The "Midas Touch" rose bush is doing so well! Two weeks ago it was covered in pretty yellow blooms, and it looks like it's ready to burst again! I noticed one came out a bit early, and naturally had to take some pictures:
I don't know if the bugs have gotten to it, if they got a disease, or if the plants have just reached their natural end, but the crookneck squash, zucchini and cucumber plants are basically dead.
We managed to get a final cucumber, but the other teeny tiny ones are all lost:
There's still a few yellow squash left - we picked one, but left a few others to hopefully grow a little bigger:
And there's still one good-looking zucchini on the plants that are fading fast:
Now for the good news: the tomato plants, bell peppers and Japanese eggplants look fantastic! We're going to have a TON of tomatoes (hopefully soon!):
The bell pepper plants are a beautiful deep green colour and are stuffed with beautiful green peppers (Get it? Stuffed? Peppers? Heh, I crack myself up!). I'm going to try to hold out on harvesting too many of them, and hopefully some will turn into lovely, sweet red peppers:
And finally the Japanese eggplant seems to be improving as the crookneck squash plant that was once threatening to take over has died down. I need to get a good recipe for all these eggplants!
We brought in our final cucumber and a yellow squash:
I'm really sad about the cucumbers! There were so many blossoms and little baby cucumbers and it just died overnight. *sigh* Such is gardening!
This afternoon was the annual Employee Recognition celebration. Initially I wasn't planning on going - I still have four stacks of FL judgments to conform as well as loose filing to organize, substitution of attorney forms to input into Sustain and two new will call folders to make for new attorneys, plus I would love to, just once, be able to completely clear off and clean my desk before leaving for a weekend - but I was convinced that I really should go and was offered a ride, so I thought, what the heck, I'll go.
It was carnival-themed and the group who set the whole thing up did a great job! There were hot dogs, cotton candy and sno-cones, games of chance and a relaxing, festive and fun atmosphere.
I'm glad I went, even though it means twice as much work still waiting to be done on Monday. Wait. I was supposed to be relaxing and having fun. I wasn't supposed to be thinking about work. I can't help it, though. I guess I'm just too damn conscientious. That's my biggest problem, my greatest weakness. I care. I give a shit. Why can't I just be like everyone else and not take my job so seriously? Do the bare minimum and just shrug at what's left over?
Maybe the Governor's threatened pay cut will inspire me to consider myself before my job. Or not. I can't imagine being slovenly at work, even if maybe I should be.
Okay, this is getting just a bit too strange:
This Friday is the annual Employee Appreciation celebration, and there have been two calendar quotes about appreciating and caring for people. Just one of those coincidences that makes the tiny hairs on the back of your neck stand to attention!
Considering everything that happened last week (which I can't talk about publically, sorry, and btw, things have, for the most part, been resolved), I thought it was rather interesting that this quote came up on my calendar:
Part of the garden appears to be fading fast, but other parts are going strong:
The tomatoes look great and have lots of fruit on them, including a perfect little red one:
The zucchini plants look really sad, but they're still producing good-sized squash:
The yellow squash plant seems near the end of its days as well, but there was another large squash waiting to be harvested:
The Japanese eggplant plant looks fantastic! One of the best looking plants left in the garden. There's probably a dozen small eggplants on it. I don't know exactly how big they're supposed to get, but I'm going to go ahead and bring in a couple of the bigger ones:
The bell pepper plants also look fantastic! No sign of bugs or disease, just dozens of bell peppers:
And, finally the cucumbers, which have started to produce like mad!
And here is this week's harvest:
Such beautiful colours, don't you think?
A new crepe restaurant opened up in SLO this past week, and since The Boy has a job there, his mom Sissy, Miss K., Miss S. and I decided to have lunch there this afternoon. Of course I can't remember the name of the place*, but it's in the new government center on Higuera street where the Higuera St. Cafe used to be, right across from Black Horse Espresso. Just in case you're in town and want to check it out.
It was fun to watch the chef making the crepes right before our eyes:
They had a ton of sweet and savoury crepes as well as salads and other sides. I chose the Herbs de Provence which had herbs (obviously) and roasted chicken with a side salad. It was really beautiful:
... and delicious! We are definitly going to eat there again soon!
*Edited to add: The name of the restaurant is Crepes de Provence, and the crepe I had had roasted turkey (not chicken as I thought), tomato and chevre cheese seasoned with herbs de Provence.
Lord, how I needed this pedicure tonight! This has been a pretty awful week - today especially was emotionally draining (I can't really go into it, obviously since it's about work, but suffice it to say it's been rough!), though I think things might be okay now. Or at least a little better. Still, I needed some pampering. This O.P.I. colour was one of the bottles I picked up at Planet Beauty in Santa Barbara last month. I really love the cheery bright pink! Oh, and I'm feeling a little better now, yes, thanks.
Last year (or was it the year before? I can't remember now.) my grandmother gave me this recipe book for carrots and zucchini, because we had so much zucchini I didn't know what to do with it. Well, the two ginormous zucchini mom and I discovered this morning worked perfectly for the Ham Stuffed Zucchini recipe!
I was also able to use up the goat cheese and fontina cheese from last week's Rainbow Pizza! I love being able to use stuff up before they go bad and have to be thrown out.
It was actually a bit more challenging than I thought it would be (especially the scooping out of the middle without destroying the whole squash!), but in the end, I did it, they baked up perfectly, and they were delicious! At least the fontina cheese ones were; we're saving the goat cheese ones for our lunch tomorrow.
Woo! I think I might actually becoming a good cook!