Thursday, August 19, 2010

Harvest

I found myself with some unexpected time off of work today so I decided to pay a visit to The Big Garden.  I brought containers to haul home whatever was ready to be picked... the last time I went, I didn't have enough carrying devices.  I had an hour and a half to pick the ripe tomatoes, and whatever else was ripe. 

I ended up staying there two and a half hours, which made me late for a good-bye party.  But I was on a roll!

I picked one watermelon which may or may not be ripe.  I'll know later.  About a month ago I picked one that wasn't even pink inside.  The limits of my patience were really tested with this watermelon...its one of the reasons I had a garden in the first place.

And then I picked tomatoes.  Gobs and gobs of tomatoes.  You should see the ones I didn't bring home;  my harvest would have doubled in size.  Many were unusable because in my stupidity  lack of judgement, I failed to properly stake my plants, and tomatoes were growing all over the ground.  And it seems if they're on the ground, something has burrowed into the fruit, making mushy, icky, nasty spots.  And then there were the ones that were so ripe that they cracked or were rotten, still hanging on the vine. 

What you can't see are the tomatoes I picked on Sunday.  There are just as many as this on my back deck.  Plus I've given some away, and made salsa.  My God!  What did I expect with 50 tomato plants!?!

After the tomatoes, I picked some eggplants, squash, and peppers.  I must say that it was really hard to see some of the ripe stuff because my garden is a hot mess.  There are weeds taking over everything, and since this is an organic garden, I can't use weed killer.  My brilliant idea of using newspaper under mulch to keep the weeds at bay didn't succeed.  At least not long term.


The basil was almost ready to bloom so I knew I had to get that picked.  The problem is cleaning all that basil.  Plus I have so much more that needs to be gathered.  I'm gonna have enough pesto for the neighborhood!


Finally, I decided to dig up half of my potatoes.  The plants have almost all died so they're good to go.  It wouldn't hurt to leave them in the ground another week I suppose, but I'm nosy and impatient.  Digging up potatoes is like digging for buried treasure.  Seriously!

20 lbs of potatoes

I weighed one of those containers of tomatoes (the styrofoam one) and that alone weighed 25 lbs.  There are hundreds of tomatoes still on the vines, still green.  I may, at some point, have to abandon them due to tomato overload. 

Last week I picked all of my onions.  Here they are drying on my back deck.

I can't seem to do anything in reasonable quantities.  Maybe I'm a little obsessive? There are more on some chairs that aren't in the picture.  (she said, sheepishly)


If you've been reading about my garden from the beginning, you may remember Peggy.  She was my crabby garden neighbor.  I feel I must take back what I said about her because last Sunday, when my son and I were picking stuff, Peggy told me that there were strangers in my garden helping themselves to some produce.  Interlopers!!  She told them that it wasn't very nice to help themselves and that had I put a lot of time and effort into that garden and she was sure that I wouldn't appreciate stealing.  Wow.  I guess I was wrong about her.  Of course, I thanked her. I guess she's not so bad... and really, most people aren't.  Meanwhile, my cabbages are gone, and my cauliflower, which was labelled as cabbage, has rotted right there in the garden.  It smells terrible! 


Happy?
Tomorrow's the big day here at our house.  My oldest heads off to college.  Sniff.  We've packed up her car, packed up my car and have additional stuff to be packed into a pick-up truck.  I hope I've prepared her well for whatever she faces.  Maybe all parents feel this way, but I think that I didn't do as much as I should have.  I could have been a better parent in a lot of ways.  Hindsight is always 20/20 I guess.  But she has a really good head on her shoulders; she's a smart girl with a lot of common sense.  I really don't worry about her - I know she'll be fine.  I'll just miss her...

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Hey

Have you ever gone to the video store and just stood there waiting for a movie to jump out at you?  It happens to me quite frequently; I know I want to watch something, but nothing looks particularly good.  "Just pick something!" you say, but for some reason, its just not that easy.  Here are some movies I've seen that I really enjoyed, and may be rather obscure.  Maybe not.  Anyway....   take these as suggestions...and if you end up really hating the movie, you can blame me.

Love Potion # 9 -
This is a really old movie (1992), one of Sandra Bullocks first I do believe.  It also stars Donovan Somebodyorother.  They're both scientists and they get ahold of a love potion and hilarity ensues.  Wait, his name is Tate Donovan.  Anway, there's a really funny part involving a hooker, the love potion, and the scientist.  (Those are words I don't think I've ever strung together in a sentence before.)  If you can find this at the video store, you should rent it.  Its a good light movie that doesn't involve a lot of thinking. 

Waitress
Another good, rather thought-free movie.  It was made in 2007 and was written by a woman named Adrienne Shelly.  She was later murdered in her New York apartment by a neighbor.  Wow, that was uplifting and makes you want to run right out and see that movie, right?
Anyway, its a good movie about friendship and marriage and kids and all that stuff.


The Majestic

One of my co-workers cannot watch Jim Carey in any movie.  She can't stand his facial expressions.  He doesn't bother me at all, and I really liked him in this movie, one of his few serious roles.  In this movie, his character loses his memory and ends up in a small town, where he looks just like the son of one of the townspeople.  I thought this movie was really touching, but required more thought than some of the other movies I've suggested here.  Still a good rental.

Frequency


This movie was made in 2000 and stars Jim Caviezel and Dennis Quaid.  That much information alone should get you to watch it.  Two handsome men... in the same movie....sigh.  Now where was I?  Oh yes, this is a time travel/thriller kind of movie which kind of asks the question, "if you could go back and change the past, would you?"   This one you HAVE to pay attention to because if you miss a bit of it, you get lost.  But again, the handsome men thing makes that very easy.  : )

Well, that's enough to get you started at the video store.  And if you have suggestions for movies that I should watch, just let me know.