Garden produce

My first haul of items from the garden; zucchini and a cucumber the first time, but this picture was taken a few days ago. Last night I harvested 9 large zucchini from the garden, then this morning 2 more zucchini, 2 cucumbers, and 1 yellow squash !! Our first summer squash, too bad my hubby doesn't like squash (he gets it in every meal though and doesn't realize it most of the time).

Pictures of flowers around the yard.

The roses were here when we moved in, but they bloomed so beautiful this year all around the yard.

Pictures of the Garden

Here is a picture I took of the garden when it was 4 days "old". I wanted to try to take pictures every week so I could watch the progress, but, I didn't get them taken very timely. It looked so small and barren this day. Oh and I love my pink gardening gloves.

It is now July 2009

Well my little plants I started in the house did miserably. In fact they all died. So much for my green thumb and my trying to grow from seed. They did well until I forgot and left the tender little plants outside during a long rain storm. My little tomato plants were literally flooded out of their little pots. Oh and the boys decided to drag the cute little pots around the yard like they were a new chew toy.

Oh and yes I said "Boys". We now have two pup's. We had Shooter, the cute little cocker spaniel and now we have Buddy - a large lovable black lab. Buddy was found by someone I work with wandering along a busy road. She took him in for a few weeks and when no one claimed him asked if we wanted him. Shooter loves having a playmate and the fenced yard let's them be outside all day long.

I hired a crew to turn over a garden plot for me, 25 by 6, so I had to go buy my plants to put into it. I got a few plants down at a local greenhouse and rounded it out with tomatoes from the local Lowes. I am so very proud of my garden !! Last evening before we started the fireworks we picked 9 zucchini from my garden, all very good size. I'll post a few picks of the garden.

This morning I went out and watered the flowers in the front flower bed and it is starting to fill in so nicely. I really have never been that much into outdoor flowers and gardening, but I have to say it is a great way to relieve stress.

Time to celebrate the green

It is a rainy Tuesday morning with a bit of fog which seems so appropriate to be celebrating St. Pat's day today the air is dense, moist, and the grass is green. It reminds me of those pictures of Ireland my uncle Matt had. He had married an Irish lady before marrying my Aunt Lorena and so part of my cousins are Irish. 

We are having a pot luck at work today. I had planned to bring Corn Beef, but, um, well, the grocery store was sold out last night. I could not believe it out of Corn Beef the night before St. Pat's. Change of plans and so today I am bringing BBQ Pulled Pork. 

I am so excited to see March start to go by and April start to blow in. I am looking forward to working in my yard this year and growing tomato plant or two. Obviously this is true as I keep mentioning it. Every morning I walk outside on the deck with my coffee in hand and look around. One of these days it will be warm and not rainy!

With today being St. Pat's that means tomorrow they will decorate the office for Easter. I made some cute lil bunny craft's for Lucy (my dear lil colleague who could retire but refuses to). She loves Easter and I knew the Bunny's would make her smile. I'll have to take the camera in and get a picture of the bunny's and post it here. 

Here is the photo of the pup. Isn't he just the cutest little guy you ever saw? And those eyes? Trust me when I say he gets whatever he wants. 

 

A year went by

I could not believe it had been over a year since my last post. Then I thought about my last year and realized how very possible it was. 

Let's see what happened last year: I fell ill and was seeing alot of different specialists trying to figure out what was wrong. My mom was diagnosed with Cancer in March, my sister-in-law has been hospitalized 14 times in the last 12 months and has recently been in for two months straight, work became a nightmare, and the family fell apart over Mom's illness and passing in late October. Oh and the most important note was I turned 40 on February 28, 2008. Everything above happened after my 40th birthday. 

So what happened? I LIVED THROUGH IT. I finally got through it, the cloud lifted, and my life is returning to normal which during the events of last year I never thought I would see. So we are going to focus on the positive. 

I am feeling better. I was finally referred to a specialist who was able to diagnose what he thought the problem was and he sent me to a specialized specialist (I did not know they existed) who has solved some of my problems. I am continuing to see him so I hope to have my body back to normal (as normal as it can get as it is my body after all) by summer or around there. 

My yard went to hand-basket land since I was out of town most of last year with the family, so this year I am trying to start early. I planted my items as they suggest inside 6 weeks before what would be planting time (Mid April) and I already have 1 little sprout. I am so excited. I am only doing flowers and tomatoes this year, but, if it works out well next year I will be prepared for a larger garden and be able to grown zucchini, which I love prepared in every imaginable way. I am planning on planting these seeds I bought which are suppose to guarantee giant sun flower plants. I hope they are giant enough that they will block my deck from neighbor's view! They are the nosiest folks around. 

The Great nephew. I was so lucky last year, since I was home alot with Mom I was fortunate enough to spend alot of time with the nephew who going forward will affectionately be called NOODLE. Auntie nicknamed him Noodle and it stuck. He is such a wiggle worm. Well he just turned 1 last month and he is a gem. Here is one of my favorite pictures of him. 

Mom is so missed. I forgot until she was gone how many times I called her just to vent. The best part is she is out of pain, the worst is she had to leave us to leave the pain behind. She was an incredible woman. 

A positive note is I have a new puppy. His name is Shooter. He keeps me busy, and he needs training. I am working on his favorite hobby right now which is to jump on folks and sit in their laps! Soon he may be ready for interaction again with the public.  I'll have to take his photo and put it up later today. 

Other than that, I have spent time sorting through Mom's items, putting away things in the house, and focusing on my health and rest. 

I am still baking cookies and I will soon begin posting recipes here. I have also found I enjoy baking cakes now. I like trying new combinations. I think my favorite has been the banana bread cake I found a recipe for on cooks.com.  My friendly taste testers said it was to die for.