Summertime in May...

Well, Hi there.

It didn't take me a month to get back to the blog this time.  Progress!

The cruise ship obsession continues.

This past week I caught our ship 

the Golden Princess arriving in Ketchikan

Alaska on a port cam.

She's the ship on the right just passing

the other cruise ship already at the pier.

Here's the shot from the bridge cam

 just as it was

passing the other cruise ship.

Back to the port cam.

I was taking photos of my Kindle.

Obsessive um yeah.

You can also see the glacier and ice in the water

if you catch the ship's  bridge cam while 

they're in Glacier Bay. The bridge cam photos 

refresh every five minutes.

We still have several weeks

to wait until it's our turn

to be onboard.

Zinnia seeds are sprouting.  I still

have more seeds to plant. 

 I haven't gone to a nursery yet this spring.   

If I stay away, I'm not spending vacation money.

I've been spending time in the garden 

planting seeds 

and editing the volunteer seeds that

have sprouted everywhere. 

I transplanted three volunteer tomato plants

this morning.  I didn't intend to grow tomatoes 

this year as they don't seem to do well with 

too much morning shade and then scorching sun

in the afternoon.  

They wanted to grow.... 

Hopefully this will be a good tomato year.

The wall of Jasmine blooms every May

like clockwork. It's a heady strong scent 

that's sometimes a bit much.

The  still young cherry tree is loaded with cherries.

It looks like we'll get lots of plums as well.

I like the contrast between the new spring growth 

and the old growth on the redwood tree.

It was years before I knew the name of this 

shrub.  The name is on a piece of paper somewhere... 

 It's some type of mock orange,

but I can't remember the proper name.

Summer temperatures hit us last week.

It ended up 98 degrees.  Yuck.

We got the market umbrellas put up on

the deck for shade.  It gets terribly hot

out there.  The umbrellas help keep the

garage underneath cooler as well.

It's that time again.

I attended class for being a poll worker

for the election coming up in  June.

We're all feeling a bit rusty, 

since we didn't have elections in 2013.

They warned us that we aren't expecting

a lot of voter participation at the polls this time.

It's easier and the time goes faster when we 

have voters to help.  

This past weekend we had Senior Potluck.

The theme for us this time was Mexican.

Here's two chickens with cilantro stems, 

onion, pepper, bay leaves, and salt to 

stew for enchilada filling.

Tomatoes, onion, and jalapeno pepper

ready to broil in  the oven. 

Then they're blended till slightly chunky.

Shredded the chicken once it's cooled

enough not to scorch the fingers.

Saute onions, chop cilantro leaves,

add spices

and then mix everything together.

Ready for enchilada filling.

No photos of the completed enchiladas though.

I made two types.

One with red sauce and white tortillas.

The other recipe involved a sour cream

and tomatillo sauce making a white enchilada

with chicken and corn tortillas.

It made 5 pans of enchiladas, 

and I have some of the chicken filling 

frozen for  later use.

Back to the garden.

This was the first Datura metel blossom to 

bloom.  It opens in the evening and 

scents the entire front deck area.

Here's my dirty gardening fingers just to 

give you an idea of the size of these blooms.

A visitor to the datura.

At first I thought it was a small bee,

but I'm not so sure after seeing it's body.

Oh well.

My nicotiana is blooming now.

It too sends a wonderful scent around the garden

especially in the evenings or early mornings.

OK, that's it for now.

Take care... see you soon I hope.