This Years Tomatoes - and Two More Mandala's

Good morning. It's a beautiful day here so far, it's nice and cool and I can hear the birds chirping outside - I am enjoying it.

I am excited because my tomatoes are growing and doing good (with the exception of one plant that is growing but not producing). 

These are Indigo Rose tomatoes... 

These are German Queen tomatoes...

These are Yellow Pear tomatoes...

These are the last two mandala's that I crocheted. I love the colors of this one and I am currently using it on the living-room table.

I really like the blues and greens with that little bit of yellow of this mandala but I'm not sure of the variegated yarn. I have always liked the color combination of variegated yarns but not the patterning you get when crocheting with them.

These little baby birds are in a nest in our patio. The picture is not that great and the nest is more bird-poo that twigs but, they are so cute that I wanted to share them with you.

Have a great day.

{hugs}
Laura

Jealous (just a little)...

My friend Penny has a dad with ten green thumbs. Seriously, he has to because he can grow zucchini that looks like this...

While all last summer mine looked like this...

Okay, maybe once or twice they looked like this...

But still, the man can grow anything. I am blessed that Penny shares her dad's beautifully grown veggies with me. I also got some english cucumbers. Yummy...

My hydrangea's are doing good though.

{hugs}
Laura

Hi...

The last month has been very full. We had family visit from out of state and had two weeks of wonderful family reunion time. I photographed a cute little wedding. We had two nights of Open House at the preschool I work at. There have been track meets for both of my kids. We have also had the sniffles, sneezes and coughs in my house.

I got this Lemon Plum at the store last friday - delicious...

My Mom-in-Law gave me her old Nook - I am in LOVE! I have been thinking about getting an e-reader but was worried I wouldn't like it (I am a book girl) but I do. I have already re-read Outlander and now I am re-reading Dragon fly in Amber...

I got two new cookbooks from the book fair we had at Open House...

And, I bought some pansies...

Have a wonderful week...
{hugs}
Laura

Hello...

My blue ripple...

What I've been reading...

It's three books in one...

My peppers have been growing...

I let them turn red and they taste really good.

{hugs}
Laura

Labor Day...

Happy Labor Day everyone. We will be going to a family BBQ later today. I made Rich N' Buttery Bars to take. It is a new "old" recipe from a small cookbook from 1998 (so long ago - hehe) given to me by my mom-in-law. If they are tasty, I will share the recipe with you.

While checking out my tomatoes this morning, I found this little guy. It's 5th one found on this specific tomato plant. I just cut the branch it was on and photographed it before my son did away with it. Personally, I can not touch the things - yuck!

Have a great day.

{hugs}
Laura

Saturday Morning...

Good Morning...

It's going to be really hot here today with a high of 105 degrees. Yuck!

I am excited that my Vintage Stripe is almost done.

And that my new zucchini's are growing well.

Hopping you have a wonderful day...

{hugs}
Laura

I Could Write A Book...

Really, I could. And it would be called - My Adventures in Growing Zucchini - lol.

A week and a half ago, they looked like this. They all turned yellow and started to shrivel up, so I cut them all off.

And now, the new ones look like this...

And this, growing strong and healthy.

And then my husband had an idea. "Maybe you should have more than one plant so there are more male flowers to use for pollinating the female flowers on the zucchini." Not a bad idea, so I went out and bought a couple more. We still have a lot of hot weather here, and we love zucchini and I really want this to work. 

Hydrangeas - I really need to buy more of these plants.

And this is my little snail. It's made to put a candle in his shell. He is such a happy little guy...

I am finally getting the boarder on my Vintage Stripe blanket.

And, because I know you want to know, this is what I am listening to...

 I hope you are staying cool and enjoying your day. Here it is about 105 degrees and we had an earthquake this morning (and one last night).

{hugs}

Laura

Wonderful Wednesday...

I hope your wednesday has been wonderful as well.

I have one beautiful zucchini, a few tomatoes and one chili...

I also made banana bread today using this recipe... 

It tastes wonderful.

And I made a skirt last weekend. I will post more on that soon.

{hugs}
Laura

Wait Till You Hear This...

Last night, in the early evening, I went outside to take some pictures of my veggies and plants. The light was wonderful and it was cooling down nicely. The tomatoes are getting red (finally) and I thought "Tomorrow I will pick these." Well, today I get home from work, put my stuff down and go into the backyard happy to be able to pick my first tomatoes of the season and I could have cried. Something had eaten big holes into them. At first I thought tomatoes worms but I couldn't find any (and there were no eaten leaves). Then I wondered if the little bunnies I have been seeing in the yard might only like tomatoes when they are red and ripe. *sigh*

Well, out came the chicken wire and they are now fenced in, hopefully safe. Here they are from last night. (I guess I should have taken pictures of the bite marks too).

I have been going up and down with these zucchini's. They were doing good, and then they weren't, again. This was just last week. Two of them turned yellow and had to be cut off. I found a website called Gardening Know How with very good information. I think the problem was there was not enough calcium in the soil. The article said to put egg shells in the soil. So far so good...

Anaheim Chilies...

I love the coloring of my hydrangeas as they are growing...

{hugs}
Laura