Much to Sylvia’s delight, garden output is slowing.  Most of the zucchini and tomatoes are in their final stages of production.  Everything has done so well except for parsnips and carrots.  Neither germinated at the first planting.  (Perhaps we got some bad seed?)  Carrots did germinate at second planting, but are not yet ready for harvest.  Sad to say, no parsnips for this year.

Our garden looked like this last week:

Compare that to a year earlier:

Special Day

It was 55 years ago today that Sylvia and I made our vows to one another.  In some ways it seems a lifetime ago, and in others like it seems like it was only yesterday.

We are enjoying a quiet day.  This evening we’ll go to our favorite restaurant and have a scrumptious dinner.

At times we can be careless and even reckless in our choice of words.  That point was driven home to me on Saturday.

I was walking by the kitchen where Sylvia was at the counter preparing a meal.  She said, “I’m making poppers, do you want me to leave seeds in your jalapeños?”

Being a bit distracted, I responded, “What ever.”  Thus far, our peppers haven’t been that hot.  Sometimes I like a bit more fire.  How was I to know that the potency had increased?  I probably should have been a bit more careful in my choice of words.

Later at the table, Sylvia carefully selected three for me and took the other three for herself.  She took the first bite and observed that hers was a bit more spicy than usual.

On the first bite, I realized she was correct.  On the second bite, I retrieved a tissue as my sinuses began to clear.  (This has been a bad year for allergies and they’ve had me congested all summer.  Clearing the sinuses means welcome relief.)

As I was finishing the first popper, two more tissues joined the first one.  Soon, I reported, “One down two to go.”  Sylvia smiled at me.

After the third popper was gone, I discarded three tissues.  My sinuses were clear and it was easy to breathe through the nose.

Now it’s Monday afternoon and my sinuses are still clear.  That’s a good thing.  #ReadyForMore

It was on June 27, that I last posted a pic of our veggie garden.  You should see it today.  Thanks to Sylvia’s efforts, it is flourishing.

That is a zucchini in Sylvia’s right hand and those are the zucchini plants behind her.  We will have an abundance of these beautiful summer squashes,

Looks like were in for our best year of onions, beets and butternut squash (these three not visible in this pic).  Also the jalapeños are loaded and some are ready to harvest.