Of Grain Elevators and Harvest... of zucchini

I decided to spend part of my Friday night doing errands before everyone else is doing them this weekend. Does it seem to you that keeping track of daily life takes a lot of energy? It does to me. Just keeping things like food, toilet paper and other essentials within the four walls of my home requires attention.

As I was leaving the store tonight I noticed the sky was really interesting. It wasn't a particularly colorful sunset, but it was interesting cloud cover. I wanted to get a photo but there was nothing but stoplights and electrical wires where I was. However, as I approached the A Street exit off K-61, turning to come home, I noticed the grain elevator was make a nice silhouette against the sky. The cloud cover had changed a bit, but it was still pretty. Fortunately, there was no one behind me so I stopped to get a nice photo of it.

I'm incredibly thankful that I can locate, buy, and carry home all the essentials, as well as non-essentials, I want in my house. It's worth remembering that millions of people around the world would love to have the "problems" I have, and that I would be well advised to keep my whining to a minimum.

Speaking of essentials, I got my first "harvest" today - a zucchini plant from my little backyard garden. I couldn't really believe it was there since when I looked a few days ago I swear it was only about three inches long. Anyway, I pulled it off trying to investigate it. Generally, I don't like to pick vegetables until I'm ready to use them. I love the idea of getting dinner from the plant to plate in less than an hour. But, that's not the case this time.

However, I'm pretty impressed the zucchini looks good. I've never grown them before, but I knew they grew fast. Fortunately, my neighbor LaVonda told me the other day when I asked that she loves zucchini. At the rate they're going, they'll be growing over the fence into her yard in no time at all.

Much like the raspberry bush I planted a couple of years ago that's now in Bob's garden and very little of it on my side of the fence. I feel awful that it crawled over onto their side. But, nothing I can do about it. I didn't realize that was a problem when I planted it near the fence. Now I know.

Not sure how I'm going to enjoy the first fruits of the garden this season. Considering I only planted this less than a month ago I wasn't really prepared to be thinking about it what to do with zucchini. But, the time has arrived. Maybe I'll see what I can pick up at the farmer's market tomorrow that will go with it.

I also have quite a few green tomatoes on my plants, and I noticed tonight I've got a few volunteer tomato plants coming up, too. I am looking forward to having fresh tomatoes out of my own little patch.