Not A Lot of Comfort Food Here

So ... I'm out in the garden gleaning this morning and I discover several things that I really need to address. I'll just talk about one of those things now.
The eggplants are a little bit out of control, and how many eggplants do we really need in any given year? We planted just one plant thinking we'd get a few for some Ratatouille, and other than that, I'm not sure what to do with them. In the back of my head I think, "Oh, (light going on) I wonder if it's easy to make Baba Ghanoush?"
Turns out - it is. I have all the ingredients right in my very own kitchen. (and garden I might add)

 I looked up, thanks to the internet, if I can use old Tahini. Turns out, it lives a long time so no worries.

The picture above, taken a few weeks ago, shows my pretty white and purple eggplant.
Todays crop featured some that were twice as big.
I grilled the eggplant on the BBQ because I was already using it to grill some other veggies. I just turned it to medium and put the eggplant on whole for about 40 minutes. Then I ran to my hair appointment which I was late for because I decided at the last minute to make Baba Ghanoush in addition to the White Gazpacho I was making for some friends tonight.
I fear this kind of activity is not being grown out of just because I don't have children at home anymore.
I wanted to miraculously become an on time person when I reached this stage in life. But .... I digress.

 Then after I came home several hours later, the eggplants were easily peeled and the ingredients blended together. I ate some of the wonderful spread with some of the grilled crook neck squash and it was wonderful.
I liked it anyway.

The people I'm taking dinner to tonight are probably not expecting weird food like I make, so I'm taking them a big variety. Hopefully we can hit on a few desirable tastes for them.
Wish me (them) luck.

Charlotte

We have seen several huge spiders and webs around here since fall arrived and the plants and back yard are all finished. 
 The other day when Lena was at our home, I showed her one of the webs that stretched between the corner of the house and a bush 8 feet away. Lena then asked her insightful question of the afternoon, " Where is Charlotte?" 

I thought, "What a cute little granddaughter. Her Mom must read to her for her to know who Charlotte even is. Good job!"

Not a great picture of said spider web.

It got me thinking about a quote that I read referenced from the popular book. It is Charlotte talking about her children and how important they are to her.

..Charlotte from Charlotte's Web:

 "My Egg sac (her children) "My magnum opus, my great work, the finest thing I have ever made. Inside are my eggs, five hundred and fourteen of them. I counted them. I got started counting, so I kept on, just to keep my mind occupied. I guarantee it is strong. It's made out of the toughest material I have ."
                            - Charlotte explaining to Wilbur about her work.

Our children...are our "magnum opus. Our great work!"  Whether they come out rotten and drive us crazy:-), perfect and drive us crazy, or just as "our kids" and make us better people, they are our "Magnum Opus!"…

How do we protect them? What is the toughest material we have? Is it love? testimony? example?
Those precious children sometimes become so protected that they can't grow and develop for themselves. Unlike Charlotte's children, ours are never allowed to fall from the top and see if they can catch themselves.

I feel like I have armed some of my "great works" with good strong testimonies, questioning minds, prayerful hearts, and self esteem. With these same tools of strength, some of them have acquired these strengths of mine in lesser amounts. Hopefully they will continue to grow as I do and as they assist those around them to be their best.

We all can, with the help of our Lord, eventually be a Magnum Opus. 

Finality

I am finally going to show my finished pictures of the back yard project along with "before" pictures so you can compare.  Hopefully I can show the best parts of this yard and you can refer to the before pictures for a total perspective of the change.

The first before picture is from our master bedroom looking out onto the old planter.

That section of planter has been replaced with a big ol' kitchen, and although this was the one design issue we weren't sure about, it now doesn't seem to bother us waking up to stone and metal.

This next old picture is looking toward the master bedroom at the other side of the original planter. Our kitchen consisted of the big barbeque.

The kitchen is bigger than the planter was, and the main large planter is still there and even larger than before.

Here were Kara and Lena standing where the main patio meets the brick.

Vantage point from the kitchen window toward the pool house (casita).

New entrance to the pool house. Wider stairs and nice solid landing at the top. Our dog house area is now a planter. (We haven't had a dog for 5 years, but that is still what I think of when I look at the planter.)

The sidewalk and planting area at the house end of the pool, were where the biggest change was planned.

Sure enough, it is a pretty big change. This is where we added a whole covered room, fireplace, etc.

The old basketball standard on the southwest end of the pool,

was where the plant on the left of this next picture was located. This overflow fountain is on the direct south side, parallel to the house. The point of the pool was straightened out to make room for this feature.

Remember the diving board? No longer there. Sorry Lexy, but in its place....

is a nice little retreat area. The smaller arbor with a nice sized cabana in it is a great place to watch the world rotate. You could read a book or take a nap here too.

Michael always enjoyed the deep end. (when the fear of shark attack was at its lowest point)

Now, there is less walking room and the concrete coping around the pool is a little smoother on the thighs than the old used brick.

Lexy jumping into the pool and towards GramVi from the hot tub area.

Same pool sans brick, cum stone. Love it!

Looking like some cold swimmers there.

Playing on the old stairs that are pretty identical to the new ones.

 Now we need to watch extra carefully, however, because the
pathway to the other side could be somewhat treacherous.

Remember our drainage problem?  Our Ellery played happily in the ever present puddle.

The plantings right next to the house are much more friendly than the concrete right up to the edge.

And there are no long lived puddles anymore. Pretty nice.

Looking toward the house from the big arbor.

These wind sculptures are great addition to the plantings.

Old brick edging went around the grass too.

Now it is just plain bark dust. (you can tell I am an Oregonian at heart sometimes.)

The Hubby got his Palm trees too.

Back to the brick. For a long time we had a walnut tree in the middle of this circular brick pad. It didn't survive being between the huge Ash trees after about 45 years.

This circle of brick has been replaced by a short sidewalk from new stairs coming up the center area of those two big trees.

Nice finely bladed fescue grass. I really like the look of it.
Below is the old. Not a ton of difference in this part of the yard. Apple trees are still intact.

Here's our vegetable garden from last year.

Here's the area transformed for next years garden. A little amendment still to be worked on.

The Hubby did a fine job building these raised beds.

From the large arbor looking across the pool to the smaller one. Notice the ball hoop on the left. It'll be a bit different game, but still doable.

The plants are happy as our weather is turning to fall. It is truly amazing how fast they have been growing.
Have you had quite enough of this? It was a bit of an organizational mess with the pictures and all, but hopefully this is a good comparison to before and after, for this large project.
All's well that ends well.

August Backyard Progress

This past month we saw a couple large and many little things come together. We are nearly finished now with the exception of the water feature that is between the pool and the patio below, and the metal trim around the small arbor posts.

 The kids really wanna jump in here in early August, but the pool is still too cold for us. The solar and gas took longer to get all hooked up than we had the patience for.

 So they got into their skivies and got in the water anyway.

 "You are right! It is cold." The pool is covered in shade most of the day and so some kind of heat is totally necessary in this backyard pool.

 The lights got hung in trees, patio's and along paths.

 Okay, they actually talked me into it here.

 Our nephew Brett with Jess and kids came for a short visit and played well with the 2nd cousins.

 The solar got connected only to find a huge leak  flood coming out from under the cement floor in the shed. Had to have it dug out and repaired major.  Then again the solar guys came out and hooked us up only to find the that the welders had sparked several small holes into one of the plastic solar panels the pool water runs through. "TURN IT OFF!!"
So …. they came again another day and replaced that problem. It does seem to be running smoothly now. Murphy has no more what-ifs to choose from.

 Plants are happy with the cooler weather.

 The Hubby got the BBall hoop all set up.

 The A/V guys got things working (almost all of them anyway.) We watched a lot of the Olympics out here in the covered patio area. There are 2 infared heaters for the cooler nights that we will use later.

Chimney was finished up, and the fire logs arranged too.

 Last arbor is welded into place.

Amazing that it is usable, comfortable and great. Now the upkeep starts. The lighting and watering systems could be a nightmare if we don't keep them perfectly coifed. I have no idea where some of them originate and end, so there will be a learning curve for me in this regard.