Day 192 Self-Portrait

Self-portraits are tough! This involved much jumping up and down off a chair in my yard, trying to get my face in the frame, adjust the focus manually, and shoo the dog away to let just ME be in the photo! I need a photo for an ID for my PADI certification card, when I do my open water dives later in July.

Day 191: A Stretch of Windows

What????? No flowers????!!!!
Sometimes other things look interesting as well. . . .

Day 190: Ummm, is this Reproduction????

Oh, I hope one of you wise gardening people can answer this question for me. Remember this photo that I posted a while back, wondering what I planted? And many of you told me it was a lupine?

And then a few days later, it looked like this:


Well. . . . now, THIS is what it's doing! I mean, what the heck? Is this some kind of reproduction? Are these. . . appendages. . . going to bloom? Or drop strange seed pods in my garden? What is this plant up to?



And just in case you need something to reaffirm that all is ok with the world, check out the video I have posted under yesterday's post, if you haven't already. It's just 60 seconds, but somehow very gratifying about life on this planet!

Day 189: 3rds. Life is Good.

I just thought this was cool. . . .

Day 188: 4th of July

Photos of the U.S. flag through our front door window. Happy 4th (5th) of July!

Day 187: Happy 4th of July!

Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday weekend!

Day 186: More Heuchera Flowers

Just posting a few more Heuchera flowers (Coral Bells) because I love the delicacy of the pink against the foliage.

Day 185: They're Coming!!!!

Zucchini, that is. All these yellow blooms will turn into zucchini, one of my favorite vegetables. But zucchini can be sneaky! You have to watch it. Every minute. Maybe even set up camp and watch it all night with a flashlight. Or it multiplies like crazy, and goes from nice tender, little zucchini, to humongous, baseball bat size too-icky-to-eat zucchini!

When I was a kid, my Italian grandmother use to cook zucchini flowers for us. Basically, you fry the flower and it tastes surprisingly like fried eggs!

I'm amazed that I even like zucchini anymore! Some nearly 30 years ago, I planted an enormous garden. I planted it because I read a book that scared the toes off of me: "How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Times." Basically, a "we're all doomed" kind of book. So I planted a garden so my dh (boyfriend, at the time) and I wouldn't starve to death. (Trust me; we haven't!) I planted about 30 zucchini plants.

But there was so much zucchini, I couldn't give it all away! I took to sneaking it on my coworkers' desks when they weren't looking! But after awhile, they wised up and started returning it. . . .

My frugal streak wouldn't let me throw it away.

Then I decided (still, thanks to "the coming bad times") to dehydrate the zucchini. I stored all this shredded, dried, zucchini in those plastic-sealer bags. And packed it in empty coffee cans. Lots and lots of rows of dried, shredded, zucchini. Dried, leathery, bland, zucchini. Which I later reconstituted and tried to bake into breads, or cook in casseroles, or. . . . ?????

All I can say is that my darling boyfriend married me anyway!
And now, we only plant 2 zucchini plants. period.

Day 184: Tiger Lillies

. . . finally showing up in the garden, and acting every bit the Drama Queens that they are!