Keeping up With the Neighbors

My garden, as you know, is doing well. So well, in fact that I was able to enjoy a straight neck squash and share one with Roberto, my neighbor.
That's the amazing thing about a garden, you get to share and share and share. A thing that I think we forget too easily. But I am determined that while my family won't go hungry, neither will my neighbors.

Mobile Garden

I have left Jerry Jones and have ditched my flip phone for a new smartphone.  I'm overwhelmed but really enjoying being able to blog on the fly. (And post garden photos! I hope.)
Texas has been experiencing a rainy season the last week or so and I am loving it! Everything is growing like mad and my rain barrel is overflowing. My garden heart is happy.

Squash

In visiting the garden this morning, I discovered a couple of baby squash!  I am so happy!  At least, for a moment.  Then I was a little dismayed to remember that I didn't have a whole ton of squash recipes!

 Squash soup, check. 

Ratatouille, yep.

Squash in butter, a given.

And there's where I end.  Now, given that I have four more of these plants, I could be in serious trouble in a few weeks.  So I am now combing Pinterest and the internet for things to do with squash.  Some of them are pretty cool. 

I'll post what works and gloss over what doesn't.  LOL

More Baking?

Today was uncommonly busy.  Meaning, we didn't have a ton of people in the hospital where I work, but we were swamped!  I couldn't believe it. 
On top of that, my boss called me in to the office and said that I need to do more baking because people were telling him I need to do more baking.  At first I was pissed.  Mainly because I felt that I was already working my ass off and now they were bitching.  But, after my walk tonight, I had to laugh.  "They want me to bake!"  Is that a cosmic joke?
 In any case, I got the hint and I'm going to bake like mad. 

Happily, my garden is growing and growing and growing!   The tomatoes have little yellow blossoms, as do the squash and the bean that The Youngest brought home is taking off up the trellis we installed for all the beans.  (I have no clue as to what it is.  I know it's not a Blue Lake, but it's definitely a climber.)
I'm loving this Texas weather. 

Has anyone read 'Eating on the Wild Side'?  It looks really interesting, but I'd like a gardener's recommendation.
 

The Un-Dewberry Festival

Yesterday we headed to Cameron, Texas for the annual Dewberry Festival.  Wildly excited at getting the change to try a dewberry (I believe that it's similar to a blackberry/marionberry) and filled with all of the canning/baking/cooking dewberry possibilities, I was disappointed to discover that there was nary a dewberry on the premises.

That's right, a dewberry festival with no dewberries. 

There was just this:

 

Stunning, isn't it?  Yep.  We all stood in horror and watched.

 

 

 

The Marque de Sade bounce house.

It was not pretty.

 

 

 

 

Updates!

It's been almost a year since my last post.  I almost wrote "I've been busy", but the fact is, I really have been.  Plus, I forgot about it!  Oops!
I'm still working at the hospital, now as the lead.  A couple of people have left, a few more have come in and right now, I really like the whole crew.  (Another one starts today!) Patient counts have risen and the days we're swamped far outweigh slow days. 
I just got off a seven day shift and I desperately need it!  I am soo tired!! 

But, enough of that! 

We all have settled into Texas life.  The girls enjoy school, although we're into the last couple of weeks.  The Hubby has completed the required state tests and is looking forward to taking the classes on field trips.  (I use the "looking forward" term a little too liberally with all of the planning required, but it's the thought that counts.)

My garden for the year is in! 

I have tons of tomatoes, peppers, beans, watermelon, squash, and some onions.  I have herbs tucked in there, filling in spaces and helping to keep bugs away.