Garden Update 3

In case you didn't know... it's tomato season! And we have hundreds of tomatoes to prove it! Look at 'em all!!

For weeks I've been having eggs and tomatoes for breakfast. Tomato & cucumber salads for lunch. And bruchetta with dinner. Tomatoes are so great! I think of them as the ice cream of vegetables - everyone likes tomatoes. (And yes. For you purists I know that tomatoes are actually fruit.)

I bet you are wondering what we did with ALL of the tomatoes above. No we didn't feed an army. But we did make a lot, a lot of tomato sauce this weekend. Both Saturday and Sunday. At one point on Saturday we had 4 big pots and one crock pot all cooking tomato sauce. Pretty awesome, eh?

Although it may seem impossible, there are other things growing in the garden. Most notably: Musk Melons! I don't love them, but it is pretty exciting that these grew. Every other year we've grown them they've never matured enough to eat.

This lone yellow pepper. Not sure what we're going to use it for yet... It is the only one out there.

And there are things still to come. Like acorn squash!

And butternut squash, kale, a 2nd round of beans and peas (as long as the temperature holds) and if we are really lucky, maybe even a pumpkin or two!

One last pic. On Sunday night I was walking from room to room in the house when it was suddenly lit by this amazing light. I looked outside to see the most amazing twilight and just had to take a picture of the amazing pink and purple clouds.

My Snow Blue

OMG. Is that a (bad) picture of a knitted item? Me? Knit!? It's hard to remember a time when I was truly knitting. It's been soooo long since I've finished anything. But even longer than that, I haven't done anything fairisle since these hats over a year and a half ago!

Is it a coincidence that this was also made as a gift? (Prolly not, if you know me.)

One of the nicest girls ever, who I've played soccer with for the past two years, is moving to a place more North than Ottawa. (She's an amazing soccer player too. I'm very much going to miss having her on the team!!) I think the direct quote from her is, "It's a good thing I like winter!" Yes. Good thing. But another hat can't hurt right?

I made one slight modification to the pattern. Instead of having the contrast grey colour along the decreases on top of the hat, I kept it in the main colour.

I was worried I was going to run out of the grey. But I also thought that the hat would look better with blue along the ridge. Either way, I think it turned out pretty good. Hopefully it keeps her head warm.

Garden Update 2

It's been a long time since I've been in Ottawa for a weekend. First Toronto, then camping, then California. All those trips made for an *amazing* July, but it is good to be back. And it was soooo nice to spend time with the fam in the garden.

Thus, here is your garden update for the start of August!

Notice the difference a month makes?

I'd love to tell you the garden is the best ever... but there are a few things I'm worried about. I don't think the brussel sprouts are forming properly. Some of the celery isn't looking so hot. And the peppers...

While the ones that do have peppers on them look and taste pretty darn good, many of them are just a plant. No fruit. And isn't the fruit kinda the point?

But everything else is pretty great. We even made our first batch of homemade tomato sauce today! By next weekend we are going to have a bumper crop of tomatoes. I don't think it would be any exaggeration to say there are a thousand green tomatoes out there just waiting for a hot day to ripen. Homemade tomato sauce is on the horizon.

And one of my personal favourites right now: yellow zucchinis! I had to fight hard for these when we were making our seed list this spring and man are they worth it. I love the bright colour they add to stir-frys. Not to mention that they are super tasty!

Speaking of tasty... when I returned from California, everyone told me that the raspberries are done for the season. But oh look! There are still a few hiding out. You just have to take the time to look for them. And yum. They are worth it.

All in all, there's still a lot of garden to look forward to. I am loving summer! Hope you are too!

On the beach

For about the last week I've been visiting friends in California and it has been just so nice! It's fun to go back to somewhere I know so well and see friends I adore so much. It almost makes me wish I had never left! If only I could uproot everyone and everything I love about the Bay Area and take it with me. If only...

Cause I miss things. Like the beach. It was soooo nice to spend 2hrs on a Sunday morning just knitting at the beach.

Seriously. Why did I never do that when I lived in California??

On this past Sunday morning I was going to drive the Big Sur coast, but with it being overcast, I figured it wasn't worth it. So I just listened to the small waves crash on the shore and worked on my latest project. So. Much. Fun. Everything Cali related. I wish I got to stay around for longer.

More pictures to come.