Arrrgh!!!

The weather is glorious! It's warm, but not TOO warm. It's sunny and it's just lovely out. I set my alarm for 6:00 to get an early start on the weeding. Unfortunately, I managed to stall until close to 7:30 before going out, but I still got some very important work done on the gardens. I'll have to water before I continue tomorrow morning.

We've purchased our first chrysanthemums for the season. Elegante Mother picked out a huge pot of red-violet mums, and I chose the burnished bronze color. I also have three small pots of burgundy blooms, and two of that cheery yellow. They'll help stretch the bloom season where other plants have gone fallow for the year.

Yesterday, My-Sister-The-Nurse came over and we went the the Wheaton French Market. Since Wheaton has a Farmer's Market on Thursday, we weren't sure what to expect, but we had a fabulous time!

Three aisles with booths on either side filled a small parking lot downtown. We found flowers, incredible jewelry, fruits and veggies, inventive decorative wrought-iron plant stands, odds and ends of things, and bakeries.....oh my god! the bakeries!

Since MSTN is addicted to bread, she thought she'd died and gone to heaven! Unfortunately, we didn't have enough arms to carry everything we would have liked to buy, so our purchases had to be limited, but I think we might have bought enough between us to start our own bakery booth.

We both want to go back to buy wrought-iron plant holders. There was one that was an outline of a pumpkin in a darker brown (sort of rusty) look, that was slightly larger than a basketball, and a companion piece that was smaller, that we both wanted. The pumpkin was hinged so that the top half opened out and you could put a large plant in the center and have it grow through the iron ribs. MSTN saw a metal chair that looked as though it had been painted a light blue over white, a chair that might have been used to feed a toddler 60-70 years ago. She thought it would make the perfect plant stand for her front doorway.

I'm not sure just what baked goods MSTN bought, but I came away with a long, narrow French baguette encrusted with salt crystals, a long narrow pretzel loaf, and a hand crafted loaf of light rye encrusted with all kinds of seeds!. I bought apricot Kolache for EM, and a slab of apple slices, oh.....and a focaccia! The next booth was the mushroom booth, and it turns out they are the same company I purchase mushrooms from at the Farmer's Market I usually attend. This booth had a refrigerated jar of five cheese spread with garlic. You could take a chunk of pretzel loaf and smear it with this spread, or put the spread on hot pasta. You could split the bread and spread it with the cheese and heat it. And the guy selling it said that you could just eat a bit on bread with a glass of wine at the end of the day, and that picture is what sold me! *G*

One booth had baby clothes. Since my step-daughter is having her second baby in a month or so, I browsed, and ended up buying a long-sleeved onsie with a wonderful pumpkin painted on the chest. I figure the baby will be my little "Punkin!" *S* I hope her mother likes the onsie as much as I do.

We patted dogs and compared notes with other shoppers, and finally, after buying a HUGE bouquet of red lilies and eucalyptus, it was time to head back to the car. Sis treated me to iced tea and an almond-toffee square at Starbuck's, and we took our things home to share with Mother.

So that EM wouldn't be left out, we all went to Red Lobster for lunch. EM hardly eats enough to keep a mouse alive, and she wanted lobster. We tried to order one of the small, 7 ounce lobster tails, but we ended up with the BIG one. That's okay. This is one meal that EM will eat as leftovers. We'll reheat part of it with butter for one meal, and I'll make lobster salad for her with the rest. One lovely side effect of the lunch was that I didn't have to cook dinner! YEA!
And, even better, I got to talk with my sister. We almost NEVER have quality time alone, so this was the perfect day!

I spent a lazy late afternoon, loving up the cat and reading mail. I napped for a few minutes, and then caught a second wind and sat down to quilt. I'm making good progress. Now that I have twelve granny squares to send to Shelly for Share A Square, I need to concentrate on getting this quilt finished and off the frame. If I stick with it for the next two days, I'll have two-thirds of the quilt finished!

Gardening was wonderful this morning. I liked the look from the front door, so I took a picture that will pop up elsewhere one day. I did some dead heading, moved some pots around, ripped out catnip that was well past it's prime, and cut florets off the basil in a last ditch effort to keep those wonderful plants producing usable leaves. Later I'll have to harvest cherry and pear tomatoes.

It's good to catch up. I hope you all have as beautiful a day as we're having. Happy Labor Day!