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.

When baking bread is more than it seems

I am thinking that perhaps baking bread is somewhat theraputic, in that it is a simple basic task that one can do, be successful and feel satisfied. It is creating something, fulfilling a need, and providing nourishment. When the world around you seems too chaotic, unfulfilling, and just too damn frustrating to deal with...bake bread!

The Dishwasher Dilemma

We decided not to replace our dishwasher when it pooped out on us. This was an important decision because it, 1) saves us money, 2) uses less power to wash dishes, and 3) gets us more storage space in the kitchen, which, if you have seen our kitchen, you know it is clearly a necessity for our family.

The other part of the dilemma is that our old dishwasher is still sitting out on the deck. We have to find an eco-friendly and economically reasonable way to get rid of the non-working dishwasher.

So, washing dishes by hand is really not so bad. And, actually, hand-washing dishes is the kind of task that puts you into a meditative state, so that you can do it while thinking of things that seem important at the time, and all the while you are also getting some work done!

I have heard recently, I think on the radio, that lately people are replacing their DW's less, and choosing to wash dishes by hand. This may be because they are unemployed, and have more time for dishwashing, so they can justify the logic of it. If they were working full time, a dishwasher might just make alot more sense.

Still, at the moment, I am happy with our decision to not replace our dishwasher. And that extra storage space, however quaint it may look with the curtain and all, is sure nice.