Greg's Project, berries and Zinnia's

The French Mulberry is covered in beautiful purple berries that the birds will love now that the weather has started to turn a little cooler. This grows by our back fence next to my clothesline. The Mocking birds will chase each other all over the place for these berries. I've never seen a Mocking Bird that was good at sharing anything.






I decided to take a few more pictures of the Zinnia's in my garden to show how long they last. I've got to be sure to plant a LOT of these next Spring so that I can enjoy them all summer long next year.




This is Greg's Mead Project. Last night he decided that it was ready to be strained and bottled up. I was glad that he decided to do this outside as he made quite a mess. While I was out there taking pictures and watching him strain it all I was amazed at how many fruit flies appeared out of no where along with quite a few yellow jackets. I came inside once the yellow jackets showed up as me and bee stings do not mix well. Greg has had so much fun making this stuff - I hope it's fit to drink after all the time and money he has invested in it.

Weekend over....

Well that weekend passed so quickly! Scott has left for work and Greg is planning his day - he needs to go check in with his temp service and stop at the Brewing store to see what he needs to do about his Mead as it keeps foaming over the valve at the top. He started this Saturday and I think he stayed up all Saturday night watching it ferment and "burp". He is quite excited about this and I am hoping that it turns out drinkable or he will be so disappointed.

On Friday I took what was left in the fridge of a beef roast and a variety of vegetables and made beef vegetable soup by adding a can of tomatoes, about 2 cups water, a bay leaf, garlic salt, black pepper, parsley and a bit of basil. I cooked it in the slow cooker all day on low so that the meat would get more tender and so that the flavors could meld together. Sunday I took the leftover soup and brought it to a boil in a pot on top of the stove and made parsley dumplings that I cooked on top of the soup.
So from one beef roast we've had 4 separate meals and NO WASTE. The last meal will be our lunch today. Tonight I will be starting the week with a whole new meal - pork chops, mashed potatoes, salad and perhaps some dinner rolls. And I want to try to make a Julia Child recipe called "Tarte Tatin" - a caramelized apple dessert with cream topping. I watched her make it on the PBS.com site and it just looked so heavenly. I almost forgot about the wonderful egg custard that I made on Friday... I've just been in such a Nurturing mood I guess. Egg custard with wonderful Nutmeg.... YUM!

My white Rose of Sharon is really throwing out the blooms now... I just love how dainty they look when the sun is shining on them.

Saturday I went out to the garden and finally found a few tomatoes that were not completely rotted from the heavy rain and heat. Most are cherry tomatoes but the one larger one is actually an "Orange" colored tomato. I thought it would be a fun thing to add to the garden. While I was out there I tied up some of the cherry tomatoes that had fallen over because I used those wimpy cages that you find in all the stores. I will get Scott to make me some more REAL tomato cages from the wire Greg brought home - it's concrete reinforcing mesh and makes the BEST tomato cages. I also got the grass and weeds up between a row of raised beds where we haven't been able to get rolled roofing down. The rolled roofing has made keeping the walkways weed free so much easier - Scott had an excellent idea there. I also cleaned out and turned two of the empty beds and planted Lima beans and pole beans but I believe I've told most of this all ready - sorry for repeating myself.

We went for two very lovely walks by the River and that always lifts my spirits. A little orange butterfly decided to light on Scott's hand - I think it looks like he is wearing a really cool glowing ring in this picture... Of course me and the fungi have this love thing going on and I had to get two shots of this one that was growing along the path - I think it looks like the main section of the Enterprise - nearly floating in the air...

What happened to today?

This day has just flown right by. Scott worked on 2 different mowers today - one push mower and one riding mower. The push mower was a pretty easy fix and it went back with Scott's friend, Larry. The riding mower is going to take a bit more work. He is having to take the engine completely apart to fix it so he will continue on that tomorrow. I had planned to sew some today but got side tracked with a trip to Publix and watching Julia Child on PBS.com. I bought the ingredients to make her recipe for "Tarte Tatin" - a delicious caramelized apple dessert. I was going to make it today but Greg decided to take over the kitchen to make Mead - so I'll wait until tomorrow to make the dessert. The Mead will be "working" for 6 months Greg told me - GREAT!

This afternoon I made another attempt to find a few tomatoes that were good to eat on our tomato plants. We are having a horrible time with end rot. I did find a few that we will be able to eat once they finish ripening; I didn't want to leave them out there to rot. While out there I tied some of the plants up with pantyhose as they were over from the shear weight of the tomatoes on the plants. I weeded one of the walkways where we don't have rolled roofing down to keep the weeds away between raised beds and then I turned the soil in the 2 raised beds along one side of the cleared path and in one of the raised beds I planted lima beans and in the other I planted some pole beans and used some of the excess tomato cages for them to eventually climb up. I am hoping that we will be able to have a nice Fall garden as the summer garden was pretty much a flop. Just too hot.


Photo is of Larry - Scott's friend; taken at our wedding in 1985.