October Garden Goodies

Just a quickie update from the garden.....

We're in a big harvest mode right now.

It's the end of the season for lots of the greenhouse stuff...

The cucumbers are toast.

They've been replaced by winter crucifers...

Which is basically a bare bones version of the stuff that's outside...

Cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbages of several varieties.

It's kind of our emergency backup if everything outside goes to heck.

Peppers and basil will be the next to go.

But first let's take a moment to admire the sweet peppers shall we??.....

 They took for-pickin-ever to get ready....

And I can't say I blame them since we never did really get a solid month of summer weather.

But aren't they purty??

 I would say they qualify for the certificate of visual coolness.

Which, as you know,  is the highest honor awarded in my garden world.

Spinach, lettuce, mache and arugula will take their place soon...

And carrots will replace the tomatoes...

But we're letting them stay for as long as is reasonably possible....

Cause we love making salsa and we still have a lot of habanero peppers waiting for a purpose.





And check this out would ya please?

Sweet peas in OCTOBER!

 How crazy is that?

An absolute indicator of the lack of sun and heat here on the Oregon Coast this summer...

And I'll bet you thought I was whining...

Well.... I was.

Our strawberry days are probably numbered as well....heavy sigh


With the recent rain deluge the squash vines finally gave up their indecision over whether or not we might be starting summer soon.

Luckily the Carnival acorn squash ....

You guessed it....

Selected entirely on the basis of potential for visual coolness...

came through for me.

Aren't those little zucchinis just a little sad?

They fought hard all summer and went in fits and spurts. 

Some of them took on the oddest shapes due to the crazy weather changes.

Rich pulled out the whole row of exhausted squash and melon vines but left the much debated green plastic mulch.

One of two things will happen.

Either it will act as a weed block and save us lots of work come next spring  (and alleviate further plastic guilt having served a dual purpose) 

OR it will create the perfect insect overwintering vacation house ever and create a disaster.

Just another of my unscientific experiments I thought I'd share with ya.

You're welcome.

I'll keep ya posted.

Cath

Homecoming 2010 and Metamorphosis

There was lots of Homecoming silliness this past week.

And since my boy is a Senior he and many of his good friends were in the midst of it.

There were a couple of soccer games.

And you know how I love to watch the boy play.

And Friday brought the main events.

A big fat Bruin assembly with lots of strangely dressed Bruins in the house.

Let's just say the blue and gold were present in abundance.

Then there was the homecoming parade.

Friday morning I told Dylan to try get a spot on the float where I could see him.

I didn't have one single homecoming parade shot during his whole high school experience where you could actually pick him out.

Mission accomlished:

So here's my baby boy...

My honor roll student....

My little AP classes genius....

Who apparently has some difficulty with which way is up....

 Should I be concerned??





Friday night brought the big football game.

For many of Dylan's good friends it was Senior Night.

So we went to check it out and cheer on the Bruins.

I was telling Rich later that I went to snap this photo real quick I thought about Dylan's choice of attire.

The boy hardly ever does anything without thinking about it.

So this was interesting to me.

 What we've got here is the classic letterman's jacket ...

Loaded with patches...

And under that...

The bright orange sweatshirt of his most likely future college.



As we talked Rich said....
"Huh.  Kinda like he's ready to turn into a butterfly...
All he needs to do is peel off the high school jacket and keep moving forward"

He nailed it.

That's what this time is all about for Dylan right now.

I'm lovin watching the metamorphosis.


Cath