Ten-Finger Exercises

what happened?

Sophie and Jack have been gone for a week. During that time the living room was restored to chaos so that the dining room and hall carpet could be removed and replaced with oak laminate flooring. It's all done except the moldings and looks very nice.

It was very hot last week, in the hundreds, and is still in the high 90's. So I neglected my garden, and you can guess what happened. Big stalks of grass are busily seeding themselves, and bugs are skittering around in tandem, looking like pushmepullyou's. I've pulled out everything that is going to seed and squashed a bunch of bugs who weren't paying attention, but I still have a ways to go to return to the previous, nearly weed-free condition.

There is one ripe tomato, and three more that are turning pinkish. Yea!

Sophie and I picked the first zucchini. It was finger sized, and I chopped it into the stir-fry with a grocery store vegetable of better size.

Today, however, there are no finger sizes out there, or cigar sizes, or even banana sizes-- not among the zucchini plants. I picked five monsters, and we had the two smallest tonight for supper, sauteed with olive oil and garlic and Walla Walla sweet onions. I fileted them.

Tomorrow night we'll have leg of zucchini, and maybe I'll even try mint jelly. What do you know? It might taste good.