Got potatoes?

I could not wait any longer, I had to check upon my potatoes.
And YESSSS!
There were potatoes in the ground!
One plant yielded a bit more than a pound (600 g), not too bad for this hobby gardener.
Also, there was the second batch of green beans to harvest, ca 200 g, and of course lots of lettuce.

Goodies out of my garden!

Our dinner tonight was complete with some pork sirloin.

That means the dental "convalescent" is able to eat normal food again. :))

When I checked my flowers today I found one that I hadn't seen before. After doing some research it came up as Red Flax, linum grandflorum rubrum. Must have come of the $1 Wildflower package. I am surprised that anything came out of that at all, because the content looked more like sawdust than seeds to me. Well, well.

Last year I started out a vegetable garden with two raised beds. It was for fun.

My first garden, two raise beds in June 2012...

This year I have four and two potato towers. Still a size for me that it is more fun than work. And since we don't have a freezer we have to be able to eat it all as soon as it ripens.

... has doubled in size, taken July 17, 2013

 Since we had such a cold spring the corn started late, and I doubt if it will succeed this year, but we will see.

This bed has potatoes, corn, green beans, lettuce and cosmos flowers.

Tomatoes, basil, carrots, lettuce and marigolds

Peas, iceberg lettuce, a row of collard greens, 6 green cabbages, 4 broccoli and numerous radishes were already harvested.
In the herb department: Parsley, Summer Savoy, Cilantro, Lemon Balm, Chives.
Dill didn't work out this year. :(( Wrong spot, I guess.
Always something to do.
There is already another project on my mind....

Rain, lots of rain

Now it's our turn to get the rain. And lots of it. Vertical and diagonal.

What can you do than wait it out?

I tried to capture the rain through our wavy glass windows.

A hummingbird took a shelter under the roof of our porch for a few minutes.

Of course - we have to eat.
What about a hearty soup? asked my husband.
Well, that was easily done within 20 minutes.

Ingredients:
2 cups of water
2 tblsp instant bullion
1 large carrot
2 stalks of celery
some beans and peas
1 broccoli flower
2 cooked potatoes
2 slices of ham (optional, or chicken pieces)
1/2 cup bacon (optional)
1/2 onion
salt, pepper
1 tsp vinegar
Simmer the diced vegetables for about 10 minutes, add potato cubes.
Fry bacon, ham and onion and add this to the soup right before serving.

Cookie Stampede

Last summer we participated for the first time in sponsoring for snacks at the event of "SUMMER KEYS" in Lubec, ME.

During the summer month B&B's, small businesses and private donors sponsors provide snacks for the intermission between the musical performances. In return they may advertise their enterprises for free.

This year we were scheduled for August the 7th.

Usually there are about 150/ 200 visitors.
The requirement:
KEEP it SIMPLE. It is only a SNACK. Not a meal.
The sponsor has to provide 30 to 40 dozen cookies /snacks and 10 - 15 l with drinks (2,6 - 3,9 gal).

This time I started out with plain peanut butter cookies.....

 and two banana bread (the "caretaker's" favourite recipe)....

and ended up with about 400 pieces of:

Peanutbutter Cookies
Banana Bread slices,
Mississippi Mud,
Apricot-Almond-Bars,
Chocolate-Butterfinger-Drop cookies,
Thumbprint Cookies with jam (Apricot, Raspberry and Mint)
and Cheddar Cheese cookies with Thyme.

Friends of ours, Charly and Chris, provided delicious Brushettas with pesto, mozzarella and cherry tomatoes and huge plate with Peanutbutter Fudge.

40 dozen pieces doesn't look like it is enough...

 Of course we were ready for the thirsty crowd too....

I wanted to take photos of the crowd, but I was so busy when they stampeded in that I hadn't a chance in the world!

:))

They crowded around the table and eyed the goods.
Kind of funny to watch. Will they like it?

For the cookies:
Some 10 pieces of peanut butter cookies lay forlorn on a plate when the light started to blink and people left for the second half of the performance.
My hubby gathered some fudge crumbs from the empty plate and told Charly: "MMMhh, your fudge is really tasty!" Charly laughed, turned and asked me: "Do you want some crumbs too?"
We had a good laugh.

Within 10 minutes we had gathered the garbage and were on our way home.
I would say: For the cookies - full success.
For the promotion: questionable.

Fog Fest and a photo-sandwich

As ordered our Islands first "Fog Fest" started out "foggy", of course!

We went to two musical arrangement and had a good time.

Harper's Mae, vocalist

Just the right arrangement we needed around here in that kind of weather.

Phillip Albert, jazz piano

Coming back late I just chucked the diverse vegetables, cold pork roast and potato/rice into a big pan and had a stir-fried-like supper ready in no time.

The evening was squandered away with "Gimp". Not an easy way to photoshopping (I can tell you, Barbara). It is a program for IT-folks, but I finally got it to work somehow. I sandwiched to photos! Don't ask me how.

1) Sunset

2) Moon

3) Moon with Sunset sandwiched

Not too bad for squandering away an evening....