Friday Quote Day

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory. Mahatma Gandhi  Last week was more of a full-effort week than this has been, but I'm getting back on track. I walked Wednesday and yesterday, but couldn't pick up the pace to a jog at all. In fact, I was slower this week than I've been in a long time. I'm not in a race, though, and just getting out there and Doing It is a victory. It certainly helps that the humidity has come down, along with the temperature. I even opened up the house yesterday and turned the AC off. Bliss! The garden is producing like cra-zee, and is taking a lot of time. One thing I really love growing is edamame. Throw a bean in the ground and it'll grow, and each plant produces dozens of pods. They're fussy when it comes to shelling, and I suppose I could just freeze them in the pod, but I like getting the work out of the way now, rather than later. I've learned my tomato lesson, for sure. Last year I tried to squeeze as many plants as possible into a tiny little section of the garden. The plants ended up shading each other and they had no room to grow. This year I put in twice as many plants and spaced them properly and I'm easily going to have a year's worth of tomatoes for soups and chili. I'm already out of canning jars; the remaining tomatoes will be cooked, puréed and frozen. Tonight for dinner we're having some kind of chicken – grilled, most likely – with a big pan of roasted vegetables. I'm going to toss tomatoes, eggplant (which hasn't done very well this year), a red pepper, onions, garlic, zucchini, corn and celery together with olive oil, herbs, garlic, salt and pepper. Twenty minutes at 450° and dinner is served. And to round out this post, since I've mentioned running walking, reaping and eating, I'll confess that my cute little Elefante knitting project has been neglected for a week. I put it away when our guests were here and haven't opened the knitting bag since. Just like harvest time, though, the holidays will be here before I know it, and Elefante is going to be one of several tiny stuffed-animal gifts for our youngest granddaughter. I need to start making my gift list and putting yarn and patterns together. Football Knitting season is right around the corner!