Friday, July 29, 2011

Perfect Fridays

Today has been a pretty perfect Friday. I awoke to the sunshine mid-morning so refreshed after ten hours of sleep. Summer in Alberta this year has been a pattern of warm and sunny days, punctuated by rain storms most afternoons and/or evenings. Knowing this, I took advantage of the sunshine at hand, and spent a few hours in my garden this afternoon.

It is so exciting to see the garden actually producing vegetables! I don't know why this catches me by surprise. I have watched gardens grow since I was a small child. I know how photosynthesis works. Of course my garden's growing vegetables. Still--probably because it's my garden--and my first real garden--every time I go out there and see growth, my reaction has been, "hey, look at that!"

I have harvested snap peas a couple of times. They go really well with lunch.

The rhubarb continues to explode. I have consulted the Rhubarb Compendium, because I feel that endless pans of rhubarb crisp will start to get redundant for both myself and those to whom I serve it.

The zucchini caught me by surprise last week. A couple weeks ago, I had noticed several small zucchs sprouting from the plant, all about 5-7 inches long. I took mental note that a couple weeks from that point (about now), there would be some sizable enough to harvest. But it was last week as I went out to the garden to check on something else, that I happened to glance at the zucchinis and cry, "holy crap!" Most were still only several inches long. One, however, had found himself some steroids or something, because he was ginormous. I should have measured him. Roughly 15-16" long, and at his widest, about 5-6" in diameter. Now, I've seen large zucchinis come out of gardens. Larger than that, actually. Still, I was taken aback by how fast he grew to the size he did. I was not expecting him, and promptly pulled him from the garden before he became unmanageable!

But now I digress, because I'm supposed to be talking about this perfect Friday. Today I pulled a zucchini, too. He's about a foot long. Sizable enough for cookies or cake here in the next couple days. But it was the yellow beans I went out for. Their first harvest. I also pulled one carrot. Overall, the carrots have not come up very well--I think a lot of the seeds got blown before they got a chance to settle. I had pulled a large-looking one last week to see how they were progressing, and decided to pull another one today. The rest are no where close to even baby carrot-sized.

With baby-sized vegetables on the brain, I pulled up one hill of potatoes. While most were already past the true baby potato stage (thin, smooth skin, golf ball size), it was nice to see how well they were coming along. One mutant came out of the hill. Arms and a belly button (and a nubby tail, though you can't see it in the picture)! I think he's looking for a hug!

After I had pulled everything that needed pulling, I gave the garden a good weeding, and thinned out stems and leaves that were shriveled or otherwise not growing well. Looking forward to what comes out of the dirt in the next few weeks!

The clouds were starting to roll in fast by this point. I had two small plant shoots from a friend that needed potting. I got them into pots and transferred a philodendron into a new pot for work before quickly wrapping things up and bringing all necessary plant life inside.

While it rained, I tackled several necessary chores and tasks inside the house which aren't all that exciting. But such a sense of satisfaction at the level of productivity! It's amazing what one can do when well-rested and not out of the house for 8-12 hours of the day.

This evening, I officially became the owner of a new-to-me 27" TV (my other TV is only 21"). Ultimately, I would like to own a flat-screen television. Right now, though, for the amount of TV I actually watch, I have other financial priorities. So when I was scouting around Freecycle, and stumbled upon someone giving away their TV, I thought, "seriously?" and inquired. Turns out this 6-or-so-year-old TV is in perfect working condition; she just had no buyers on Kijiji and needed to get rid of it before she moved. Sweet deal for me! To add to the perfection, I successfully reprogrammed my Telus TV remote from the old TV to the new one without having to actually call Telus. I'm pretty tech-savvy, but Telus can be complex sometimes. So that felt good.

So after a day of that caliber, what is there left to do but make supper with my harvest and watch some TV? I ended up enjoying a rerun of The Cosby Show over a plate of chicken with rhubarb sauce, beans and carrots, and mashed potatoes. It was great. So was the ice cream sundae afterwards. :)

The sun is now pretty much gone for the evening. The Spa Channel (Galaxie Radio) plays in the background on my TV. Soon, I will shut the computer down for the night, and finish off today with a good book before bed.

"Thank you, Father, for the beautiful surprises you are planning for me today." -- Robert Schuller

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