Thursday, September 1, 2011

N Is For...

Nature's bounty.  My garden is a bit hit-and-miss this year.  The cantaloupes are just setting fruit, and if the pumpkins ever get past the blossom stage, they won't be ready until Christmas.  The green beans are fabulous, I must say, and the tomatoes, though sweet as sugar, are dinky little things.  I am so fortunate to have friends whose gardens are producing, and they share!  Yesterday Joel brought a watermelon at the peak of perfection (had that for dinner!), cucumbers, and a jar of his homemade pickles.  Sarah arrived with a basket of eggplants, tiny yellow grape tomatoes, a big heritage tomato, bell peppers and hot peppers, cucumbers (I can see white gazpacho on the menu), and yellow squash.  I got a laugh when Sarah said, "Friends don't give friends zucchini."  Barbara Kingsolver, in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, described the small town church parking lot where all car windows were rolled up and the doors locked lest the churchgoers come out to find big bags of zucchini on the front seat.  The irony is that I didn't plant zucchini this year, thinking some kind person would give me some!  My great-niece is due to arrive tomorrow and I am so happy to have all these wonderful home-grown vegetables to serve.

Nick of time.  I could turn this into a testimonial to the Royal Vacuum Cleaner Company (they make the Dirt Devil).  I called customer service last Friday just to see if there was anything else I could do to get my not-so-old vacuum going again, having tried everything I knew to revive it.  Two of the nicest, friendliest, most efficient service reps and one corporate honcho later, my vacuum was laid to rest and I ordered a new one at a significantly reduced price.  (Honcho actually directed me to the low-end vacuum to meet my needs.)  I was told the order would be expedited.  Yeah, yeah...heard that one before.  I was lining up my apologies to my great-niece, Lori, for the appearance of my carpet, but what could I do?  I nearly fell over when Fed-Ex drove up yesterday with a new, improved model...three working days after my call!  I'm really impressed...and, dang, the carpet looks good.

Numbers One and Two sons accompanied Tree Guy yesterday and they went down to the oak in the goat pen to buck and split more firewood.  The men and the splitter are definitely getting a workout this year.

1 comment:

Kathryn said...

I was all set to tell you what MY friend said about zucchini and locking car doors at this time of year...and I see that it has already made it to print by Barbara Kingsolver...still makes me laugh, though. And I'm thrilled that you are able to have a clean carpet to share with your great-N-iece. I predict a N-ice, N-ice, N-ice time had by all!