Mid-morning in the garden of good and Seraphim

While Tal snoozed away in the bedroom, Puddy and I had a lovely and peaceful breakfast picnic this morning.

It was soooooo yummy - an omelet, lite multigrain English muffins, sliced apples, and herbal tea. The omelet is Southwestern Egg Beaters to which I added a couple of diced, fresh mushrooms (from the store), fat-free sharp cheddar cheese, and some fresh basil, oregano, and chives from my garden. The basil plant (left) is looking a little thin now, because I had the same breakfast yesterday too, without oregano (right). Good thing they are growing so quickly!

As you can see, Puddy was eagerly awaiting a bite or two. How can you ignore such a cute little beggar?

During breakfast, we had a little visitor. I called him Sebastian. Not quite sure why - it just seemed to fit. He sat by quietly watching while we ate.

We didn't have a picnic yesterday, even thought it was just as beautiful in the morning as today was. The reason was because we had not gotten the new patio bistro set until later that day. Isn't it cute? I saw it at Lowe's and just fell in love with it. Wouldn't you know it, as we were looking for the box the set was in, we came across a stockperson loading up the last two on a cart for two ladies! He said we could buy the display, but we asked them to check the stock of another Lowe's nearby and they just so happened to have 5 in stock. We were hesitant about getting the display because 1) there was no assurance that it was put together properly, 2) who knows who has sat and does God knows what to it while sitting on it, and, 3) we weren't sure it would all fit into Rupert (the SUV) fully assembled. As it turns out, with the other stuff we had in there, the box with the unassembled set barely fit!

We were heading over to that area of the other store anyway, so we went over and picked it up after lunch. We were pleasantly suprised that not only did they still have plenty in stock, but it was on sale! We got it at almost half the price that was on the tag at the other Lowe's! Woo HOO!! :-) Of course, since we didn't buy the display which was already assembled, I had to put the entire thing together. It wasn't TOO difficult, instructions were pretty clear and there weren't a whole lot of parts to piece together.


So, after Puddy and I finished eating the wonderful breakfast (what is it about dining al fresco that makes everything taste SO much better?!?!) we checked out how things were growing in this year's garden. Last year's plot didn't pan out so well, so we decided to just limit our growing to pots on the patio this year.

So this year we have - as you have already seen - basil, oregano, and chives, as well as mint (bottom) and snow peas:


We also have tomatoes and peppers:


Green onions (still growing and have a little more to go....) and buttercrunch lettuce (yeah, I've already hit the lettuce, too!):



We have 2 strawberry plants, too. I've gotten a few berries so far, but right now it's not producing. Actually, there are about 3-4 blossoms, but they are all hiding under the leaves right now. Maybe as the summer progresses we'll start seeing some more production:


Here is one of the strawberries (out of about 3) that I got earlier. It was really sweet and very good. Much better than the bland, watery, almost tasteless strawberries that they offer us at the local grocery stores.


In another corner, we have eggplant (both black and white in the same pot), yellow squash (both straight and crookneck varieties together in one pot), and zucchini. The squash and zucchini have developed powdery fungus spots and the leaves started turning yellow and brown. After doing a bit of internet research I found that the best remedy for this is a milk bath. Yeah, at 1 part milk to 6-7 parts water solution sprayed on the leaves is a natural anti-fungal. Believe it or not! I made up and sprayed this mixture on the leaves last night and I swear they are looking 110% better this morning! Here's hoping. Anyhoo, here's how they all look now:

There are no eggplants growing just yet, because it's a newer plant. I have a few yellow squash developing, and a couple of minute zucchini, too:



And last but not least, presenting - Okra Winfrey!! OK, sorry, lame joke I know. The okra plant is also a new plant and has not started producing any offspring yet but I am hoping it will. I think I might need to put it in a bigger pot, as I currently have it in a smaller pot I was just wanting to fill with something.


With all this picture-snapping going on, Puddy was getting a little jealous of all the attention that was NOT getting paid to her. So, we had to get a few shots of her-highness.




Well, I guess it's time to end this post for now. The sun is taking over the patio and it won't be quite as cool and pleasant without the shadows.

Besides, I've got dishes to wash.......



.......and Puddy's allergies are acting up.........


......so I bid you a fond adieu. I hope the remainder of your weekend is a pleasant one and the week treats you well! Hey, next weekend is Memorial Weekend! We're looking forward to it because Tiger is coming for a week-long visit and we've got lots of fun things planned. We'll try to get lots of pictures!

Ta-ta for now! Will report on this week's weigh-in either tomorrow night or Tuesday morning.

Love to all,
Sera