Best Wishes, Leah!

Me and Allie

Casey and Me

Me, Allie, and Leah

Casey, Leah, and Me

I had a great weekend in Oxford! My dear friends -- Leah and Brian -- are married and are now honeymooning in Disney World. The entire wedding weekend was just perfect. The rehearsal dinner was delicious, the ceremony was short and sweet (loved it), and the reception and after-party toast was so much fun. Leah and Brian, congratulations and best wishes in your life together!

The past few weeks in my garden I've been preparing the soil in my two new 3x3 Grow Beds. The sugar snap pea seedlings are about an inch tall. I'm sure I planted these peas later than I should have, and I really hope I still get a good crop. I built the trellis myself out of bamboo and nylon netting. Eventually I will get some pine straw to place on top of that ugly cardboard.

In front of the peas I planted 4 squashes: 2 Eight Ball Zucchini and 2 Early Summer Golden Crookneck. Those are just putting on their third leaves. I prepared the other Grow Bed this past weekend, and I plan to put in two Big Mama roma tomato plants and two Black Pearl cherry tomato plants. I also have some Sweet Cal Wonder Orange Bell Pepper seeds from Seeds of Change that I want to try out. I'm a big fan of the red/orange/yellow bell peppers, but I can't stand the green ones.

Last night for supper, we made use of some of the Swiss Chard from my garden and frozen corn from my Granny's garden. I made Peppers Stuffed with Quinoa, Corn and Feta Cheese from Deborah Madison's book Vegetarian Suppers. They were delicious, and I'm looking forward to leftovers tonight. I subbed Swiss Chard for the spinach.

These are my first two Molineux (background) and Golden Celebration (foreground) blooms, and Knockout is in full bloom. My first rose bouquets of the season.


We leave on our Napa Valley vacation tomorrow morning, and I really cannot wait to step on the plane. I hope to get in some iPhone posts while I'm there. We'll see... I'd hate to make you all jealous by posting endless photos of chilled glasses of weekday wine and scrumptious plates of fine cuisine. Vacation, here I come!