Category Archives: garden

Look!

Yesterday while I was watering I decided to get rid of this chard plant that I intended to harvest when I was going to eat it. Then I never got around to eating it and it was almost big enough to be a shade tree.

When I pulled it out I found this hiding out.

Best moment of August so far.

Sturgeon Hatchery

I remember when I was in my twenties and the first thing I wanted to see when I got home was that blinking red light on the answering machine. Someone called me! So often I was disappointed.

Now when I come home and I see that red light blinking I say, “[Expletive!] Now what?” How things change.

I saw bright sun when I work up this morning so we went for a walk. I made a giant pot of soup and then put in a couple of hours in the backyard. The garden is mostly put to bed. There are two pumpkins, a few beets and I left the Roma tomato in because it’s still going like crazy.

I raked and dug and cleaned stuff up.

Now I’m tired but I’m running out the door for a little bit of BizaarroCon. Home late.

Something going on at the Art Museum the other night.

The weatherman said that this was the last weekend that it would be anything remotely like “hot” in these parts. I sat at the computer for about two hours this morning and then said: “Screw this.”

I put on shorts and a tank top and hung out outside. I did a bunch of weeding. Swept the garage. Defrosted the outside freezer. Picked another 8 lbs. of tomatoes and did a few minor putting-the-garden to bed chores. I usually wait longer but it was sunny and I wanted to work outside. Most of the pumpkins have been brought in. The cucumbers did squat so I picked the one that was out there and pulled up most of the vines.

Now I’ve got the coconut barley pilaf on the stove and I’ve modified the recipe to use a bunch of stuff from the freezer that I want to use up.

I did clean out most of the email.

Perhaps tomorrow will be the epic writing catch up day.

Here you can see the tomatoes that live on the windowsill, the freshly picked tomatoes in a bowl and the tomatoes that are about to go into the oven to be turned into pasta sauce. Plenty more out there and it’s supposed to be toasty the next couple of days.

Last night both of us went to bed at 9pm and slept like the dead until the alarm went off. I always say we get logy when the weather changes but in the back of my mind I think it’s a myth. It’s a myth that always happens.

Yesterday I picked up my first new glasses in about 5 years. Clear vision is amazing. I would wear these things to bed if I knew I could keep from rolling over them.

I need to take a day off just to catch up on email. My desktops, real and electronic, are still a mess from before the Atlanta trip. I can’t find my camera battery charger and I haven’t had time to look for it. I’m going to sneak out early this afternoon and see if I can get a little bit organized at home.

Although it’s hot and sunny, I might have to sit out in the backyard and enjoy it before it all goes away.

The tomatoes are finally getting out of control. I had two days of harvest like this.

I’m sure the 8 feet of rain we had this weekend is going to bung things up but it’s probably just as well since I have a couple of busy weeks ahead.

This weekend I made tomato soup. It’s an easy recipe. Melt some butter in a pot and add your tomatoes, halved or quartered if you want. The recipe calls for shallots as well but I didn’t have any. Let it cook for a couple hours, put through the food ricer and you’ve got soup.

I had already eaten a big bowl when I realized I didn’t take a photo of the finished product. Here’s what’s left for tonight’s dinner. I add a splash of half-n-half. It’s incredible and will make you forget that tinny tasting stuff from a can.

Also this weekend I made some pasta sauce. So I’ve got the tomatoes back to a manageable pile.

It was a good weekend except for the 8 feet of rain. I don’t mind rain but monsooning over Labor Day is not my favorite.

Bob went to Seattle for Bumbershoot.. It’s amazing how little food gets eaten in our house when I’m the only one home. It took me all weekend to finish one bowl of leftovers and I never got around to eating an acorn squash or that pretty bundle of chard in the garden.

Look what I found in my pumpkins. Out front I have 6 vines planted in a small bed shared with a junipery shrub. An ornamental cherry with long weepy limbs shades the area. How did these manage to end up in between the vines tucked behind a pumpkin? I’ve gone through all sorts of scenarios: someone fell from their bike and their sunglass case flew into the pumpkins; a dog grabbed it and dropped it in the pumpkins someone with evil intentions was inspecting the pumpkins and karmically rewarded by losing their sunglasses.

Remember the volunteer squash shaped like a heart? How about shaped like an acorn?

We ate one acorn squash last year and tossed the innards into compost and we’ve got all kinds of squash volunteers. Actually, my sister identified it for me. She identified a few other things, too, including these big giant things with thick red stalks.

She said: “This is . . . you know what this is? This is . . . a weed.” I kinda already knew that but I yanked them out right then because they were casting huge shadows over the cucumbers.

I also picked tomatillos. I have a few recipes stashed somewhere. This is another volunteer that I get every year and never seems to do anything with.

I’m a little scattered at the moment. The heatwave threw me off completely and then I got a chest cold. Last week I took it easy and tried to get it together.

I don’t know what happened today. I was trying to get started and then it was 2pm. Then it was 4pm. The only thing I accomplished was making a loaf of bread to go with dinner. Everything else remains a loose end.

Pearl District

One thing I did was check in with our credit union just to see what’s doing on. I got a “we don’t support your browser” window with the suggestion that I upgrade to some cutting edge (sarcasm) version of Netscape Communicator. I sent them a note suggesting that they either get with the program and support some more browsers or in the alternative, they ditch a message suggesting people upgrade to an antiquated browser because it made them look like they didn’t know technology.

I’m sure they’ll embrace my suggestion like all of corporate American embraces my suggestions. By ignoring them or else with robot responses like “Thank you for contacting us. We strive to deliver great customer service. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

Although a work related entity thanked me for sending a URL explaining URL shorteners. I forwarded my success to co-worker who responded, “Um, congratulations?”

The work of “You’re Doing It Wrong” is never appreciated.