Thursday, September 22, 2011

A random rambling

On Monday, my friend Sally and I decided we would spend time out and about each week. She is retired, so she can go whenever and wherever she wants. I, on the other hand, am not retired, although my interest in my consulting business has dwindled since I discovered art.


Sally is feeling much better, and we didn't have to walk nearly as far as we did at the State Fair a week ago Monday. So here we are at Cholita's because Sally wanted a Mexican dinner.


When I turned my camera on, it automatically turned on the flash, and before I thought about it, I had taken the photo. Although it shows the sauces (mild for me, hot for Sally) and the chips, it also showed Sally's tee, which is a bit of pride in Wichita State, my final alma mater. And that mascot is a shock of wheat. Great name, Shockers, but a rather wimpy mascot.


Ah, a better shot of the chips and dip.



Once again, I almost forgot to take photos of our meal, but this time I remembered before I had eaten too much. Sally had Flautas and I had a Chili Relleno, a wonderful poblano pepper that is stuffed with jack cheese and covered with a batter, then fried. Since they are fried, they are anything but heart healthy, but I love them. However, I can't stand the gravy-looking sauce I always ask them to leave off my pepper. I think this was a fun weekly outing for us.


Yesterday, I started harvesting my herbs. They are doing so well, I hate to disturb them, but the object is to eventually harvest them. Here I am showing my sage on the left, which I purchased as a plant, and cinnamon basil, which I grew from seed. I still have Thai basil and dill to harvest, but these will all have to wait for another day. Unfortunately, the other basil varieties I planted didn't make it this year.


I decided to start with the sage. I began by snipping a few branches,


then tied the bundle. This was going to take awhile, so I decided that was the end of the picture taking until I had the sage cut.


You can see I've cut this sage back to just a few stragglers.


Once bundled, I took the bunches to my front porch and took photos before I hung them on hooks in my garage.

Speaking of garage, I caught a board in my miter saw on Sunday, and couldn't remove it. I told Scott about it, and he dropped by to remove it from the saw. He had never seen anything like it before, and we both laughed and laughed because of the way I got it caught. He was able to free the board, which was badly warped (much like my porch boards), but the saw blade was still good and still cuts well. He suggested I grab my camera and take photos as he was removing the board, but all my batteries were in chargers and I had none that were charged.


As I was heading into the house with the sage, Bleubeard decided he wanted to join me on the front porch.


He couldn't decide if he wanted to come inside with me,


or stay on the porch and sniff the fresh air. The air won, as you can see in this photo where he is is taking in the smells of the neighborhood.

I hope you are having a great week. It's the last official day of summer, and it's supposed to get quite warm (high 80s, low 90s) through next Wednesday. Do you have a garden? If so, how did it do this year?

7 thoughtful remarks:

Unknown said...

Our flower garden did pretty well but the veggies and herbs were touch and go for us. The peppers have LOVED the heat this summer but the tomatoes not so much....some of our herbs did well- I'm very envious of your sage it is gorgeous; I rarey can keep sage alive all summer, much less have it end up looking like yours!
Have a great day,
Stephanie

voodoo vixen said...

I love that you are harvesting the returns on your hard work and amazed that anything survived the un-ending heat you have had to endure!! I will have to investigate the cinnamon Basil... basil is one of my fav herbs but i haven't come across that variety!!
Give the lovely a Bleubeard a smooth from me... my two are huddled on the sofa pretending its cold...

Craftymoose Crafts said...

I planted cucumbers this year for the first time in a long while. I overdid it "slightly" & planted about 12 feet of plants, so I had enough to share numerous times with two of my neighbors & to pickle as well! Really had fun with it and I plan to plant them again next year along with a few others. Your herbs look like they did well--I should try some of those, too!

Halle said...

I was just outside thinking that I better harvest my basil. Still waiting on some tomatoes but the plants are starting to look pretty sad. It's been too cold to ripen.

~*~Patty S said...

a specy spicey lunch
Your herbs look nice E...I have a couple of sage plants that come back year after year and I Love the silver leaves and pretty flowers...but hardly use sage in cooking at all...what do you do with yours?
I know it is good for smudging but we don't seem to have use for it in that way either?

On an annual trek in June to DeBaggio's Herbs a mini eggplant called "Ophelia" ended up coming home with me...I Love the eggplant blossoms (so pretty) and adore eggplant too...I think it was THE name that sealed the deal hah!
For the most part I grow herbs...Marjarom is probably my fav and always some Basil and some Thyme...never enough thyme ;)
oxo

Dianne said...

I loved the fresh sage that I once dried...it is much better than what you can buy in the store. i especially enjoyed putting it in homemade chicken soup or stuffing. wish i could go out for Mexican with you...it looks yum!

Sparkleblue Faery said...

I wish I could garden... alas, not one of my talents. Bleubeard looks just like my Lil' Kitty Violet. Also thank you for visiting my blog and leaving a kind comment!

Peace,
Karis