Summer is just around the corner

Thought of the Day… Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can. -John Wesley (1703-1791)

As I mentioned last week, the Pacific Northwest weather is behaving like “usual”… beautiful one minute, miserable the next. This is the case with our May weather. Mother Nature isn’t sure she’s ready to give us a lot of beautiful days so she teases us…

Case in point… last Saturday was AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL! I went to the library with The Offspring. She was meeting a friend to work on a school project. I picked up some movies and a book. As we waited for her friend arrive we sat in front of the library enjoying the clear blue sky… there were only a few puffy clouds in the sky…

I snapped this with my camera phone … this is SOOC (straight out of the camera)… isn’t that just beautiful?

WOW! What a GREAT DAY!

People were everywhere… for multiple reasons… going to the library or just to the right of where we were sitting is a large park. In the summer there is a fountain where kids like to play … there are swings to swing on and play structures for the kiddos… During the summer months a giant movie screen is put up and there are Movies in the Park… (we’ve never been, but it sounds fun…)

Even further to the right is a large parking lot. It wasn’t full of cars though… it was full of people… for the second Saturday in May is when the Saturday Farmer’s Market starts…

Look at all the people. I think the lady in the black is wondering why I’m snapping this with my camera phone (and again this is SOOC). I wanted to show you the beautiful sky and how it was crowded!

Many of the booths were selling vegetable and herb starts. Some potted hanging baskets… fresh bread… jams… cookies (which where yummy), flavored mustards…

Last year our family bought into a CSA (community supported agriculture) program. This is when we buy shares of a local farmer’s crops. The CSA plants are pesticide-free which is really nice. Each week from mid-June to mid-October we received a bag with different produce. The Offspring and I loved it. Hubby, too, but The Offspring and I usually dove in when I brought the bag home and sometimes he missed out. (Sorry, Hubby!)

Well we bought in again this year. So I stopped by their booth and picked up some sage and a couple basil starts that are supposed to be hardy to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Our winters don’t usually get that cold, so I’m hoping since I love basil and as you may recall from my May 1 post, I love to make pesto. I have also ordered a few hanging baskets – one flower, one hanging cucumber and a hanging tomato. I get those later this week.

This is the basil start. You plant the brown pot too; which is nice. That will make planting these much easier. The plastic bag is compostable, too.

After I finished walking the aisle-ways and was ready to go I received a phone call. The Offspring was done studying. We stopped for a smoothy at a little stand and then headed to the car.

On our way home we stopped at Trader Joes where I saw their basil plants. Couldn’t resist… they were beautiful… I bought theirs last year and planted them in my garden, so went a head and bought two more. (Like I said, I love basil!)

See how big it is (that’s a 6-inch pot)…

I will keep them indoors until closer to Memorial Day (the end of May for my International readers); then move them outdoors.

For now, the CSA starts are in my kitchen sink window and the Trader Joes plants are sitting on the kitchen table near the other window.

I have to keep them apart because I think the CSA plants are a bit intimidated by the other plants because they’re so much bigger… (See the dirt on the counter? I think the CSA plant was so afraid of the big plant it had an accident! LOL!!! SORRY! I couldn’t resist!)

Sunday (Mother’s Day) was just a beautiful. The two days of beautiful blue skies and the Farmer’s Market are clear indicators that Summer is just around the corner! That and it started pouring rain yesterday at The Offspring’s softball game and the low was 47 degrees last night. To top it all of I just heard on the radio a few minutes ago that it is supposed to be 80 on Friday — like I said, Mother Nature can’t make up her mind!