edging and pruning. I even hauled the ladder out and refilled the hornet trap with the attractant stuff--not one of my favorite things to do. By the afternoon the clouds were gone and even the breeze wasn't helping, so I gave up, went inside and had an icy cold beer.

I had planned to write, either the blog or the serial, but I discovered something as I plopped down on the couch like a rag doll. When I get too hot, my mind doesn't work. Well, it works, I can still function and make decisions and all that, but the creative part of me just shuts off. Most folks get energized in the Summer then slow down and sort of hibernate in the Winter. I do the opposite. I'm worthless for the better part of June through early September and have to struggle to do stuff until Fall, when suddenly I come out of the coma, all raring to go with energy to burn.

So, instead of doing any writing, I stayed on the couch like a melting lump, watching the first season of The Newsroom, which is the best thing I've seen on television in...I don't know when. Jeff Daniels is totally, compellingly brilliant. I'm really glad I decided to watch the replay because now I'm caught up and the new season on HBO starts Sunday, July 14.

 

This morning, another cloudy start to the day, I took the boys down the mountain for a really nice walk at the VA, then came home and finished up the yard work--though when is gardening ever really finished?

I've been waiting several days for the seed pods on the Snaps to dry before I pruned the stalks for the second blooming.  These plants are just my favorites.  I started with just five wee plantlets and two years later I'm working toward a Snapdragon forest...

After the pruning...













 

 

I had so many stalks just bursting with seed pods, though many hadn't turned brown yet so I tossed everything into the lawn mover box my new machine came in--I knew there was a reason I kept it.

 

 

Then I went back to clean up my mess and couldn't believe what was strewn all over the path...about a million little black seeds, which means I must have a billion if you count all the stalks in the box!  I gathered up a dustpan full, then sprinkled them all over the slope; the rest I swept into the soil around the existing plants.

One of my favorite pots this year...the Lobelia is a beautiful shade of bright blue and is growing like a weed. I thought the Nasturtiums would be overbearing, but no, the Lobelia is almost crowding them out...

 

Whilst scattering the seeds along the slope, I turned to see how my three veggies were coming along, and wow...my first Zucchini of the Summer! It's only about 5" long, but still, there it is...

 

I also have a few tomatoes, so far only about the size of marbles, and a tiny little squash has just begun to grow from the first flower.  I'm hoping it will be a good plant as it's one I haven't tried before.  It's round and about the size of a softball when it's fully grown and supposedly tastes like an acorn squash.  I'll be curious to see how it works out, though if it doesn't, lobbing it down the ridge should be pretty easy.  I used to love a good baseball game...
 

Reap What You Sow...

Oh, thank all the gods in this world and the next: I have just plucked the last of the zucchini off the vine. I should crack open that bottle of Prosecco I've got stashed in the back of the fridge and celebrate. Or maybe I'd be better off hitting myself over the head with it for growing zucchini in the first place.

Thankfully, it's not so hot today--only in the high 70s, which in comparison feels like snow might fall any minute after the scorching heat of the past months. Course, the reprieve is short-lived as it's back into the 90s by Monday...sigh.

So, while it's not a blast furnace for a change, I thought I could get some yard work done in the back. As I was weeding and tidying, I looked over the zucchini and the lemon cucumber plants and decided enough already. Time to pick the last of them and clean out the beds. And what a relief it is: No more watering twice a day, no more searching for new zucchini recipes, no more begging neighbors to pleasepleaseplease take them off my hands.


I still have these last few that I'll have to deal with, but suddenly I think I might enjoy one last stuffed zucchini dinner, and I love toasted zucchini bread. I have no problem with the cucumbers; they just get chopped into whatever salad I'm eating.

Next year I think I'll go back to pumpkins. No requirements other than water, and I can just stand back and watch them grow.  No recipe searches or begging involved.




All I have left now are the San Marzano tomatoes.  Once they've all ripened, I will make the sauce and freeze it for later.

They look like red peppers, or Roma tomatoes, don't they?  Well, until they're cut open, then they look like the inside of a green pepper: hollow with scattered seeds and white ribs.  That's why San Marzanos make such good, thick tomato paste: mostly meat with not much juice or pesky seeds.



At some point this Winter, when it's cold and blustery, I'll be making a big pot of spaghetti from these lovelies.  That first taste of the hearty, uber-tomato flavor is going to take me right back to hot scorching Summer days...

And I'll be so deliriously happy not to be hot and sweaty, I will smile with glee, revel in the chill, snug and cozy in my thermals, while I savor every delicious bite.

Moments in My Garden...

I got sidetracked yesterday--the heat does that to me--and totally forgot about the Sun Tea until four hours after I'd set it on the back step.  Oops.

Turns out, lucky me, four hours might be the perfect steeping time.  The first thing that hits the tongue is a gingery heat, then the bergamot spice kicks in; down the throat I got a faint hint of rose, then the orange takes over.  It's a very interesting flavor, over ice with just a sprinkle of sugar.  I didn't want to try honey for the first glass, because honey has a flavor all its own, but I'm going to try it later today.

First few minutes outside...

Four hours later, and a nice golden tea color...

My attempt at growing watermelon has failed.  I don't know why exactly, other than a string of really cold nights shortly after I planted the poor wee things.  No matter how I tried to keep them going, they just shriveled up and died. 

Yesterday I bought cukes.  Two really nice, healthy plants.  I put them in the raised bed recently vacated by the melons and they already look like they've found a home. 

While I was planting, then watering, I glanced over at the other two beds where I've gotten a bit carried away with zucchini, and whoa!!  Is that what I think it is??

Big, beautiful flowers, and hey, look!!  A little zucchini just poking through the leaves...

I lifted a big leaf out of the way in the other raised bed...and found an even bigger zucchini already taking shape.

I'm not used to things growing so fast.  Comes from living with Scottish weather and a very short season.  I also forgot that I could end up with lots and lots of zucchini when all is said and done.  Now, I do love a good zucchini bread, but if I get a major crop, I'm going to have to figure out what else to do with it.  I'm pretty sure the boys will want to pass on zucchini for their doggy dinners.  Although...hmmmm.

My two San Marco tomato plants are slowly--very slowly--starting to grow.  They don't like cold nights either, but now that it's getting hot and humid during the day, and the nights are warm, they should take off.  I hope.  Because I'm really looking forward to making lots of sauce to freeze for the Winter.

One final moment in my garden...  

The California Poppy is considered a weed in my part of the world.  It's prolific and spreads easily.  Last year the only poppies on the ridge were on my neighbor's back slope.  When he mowed down all the greenery--leaving a barren wasteland that looked horrible for the rest of the Summer--little did I know this was going to happen:

 
Call me a weed lover.  Go ahead, I don't mind.  The poppies keep blooming and blooming, they look wonderful around the bird bath, and are too lovely to exterminate.  

I've given the poppies sanctuary in my garden, they've given me beauty.  More than a fair trade.