Where, Where?!

My roasting pan succulent garden

This is cuttings and plants collected from friends.

 Where is the time going, I can not seem to get everything done.  I think I need to make myself a schedule and then stick to it.  I am always taking pictures, then having to download the pics off the cards and then having to edit them, name them, resize them.  Then I want to share them on facebook and on here with you guys, so then I have to think of something to write.  Woe is me.  

Then there is stuff like picking crazed zucchini and deadheading flowers, pulling weeds and taking pictures.  Then getting sidetracked by all the pretty pictures and words on facebook. Then there is crazy stuff like taking care of myself, my home, my sweetie and my dog.  Now, I do give thanks several times a day for having the privilege of being able to do all this, but I still don't seem to get everything done.  Like blogging.  I don't get to it and then forget the stories I meant to tell.

I forgot to tell you a couple of weeks ago about Larry and Gracie on their walk on the trails, the birds were rustling in the bushes and Larry and Gracie weren't paying them any attention.  When all of a sudden a bear takes off out of the shrubs just as Larry and Gracie get to them.  It was running away from them and they didn't see it for long, but what a surprise.  It had been sleeping there and Larry said if it hadn't have run, they never would have known it was there.

Japanese eggplant 

I haven't been able to get good pictures or video of it, but the baby deer are big enough now that the does have graduated them to preschool.  All five fawn get together and romp up a storm, it is funny to watch.  There are two sets of twins and a single, the wrong baby gets on the wrong mama and they get a hoof upside the head.  There were 5 turkeys hanging out next to the trees and the babies just cavorted right on through them like they weren't there.  They'll race around.  Then one will just spin and kick and contort its body in the air.

I am going to have to grate zucchini faster to make more bread and muffins.  I picked 5 last night and left the little guys for a couple days ...well, they were all big tonight and I have 6 more and one is big enough that I don't know how it missed getting picked last night.  So it begins...hahaha.

The two bush cherry tomatoes are doing really good producing, my heirloom isn't nearing ripe yet and what I thought were two early girls are not.  One is a grape tomato and one is a bush tomato and now I won't know what it is to get it again next year, because it set its fruit early, they are good sized, meaty and tasty.  The japanese eggplant is doing really great and the lemon cucumber isn't going as crazy as I thought.  Lots of blooms but not a lot of cukes yet.  We may have to tweak the water.  The grape tomatoes blooms are turning brown, so no tomatoes on those branches.

We got over 100 a couple of days but today was overcast and cooler, though still too hot.  We are getting monsoonal moisture from down south for the next few days.

Yesterday my cousin Kim and husband Brian came for a visit and spent the day.  We had good food and fun catching up.  They only live about a half hour away, are super busy, but we hope to be better about getting together.  Uncle Harley died almost two years ago now and Aunt Connie is now in an Alzheimers facility.  She is healthy otherwise, so unfortunate for a crazy, zany lady. Kim has had an overflowing mess on her plate, though she handles everything with grace!  Love her!

The flower garden is in a lull.  The glads have peaked and are mostly done, the roses are in a setting the buds for the next flowering session, so many don't have flowers right now.  There is plenty of color all over the place still and my brain is working on how I want to rework all the beds for next year.  Gardening is just another form of art to me.  I've figured out which plants aren't working for me and thinking about what I want to replace them with and how to make them all support each other instead of one taking over the whole bed or getting humongous.  I may start looking for everything dwarf, because in these raised beds with regular water, it all seems to get bigger then it is supposed to.

There have been lots of hummingbirds moving in and through as they travel and this week a pair of Orioles have discovered the feeder.  This would be okay except they cause drops of the sugar water to fly all over the place when they feed and leap off of the feeder and it is making a mess of the deck.  The hummers aren't going to like it but I may have to keep the feeder inside until the pair move on.

Shoot.  I just realized that my last post I still had the phone not texting.  On that Friday Larry talked to a tech that knew his stuff, had Larry do a couple of things and the tech said, that phone is broke.  So we toddled off to Placerville for a new phone.  Which meant more phone calls to tech support because things weren't activated, getting all the stuff put back on....good grief, days with that silly thing.  But, I can now text and all is good with it.  Two weeks it took......ack!

Now Larry is on the phone for hours every week or so with our internet provider for the house...good old AT&T.  Three hours today...that is one messed up system.  I won't bore you with the details, and it isn't over yet.  Larry has been in "modern" technical hell.  If it isn't one thing it has been another.

I'm sure I've forgotten something, but I'm sure you won't lose any sleep over missing it.

Oh, I went to the show Sunday before yesterday with a friend and we saw The Heat.  FUNNY!  Loved it.  Me.  Two shows in ONE week.  That was an entire years worth of movie going for me.

Hugs and kisses to my almost better-than-a-Mom, Mom, Miss Vickie!  She had a little pedicure today...hahaha. Sorry.  Really, sorry.  We'll see you soon!  Feel better.

The light colored ones had fallen off the bush.

Update you on the garden views.  The birds are getting all the fruit at the top of the asian pear, we hope to get at least a half dozen from the branches hanging near the ground.  Gracie works hard at keeping the squirrels away from it.  We thwarted them this year by cutting the oak branch that they used to leap into the pear tree.  They look a bit puzzled when they're up there in the oak and realize they have to go down to the ground and over.  They can't steal them as quickly or easily now.