Cherries, apricots and bargains. Oh My!

I am actually typing this with 2 hands...and using most of my fingers-very exciting. My right hand fingers have some sensitivity issues involving not having feeling around the knuckle area and being numb, so we'll see how this goes...so far so good :-) Can't stretch my fingers for some of the further keys, so it's a bit of a learning curve.

Monday morning found me down at my garden. There's lot's going on...lettuce is growing like crazy, the corn is getting bigger, the tomatoe plants (which keep multiplying) are getting bigger and one has some flowers, the cucumbers are deciding what to do-some have died and some are slowly growing, and the strawberries continue to do battle with the bugs-have GOT to take care of that! We have had nothing but fog, clouds and wiiiiiiiiiiiiind over the last week and let me tell you...I'm so done with the wind! I never liked it as a child and I am sure not enjoying it as an adult. I'm good with the occassional light breeze, but high winds...I don't think so...and for a week...enough already. Yesterday I thought we had finally finished with the winds, but nooooooooo they started up again once the sun went down. I'm amazed that we didn't lose power.

Here's my garden-full view. In the back on the far left we have the cucumber corral; next to that are the strawberries and in front of them the lettuce area. In front of the lettuce on the right we have a squash (either zucchini or pattypan); then on this end closest to the camera we have another squash plant, cilantro and some arugula and lettuce that need to be planted. To the far left side we have the tomatoe plants. Now, I just have to figure out what to put in the middle. I'm thinking some bug-b-gone flowers might be a good idea to start with.

The beans up close and personal: Some of the lettuce is getting close to cutting stage. Yum.

Here's the lettuce area with the strawberries in their own personal strawberry patch. The cucumber corral. The one in the middle seems to be hanging in there. Hopefully the warm weather we're currently having will help them out.

Today began with a beautiful sunrise (ok, so I missed the actual sunrise itself...) warm temps, and nary a breeze. A very welcome sight.

Okay, where was I...just had to look out the window at the beautiful blue skies and got distracted. I'll have to get out there soon. I'm thinking a (dairy-free) strawberry milkshake and a magazine might do the trick. Altough I need to wait for the electrician to finish in the bathroom-can't really go outside in my shorts, tank and extremely hairy legs (due to not being able to shave for sooooooo long) when others are around; but by myself is a whole other thing. I've been very busy this morning...Had a load of laundry done by 8:30, made blueberry pancakes, read 2 papers, took pictures of my finds from yesterday and waited for the electrican to come by.

...saw my first of the season cherries at the farmers market this week. I also bought something called a aprium (i think) a cross between an apricot and a plum. It was mighty good. Other yummy things from the farmers market this week-strawberries, argula salad mix, salad mix, radishes. Yum! Oh, and how could I foget the peaches!

On the float front...
As you can see by the pictures my float has slowly been put together. I say slowly because I think, at last count, 4 different people have said they'd "start" building my float. What a soap opera that's turned into. They may be men, but...first I gave the plans to Riccardo, but he was going out of the country so we gave them to Len instead; then Kalo called and said he was now going to build it, so we got the plans from Len and gave them to Kalo-who didn't show up at the workshop for 3 days! Then Len calls and says, 'forget it' I'm going to make it without Kalo and without the plans. Ah, okay. I go down to the workshop and explain the whole thing to Len (again) and watch it being made (or so I think). I explain everything (again) and think finally the whole thing is under control...until the next call. Len it seems can't remember what I said, but he does have the plans now...just can't figure them out...and is getting cranky...like I know how much a fake flamingo weighs! So...I get ANOTHER call on saturday from...Scott, who is an incredible float builder. He says HE"S going to build my float now; has the plans AND understands them, and that quite possibly Len may not have been completly listening and he's confusing everybody. Dang! So last night we had a party at the workshop and I met with Scott and my plans. He totally gets the whole idea and knows how to put it together with the least amount of weight and make it do what I need for it to do. THANK GOD FOR SCOTT!! He said, "tell me what you want and I'll figure out how to make it happen". Awesome! Does he have a brother?!

The humble beginnings...

Len (in blue hat) and Jesus putting the base together...getting ready to add wheels. Fortunately, this step didn't have to be repeated. We've got our first wheel of the season! Whoo Hoo! "two straights and two turners" and we're ready to go...
Yesterday I went to the annual May Madness rummage-type sale that the Music Academy puts on. I may have only bought 4 things, and only spent $4.25, but it was a lot of fun.
You can see from the photos and the prices that these were good deals. Can't wait to start using them all.

These molds were $2.50 for all 3. I'm going to use them with the chill-over or some agar agar recipes that I have to make "jello".

A cute little pot-bellied thermos to take cold things down to the workshop or to the beach. $.50. I did clean it up after I took this picture.

The little grater guy came with 3 different blades. When you grate or slice everything just goes right inside the box-genius! $1.00. The culinary cutter for herbs, etc. was a whopping $.25 cents.

Okay, so the electrician came and voila we have lights that go on and off in the bathroom again! Yea! Before they just went on and never off. My mother finally took the bulb out and brought in a lamp from the living room-very attractive...NOT! The light was so bad you couldn't hardly a thing. Oh well, all's good now...and he even got the fan working too. He had to turn the power off, obviously, so I had to find things to do that didn't require using any power. I washed a huge amount of silk scarves and hankies and other linens that I found down at the Solstice workshop. Some of the scarves are coming apart so I think I'll just use them to make a watchband like the one in the MJ book, "stitching room". Later, I took a rather large bowl of (non-dairy) ice cream and fruit along with a magazine and sat outside in the warm sunshine-still in my pj's :-) It was great and then...the damned wind started up again. I thought for sure the front door was going to slam shut and lock me out, but I caught it just in time. It is so lovely today I think that after I shower and try to trim the thicket that has become my legs I might go back outside with my lunch and a good book.

Well, that went well...it's almost 5:30 and I still haven't showered :-) I did, however, have a great lunch and took the time to watch all of the shows I saved all week. I really am going to shower I swear! It's too hot and muggy not to.