Well Tuesday was much the usual day with not much going on except for the daily routines. We did have our regular lunch crowd and the temps stayed rather nice outside in the shade. The usual humidity is no where as strong as normal so that made it very comfortable as well.
The day started for me with my usual before 6'ish roll out. I did my quiet time and then posted this ramble from the activities from the day before. After a breakfast of cereal and fruit I got ready to ride out on my bike to the Rec. for 2 hours of pickle ball. We had three courts in action throughout the morning as we have the gym for 5 hours for the sport so different levels of players came throughout the morning. We had 6 decent players for the challenge court which made for a good workout and by 10'ish I was running on empty with a wet shirt.
I headed home and stopped to visit my military wife who was sitting under her oak tree which is a couple doors up from our house. She is a gardner and is always seeking info on Florida gardening. I helped her with laying out her plot then dug up a large volunteer tomato plant from my garden and transplanted it into her garden. This tomato plant already had buds for blooms and she was delighted. She really loves growing things and already has her oldest daughter who is just 4 years old learning to grow things.
I harvested a couple heads of Bibb lettuces, kale and oak leaf lettuce for our lunch salad as well as some carrots, sweet onions and another delicious cucumber. The two plots of cucumber vines are starting to produce and I'm giving away a cucumber or so a day plus what we are eating in our salads. The herbs are doing great so I add fresh sweet basil as well as dill to my salads. I've started another rosemary plant by cutting the mature stems from my mother plant and sticking them in the ground and then keep it damp for a couple of weeks until the stems turn green and start to root. I've started 4 other rosemary plants since I've been back. I also made a jasmine cutting and some honeysuckle cuttings to see if I can get them to root in my compost pile and then I will take them to the cabin. It's amazing how easy you can start herbs from previous herbs just by covering part of the stem with some dirt and then keeping it damp. Once that part starts to root I just cut it off from the mother plant.
The heat is starting to take its toll on the garden with the leafy green veggies but the green beans are going crazy as is the peppers and sugar peas. They too are starting to show signs of heat damage and not as many blooms for new pods. Nancy stir fried sugar pea pods, fresh mushrooms and zucchini and yellow squash with onion and placed that over brown rice for supper. I added a jalapeno pepper to mine with a little fresh ginger on top and wow what a delicious combo with just a drop of soy sauce. We try to go meatless a day or so a week and this supper was fantastic with everything out of the garden but the squashes. Squash takes up so much room and the fungi from the humidity usually rots the baby squash before you can get them big enough to eat, so it's easier to just get them from the market.
Well after the cleanup I headed out to hand water the gardens and the back yard until it was time for the Lightning vs Red Wings game in Detroit. We won the hard fought game 3-2 and now have a 3-1 lead in the best of 7 series in the Stanley Cup playoffs. What an exciting game and the next game is here in Tampa on Thursday night. I flipped back and forth to the Ray's game which was still no score in the bottom of the 9th. I will read who won in the news. It was 10'ish so the sandman calleth and it was lights out for me after a hot shower, LATER
