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Month: July 2010

Garden. It’s where the veggies come from.

One of my favorite things about my husband is that he likes to garden.  Strike that, he LOVES to garden.  I think he might actually be having an affair with the garden, actually.  Hmmm. 

Now, this isn’t your average flower garden folks.  No, this a functional, manly, vegetable garden!  (Though sometimes he’ll sneak in a sunflower or two for me cause he loves me.)  It is from our garden, that we get most of our summer, and now a fair number of our winter vegetables.  Now, I take no credit whatsoever for the creation, planting or maintenance of our garden, but I do cook yummy, tasty meals from it’s products.  And photograph it.  And that counts for something right?  Right?

So here’s an update on are awesome, totally sweet garden.  Since our days are long and warm this summer, our tomatoes are out of control, our scarlet runner beans have taken over the hop vines and are making a run for the roof.  The kale and lettuces are nearing the end of their early summer peak, and we just harvested about 30 cloves of garlic which are now “curing” in the garage for fall and winter consumption.  We’ve also got carrots, onions, okra, basil, potatoes, more varieties of beans and heirloom tomatoes.  All we’re lacking is a chicken or two. 

 

 

It’s pretty cool to be able to produce most of our summer veggies right here next to our house.  We have a very small lot, and Tom has created this garden literally out of nothing using raised beds, compost and lots of time and energy.  Hurray for the garden!

Extra bonus points if you can identify all the plants shown in this post!

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Where have you BEEN?

Oh wait, I’m the one who’s been MIA.  Sorry about that.  I wanted to come by and say hello, I really did, but things kept coming up, arriving, demanding my attention.  But never fear, I’ve got photographic evidence to prove it!  So here is the bitzcrieg version of the past few weeks, since apparently I don’t have time to expand on the individual topics.  (I still may, but we’ll see)

First there was our anniversary trip to eastern Washington.  Summer in Seattle doesn’t show up until July 5th, apparently, but we wanted SUNSHINE for our anniversary.  So we headed east of the Cascades to the Dry Falls, Grand Coulee Dam area. We toured the dam, did some hiking, drove through enchantingly green fields, watched the fireworks and had the Safeway 4th of July special dinner – 8 piece fried chicken and potatoes, complete with cokes, for under 10.00.  We’re just that classy.  The trip was really fun, and we did find the elusive day star.

 

 

The following weekend, we headed north to British Columbia and Vancouver Island for our friends Cory and Haiyan’s wedding.  They live in China, so getting to be there for their wedding was extra special.  They were married in a small ceremony on the beach in Parksville, BC.  At low tide, the beach stretches out for what seems like miles.  B, E, and little baby S were there too, and it was little S’s first time in the ocean.  She liked it until she tried to eat the seaweed.  The weather was deliciously warm, and we spent two days in the area soaking up the sun and spending time with good friends. 

 

     

 

A few days after Cory’s wedding, Tom’s parents arrived in Seattle!  We’ve had some great times with them, including taking the Theo Chocolate tour.  Oh wow, if you like chocolate, and live anywhere near here, you HAVE to go.  You learn about chocolate while EATING CHOCOLATE.  How can it get any better than this?   We have also enjoyed making yummy family dinners and taking a long weekend trip to San Juan Island.  (I will probably have more to say about this in a later post).  While at San Juan, we visited English and American Camps, a lavender farm, an alpaca farm, and had some lovely picnics.  Oh, and we stayed in an Airstream.  It rocked.

 

 

 

While the in-laws have been here, they have spent some time with Suz, the sister-in-law.  While those three were out gallivanting on the Olympic peninsula, Tom and I used the downtime to catch up on things around the house, and to take a GORGEOUS hike down to Mt. Rainier.  I’m totally out of shape due to lack of working out and an overabundance of homework, and was feeling totally intimidated by the hard hike Tom wanted to do.  Because he’s awesome, we agreed to go down to Mt. Rainier instead, and hike around the Paradise area.  It felt good to get out, as I have felt quite stifled by our busy schedule of late, and have not been coping well.  While all the activities we’ve been doing are fun, I feel spread incredibly thin.  It feels like I’m doing everything at once, but nothing well, and am not doing a great job of being present in the moment.  What can I say, I’m working on it.   And before this sounds too much like complaining, I want you to know, that I know how blessed I am in my life, and how lucky I am to have all that I do. 

 

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Happy Anniversary

…a few days late.  But better late than never!  On July 4th, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary!  It’s been quite an amazing ride.  We’ve gone on trips and beautiful hikes, we’ve made delicious food and spent many wonderful nights with dear friends, we’ve continued to challenge, grow and love each other.  Marriage is not always easy.  It takes effort, attention and chocolate chip cookies.  It takes compromise and “I’m sorry”.  It takes admitting you were wrong. It’s flexibility, and allowance for your other.  It takes partnership, passion, determination and caring.  It takes love. On our wedding day, I asked a dear friend, “What is the secret to marriage?”  She responded, “It’s not 50/50, it’s 100/100.  You always have to give your full 100.”  Was she ever right.  On our one year and 5 day-a-versary, I promise to continue to give my 100%.  Love ya husband!

And now for some gratuitous wedding pictures. 

We got married at the House Mountain Inn, a small bed and breakfast in the Blue Ridge Moutains of Virginia.  I’m originally from Richmond, and Tom’s family owns property in Goshen, Virginina, also in the mountains near our B&B.  In fact, we had our rehearsal dinner at his family farm.  It is a place near and dear to our hearts.  Let’s see a picture from there shall we? 

 

I love “getting ready” shots.  It was great that the photographers we worked withwere a husband and wife team.  She could get right in there with us girls while we were all getting dolled up.  I got very emotional after I put on my dress.  I was finally realizing that I was “a bride”.  Then my dad came in.  Dad has had many health complications over the years, and one of the things I always prayed for when he was so sick, was that he’d be there, one day, to walk me down the aisle.   So when he walked into the room, looking all handsome in his tux, I pretty much lost it.  Like, total, hysterical crying mess.  I have never felt such overwhelming gratitute in my life.  I reverted to little girl mode.  I was so happy that my daddy was there for me on my wedding day.  It is a moment I will never, ever forget. 

 

   

Ok, so now I’m crying again.  Let’s move on to something a little lighter.  Here’s the wedding venue!  Stunning.  As we got married on the 4thof July, we were a little afraid that it would be like 150  degrees with 120% humidity, which was very possible, given that it was Virginia in the summertime.  And we were getting married outside.  We lucked out though, and we had a beautiful day, right around 75 degrees with a light breeze. 

 

We got married!  The pastor may have called us the “Dolphins”, to be “funny”, as it rhymes with our last name, and Tom may have cried so hard during his vows that I don’t think anyone understood a word he said, but we did it!  Afterwords, it was time to eat, cut the cake, and party.  And party we did.  We had so much fun at our wedding.  We danced almost every dance.  I have never felt so surrounded by love and joy.  It truly was the most amazing night of my life. 

 

Our wedding was amazing, but so is our marriage.  Here’s to many more years of fun and happiness! 

All photos are from Don Mears Photography in Richmond, Virginia.  Check them out.  They rock.  I’ll be writing another post about some of the details that went into our wedding.  Soon.

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