Thursday, July 28, 2011

A Watched Garden Never Grows

Or so the man said when we came back from our mini vacation yesterday when he spotted all of these tomatoes on the counter. We were only gone for four days and the tomatoes and beans went wild. I spent this morning peeling, seeding and freezing two batches of tomatoes for tomato basil soup. The soup was so good when I made it last week, but it really needs to get out of the high 90's to appreciate a good soup. Hopefully, freezing the toms won't hurt the texture of the soup too badly.
I've got a lot of blog reading to catch up on. We just got back from 4 days in Chicago. Four days certainly is not long enough to see all of the family and sights, but we managed to cram a lot in a short trip. This is just about the only marginally acceptable picture of the four of us. We had just gotten back from a day at the Museum of Science and Industry and I was wore slap out. The kids loved the museum, but they really need to update a lot of it. What they taut as progressive is about 10 yrs old or more by now. It's got to be so hard to keep a museum like that current.

The boy's favorite part of the vacation was the trip to the Lego Land Discovery Center. He planned the whole trip himself - we had no idea there even was a lego land there - and he kept that goofy grin the entire time. The girl is learning that you can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick....well, I suppose you can when he's made out of Legos.
We also spent a morning at the Lincoln Park Zoo. The boy had a blast and the girl showed true and real fear at the bats. It was really rather funny how quickly she went from placid to sheer terror.

The kids got to jump on my cousin's trampoline which they loved. It's very, very old and not used very much anymore....

And they got filthy. I had to throw them in the tub at her house - there's no way they were getting in a white rental car. I was never so glad that she had a black bathtub so it didn't show the ring these kids left in it.

When we came back, the garden greeted me with her bounty and the mailman gifted me with the ribbon I have been waiting for!!!

Yes, my chicken ribbon for Keychains for a Cause came in!!!!

I'm totally doing the chicken dance. I love them!!! I'm thinking long and hard about switching out my UGA keychain for one of the chicken ones. They're so cute!


The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams!

7 comments:

  1. My gosh--what a fun trip you had. And yes, a garden can and DOES grow like crazy when it's left to itself. I like to get away sometimes just to see the differences we miss when we're with it day after day.
    Congrats on a fine harvest. And the chicken fabric---WOW!

    ReplyDelete
  2. OMG you too, huh?! LOL, I'm sure you'll see soon enough that I'm struggling with the same 4-days off deluge of stuff all over my counters. I'm catching up on blogs in between bouts in the kitchen!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I <3 your chicken ribbon, too! Wish I had chickens - then I'd have the excuse to buy a new chicken keychain for a cause! ;-)
    Nice 'maters, too!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Don't jinx us by switching out that ribbon, we have Boise State for crying out loud! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks, Sue! I like the harvest and the ribbon, too!

    Erin - this heat's for the birds. Chicago was sooo nice. Yes, in the 90's, but their 'high humidity' is very nice. I call shenanigans.

    Barbie...I'm working the chicken angle, but from the other direction - see, if I have a chicken keychain, people will assume I have chickens and I wouldn't want to hurt their feelings...right?

    Kris...this year, I'm afraid. I'm very, very afraid. EG - shut your mouth. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great pics Ribbit! Nice to see one of the entire family.

    There's probably some truth to said. In any case, I think I've been staring at my tomatoes for too long!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great pics. And that colorful chicken ribbon is just too cute.

    ReplyDelete