Wednesday, August 11, 2010

10 Amazing Pools (from Zillow)

For me, pools and summer just go together. There have been many days this summer that I longed for a pool in our back yard.

Checking e-mail this morning, I discovered a wonderful blog post from zillow.com that lists their top ten pools. OH...how wonderful!!! Eye candy for sure. Yes, I could swim happily in any of these. :)

















Monday, August 9, 2010

It's Tomato Season!!!!


YES!!! The tomatoes are ready!


I have been anxiously awaiting the first tomato of the season and...this was the weekend for it.


Our first tomato came in at a whopping 2lbs, 4oz. and it tasted FANTASTIC!!


See the weight on the photo at right.


Notice how the tomato is shaped - almost in lobes. The shape makes picking and cutting the fruit a little challenging. Of the 4 tomatoes that we have picked so far, they have all had this twisty shape.


I wonder if the shape might make the Mortgage Lifter variety difficult to grow for commercial use as it is time consuming to cut the fruit up around all the nooks and crannies.


I think that the sweet, full flavor is worth the few extra minutes that it takes to work with the shape. Would folks at the local farmer's market care if the shape is odd??







Our first Mortgage Lifter Tomato from the garden. Looks like two tomatoes but it was only one.





Look at how huge our first tomato was. This is the fruit from one tomato!! Doesn't it look perfect?



Note the nasturtium and the basil from the garden. I really, really like this nasturtium variety - Caribbean Cocktail. It appears to be a double and has a wonderful range of soft yellow and pink colors.



I am so excited!! I have to find my recipe for fresh peach and tomato salad. Oh, and we have to have gazpacho...and a fresh pasta sauce...and stuffed tomatoes...and.....


Recipes to follow. :)