Hey Diva Dog, what’s that you’re eating? It smells good. Can I try some?
Hey, this stuff is good! You don’t mind if I have some, do you? There’s enough in that bowl to share, right?
Do you mind? I’m trying to eat here. Could you step back and give me some space?
Let me help you finish that off. I wouldn’t want you to get indigestion from eating all that by yourself. No need to thank me, Diva Dog. What are friends for, after all?
Psst. Tomorrow, same time, same place?
Two little 4 month old kittens joined our family last weekend. They are from different litters, but were raised by the same foster mom, and so they bonded like siblings. Meet Charlie and Mugsy.
Charlie is a little orange & white “creamsicle” female. Our vet said that only 10% of orange tabbies are females, so she’s pretty special. She’s also fearless –– she approached and sniffed Diva Dog on day 1 and curled up beside her for a nap on day 3!
Mugsy is a dapper young man in his spiffy tux and boots. His coat is glossy black and sparkling white. Curmudgeon noticed that he is quite the dandy -– he grooms after playing and before bed.
We haven’t had kittens in years, so watching them play and romp is really a joy! We’re not sure if Diva Dog is enjoying their playing as much as we are, but look how cute they are!
They’re even really cute and precious when sleeping.
We’re pretty smitten with these cute little faces!
Warning! Due to recent cold snap and the subsequently sad state of our garden, this blog may be filled with kitten pictures for a few weeks!
A huge thanks to Gardener's Roost for organizing this outing.
The October gathering of Seattle Area Garden Bloggers United To Talk, or SAGBUTT for short, was all about shapes, textures, and colors.
Shapes
Textures
Colors
For more about the October SAGBUTT outing to Lake Wilderness Arboretum visit
...while we were taking a break from blogging.
1. Our pineapple sage started blooming.
2. We saw a rainbow of color in our garden! Well, actually it was all on one plant - the 'Bolivian Rainbow' pepper.
3. We grew a wall of tomatoes. They liked the warm brick wall so well that they climbed higher than the support stake. So then we tied them to the lamp post and the cable lines for support.
When we finally took it down, we harvested 5 pounds of green 'Red Grape' tomatoes, which then became green tomato jam.
4. Our friends W&M came down from Victoria, BC and we visited the Olympic Sculpture Park.
Calder's Eagle in the foreground and the Space Needle in the background.
Wing Nut waxed nostalgic when she saw this one. In this age of computers, do people know what this is and does anyone still use it?
5. Wing Nut bought 25 pounds of organically grown squash at work to compensate for the damned rats/squirrels/raccoons eating all of ours! Rant Woman joined us one evening for a squash smorgasbord. We sampled white acorn, potimarron, and delicata. YUM!
6. We added another unusual plant to our hillside hummingbird garden -- Dicliptera suberecta or Uruguayan Firecracker Plant. It's a tender perennial so let's hope we don't have another snowpocalypse this winter.
7. In fear of a hard frost, we harvested all remaining tomatoes and peppers and most eggplants. We then lost the kitchen counter.
The little round ones in the basket and in the boxes are Sungolds. The big yellow ones are Persimmon. The big red one is Italian heirloom. The smaller red ones are Langley Silver Tiger. And the handful of little ones on the counter at the very bottom of the pic are Red grape.
8. Curmudgeon saved purple orach seeds for next year.
The plant sends up seed spikes that are 5-6 feet tall. The dark purple leaves are edible--we use them in salad mixes.
Anyone need a few hundred seeds?
9. Wing Nut attended the Puget Sound Mycological Society's Annual Wild Mushroom festival. Who knew mushrooms came in so many shapes and sizes and colors? There was even a blue-green one that smelled like anise (Clitocybe odora). Now I want to try growing mushrooms too. Maybe Santa will bring me a kit from Fungi Perfecti.
10. We attended the October meeting of the Seattle Area Garden Bloggers United To Talk (SAGBUTT) at the Lake Wilderness Arboretum. The fall colors were marvelous as was the company!
P.S. to our SAGBUTT friends -- we'll put the eggplant & tomato salad recipe up on the next post.
1. Our pineapple lily bloomed.
This is Eucomis 'Oakhurst'.
2. We learned that the pepper seeds that Curmudgeon successfully sprouted belong to capsicum pubescens--rocoto or manzano peppers. The seeds came from a pepper bought at the grocery store. Curmudgeon saved them because they were quite unusual--they were black. This variety can grow to 5 feet and can tolerate sub-freezing temps. We had 8 of these perennial pepper trees in the potager. Four have now gone to good homes.
3. War was declared on whatever has been eating our winter squash. Operation Pantyhose was launched after the destruction seen below.
Unfortunately OP did not deter nor slow down whatever it was--racoon and squirrel were top of our list.
So Curmudgeon escalated to Operation Cayenne Pantyhose. She became a bit obsessed and Wing Nut had to go without cayenne in her kitchen as Curmudgeon would not hand it over. Early one morning, as she was leaving for work, Wing Nut caught a glimpse of something climbing up the bamboo tomato cage. She thought it was a squirrel, but as she got closer she realized there was no bushy tail. It turned out to be far far worse than we thought--Rats! Eeeeewwwww!!!!!
4. We attended the Tilth Harvest Festival.
5. We participated in a Bat Walk sponsored by Bats Northwest.
6. We read A Short History of the Honey Bee. And we are now on a quest to find locally made honey.
7. We put in a fall garden -- lettuces, radishes, arugula, cilantro, mustard greens, beets and carrots.
8. We visited the Museum of Glass in Tacoma with our friends C&M from Minnesota.
And found an artichoke on the ceiling of the Seafoam Pavillion, which is part of the Dale Chihuly Bridge of Glass.
9. Our crocus sativus popped up and bloomed. Now we understand why saffron is so expensive!
10. Our blog won "Best Blog Name" over on Blotanical. Thanks everyone!
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