I never did report on my hood's 5th of July party.  It was hot and I sweated outside from around 2pm to 11pm, but it was a blast and well worth it.  I love my neighbors.  I have been eating leftovers of what I made for the past week (fruit salad, haluski, and broccoli salad - the last I need to toss at this point).

This week has felt hectic.  Avery had a half-day VBS that had me running around 9am and noon each day.  It made it harder to get my hours in so I could take Friday afternoon off, but I did it.  Before we headed back to the church this evening for their final program we made our way to the Pittsburgh Botanic Gardens.  I've never been before and I'm angry with myself for not going before.  This place is a treasure -- and close to me, rather than in Pittsburgh.  It's still crazy hot out there, so the less than 2 hours we spent there was enough for now.

Today was the first day of my newly found CSA!  Someone in town posted, looking for interested people as they wanted to be a stop.  Of course, I'm in!  Today we had some potatoes, tomatoes, a red and a white onion of good size, tons of garlic scapes (yay!), a beautiful large head of lettuce, and a huge bundle of.... kale (y.a.y.?).

My garden on the other hand is a mixed bag.  I have another pot (this would be the 3rd one) of potatoes that I need to dump as the greens have completely dried up and died off.  Some of the tomato plants are starting to really take off size wise and are forming fruit.  I have more cukes forming.  Peppers are just starting to form (other than the cubanelle that wintered over and has two ready to pick).  As to the other things in my garden... let's just say, if I didn't mention it, you can assume nothing has changed.

I found it interesting to compare my garden's progress to that in the Botanic Garden's growing area.  Their peppers are killing it, but my beets are far ahead of theirs.