-:- updates and news

It has been quite awhile since we last met in this space - thank you for sticking around despite my absence! Here are a few updates, in numbers.

# of cavities filled:

Four. Since I've never had a cavity filled before in my life, that was altogether an intriguing and terrifying experience. You can bet I have regular dentist appointments back on my calendar.

# of rocks found for a border in our front yard:

500 million. A few weeks back, we gave our yard some much-needed TLC in the form of some newspaper, mulch, a trip to our city's compost site, and rocks that we used to make a border between a bed in our front yard and the yard itself. Our neighbor liked our rocks so much that she asked if she could copy us! Everything is looking so much better and now we are prepped for some wonderful gardening next year.

# of garlic bulbs planted:

63. Or something like that. We got together with a few fellow community gardeners to plant some garlic off-site. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait until next year when we get to eat all of it up. It also eventually led to Mr. becoming part of the garden steering committee for next year! He's leading his first meeting next week and where I would be a bundle of nerves, he is as cool as a cucumber.

# of visitors:

Two. We had my parents here for two weekends in a row, which was such a wonderful treat. I don't have any pictures of our visit, but I do have a skein of yarn that I purchased while they were here - I think it's destined to become a pair of souvenir house socks.

# of knitting projects completed:

Two. Both hats, one for me, one for a dear friend's cat. Several other projects have been started, but up until recently, progress has been slow.

# of books read:

Zero. I don't think I've ever gone this long without finishing a book, but I'm remedying that now. I picked up an Agatha Christie book at the library last weekend, without knowing much about the author or her work, and have discovered my perfect mystery book - complete with gorgeous pre-war British language. Love.

# of good reasons I have for not knitting, reading, or blogging in the last few months:

One. And it's such a special, exciting excuse to have. We are thrilled.

xox

-:- what to do with a million tomatoes...and counting

Make a million tomato, onion, and mayo sandwiches on fresh bread from the Farmer's Market. Instead of pairing your sandwich with chips or fries, pair it with more tomatoes. Even after one million of these sandwiches, nobody around here is complaining!

variation 1 -:- yellow tomato on 10 grain bread.

variation 2 -:- red tomato on rosemary bread.

xox

-:- harvests

We are so grateful for this summer bounty - everything except the fruit has come from our little garden. It all makes for some really good eating.

xox

-:- gardening, community style

Well, the growing season may have started a bit late in these parts, but our little community garden plot is working hard to make up for lost time.

We're growing edamame, peas, carrots, beets, Brussels sprouts, kale, collards, cucumbers, zucchini, three varieties of peppers, eggplant, tomatillo, and millions of tomatoes. We've started to harvest the kale and collards and we're slowly starting to find baby cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, and eggplant.

I wasn't sure whether our tomatillo would make it, but it's hanging on and starting to produce little babies of its own - so I think this means we're well on our way to homegrown, homemade salsa verde. 

We're having a mild issue with powdery mildew on our zucchini plant - we are one of many infected plots. I've been treating it daily with a milk solution and it's already getting better, but I think I'm going to remove some of the lower leaves that aren't recovering as well.

I'm completely in love with our little plot. I love smelling the tomatoes when I brush against them as I weed. I love watching flowers appear and then disappear as they turn into things we can eat. And I love being there at dusk - through the soft light, all of the different greens really distinguish themselves from one another and you start to appreciate how blue the Brussels are and how yellow the zucchini is.

It's all just so lovely and rewarding. More to come.

xox