Gardening, cooking and being lazyI

I had forgotten to put a header in so this is going to count for that.  We need to take pictures of the flowers, the eppiphylums are blooming and the amaryllises are blooming.  We brought one in today and I suspect it is the variety Peacock and it has flowers about 9 inches across and is considered a double but looks like a triple to my eyes, it is easily the most spectacular one we will see this year.

I have been just hanging out and forgetting my poor blogs, I am cooking interesting things and trying some things that might not appeal to everyones tastes so I keep them to myself.  I wasn't sure if anyone is out there anymore but figured I need to update, and the garden is going great guns with picking snap peas and snow peas fills buckets and the fruit trees are showing colors on some of the apricots.

The peaches are getting all kinds of color; they look so good.  The biggest one is the Mid Pride peach, and the small tree full is Rio Grande or something like that.  Those peaches are way smaller; amazing how many set (there had been more, they are gradually dropping off all but about 12) but considering how tiny that tree is, I am surprised any peaches are on it.  As you can see, I have lots of tomatoes too, and the orange one was part of our taco salad tonight; it was perfectly ripe and juicy, it is a Hillbilly and I am glad to say we have lots on the plants!

There, an update wasn't so bad

I hope it is noticed that there is finally a new post, I imagine no one is keeping track now.

sigh, time to update

I should be ashamed of taking so long to update; I have taken pictures, which need to be downloaded again, but I have probably done some updates on the plantings.  I haven't taken any knitting pictures, my hands are acting up and the size 1 and zero needles are hard to hold right now. My DH says to rub the chilis over the joints; we are making lots of Thai dishes today so I might actually give that a try; we are going to do Larb, with chicken, though DH was lobbying for duck, which I have plans for, and a Seafood Rice stick salad, comprising of shrimp, scallops, squid, and who knows what else, and papaya salad.  All spicy.  We bought a great looking hunk of yellowfin tuna yesterday and now we have changed the menu.  So  tomorrow it will be grilled tuna :)  I am good with that.  I love grilled food, and I love Thai.

We have been doing lots of cooking while DH is recuperating from his knee surgery and we are catching up a lot on the garden; we puts in way too much effort on skunk control, they are destructive little beasties; they don't want to go anywhere else as we have an organic garden and they love our earthworms and I am sure there are grubs there too.  He ground up every chili pod we have; the yellow mushroom, the haberneros, the carribeans, and the serranos and who knows what else we are growing, and then spread it all around where the skunks have been digging; they dug up a section of my hop plants, they dug around tomatoes, and then the bean plants and everything else.  It worked last night.  Time will tell.

Let's see if I have any photos to post.

The top picture, if this posts correctly, is of the trees in the planters; the peach-nectarine tree and one of the apricot trees, with the red-vine hop next to it.  the next one is a small peach tree laden with peaches, and next to the green frilly kale which is so good and really productive.  Time for more soup and other dishes for kale.  The bottom is some lettuce and catnip I grew from seed, it is hanging so the cats and other pest can't get into it until I wish it to used.  The lettuce is so bright red, it is hard to fathom.

We have Eppiphyllums blooming!

I don't have a label on the pink/mauve one but the red one, is I think, Campfire. This is a hybrid of cactus and night blooming cereus and they stay open during the day and last almost 2 days long. No fragrance to speak of. These are about 9 inches across, outstanding!

Pictures finally!!!

I was reminded of how long it had been since I had downloaded pictures from my camera; all March, pretty much, and of course, most of this month. I had pictures of the garden plants and now they are of course much bigger. Since we don't have a garden plot planted out like "normal" people do, in rows and like, 10X12 or something, we have to do a lot of raised bed and container planting. So far there are 6 Earth Boxes planted out, and of course other plantings too. The skunks have been relentless in learning how to dig under the fencing DH has put around the plants, even though there are bricks and other stuff to counter them. We have four young skunks, they are bigger than little nurslings, but not close to full grown. I don't know if they are being taught incorrectly by their mom or what, but they were all out in the backyard doing whatever skunks do, when we came home from grocery shopping, and DH went out back to put the 20 pounds of ice in the cooler and I guess they got a little spooked by his presence. They live under our gazebo which is right outside, and under the bedroom window. At least they dug a tunnel facing the bedroom window. OH JOY. Imagine how much spritzing goes on during the night. But, we have registered this place with the National Wildlife Federation or World Wildlife Federation as we like the birds, and all the wildlife. I just didn't realize how invasive they can be and so without fear. They run over the DH's feet. The eat close enough DH can touch them while sitting in the gazebo. It is like having more feral cats. I don't have pictures of them.
The top picture is poblano and jalapeno chiles in the oblong planter, the middle picture is of peppers and tomato plants that needed planting; most are NOW planted. The pictures were taken a while ago. The bottom picture is of the tomatoes that HAD been in the box and are now in black pots, and around them are the "houseplants"; the philodendren and the ficus Benjamina. We don't grow the plants in the house in this climate. The plants love it outside.