A Pocketful of Green Beans

 Finally, enough for a meal! Tuesday morning, during my garden survey, I discovered green beans on my wild plants and filled the pocket of my dress with them. I took this photo days before so with what I picked and the pictured beans below, we managed to have them with our dinner. Turns out they were pretty tasty!

My tomatoes were mostly small so when the above medium sized fruit appeared it needed documenting along with a few shishito peppers. D'Anna pulled up her spent tomato plants but mine are still growing, in part because the sun has moved allowing more sun to shine on our garden. One thing I have learned is that no two flowers are alike which is pretty darn remarkable in my opinion. Here's some of my zinnia and notice the tops of them to see what I am talking about.

The plants have gotten very tall and absolutely smothered in powdery mildew, something I read about before planting, but still was powerless to keep it at bay. Don't believe everything you read online because although multiple people swore by spraying the plants with diluted milk, I now have even more mildew.

As well don't believe everything your phone identifies because often enough to distrust it, the identification is wrong. Three different plants came up for the zinnias, none of which were correct. Roses it claimed! Thus, I have lost confidence in our "friend" Siri! For those of you who do not have an iPhone, that would be our "digital assistant".

All that to say that I will plant them again because they are such fun cut flowers, bringing charm to every indoor space.

Speaking of charm, we drove over to Blairsville to check out the new Marshalls and what a lovely treat that was. While there we went to a few thrift stores and I found this cup that while I thought was a dollar, turns out it was $7.00. Nevertheless I still brought it home.

Turns out it is a rare pattern from a century old Bavarian maker of china. To my eyes it is super cute and it is just perfect to hold the pennies I collected on the foggy August mornings. We shall put that theory to the test; here's hoping it works better than the milk treatment for my zinnias!

In my last post, I mentioned our visit to The Crowne in Brasstown where our plate was so pretty, and I tried lentils for the first time in the red pepper soup.

We ordered the same and then shared one of Bruce's favorites, a delicious rendition.

This has been a sad year for hydrangeas in not just our yard, but my neighbors as well, however I still have a few beauties.

Just what you have been waiting for....I finally got a photo of Lucifer who is actually quite a beautiful cat but my birds were here first so I dislike him for that. 

Going out for my garden tour, including planting some garlic, he was laying there like he owns our yard!

Do you see my one and only regularly formed cucumber? I am pretty sure it is my fault for planting it in an area that was shaded by other plants. Of course I never dreamed the Italian parsley would get so big. 

For posterity, below.

This is our new bed that is now completely covered with falling leaves from the tree above it. What you might also notice is the relentless sun that has plagued us for about ten days. Good grief it is far hotter than suits me! Of course everywhere is hot isn't it? Remind me of this when winter arrives and I complain about it being too cold. Actually I don't mind the cold but I do mind having to wear so many clothes. 

Driving through Andrews on our way to meet up with friends for an easy walk alongside the Nantahala River, I never can resist photographing the beautiful mountains, and in this case, fog, and corn in the fields!

The walk was right up my alley...flat and fun.

The fun was even more so because I found someone who does not mind walking slow in order to take everything in. Nancy is a tiny little thing.

Eventually we caught up with the rest of the group.

Larry and Nancy have both done some amazing athletic feats in their day, Larry more so than Nancy because he completed, not one, not two, but three Ironman competitions!! The lady on Bruce's left used to do some amazing races in both canoes and kayaks on whitewater no less. And then there is Gail who knows how to take a pretty good picture! You already know David and D'Anna who just learned that they are to be grandparents!! As you can imagine, they are over the moon.

On our walk back to the car we came by where they launch the rafts on the Nantahala River. 

Those are some brave folks rafting solo! 

Eating at the restaurant at the Nantahala Outdoor Center, D'Anna had said the pancakes were really special.

Wondering what could be so special about a pancake ,I did not order them but shared a bit of hers and by golly she was right...delicious!

One crazy thing about that visit was we ate there on the same day two years ago on Tom's birthday! 

Later that day we met up with John and Laura downtown, and oh my word this cloud formation is fantastic!  This is a good view of the downtown improvements orchestrated by Laura and her team.

After much brouhaha, folks have become accustomed to the round about. 

Look, something is happening with the house across the street!!

We do feel for the folks who bought that house as it has turned out to be more work than I believe they imagined. 

I admit to very few walks of late because I just cannot take the afternoon heat but one day I attempted to and I thought what better picture to take than of the river from the bridge, one I have taken many times before. 

You may not be able to see it in the photo but there is the beginnings of yellowing of the leaves. Subtle but noticeable now that we have been here a few years. Wow, hard to believe. 

Wondering what it will look like on October 1? Hang around and I'll show you the changes that will, hopefully, bring on cooler weather.

But then again, I won't be able to start mornings with a garden tour. :(

your friend,

Gail