other peoples' gardens...

We had a nice time last night, in spite of the dire end of the world predictions.  We headed to "the other side" of the water for a get together with some other gardeners from our meetup.com group.  It's so nice having some face to face social conversation and shared interests in this age where people sometimes only "meet" on Facebook!  The drive was lovely,  couldn't have asked for better weather, it was about 80,no humidity & sunny.

heheehee, the bridge tunnel under the Chesapeake Bay struck me as funny today, since where else would you want to be during a world wide earthquake prediction, LOL....

headed under...

I was trying not to look at the clock reading near 6 pm and start laughing...

Finn getting excited about???

The folks headed the other way, not so lucky, the traffic headed south was at the usual standstill, and I might add had completely cleared up by the time we headed back later in the evening.

Then it was time to relax!  M's house sits right on a nice salt marsh type environment, very peaceful, yet right in the city.  Here's part of our group below:

They had set out supplies to make rain barrels and were ready to provide instruction, they have several already in use, 5 or 6 I think!

The food that shows up is always fresh and yummy from the garden, with the usual random bag of excess produce to pawn off on someone, - wait until zucchini season!

I love, LOVE just seeing and being able to walk through others' gardens.  I think it's the gardener's equivalent of rifling through someone's medicine chest :)  There is always something new to learn, a new way of trellising, new varieties, etc.  It's amazing also to see how certain things grow differently.  We are only about 35-40 mins apart yet she has things flourishing that I don't have success with, and vice versa.

I thought this was really cool... 

I have never seen a carrot flower!  She is planning on saving seed so this was a rare opportunity to see it up close.

M is also the only person I know personally that is actually doing it - gardening in her front yard in the city!  It looks fantastic, and I bet she gets lots of people that slow down to look on their evening walks, I know I would!  Heck, I'd probably knock on the door and introduce myself if I didn't know them already - gardeners are usually a pretty friendly sort and I don't think they would shoo me off :)  !

After good conversation, good weather, good food and a garden tour, I came home refreshed and woke up at 5:45 am today to tackle the peas, over 3 lbs today, but I think it's about over, I didn't notice any new blossoms and temps should hit 90 by midweek.

  

Then my garden laughed at me and my renewed vigor and said -

 "oh, yeah?"  Well..."just look at this!  Let's see how tough you are now!"

(enlarge for full on aphid action depicting all life stages LOL...)

I'm guessing the below is a whitefly?  That's a new one here.

Time for the kids to mix up some Dr. Bronners soap in their Super Soakers!  Let the games begin...

*note to any local readers I might have:  our group would love to have you join us!  There are plenty of online q&a forums, but if you have a desire to meet up with other gardeners face to face for learning or social time, check us out!  There is a link at the very bottom of my right hand sidebar that will take you to our site.

I survived!

The party, that is! Remember that scene from the movie 'Sixteen Candles' where Anthony Michael Hall wakes up after the party trapped under a glass coffee table? LOL, it was a little kid's version of that!

I was able to get the whole backyard and kitchen cleaned up by a respectable 10:30 p.m., however, I wasn't to notice the full gravity of the situation until the next morning. I fell asleep reading a book on the couch that night, but when I woke up in the morning, the dog got up from her sleeping spot under the coffee table and left behind a nice police outline of herself in dog hair... dog hair? This is when I had the flashback of a scene from one of my favorite movies. Upon closer inspection, the floor was covered in a nice lacquer consisting most likely of a mixture of soda, Hawaiian Punch, and juice boxes. Thankfully, my entire house is hard floors without a speck of carpet!

As I walked through the house I could see it was everywhere, the entire floor from the back of the house to the front was like this LOL! With the dogs outside and the kids donning flip flops, I was able to get the whole floor cleaned by about 9 a.m. If I haven't sung the praises of my steam mop before, now is a good time - my Bissell steam mop rocks!

None of this really mattered since I was prepared for a good cleanup evolution, and I think the kids had a great time! I think most of us moms don't allow our kids to have soda or even juice that isn't watered down most of the time, so when faced with unattended tables full of desserts and soda, what's a kid to do?!

Random sightings during the cleanup:

1. Dog eating a cookie under the hammock
2. Another dog eating a dropped hot dog
3. Nerf guns and assorted weaponry in the broccoli bed
4. A lone flip flop in the bird bath
5. A decorative bowl of rocks on my coffee table filled with what appeared to be Coke
6. Plate of mac & cheese casserole formed into a mountain with a Hot Wheels monster truck on top

Who knew the 12 & under crowd could party like rock stars?

My mom is probably laughing thinking "here's where the payback starts..."!

The fall temps I was looking forward to for the party were not to be, it was in the 90's that day!

Trying to get all the kids together for a photo!

My fountain before it was filled with Hawaiian Punch!

Kids' art project to send out to the ship so the guys can hang it up

My BFF has the "magic touch" with the grill - we don't need men for this LOL!

VFA-32 Wives! Look at all the new and expected babies this deployment!

Great group of gals!

Finnegan

It really was nice to be able to get together with all these gals, everyone at the party is dealing with the same stuff and we all just "get it"! We're all "in (on) the same boat" hahahaha.

After cleanup on Sunday morning, I took the kids down to the oceanfront for the Neptune Festival Art Show. They hated it, I'll be honest, but I love looking at all the crafts. This is the last big "hurrah" for the oceanfront season and we will get our beaches back afterwards and be able to bring our dogs down to the beach, park cheaply and close and just be able to enjoy being locals again.

The white tents on the boardwalk go on and on and on - these are the art show vendors.

Pausing for an ice cream

then to make up for dragging them to the art show...

"like a kid in a candy store"!

Below is what happens when you don't harvest yard long beans for 3 days! Yikes!

huge bean harvest Monday morning before the rain started

I spent all day yesterday blanching and freezing beans and catching up on laundry and starting a new knitting project. It has been raining for 2 full days now, and it's the kind of rain where you can't really get anything done, but we need it!

And today? Absolutely nothing! It's still pouring outside and I feel so self indulgent and lazy - after getting the kids off to school this morning I've been alternating between reading a book and napping on the couch. It's finally settling in how tired I must have been. Now that I have finally gotten up off my butt and blogged I need to get my act together before the kids get home, don't want them to know they have a lazy mama. Unfortunately first, I need to give Marley a bath... I'm not sure what all she ate at the party, but she is recovering from being pretty sick the past 12 hours and she's not such a pretty girl right now so I better go give her a "spa day". Poor girl has the same diet every day of her life and then is allowed to run "Golden Corral" style through a picnic for 40+ people...

Almost ready!

I'm almost done prepping for the big party tomorrow afternoon! I am hosting the squadron's Family Support Group "Halfway Party" to celebrate this big milestone in the deployment. At last count I'm expecting 48 guests! Don't get me wrong, I love entertaining, but I am ready to check this big project off the list and be able to relax and enjoy fall. Things like reading a good book, knitting, etc never get full attention when a big event is in the back of my mind. So here's a look at today's prep, as you may guess the squadron's colors are blue and yellow.

Last night as I was putting together the gift bags the thought occurred to me that as stressful as kids can be during a deployment, we're rewarding them? LOL, just kidding of course, but it was amusing to me :)

crepe paper fun everywhere, the kids enjoyed helping out

12 down, 36 more to go tonight!

I wonder how many balloons one must blow up before passing out? Just kidding, I have a pump! (which the dogs HATE, I might add!)

Off to finish up, then par-tay tomorrow! I'll most likely be M.I.A. until sometime after the cleanup Sunday - have a great weekend all!

You are virtually invited!

I am hosting my annual "Seed Swap" Party this evening and I thought I would take a break from prepping to "virtually" invite you all over to our suburban homestead this evening for a night of seeds, seedlings, campfire in the garden, food & cocktails! While I know that it physically impossible for you to be here, know that if it was possible - all of you who regularly visit me would be first on my list! 6:00 pm... :)

p.s. there may be camoflauge, bb guns, and garden varmint fun late in the evening!

I hope to update you with photos tomorrow if things don't get out of hand, LOL! Some of these gardener types can get a little nuts if the moon is right...