Our garden has exploded into a forest of plants! Lovely green with a few splashes of color here and there. Due to the fall weather we are having in Seattle and the massive quantities of rain, I have a very green garden with a few flowers, a few ripening veggies and fruits. It's lovely to look at, but wish we could eat some things as well!! We finally harvested a huge amount of lettuce, some parsley and cilantro. This last week we finally harvested some sugar snap peas which are beyond fantastic to eat straight out of the garden! Not sure we'll have many to freeze due to the fact that we keep eating them. The potatoes have some flowers on the plants, the little onions are doing well and some are developing some nice looking bulbs; my flowers are starting to bloom, the tomatoes are covered in flowers and a few green tomatoes, the beans are starting to bloom and the corn and squash are ever taller and wider. Nick and I did eat a little cherry tomato that we divided into four pieces to split between us. =) The sun has finally arrived in Seattle this last week though and I'm praying it lasts for several weeks to help my tomatoes and everything else along towards blooming and ripening.
GARDEN UPDATE: We have had some glorious weeks of sunshine and warm temps and our garden has loved it. We've harvested enough peas that I was able to freeze a bag of them. We've harvested about 10 tomatoes, gallons of lettuce, 2 jars worth of dried parsley, lots of cilantro and the garden box is filled with flowers. We've even harvested some mini carrots. I also joined the league of canners and put up 4 pints of apricot jam and 6 half pints of triple berry jam (blueberry, strawberry and raspberry). Sarah and I had a great time putting those up. Next on the list is trying my hand at making/canning tomato sauce!
Our other big event was traveling to Spokane to cheer on my girlfriend (Nick's aunt), Connie, in her first IronMan event. It was amazing!!!! We had an awesome time "hunting" for her during the swim course, "chasing" her during the cycling portion and screaming our lungs out at the finish line for the run. In case you don't know, an IronMan is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and 26.2 mile run. Woof... I'll let the pictures tell the story.
We celebrated the 4th of July in our usual fashion, but this time we decided to add an epic movie marathon event to the mix. We started watching Lord of the Rings on Saturday evening, made it until 2 a.m. and then resumed/completed the series on Sunday night. We did take a short break on Sunday evening to grill some asparagus and cook up some lovely black bean burgers; topped off by fresh cherries, strawberries and raspberries. Love summer fruit!!! We ended the night by blowing off a bunch of fireworks despite very cold temperatures and wind.
Lastly, we enjoyed a fantastic weekend (July 16-18) with our lovely friends going to the farmers market, the Mill Creek Fun Days Festival and seeing the movie Inception (go see it if you haven't already - it's awesome!!). It was great fun to take Aaron and Connie to their first time at the Gold Class Cinemas!
Nick and I are pounding out the last 2 days until we leave for California. We are traveling for my best friends wedding, with a little anniversary trip mixed in!
