I Got Myself Back To The Garden

 Mr. Moon should be home in an hour or so and it's about time. This cat needs her daddy human. I can't believe we call each other "mama" and daddy" when we're talking to the cats about each other. 
"Go kiss Daddy, now," I tell Jack when I'm about to turn out the light. And often, he does. 

A minute before I took that picture of Maurice, she was laying on my arm which does hinder my typing. She must have heard something that caught her attention when I snapped that shot because she's obviously in her alert mode. 

I've done something today that I have only ever done a few other times in my life. I've made a soup that may not be fit to eat. I'm not kidding you. It's a kitchen sink/refrigerator soup and I'm usually very good at judging what will and will not go together in a soup of that nature but something went askew in my judgement this afternoon. I think it might be the leftover cauliflower I put in with the chopped olive and lemon juice sauce on it. Or it could be the piece of chicken that I cooked last night with more lemon juice. Or it could be all the greens I put in the soup. Or it could just be that none of those ingredients want to marry and that's that. I keep adding things to try and bring those recalcitrant and diverse flavors together but it just ain't working. I threw in a few parmesan rinds to see if that will mellow it out but I have a feeling I'm throwing good food after bad. I know that when Glen's on the road he snacks a lot which is what we all do, I think, so he's never really hungry when he gets home and I thought a little bowl of soup would be good. Also, when I talked to him one night when he was with his guys, he sort of proudly proclaimed that there wasn't a vegetable in the house so I figured I'd get a few nutrients in him too. 
I have got a nice little loaf of bread rising that I made with yeast and a cup of sourdough discard which I'm hoping will give it some flavor. I let my starter sit idle so long it's taking more than one day of feeding to restore it. 

I worked in the garden today and yes, it was hot. We're up in the 90's now. I saw a meme on FB that said, "Hey, y'all. Florida is still preheating." Which it is. You think it's hot now? Haha! But I managed to finally pull all the bolted collards and lettuce. Under one of my collard plants I found these mushrooms. 

Aren't they amazing? 
As far as I can recall, I've never seen them before. I am almost sure they are Red Cracked or Red Cracking Boletes after doing some google searches. Supposedly you can eat them but they don't seem to be a big favorite for the mushroom gourmands. Plus, the last thing that soup needs is iffy mushrooms added to it. But they are pretty. 

I did some weeding and we have got to mulch. The ground gets hard as a brick. We have huge lawn bags of leaves that Mr. Moon brought home from suburban yards when the oaks were shedding but they're too heavy for me to wrangle. 

The tomatoes are coming along. Here are some cherry tomatoes that are looking promising. 

The tomatoes that I started from Jennifer's seeds that she sent me which are planted in the bags, are growing very well and look quite promising. 

They look a little droopy in that picture because they were just watered and their leaves are a little heavy. I see blooms! And the beans are what you see on the right, there. 

A week from now, I'll be picking baskets full of them. Maybe not the big baskets yet, but baskets nonetheless. 

I can't believe how well the squashes are growing. 

This acorn squash is bigger than my hand now. 

Look at those happy little summer squash! Or crookneck squash, as they are sometimes called. 

This one's going to be ready to eat in a day or so. I need to get out my recipe for summer squash soup with is so good that even squash haters change their minds when they taste it. 

And I guess that's all I have to talk about today. I didn't even leave my yard once and that was fine. As always, it'll be somewhat of a shock to the system to have another person in the house with me but I think I remember how that goes. 

Oh! He just got home! He startled me, and Maurice jumped up and ran outside. It'll take a little while for us all to become acclimated again. But we will. 

Love...Ms. Moon