Well I am working now full-time and it feels good. It is officially a temporary job, so we'll see what happens. It is good to be getting out and working again and making some money.

The garden is going through it's Fall changes, and we are harvesting the rest of the tomatoes, and have high hopes for the broccoli. Hoping to harvest some small bunches soon for a tasty dinner vegetable. The Swiss chard is doing great, and we also have some kale, cabbage, spinach, lettuce, and a terribly small pumpkin about the size of a grape that doesn't have much of a chance.

Today is mom's 89th birthday.We are taking her out tomorrow for dinner, and I will take her shopping for something special that she wants. She has heard from some friends today by phone and mail wishing her a happy birthday.

The colors around here are glorious and bright. All the fall leaves are in the midst of changing. It has been raining pretty heavily, too. The brightly colored leaves are stuck to the pavement and it is a perfect picture of Fall when you walk about the neighborhood and tread on the soaked, orange and red leaves, and get one stuck on your shoe, and bring it home, unknowingly, and take it off your shoe, and then decide to keep it because it is a part of the walk that you don't want to forget.

August Already!

How did it get to be August already!? Well, here it is. Been harvesting small amounts of things from out little garden. Our cat, Mia, loves spending these sunny days lounging around in the garden. I finally made some zucchini bread, and will undoubtedly make more. Actually, the zucchini has been pretty well under control, and tho' we still have several in the fridge, I do believe we will use them!

Work goes slow on my Web page. I am using a Dreamweaver tutorial on the Adobe site that is very good, a step by step lesson to set up a site. Even tho' I learned this several months ago in the class I took, it's nice to have a refresher, and some hand-holding along the way.

Job hunting goes on, and I am starting to apply networking to my daily job search strategy. Trying to think of everyone I know even remotely connected to the business to get the word out that I am looking and I have experience. I am hoping as summer ends the jobs will start to appear again.

Perspective

OK, I am back in the blogging world. I have been busy applying for jobs, which has become a tedious, uninspiring circle of disappointment, I must say. But I persist, sometimes seeing some job posts that actually excite me. Hope is still in the air, but with the economic picture lately, it is still pretty damn grim.

I recently found a website, listed on the front page of the Seattle Times this morning, called lordsandladiesofleisure.wordpress.com and it is pretty interesting and amusing. It is, of course, all about being unemployed, and has had alot of hits all around the country.

The garden is looking great. The tomato plants are so big I have to tie them up! Have about a dozen green tomatoes. Already have harvested some nice, tasty, "small" zucchini. Will have to keep an eye on them. Looks like we will have about 20 buttercup squash. Anyone out there want some squash in a couple of weeks?!

Been looking for a place for mom, and she is still hesitant to really consider moving, but at least she is thinking about it a little. We'll talk more about it today, and see if we can go look at some places again next week. She just really needs some community, and she has way too much to take care of now, and I can't help her out as much as she would like me to.

I will blog later about new things I learned at the IDUG meeting about interactive documents, about the garden (my garden diary) and other "very important" things.

Oh the Joy

The satisfaction of gardening again has been really evident for me lately... out there in the morning, birds chirping, weeding, watering, feeling amazed that what I planted is thriving. I know the therapuatic side of garden care is equal to the satisfaction of watching the plants grow and reeping the harvest.

We have had a couple of "garden" salads now, and it's great. Saving a little money, but most of all enjoying the taste of freshly picked green lettuce. We have Grand Rapids, Prize Head, Garnet Oakleaf, and I recently added some starts of bib lettuce, and one called Valentine, which is kind of a small, reddish lettuce. Also arugula. Yummy!

Bread and Gardening

My focus lately has been on baking and gardening. This blog will serve sometimes as a diary of those endeavors.

The latest bread baking was last Monday. This was the most successful bread baking yet because the bread rose well, and was big enough to be considered "sandwich bread".

It has a very good texture, and tastes subtly sweet. We still have some on the shelf, and it makes good toast, too.

The Swiss chard in the garden is looking really good. It is "Bright Lights", a multi-colored chard, that was started from seed in indoor pots on April 2nd.

I planted 3 type of lettuce from seed, also on April 2nd, and the most impressive of the 3 has been the Prizehead lettuce. It has big red and green leaves, and looks full and healthy. I have already been picking some leaves off some of the heads for salad. It has a mild, and appealing taste as well.

The zucchini is doing well, I have 3 plants and they are still small, but are already budding. So I will have to watch them carefully to make sure the zucchini doesn't get too big.

The other squashes I have planted are butternut and buttercup. The buttercup was ready to transplant first and is doing well. It is bigger than the butternut.

Veggies are growing

This past weekend of sun really made the veggies in our garden happy. I was concerned that I had put the seedlings out too early...some say they are just putting out their seedlings now, some already have...wasn't sure if I had really goofed this up. But, they are looking pretty good. Here is the Swiss Chard, Brussel Sprouts, and Red Leaf Lettuce, getting bigger every day. We had lots of rain, and then it warmed up. That really made it nice for these little plants.

Tonight it is raining again. Warmer, but wet. Good.

And tonights news says there is a bear in Shoreline, last seen less than a mile from our house at Twin Ponds Park! How exciting! I am making sure the cat is inside tonight before I go to bed.

Garden Prep

The sprouts are growing and getting bigger. Today I added some worm castings to the garden plots and actually planted some tomato starts and a pepper. Our seedlings are doing well and I have transplanted the lettuce into small pots. The egg carton compartments only hold so much.

I am looking forward to moving the seedlings into the garden in the next two weeks. I will have to move them to the deck during the day for hardening off, and once it warms up a little bit more, it's show time!

Here's to sun, and growth, and future salads!