Thursday, July 29, 2010

Our Nice Cool Summer


It hasn't quite seemed like our normal summer around here.  We have had clouds and nice breezes. The high temp today is about 88º. Yesterday we had 85º and all last week I think it was in the high 70's.  Typical would be triple digits.  I am LOVING this cool summer.
Here was our sky in the afternoon (above).
The kids still have fun swimming. The water is about 72º so it is warm enough.


These two cuties are my grandchildren. Peanut and Bry. 
Do you see my chairs in the back? Well I was going to trash them but then I saw them online and they want $89 and up for them. I want to paint them. I really love a rich coral color. I hope that won't attract bees since we are all allergic to bees and wasp.
While I was outside I took some pics of my socks in progress:
I will give all the details when I finish. As you can see I am knitting with 2 strands of yarn. Fun fun fun.
Also outside we have veggies. I'm not sure why my cucumber (top) is so bumpy.
There are 2 types of tomatoes and some bell peppers.
We have mini pumpkins too.
Here is the best of my German Queen. A purple tomato. I am watching her closely.
Below: Happy Moment

Peanut, at age 8 1/2 got her ears pierced. She was so happy. She didn't even cry.
Do you think she is happy?

She is tickled Pink.  Silly girl.

That is about all happening in our world here.
I hope ya'll are staying cool.  Happy Summertime!!!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Yellow Tomatoes are YUMMY

Lemon Boy

 VFN Hybrid. The first lemon yellow, not golden, tomato variety. Extremely vigorous plants produce large harvests of attractive fruit that weighs 8 ozs. or more. Flavor is outstanding, mild and sweet yet tangy and definitely not bland.  Indeterminate. 72 days. Lemon Boy was very prolific, tasty and disease free in 2008 in our garden, so it gets planted again!

 SEPTEMBER 2009 REPORT CARD:
 Very productive. Extremely flavorful. Great in salads. Started harvesting in late May! Some cracking, but tolerable. A 



This is from: Farmer Fred Rant
Note: the letters "V" (verticillium wilt), "F" (fusarium wilt), "N" (nematode), "A"(alternaria root rot) refer to the disease or pest resistance of some of these hybrid varieties.


Now back to Carol's blog. I just say that because the above is from Farmer Fred's blog.  So I am growing several types of tomatoes. This is the first time for me to grow Lemon Boy.  So far I am very happy with him. He was the first to give fruit in the garden. I have had several good meals with him and I have even gifted some. I am still waiting on the Roma tomatoes, The Early Girl and Celebrity tomatoes to turn red.  
Our weather has been very cool this summer.  So what has happened is that the tomatoes spend a lot of time on the vine without turning red.  We did have a week of hot hot weather. All that did was make cracks in some of the tomatoes.  The tomatoes don't like going from one extreme to another. Also the hot hot weather tricks you into forgetting to keep us with watering. So you get cracks.  Mine seem ok, not too deep.
Here is a place of my Lemon Boy sliced.  I drizzled some of this 18 year old Balsamic Vinegar from "We Olive".  It is just so yummy. If you have never tried good balsamic vinegar I encourage you to try it.
Tonight Peanut and I were swimming. I put some chicken breast in a bag to marinade while we swam.  Then after a long while I began the BBQ and put the chicken on to cook.  I wanted to cook some fresh zucchini so I went over and picked 4 fresh zucchini. I then washed a medium sized one, sliced it the long way and put it on the BBQ. 
Can you get any fresher than that?  It was so good. Even Peanut gobbled it up.
Have a good Thursday!!!
Happy gardening!





Sunday, July 18, 2010

How does your Garden Grow?

With love and sunshine and God's help....that is how my garden grows..
I'm trying to keep up with the Zucchini so it does grow too big.
There are some yellow tomatoes. They have a lemon taste. And a sweet baby pumpkin. I love how the stem curled around.
Here is the garden.  You can see my new tomato stands. They spiral. I love them.
Although next year I need to place then when the plants are small.

I have 3 more spirals to set in the garden.
Coraline even loves to lick the grass by the tomatoes.
Loads of Roma tomatoes waiting to turn red.
Also a lot of Celebrity tomatoes.  These I could not get into the spiral stand or I would have broken their stems. After these are harvested I will trim these branches off.
Mexican Limes are getting big. There are more little ones coming along too.
I discovered that the tangerine tree has fruit.  This tree was planted 2 years ago and nothing. So I am tickled that we have fruit!!!  I think they ripen in the winter like oranges.
This plant, Verbena, is going to be taken out of the planter. I decided the other day that although I love the color it is ugly.  Look at the left of the photo. That is how this bush looks. Ugh.  I want to replace some of the bushes with fruit trees. Probably dwarf.
Peanut, "Why can't summer last all year?"

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Beautiful Sunday

Today was a good day.  I love good days.  After having years of bad days it is nice that life has settled down.  I am seeing small & large gifts in the things around me.
Here is one big gift in my life.   My sister Susan.  She took me with her to our high school
reunion last night.  It was really fun. We got dressed up and had a great time. Photos by Susan.
This is Carol and Susan.
Here we have Jim and Erika Mann. They were dear friends of Richard and me from High school on.  Jim was in our wedding as one of Richard's grooms men. The are wonderful people.
These girls are Susan's BFF, from left to right, Gail, Claire and Susan.
Here is today Sunday at the class reunion picnic.  I only have a couple pictures which I took.
My dear sister Susan is on the right.  Her best friend in High School is on the left, Claire. They look so good. It is hard to believe that this is their 40 year class reunion. For me it was my 37 yr. reunion. My classmates were not at this reunion but the classmates of my late husband were there and it was so good to see them.
There are a lot more people gathered under the oak trees. It even began to rain on us.

So here is another gift I found in my yard today.  For me this is a gift.
Mushrooms.  They just appeared overnight. They are really big.
It's been humid here for a couple days. I don't know what kind of mushrooms these are. I am treating them as poison just to be safe. I did flip the big one over.
I am fascinated by them. They are so beautiful.
Look at those gills. Is that what they are called? Peanut told me that the smores are in their. LOL
Another little gift....the words that Peanut uses. When we were leaving for the park she could smell the mango lotion on me. She said "Grandma I love your da-mingo."  I said, "What?"  "your da-mingo lotion."

A long time ago I was reading about how a pastor would leave a very nice bible on a low table for the kids to touch and look at.  His guest asked how he could leave such a delicate Bible down low for kids to flip though, that they might tear the pages.
The pastor said, I want the kids to go through the Bible. I want them to see it, feel comfortable with is and the blessing would be that the children would read it.

So when we were in Idaho, Peanut was sitting in the big church.  She was bored and so I let her look at my Bible.  My bible is one with the thin pages, tabs to mark the chapters, when the Bible is closed you can see gold on the pages.  So I turned to the maps. I thought that she might like to look at the pictures.
Well Peanut turned to the scripture.  She started to read the notes that I write in the margins.  Some people won't write in their bibles.  My bible is a study bible and I want to put the notes in the bible so that I can read and study them later.  To my surprise those notes were understandable to Peanut. She was turning pages and reading what I had written.  I got tears in my eyes to see that what I had written for my eyes was helping Peanut understand the scripture.  It was a huge gift that day.
I'm so glad that I didn't keep my Bible to myself like it is too precious to be touched. 
This photo shows 1 Timothy 1
A couple years ago I went to a women's seminar with my sister Susan & my DIL Anne.  We went to see Kay Arthur . She was very good. During her talk she taught us how to mark and highlight our Bible.  I don't do all the marking she suggested but just enough so I can see the important things in the verses.
I think Peanut was interested in the colors but then she stopped to read the notes and maybe some of the verses too.  Just like the pastor I had read about. What a beautiful gift God let me see that day in church.
Peanut wasn't reading Revelations like above, but this is an example of what I do every Saturday night or Sunday morning as the pastor speaks to us.

Here is a parting shot of the mushroom's smores...... enjoy  (gills, with spores inside)

For tomorrow Happy Monday and Happy new week.


Thursday, July 8, 2010

VACATION 2010- IDAHO-Photo heavy

This year we made a trek to Idaho for our vacation.  I brought my sister Susan Susan's blog with me.  We had a really good trip. Good weather, good company, good meals, lots of knitting and fun.  The road trip was filled with chatting, music and XM radio.
Long dry highways in Nevada
Susan driving the first leg of the trip.
Stopping in Mesquite Nevada for Breakfast.
The carved out gorge in Arizona
Beautiful red earth in Utah near St. George
We have 400 miles to drive just in Utah.
We drove hundreds of miles and then switched drivers.
We arrived 14 hours later in the evening.  Bambi had made us a delicious dinner.
Then:
Swimming time. The weather was warm and the kids dove in.
 
Here Peanut is with her cousins (through marriage of aunt Bambi & uncle Dustin)
The ponies in Bambi & Dustin's yard opened up when we were there.  They are beautiful and huge.
There I am enjoying the peonies and the warm weather.
I finished my brown Bugga Socks. Mis-matched yes. The left sock is the Holidaze Pattern  by Anne Hanson. The right sock is from my head.  The colorway is Oak Timberworm.
Then I cast on these socks Tesserae Socks
A common site when driving around American Falls
Dustin driving us to Pocatello
We arrived to the Farmers Market in old town Pocatello
left to right: Susan, Bambi, Peanut & Dustin
We saw veggies, handcrafts, food and free ice cream.
People were very friendly.
After this farmers market visit we did some shopping in town.
Driving back to American Falls you will see a lot of potato fields.
We are in the car returning home. Peanut bought a kitty from money she had saved for this trip. I bought the necklace you see on my neck from the Farmers Market.
Our freeway exit.
In the distance you can see the very large American Falls Reservoir. The Reservoir is 56,000 acres. It is the largest reservoir on the Snake river. The bird watchers have noted over 270 bird species there.
THEN:
WOO HOO 4TH OF JULY !!!
Peanut is happy for this day.
Cherry trees make good climbing
Left to Right: Susan, Bambi & Dustin. Yes Dustin is making a face. He is funny. The girls are all dressed for the 4th.
The ball was stuck in the tree. Dustin was trying to free it. No luck. I came and shook the tree and the ball popped out. Yeah.
Bambi watering their garden. Here comes Dustin. I love their deck.
Family picture time!!!  Susan is our photographer. 
Look at those rascals!! Hiding in the shadows.
Peanut and Carol, aka grandma.
I love Peanut's skirt and 4th of July shirt.

There is Susan. Dustin and Bambi are preparing a tasty BBQ
I told Bambi when I saw this photo that she was an angel. She is really.  But who is that rascal behind her dressed in black? Scary to say the least.
Peanut hard at work. LOL
In the evening we went to the park. The fireworks were shot off at the reservoir at 10 pm,
It was very different for us at the park. Everyone had bought fireworks and were setting them off. We had rockets whizzing pass our heads. Peanut could not believe it.  At our home in So. California fireworks are prohibited.  There is too much of a fire hazard for us to set them off. The hills are so dry in July.  We did enjoy the Idaho fireworks.
Stairs to the basement where Susan and I had our own rooms.
Susan's room. Isn't it lovely?
Carol's room. Very cozy too.
And here is the basement that D & B have been working on for months. I know that they busted their butts to have this finished for our visit.  It is beautiful. Dustin laid all that ceramic tile himself.  He yanked down dark brown paneling and patched the drywall. They painted and he put the trim.  It is a wonderful place to go to relax. It is about 20 degrees cooler in the summer. The guest rooms are through that open doorway.
Here we are upstairs. It is a one story home but with the basement I call this upstairs. So this is Bambi and Dustin. They are a great couple. How do I know? Because look, they are dressed alike and they didn't even plan that. Or did they?????
Dustin. Don't ask me what he is doing. I just don't know.
Here is one of our Tasty Dinners. Shrimp, noodles, slivered squash, parmesan cheese, garlic, olive oil....  Yummy
Our last full day there the roofers came. You can see men on the roof and a wheel barrow.   D & B are changing from a rock roof to a metal roof. It is going to look awesome. I hope that Bambi survived the noise.
On July 6, 2010 we were back on the road for California.
We spotted lavender fields in Mona Utah. They were all in bloom.
Here are the red mountains in So. Utah. We are almost to St. George here.
Isn't this beautiful?
Well that was the last of the vacation photos. I probably should have taken more. I just get busy with enjoying my family and I forget.
Our vacation was over as fast as Peanut can run and jump!!!
It's good to be home but it was great to be with my family for a whole week. Thank you B & D for having us. I love you both to pieces!!!!!!