This week

It's been a rather overwhelming week... but not much to take pictures of. So enjoy a few shots of dogs. First, the very photogenic Vixen showing off her colors. Then Wiley, who is now officially retired from running, jumping, and climbing mountains. It's very sad, but the vet says his spine is degenerating and he already has lost some control of his hind leg. Last, is Kiko who was visiting for the weekend, and provided some entertainment for the other dogs.

On Wednesday I had one of the worst cold/flus ever. It hurt just to get out of bed. Fortunately, I've gotten over that (mostly).

This weekend, I finally admitted that gardening season is over. I rolled up the hoses, pulled out the dying plants and harvested the last of the tomatoes. Now I'm canning 11 pints of salsa.

I also went to the Weems ArtFest today, which is always fun. Although, I didn't buy any art. It's great to live in a place with so many artists.

Frost

Sadly, tomato season ended suddenly this week thanks to very cold night temperatures. Here's some photos of frostbitten plants with bajillions of green tomatoes languishing on them.

Fortunately, I harvested this 3 1/2 pound pile of tomatoes (and one jalapeno) on Wednesday before the frost hit. Combined with what I already had, it's enough to make another batch of salsa!

Productive Weekend

I feel like I got a lot done this weekend:

• Walked in the State Fair parade for the Re-elect Jason Marks Campaign.
  
• 19 new plants in the ground (Plants of the SW had a great sale), and requisite drippers put into place.
  
• 7 pounds of tomatoes harvested and turned into 6 pints of salsa. I can't believe how frustrating it is to can stuff, and I keep trying it again thinking MAYBE this time I actually have enough tomatoes to make a worthwhile amount of salsa... but no. At least it tastes good.
• Ran 3 miles.

If you're really paying attention, you may be asking "Hey, weren't you supposed to run a 10k today?" The answer is that I had been training for a 10k, but I had to abandon it two weeks ago due to allergies, and then couldn't get back into it because my left leg became incredibly sore. It's all better now, so the next running goal is the Duke City Marathon Relay in October where I'll do a 6.2-mile leg.

Pesto

A few weeks back, I mentioned that basil is taking over my garden. Well, it still is, despite giving away several plants. I've made plenty of basil-based dishes over the past few weeks. Today I decided to pick as much basil as I could and make however much pesto that turned out to be. I managed to pick 4 cups of basil and 2 cups of parsley before giving up... there's at least 4 times as much basil still out there. With my little mini food processor, I can only turn one cup of basil (and all the other ingredients) into a batch of pesto at a time. Now I have a batch of regular basil pesto, spicy pest, sun-dried tomato pesto and garlic-artichoke pesto. The last one was experimental and it turned out rather creamy, more like a spread. Invite me over for a potluck, and you're likely to get a pesto dish!

I'll be heading up to Colorado later this week. The primary reason for the trip is a wedding on Saturday in Loveland. But then, we also have to visit Gramma in Denver and climb some mountains on the way. The plan is to drive to an as-yet-undetermined mountain in southern Colorado on Wednesday evening. Climb that mountain Thursday morning. Climb Mt Evans on Friday morning the continue on in to Denver. Attend wedding and related activities on Saturday and Sunday. Return to Denver and hang out there on Monday. Climb another mountain on Tuesday and head home. Somehow this long weekend turned into a week-long trip.

Neither the mountains nor Gramma's house are conducive to blogging... so it may be a while before the next post. Unless I find time to say something before I leave.

The fallen giant

This is the best garden I've ever had. Look at the great vegetables I'm getting! Those are orange blossom tomatoes, roma tomatoes and a jalapeno. I also have plenty of herbs.

However, on Monday my sunflower fell over in during a thunderstorm. This is not a plant with a single giant flower at the top like those that Kansas is famous for. Instead, it is a 10-ft tall, 6-ft diameter bush full of 4-inch flowers. I trimmed it back recently because it was towering over the cherry tree and crowding it. When it fell, it landed on a prairie zinnia, lavender, yucca and a few tomatoes. Fortunately, the most resilient plants took the brunt of the impact. I pulled it out of the garden and let it dry out in the yard while the birds salvage the seeds.

The leaves a gaping hole in the garden... but that solves my overcrowding problem. I just need to move a few things around and it seems like things have a way of working themselves out.

Cherry Harvest

This year, our garden is indeed producing food. So far, we've been eating our own mulberries, cherries, basil, cilantro, oregano, chives and snap peas. A few days ago, I collected the last of the cherries, and put them into a little pie. As I threw the mini-pie into the toaster oven to bake, Hubbers rented a movie... Sweeney Todd. About 30 minutes into the movie, I took the cherry pie out of the oven only to discover it's eerie similarity to one of Mrs. Lovett's meat pies. So we didn't eat the pie that night, we saved it for the next day.