Saturday Around the Yard

For all my friends out there roasting in this awfully hot day, here is a photo you might appreciate about now......

I know *I* feel MUCH cooler now....how about you?! ;-)

Oh, what a difference 6 months makes, huh?lol


I spent the morning running around to Rite-Aids trying to use up my $5 off $20 coupons that are expiring tonight.  And 2 of my +Ups didn't print so I'll be calling Corp. Customer Service on Monday since I don't feel like hanging on the phone today in this heat.

Then to the grocery store to stock #2 son up on chicken nuggets.....well, I wanted chicken strips but they were out and a raincheck wouldn't help since the coupons expire today....ugh.....so nuggets it was...and he's rather have nuggets despite the awful way they are made....double ugh....but at least he's happy.
No marked down meats today since I went so early but that's ok since I am still fairly stocked up.  That's not to say that I didn't buy anything because my receipt says I spent $37.84!  The nuggets ended up being $3 a bag after sale and coupons but I also bought iceberg lettuce at full retail(ugh), milk, a can of crabmeat on sale and blocks of cheese on sale 1/2 price.

Then home to make an early dinner and feed any stray teens hanging around as well.  And a long leisurely float in the pool while avoiding the teens as they jump in and sling boogie boards around.
Then some watering of the garden plants and some quick photos of same....

Remember the photo of my volunteer tomato plants from June?...

Here they are now.....

And they have lots of blooms too now!
Unless we suffer some catastrophe between now and harvest time, we will be needing tons of butternut squash recipes.  The butternut vines are taking over the beds and the yard now!  Here is our largest so far....

This one is about 6 inches long now and on a vine that climbed over the netting we have strung up for fencing.  Here are two of the vines that have escaped from the garden bed....

Here's a teeny tiny squash on one of them....

Here's a shot of something I planted that the nursery guy said was an Italian Roasting Pepper....

You can't really tell from this photo but they grow upside down with the bottom toward the sky and as they get bigger they turn their bottoms toward the ground.  There is one upside down, one halfway down and the largest one is now growing right side up.  Now did that make any sense or has the heat fried what is left of my brain today?lol

Here is a cuke rainforest....

They have run amok!!!  I am scared to even look in there because I just know there is a cucumber the size of Cleveland lurking within, ready to eat us!

And here is one of the cauliflower heads.....

There are now one on each of the 6 plants, ranging from golf ball sized to water balloon sized?.....what would you say comes after softball sized?....all I could think about is a water balloon.lolol

I have seen 2 'friends' in the garden so far(not counting the Japanese beetles that just arrived or the white moth things munching on the leaves)--a nice big garter snake & a baby bunny that's been hanging around.  Though I haven't seen more than 1 at a time I can lay money that where there is 1 baby bunny, there are more brothers and sisters.lol   I've been trying to get a pic of said bunny(or is it bunnies?)but she/he is too fast or I am too slow with the camera.  I'll keep trying though.

Oh and remember my poor lemon magnolia tree that bloomed and then we got a hard frost back in April?....all the blooms and leaves turned brown, curled up and fell off......

Well, you'll be happy to know that she recovered from her springtime trauma & is looking quite glorious now.....

So how is your garden doing this week? 

Sluggy