Friday, August 22, 2008

30 Days Later...

I realize it's been a month since I posted last and it's been a busy one. My M.I.L. Jackie was here (wish she was always here), followed closely by Robby having surgery to remove his tonsils (glad it's over), I took a business trip to Charleston, SC for a few days (lovely place) and then recovering from all that (we were damn tired!) And the boys are oblivious to all of this so they keep on plugging away at being 4 which adds to the aforementioned tiredness. 

Just when we thought the fun would never end, we invited an expensive, but prompt plumber over to our house Saturday afternoon.  Then we went with Robby's work group to a baseball game on Saturday night. All was going well until my boys knocked the lady in front of us with the stadium provided and sanctioned thunder sticks one too many times.  She became hateful towards my boys, me, our friend Jemma and her son Ryan. The 4yr olds were having fun and that pissed her off! That lady is lucky I didn't open a can of whoop-ass on her. She said a few choice words including fat and bitches. She was asking for a girl brawl, but I kept my cool, suppressed my stadium rage and simply called her an idiot and left it at that. 

On a less aggressive note, we wrapped up the tiring month with a pretty great block party last night. We did a dual hosting with our across-the-street neighbor Libbey and her husband Erick. We ended up barricading the ends of the street to general traffic which gave everyone freedom to wander around and visit. Which was great considering there was probably 50-60 people (including kids) in attendance. Everyone lingered and all in all I'd say it was a success. We've got FANTASTIC neighbors and everyone was willing to pitch in and help which was best at clean up time.

Anyhoo, we're looking forward to getting back to our normal levels of craziness. School starts again here in a couple weeks. Robby and the boys are going to need to adjust their leisurely mornings a bit. For me it's same old, same old with work, the gym, keeping up my end of house hold chores, etc. Yep, regular old craziness.

So I thought I'd share some pics of things about the house the last few weeks. Most of them are from the garden, which has been our place of peace during the difficult days of the last month. Some of the pics don't have great focus, but you'll get the idea.


This picture is for our friend Laura, who recently moved with her husband to Guam. Something about poisonous sea snails. They're scientists so there's no telling what they're up to with our tax money! :)  Turns out this beautiful blue pot weighed too much to ship to Guam so it's ours now. I just love it with the hot pink petunias! Thanks Laura!

Here's our window well of sweet basil. It's total bumper crop this year. The window well is the PERFECT place for just the right amount of sun and shade in this here desert climate. Want some pesto? We got your pesto. Really, let me know if you want some pesto. It's not dairy free, but we can make it dairy free upon request. It's actually less effort that way.

And here's my man.  He's growing his beard til his throat feels 'normal' again. I told him this would be a great Facebook profile pic.  He's all 'what's Facebook?'  And I'm all 'what, do you stay home with kids all day or somethin?' 


Here's a couple pics of my most glamorous plant arrangement to date.  It's dramatic and a great focal point in the back yard. It makes me think of Hawaii. I just love it and I'm crazy for the blue pot. I got it at Costco a couple years ago. Costco knows just what I want.  Ooooh them!

Me with the maroon hibiscus in the front yard. I used think I had a moon shaped face, but as you can see my round face is perfectly matched to the hibiscus plant!

Charlie pulling a face with the hibiscus. The flower looks good next to all types of faces.


Our garden bounty on our new little mini buffet in the kitchen. Found it at a place on the western edge of downtown SLC called CJ Sparks. They claim to sell furniture with soul. Which means it was expensive, slightly broken and dirty, but it was the EXACT dimensions we needed for this space so SOLD! Also it has sliding doors which helps us maximize the space.

Eli and Charlie with a couple of cukes each. We've got so many we can spare a few to be used for toys, huh Lisa? Okay that's an inside joke, but I'm sure you can figure out the innuendo. 

A shout out to Aunt Melissa! We love giving her props. Not sure if the White Sox are still in the running or what, but last time I heard both the Sox and the Cubbies were doing great. Go Chicago!

Eggplant. These have been great plants this year.  They are beautiful and shiny deep purple.  I can't decide how the plants can manage such large eggplant without breaking or leaning over. Beautiful and strong.

Lots of cukes this year.  This is actually a spare plant our neighbors Bryan and Marianne gave us. It's producing well and I'm eating a cucumber a day...no lie! 

And a sprawling plant called Aunt Molly's ground cherry.  Google it.  I think it's Brazilian.  It's got a crazy pineapple/strawberry/something-from-Brazil flavor.  It's berries look like tomatillos in the husk.  The boys like to rummage around in it for a snack. I ordered a bunch of tomatoes plants and this plant from Seed Savers Exchange. Hey I figured out how to make a hyper link or whatever it's called!

A HUGE gold medal tomato (heirloom from Seed Savers) that finally turned from green to yellow a couple days ago.  It was a easily 2-3 pounds, I swear. I told Annalyn I could hurt her with it. She said 'you wouldn't do that' and I said you never know what I might do (see note above about baseball game.)

My beloved okra.  Grow okra, grow! We're stowing each little pod in the fridge. Saving them up so I can make some curry to serve over a fraction of the 2 thousand pound bag of Jasmine rice Robby thought we should buy at Costco. Want some Jasmine rice? After the curry I'll only have 1.9999 thousand pounds left. 

This is a pink Dahlia.  It's a dinner plate variety, or something like that.  They really are large and stunning.  Especially in the same corner of the yard with the pink hibiscus...pictured below. Imagine my big head next to this flower. I just know it would look great!


Finally, I would like to invite all you Salt Lakers to the Dowtown Farmer's Market at Historic Pioneer Park this Saturday. It's official, I'll be volunteering for the Local First organization. We should be up towards the northeast corner of the park. I'm excited to join my friend of many years and Local First's director, Alison, for the day in support of our local businesses and farmers. Maybe we'll see you there!

And I think that's a wrap. I'm tired again. Hopefully I won't be away another month, but who knows what I might do...

13 comments:

Annalyn said...

1) Great pics!
2) I want pesto!
3) He doesn't know what Facebook is???
4) I'll be out of town this weekend so no Farmers Market for me. Drat!

Anonymous said...

Wow, what an update! I don't know where to begin. . .

That is quite the glamorous plant arrangement you've created. I love it!

Your face does look great next to the hibiscus. Although I don't quite understand the point. . . Coming from you? I should know better than to ask questions. :-)

Lovin' the mini-buffet and the crazy amount of garden creativity. My vacation home looks so good! :-)

Miss you!
Matty

Holly Child said...

It's about time you updated. Hmph.

LOVE all the pictures of your garden. And yes...can you ship that pesto?! ;o) You've got quite the green thumb...who knew?!

Melissa said...

It HAD been awhile since your last post, but it was a nice long satisfying post. Lots of details. And pictures! Beautiful garden.

Thanks for the shout out, btw. :D Miss you guys.

Katie said...

Please send Bob home any "extra" garden stuff you can spare.

"What's Facebook?" Jesus, Robby.

Love the pictures!

Regina said...

Robby doesn't literally not know what Facebook is...I was exaggerating :) He's never looked at it or made an account or been anyone's Facebook friend. Doesn't seem to care about it altogether as far as I can tell.

Chichijujubees said...

oh wow, great pics of your home and garden. Still unbelievable the stuff you grow so easily while I with my not-so-green thumb would end up killing...almost anything that moves.
Great plants and all the colours are so gorgeous and the flowers...wow! well done regina! So I'll take 50gms of pesto, 250gms okra (never had okra curry cos we have it a dry veggie dish with naan bread, would love to taste it) and well, I have loads of rice here and can bring you a few hundred kilos myself if you like ;)

Anjie said...

WOW great pics! Great garden...I'd like to have one, but I have no patience for the weeding part (my kids command ALL of my patience, just ask Katie).

How did you get hibiscus to grow here in Utah? I'd love to know the variety you have, cuz I'd like to try it in my yard (if it doesn't take too much patience).

Heather said...

You are my coolest friend and I wish I would have read this post before this morning because I would have definitely come to the Farmer's Market. But instead I sat around and waited for the cable guy. I want some pesto (what is pesto?)! I am jealous of you and your lovely garden and your brimming hipness! P.S.--I warned you guys about the tonsils! I felt the same way coming home from the hospital, "This is nothing, really. I can't believe people make a big deal out of this!" By the second week, I wished I was dead!

Regina said...

Hi Anjie! The hibiscus are a variety called Disco Belle. At the garden centers they almost never indicate which color you'll be getting. It's only noted as "mix" so I just plant them and figure they're beautiful either way. I've got two, which are the originals that got me hooked, that are white with maroon/pink "throats."

Heather...I had a fun time at the Farmer's Market. The organization that I volunteered for has tote bags for $5 each and I "sold" more than $100 worth. I told my friend Alison, the orgs director, that we were perfectly situated to catch people with too many melons to carry around any longer. They were desperate for a bag! It was fun to chat people up and because it's a local organization lots of folks stopped to ask where other things were...like where in SLC one might find pressure canning pots. It seemed we were a mini-visitors center.

Anonymous said...

I love cj sparks!

The Abbot said...

Reg, Casper and Herman have grown!!! how's Rob? whattabout Lolo?

Joey C Johnson said...

Just getting caught up on posts now that I've rejoined the living humans (damn mono).

Pics of the garden are great! Those flowers are to die for...I'll be posting pics of our yard very soon. Don't get excited or anything it's all about how we don't have anything but dirt going on yet. You'll see.

Give the fam a hug from Jory & I. Did you notice he actually posted a blog? lol