A slow Saturday morning...

Wow, what a week. Especially for one only four days long. But I made it; we made it through.

My lectures for class this week were... a push. I can't discuss history without starting at the beginning, which meant the geology of the northern Rocky Mountains. Suddenly on Monday night I'm cramming about igneous and sedimentary rocks. It was a little nuts.

Nonetheless, I achieved what I set out to this week. Gave two decent lectures. Was up at 6:15am each morning, and in the office no later than 8am. Avoided "double dipping"; working on class lectures while at work for the City. Knocked out a couple of important projects at work.

By Friday DJ, and probably the doggie, felt a little abandoned. I barricaded myself into the office on Tuesday and Wednesday nights this week to prep lectures and basically ignored them. DJ has been a very supportive husband while I try to teach this class, which I appreciate so very much.

We celebrated the end of a trying week with a great dinner at Over the Tapas; goat cheese-filled croquettes, bacon wrapped steak, lamb sliders and a steak salad. OMG, we may have a contender for new favorite restaurant in Bozeman. The best part was leaving without feeling that we needed to unbutton our pants.

From Tapas we went to Lowes to pick out tile for the fireplace, a project which is finally happening next weekend. I'd still rather tear out our entire mantle and put in built-in bookshelves and a smaller mantle, but I'll compromise on just finishing the damn thing.

Upon arriving home, I poured a whiskey drink and got in bed with a book. DJ watched "Gold Rush" (yeaaaah, the quality of television ranges widely in our house). By 10:00pm the lights were out and I slept wonderfully until 6:30am, when my internal alarm when off. It was nice to snuggle in our warm, comfortable bed for an hour while thinking through gardening plans for 2012.

Now I'm in the office with a cup of coffee. DJ went downtown to meet friends for the Saturday morning coffee date, but I stayed home to enjoy a quiet house. I'm giving myself until noon, after which I'll start working on lectures for the next two weeks.

How was your week?

Home made salsa

I love home made salsa. Having the ingredients out in the garden makes it so easy to throw together a batch of yumminess. 

First, tomatoes: Juliet and cherry tomatoes (left over from a pasta dish from last week).

Hungarian hot wax pepper. 

Garlic. 

Cherry bomb pepper. 

Cilantro. For some reason I am unable to grow cilantro. I think it gets too hot and goes to seed before it really grows leaves. 

The big green bell pepper is also store-bought. Same with the red onion. 

Salsa is so easy to make! you just chop everything up, toss it in a seal-able container, throw in salt, pepper and a few squirts of lime and you have a delicious snack! 

I'll admit it, sometimes I have chips and salsa for breakfast in the summer. 

What's so wrong with that?

August 12 Friday Farming (on Saturday)

Yep, a Friday Farming... on Saturday. Sorry, yesterday got away from me; it's been rush rush rush every which way right now! 

The daisies in the front yard are still blooming, all though they look to be at the end of their run. I hope the larkspur in the bottom left corner of this photo, comes on soon. There is also a daylilly in there, which seems reticent to bloom for the second year in a row.

The front-yard peppers are doing okay. I must have aphids this year; many of my plants have Swiss cheese leaves.

This pepper is really slow to set fruit. Then again, weather.com told me it was 39 degrees at 6:30am on Friday morning. Yep, you read that right... only 7 degrees above freezing. DJ calls BS, but... ?

This little bed looks lush if you're sitting on our porch.

The sweet peas are finally coming on.

The daylilly is starting to open up.

And the bee balm is approaching the end of its blooms.

Ahhh... sweet peas make me smile.

Unfortunately, the bed looks a little under developed from this angle, especially if you consider that the goal was to camouflage those utility boxes. Growth of the Russian Sage planted between the boxes will help, and I think I might relocate the bee balm (again) to the street side of this bed.

To the right of the driveway.

More daylilly.

Cherry Bomb peppers! Okay, the one turning orange down there can't seriously be a ripe pepper, can it?

The Hungarian Wax pepper hasn't set fruit yet.

The herb garden is looking rather sad, now that I've pulled out the cilantro and the garlic. I think next year I'll plant an annual flower in between the garlic, so that the bed retains some interest as the garlic comes out.

Basil!

My second kind of bee balm is doing the weirdest thing; it's falling over as it's about to bloom. I see this plant all around town and it doesn't appear to require staking or support. What gives?

Maybe the plant is mildwey from getting directly sprayed by the sprinkler?

Again, I need the larkspur to come on for some color.

More daisies. I think the ecchinacea I started from seed is definitely destined for over here.

I'm still finding raspberries as I walk by.

Fern gully. I like the addition of lobelia to the kitchen beds, and might sneak some of it in amongst the ferns next summer.

I still haven't cut back most of the iris stalks. As long as they stay green, I think they add a little vertical interest to the garden bed.

Sweet peas in amongst a mystery plant from Jane.

Annabelle Hydrangea!

More daylilly.These plants are so hardy, it can't be a surprise that I have so many of them.

Mmmm raspberries!

Back deck pots.

Oh, a doggie.

The clematis is blooming nicely. I hope it fills out sideways next year.

Ahhh, the farm!

With all that remains of my sweet pea fence.

Are carrots supposed to bloom? I pulled one of these out the other day, assuming it was a weed, and it was definitely a carrot!

Ripening Juliet tomatoes.

Early Girl tomatoes, which look like they're about to ripen up.

These things are like the size of my fist.

Roma tomatoes.

While none of my Roma tomatoes are ripe yet, I'm excited that a number of them are pretty big. It seemed like most of my Roma's last year were pretty puny.

Jalapenos! How long should I let the jalepeno grow? I'm guessing the bigger it gets, the less spicy it gets?

Crookneck summer squash!

Squash blossoms.

Zucchini blossoms.

Zukes!

Potato patch.

I'm not sure that my pumpkin plant is doing well. It will produce little furit-lets, but they'll fail to thrive and die off instead. What gives?

My guess? The plant is shoe-horned into an over filled bed and either not getting enough nutrients or enough light. Or too much water.

The Spaghetti squash seems to be doing well though!

MMMMM.... I wonder how far these are from being ripe?

Happy weekend!