First Tomato yesterday...

I have harvested our first really good tomato yesterday, and ate it on a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch, and in a salad for dinner. We should have a good crop of Romas soon. They are destined for the grill topped with mozarella. Sadly, many of my Romas suffer from blossom end rot which is caused by a calcium deficiency. I have been treating for this, but many of the fruit are affected.

This is an example of blossom end rot... not the tomato I ate

There is a high probability that the tomato crop will start in earnest when we are back in Granville eating blueberries and fresh corn. Fortunately, tomatoes (except for determinant varieties) just seem to go on for ever. Soon it will be home made pizzas every other night.

I have had to construct more tomato cages to support my tomato jungle. In the picture below... the mass of tomato plants on the right consist of just three plants. They are about five feet high now and spreading over an area which is approaching ten feet by ten feet. I must say there is a lot more plant than tomato.

Getting Ready To Go...

Preparations have begun for our trip to Granville for Mother's memorial service. Even though we will be gone for only five days, this is not an insignificant event. Alice Walter and George Porgey (as in Georgy Porgey) have never been left alone before. So we have concerns that our abscence for five days may be traumatic for them. George can probably handle it because he came to us as a stray, but he has become a confirmed housecat and eats up to five cans of cat food a day. Alice Walter came to us as a kitten (the first we have ever had). When we went to England, he was still a small kitten and was boarded at a friends house, so Alice Walter has never known an empty house. Ali and Cami Pagan, who live across the street, are going to be dropping in several times a day to feed and give attention to the cats, and Char will be dropping by each day, so they ought to be okay.

I spent the weekend putting additional shelves in the garage so that I can move my tools and other stuff from the basement into the garage. Then I intend to build more shelves and closets in the basement to store our other stuff. Incredibly your stuff expands to fill the space available to store it (I think George Carlin did a bit on this.) So I must be preparing us for a rush of stuff.

It is also incredible that almost every week we fill our big blue trash container and the green recycling container. I never see that much stuff coming into the house, so we must have a trash manufacturing facility within the house that can concoct trash out of thin air ( and stuff as well ).

The monsoonal moisture has finally arrived (the remnants of Hurricane Dolly) and brought us a little humidity and the first rain that we have had in a couple of months (not much here.) I took these pictures on Saturday of the storm clouds building over the Wasatch Front, and of a rainbow.

Cat and Mouse

Henry keeps his eye on an electronic rodent.

It has been 12 days since I last posted.

Since last posting, Char (Carolyn's Mom) went riding on a Harley (in the bitch seat);

Guess who?

Carolyn broke her foot while trying to skateboard;

and, we got a new sofa, loveseat, and (my) chair in the family room; and I painted the wooden furniture in the family room.
That will pretty much complete the kitchen/family room project which included...

- a travertine tile floor in the kitchen
- new can lighting in the kitchen and family room
- new baseboard in the family room (and removal of the chair rail)
- new switchplates
- new drawer pulls in the kitchen
- new fireplace and fireplace trim
- painting of kitchen and family room (the peanut brittle is gone / replaced by toast)
- new furniture (see above)
- 25 or 30 trips to Home Depot

Sadly, there is one red squirrel who will not be coming.

A private memorial service will be held on August 10th, 2008 at the Old Lilacs in Granville, Massachusetts at 2:00 PM. Family and friends are invited. In lieu of flowers please send acorns to the the Watch Out for Squirrel's (WOFS) foundation. They are needed to make more acorn butter.

My firends have asked me if anyone recognizes the shoes in the lower right portion of the picture. A reward will be given for verifiable information leading to the perpatrator of this vile act!

Yesterday I made four trips to Home Depot in support of my project to replace the hinges on the kitchen cabinets with hidden "Euro" hinges. Of course the cabinet doors, which are 21 years old, were not engineered with the Euro hinges in mind. All sorts of strategies had to be employed to make the damned things work.

Anyways... I am one of a few in America, who can actually walk to Home Depot. Four minutes door to door. It may be a little slower if I am carrying bags of cement or sheets of drywall (and require more trips since I cannot carry more than one bag of cement or sheet of drywall at a time.)

But I thought that today I would share my journey to Home Depot with you all who are waiting for the squirrels to come.

Time: 00.00

In my garage looking past Kevin's house.














Time: 00:20



Turning the corner onto 9620.








Time: 01:00

Almost to the end of 9620













Time 01:30


Turning left at the end of 9620

Time: 02:00

Home Depot appears

Time 02:20

Down the hill

Time 2:45

Along the South wall











Time 04:00

In the door

Here are some more of my favorite shots....


Carolyn and I went to London to visit Nick and Alina in late October, 2006. Since we would not put our international departure at risk, we had a few hours to kill at Denver International

We enjoyed some excellent french cuisine (wine and melted brie)...

And we wandered about the terminal and took these....

What an appropriate day to begin my new blog. Independence Day, 2008. I have no idea why.

Ths is one of my favorite pictures. Taken at dawn on May 21, 2006 in Little Cottonwood Canyon. I had ridden my bike up the canyon the previous morning, and was amazed at the light as the sun began to rise. So the next morning I drove up the canyon and took these pictures.

These pictures were taken with my Nikon D50, which is the camera that Alina now has.