More Garden

I have notes to write about something other than the garden and the project of September … soon. Meanwhile:

Who dug up this potato and left it sitting around in the weeds?

Poor shot of baby lemon cucumber. Grow quick!

I tried this recipe for chicken chile verde once and it was spectacular. Now that I have my own tomatilla farm, it’s time to try again.

This is where the yucky apples and leaves get raked. Later when the garden is put to bed it will be transferred there.

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Three Trips in Four Weeks

I didn’t realize until I was home from trip #3 that I had done three trips in four weeks. All of the trips were relaxing and fun, but involved significant travel time. Why are we wasting time talking about space ships to Mars instead of working on teleportation?

First trip was to Orleans, CA to visit my folks. Second trip was to Ashland, Oregon to celebrate my sister’s birthday. Third trip was to Atlanta, GA to celebrate a friend’s birthday and also a sort-of writing retreat.

Thursday night when I got home from work, I was beat. The yard, however, looked crisp. The weatherman said there was a little bit of rain moving through but it wouldn’t be much and most areas wouldn’t get anything.

I dragged my butt out there and watered (admittedly, did a poor job) and, you guessed it, plenty of rain fell here. Not complaining about the rain, which I love, only about the forecast.

The project of August, now September, is proceeding on schedule. More news very soon.

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Little Squash

When I visited California, Mom was busy picking bales of squash and zucchini.

I said, Why did you plant so many?

The plants took up a huge section of the garden.

Mom said, That’s two plants. Two.

That’s why I’m afraid to plant squash.

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Garden Update

I have a lot of gorgeous dahlias that I love, but this is my favorite, year after year.

Tomatillos are weeds, right? Mom gave me a bunch of fruits one year and I composted a couple and I’ve had a hearty crop pop up ever since. These are filled with bees right now so I believe I’m doing my duty for bees.

Look at my lemon cucumber vines. These are the heartiest vines I’ve had in years. There are a couple of flowers but it’s hard to be optimistic that I’m going to get any cucs before it gets too cold.

I have two acorns on my acorn squash volunteer. That vine is the craziest healthy vine I’ve ever seen. It’s shooting across the garden in every direction. This squash is nestled in some other plants but it looks healthy.

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Ladder of Years

When I drove up to my folks place I saw this.

I said, please tell me no one is using this ladder to go on the roof.

Like, maybe they had it out for a band of roving teenagers who like roofs. (Is it weird I want to pluralize that rooves?)

My Mom and Dad gave me a guilty look and said, we meant to put it away before you got here.

So then I tell my sister this story and she says, “So, we’ve reached the point when our parents are hiding what they’re doing from us?”

In other news, the project of August is now the project of September. I have all my notes back and I need to buckle and make my manuscript pretty before it is sent off to the editor the first week of October. Don’t expect much from me.

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Smell Wars!

I don’t think this photo adequately shows how smokey it was in California while we were there. It wasn’t terrible. We have had worse. But there was a haze – it makes the light pretty if you can bring yourself to appreciate such things.

One night we had a Skunk Wars. (Not fire related). Both Bob and woke up to skunk smell. In the morning Mom and Dad said they’d seen the motion lights keep coming on — what was going on? We don’t know. But there was at least one skunk that wasn’t happy.

Later in the trip we had a nice rain storm. The air smelled amazing – sweet, green and clear. You got sorta stoned just breathing it. And the sky was pure blue. It was beautiful.

And we had some major rain on the drive home. As in rain spraying off the highway, white-knuckle driving. I kept saying, “I can do it. I can do it.”

It was so novel it was a treat. Oddly.

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Dahlia

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The Eighties

I can’t remember if I already posted about this and I’m too lazy to look.

I found a thread online about modern music that sounds like eighties music. Finally, something for me!

I found some music to download.

And to make you cringe: I burned it to a CD so I could listen to it in my car.

I told Bob I was listening to some music that was recording in this year and he said: what does it sound like.

I said, “Eighties music.”

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Clutter Creep

What is it about clutter? No matter how much you declutter, the clutter finds you. I cleaned out a bunch of stuff but now the laundry room is ground zero for clutter.

For example, you know how you can’t buy small quantities of office supplies anymore? You need to mail off some official forms but you have to buy a pallet of envelopes?

All that stuff is in the laundry room. I’m going to put off decluttering in there for awhile longer.

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Yellow

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