The Fruits, er, umm, Vegetables of my Labor

Okay- I wasn’t going to post about the garden again, because it just sounds like bragging.  Especially since the majority of my readers are in GA and can barely keep anything alive with the extreme heat.  But, I picked my first zucchini today and I’m very excited.  So, be excited for me.  I wish I could share my bounty with you all.

Over all my garden now looks like something out of a sci-fi movie.  Though I followed directions on how far apart tp plant everything, I’m not sure those instructions were written for California gardeners with a drip irrigation system and as much direct sun exposure as we have in our backyard.  I’ll show you what I mean…

garden-006

Canteloupe 5-28

garden-005

Canteloupe 7-3

garden-0051

Squash 5-28

garden-009

Squash 7-3

garden-004

Tomatoes 5-28

garden-008

Tomatoes 7-3

garden-007

Herbs 5-28

garden-0041

Herbs 7-3

It’s not all necessarily a good thing.  As I mentioned, everything is a little too crowded and the tomatoes are falling out of their cages and touching the ground.  The stalks are too think to try and move very much without risking breaking them.  The canteloupe is about to suffocate one of my cherry tomato plants and quite possibly my cucumber plant.  It is, none the less exciting to watch one’s garden grow.

Back to my first crop.  I’ve been checking, only to find small sproutings of things here and there.  The zucchini however, are decent little hiders.  I saw several about 3 days ago and when I went to show Jim this morning, the already too large zucchini had grown exponentially.  So, I finally picked it.  It isn’t really that great taste-wise to let them get this large, but it sure makes for a good story.

garden-011garden-012

I plan to slice it and stuff it tonight and throw it out on the grill for our pre-4th of July kick off celebration.  I’ll let you know how it tastes.

When Twain Comes to Town

After my five minutes of fame, we had a visitor come stay a spell.  My friend Twain.  We’ve known each other for nearly 20 years (oh God- I just got dizzy typing that when I read how old it makes me), and I’m not positive, but pretty sure he gets crazier every year.  I picked [...]

Ready For My Close Up

I wish I could say “in recent news” here, but this actually happened several weeks ago and I’m just way behind on blogging.  For those of you who know me, you know that I could give two shits about celebrities and do good to keep up with Brad, Jennifer, and Angelina.  While I do admit [...]

Vive Vancouver Video Vignette

I know I said that the last one was going to be the last one, but I just wanted to share some of the videos that we took while in Vancouver. Enjoy.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

var s0 = new SWFObject(”http://www.mel-air.com/wp-content/plugins/flash-video-player/mediaplayer/player.swf”,”n0″,”320″,”240″,”7″);
s0.addParam(”allowfullscreen”,”true”);
s0.addParam(”allowscriptaccess”,”always”);
s0.addParam(”wmode”,”opaque”);
s0.addVariable(”id”,”n0″);
s0.addVariable(”controlbar”,”bottom”);
s0.addVariable(”height”,”240″);
s0.addVariable(”playlist”,”none”);
s0.addVariable(”width”,”320″);
s0.addVariable(”autostart”,”false”);
s0.addVariable(”bufferlength”,”1″);
s0.addVariable(”displayclick”,”play”);
s0.addVariable(”icons”,”true”);
s0.addVariable(”linktarget”,”_blank”);
s0.addVariable(”mute”,”false”);
s0.addVariable(”quality”,”true”);
s0.addVariable(”repeat”,”none”);
s0.addVariable(”resizing”,”true”);
s0.addVariable(”shuffle”,”false”);
s0.addVariable(”stretching”,”uniform”);
s0.addVariable(”volume”,”90″);
s0.addVariable(”aboutlink”,”http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/”);
s0.addVariable(”file”,”http://www.mel-air.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/mvi_4326aviff.flv”);
s0.write(”video0″);

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

var s1 = new SWFObject(”http://www.mel-air.com/wp-content/plugins/flash-video-player/mediaplayer/player.swf”,”n1″,”320″,”240″,”7″);
s1.addParam(”allowfullscreen”,”true”);
s1.addParam(”allowscriptaccess”,”always”);
s1.addParam(”wmode”,”opaque”);
s1.addVariable(”id”,”n1″);
s1.addVariable(”controlbar”,”bottom”);
s1.addVariable(”height”,”240″);
s1.addVariable(”playlist”,”none”);
s1.addVariable(”width”,”320″);
s1.addVariable(”autostart”,”false”);
s1.addVariable(”bufferlength”,”1″);
s1.addVariable(”displayclick”,”play”);
s1.addVariable(”icons”,”true”);
s1.addVariable(”linktarget”,”_blank”);
s1.addVariable(”mute”,”false”);
s1.addVariable(”quality”,”true”);
s1.addVariable(”repeat”,”none”);
s1.addVariable(”resizing”,”true”);
s1.addVariable(”shuffle”,”false”);
s1.addVariable(”stretching”,”uniform”);
s1.addVariable(”volume”,”90″);
s1.addVariable(”aboutlink”,”http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/”);
s1.addVariable(”file”,”http://www.mel-air.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/mvi_4438aviff.flv”);
s1.write(”video1″);

Get the [...]

Vive Vancouver (The End)

There was a Malaysian restaurant close to the hotel that got rave reviews.  I’d been wanting to try it since we had arrived, but the restaurant was small and whenever I stopped by for dinner, there was always quite a wait.  Jim and I slept in on Tuesday morning, had a quick snack for breakfast [...]

Vive Vancouver (Part II)

Sunday morning Jim had to leave early and get to work so I was on my own.  Our hotel was right next to Stanley Park.  Like most people I had never heard of Stanley park either.  It’s something like the largest urban park in North America.  And they ain’t lying.  I had a map, little [...]

Vive Vancouver! (Part 1)

As I mentioned before, Jim treated me to a plane ticket to Vancouver as a birthday gift.  He had to attend a conference there beginning with a workshop, two days of down time, then back to work.  Jim has always wanted us to take a trip to Vancouver because he’s heard years ago how beautiful [...]

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary…

I’m an expert gardener in just a few short weeks!  You too can be an expert gardener if you move to California where everything doubles its size in the span of a couple of weeks.  It’s truly amazing actually.  And it works out great for me as I am a terribly impatient person.  And although [...]

Frankendingle

So many things to write about, and I’m falling behind.  In recent news however…Poooooor little Dingle.  When Jim and I went to Vancouver, we opted to have him boarded because he needed updates on a few shots as well as needing to have his eye looked at.  It’s been getting bigger, and if not bigger, [...]

Updated Virtual Home Tour

I would say that the progress on the yard is going slowly, but I’d be lying.

The first couple of days continued to look like a bomb went off back there, but in no time the landscapers were asking for their second payment because they were at the half-way mark, then by Tuesday they were completely [...]