August 28, 2019 They said there were no cucumbers?

We returned yesterday.  Our guests ate all the cherry tomatoes that were ripe but there are more coming. They said there were no cucumbers but counting what Debbie took, there were 10!  And 6 more zucchini.

I made zucchini boats for Tom but did not have any due to having diarrhea from Nepal.  I really did okay on the flight back (34 hours, ugh) but I did not eat anything much.  So I am still having it on Wednesday afternoon but feel okay.

I slept until 11, had an egg and toast and cafe vienna. And then I made a cucumber, little honey, lots of mint, lime drink as Tom said, "Maybe a cleansing drink." It was good though

But the kitchen is a mess as I watch Claudette Colbert in "She married her Boss."  Another 30s comedy.

 I found another oversized cucumber like the one on the right and made my drink from both of those. The crooked neck squash is hard skinned. What happened to my summer squash?  I think it was bad seeds from Walmart or The Dollar Store.  So I made a soup, using a can of creamed corn that I threw in.  Kept the reciple. Tastes good.

 I always have extra boat mixture.

So there is the soup cooling and I am cooling the pickle water to room temp.  I still need to make carrot, ginger lemon soup. There are some old carrots in the refrigerator from when the Hemperlys were here. I put two cloves garlic, fresh dill, part of a spicy banana pepper and peppercorns.

getting more zucchini- August 13, 2019

I've been making zucchini yogurt bread. I have 6 loaves in the freezer, labeled: LA, Utah, Cambodia, Singapore.  Make one dill pickle and note that I did not have enough so had to put that Tupperware thing in there to keep the cucumber in the brine.

My banana peppers are hot. Bummer and the green peppers are skinny but they are all still good.

There have been Japanese beetles in the marigolds in the garden but they don't eat anything. I am putting Sevin on the roses in the back. I notice that the front roses' leaves looked bad. I went out Saturday evening and found 5 in one rose but no damage yet. I did not have the soapy water so carried them in my hand. Ugh. icky. Them moving in my hand.

This is what the garden looks like today.  The cosmos have taken over the petunias and marigolds. 

Found a peanut in the grass! Darn squirrel. Digging in the grass now. But saw this hawk. He was sitting there and the stupid squirrel was walking towards him then saw him and panicked. Rather funny to watch. Sadly the hawk did not eat the squirrel. 

August 2, 2019 no cucumbers, well, one

I did just read on Laura Flander's Instagram that this year her garden has not produced like in the past. Well, I sure know that.  I found a paper with my totals of last year and taped it up!  I had 19 zucchini and 30 cucumbers in July alone. This year, I think I am on my 10th zucchini and only one cucumber.  Lots of bees, healthy-looking

garden but nothing
Tomatoes, basil and banana peppers have been more prolific. And one crookneck squash. (I thought i planted summer squash but this is what I got-interesting. I don't spend a lot of money on seeds so I should expect this.) I had needed one for my morning veggies with an egg.

We've not had rabbits as a big problem, thankfully.  And the big news is the junipers are gone.

I drove around getting ideas on what to do with this area.  Tom worked hard this morning on the roots but we need a truck and a chain for to get those out.

I really have so many of these banana peppers and some of them are hot, don't understand that either. And glad for the tomatoes for a recipe I need to make tomorrow

The parsley and basil looked like they had a bad haircut two weeks ago and now they are flourishing again.  This Italian container garden is looking pretty good.  Waiting for those "chocolate" tomatoes.  None of those yet.