is it seriously mid-july already?

this summer’s going too fast, i don’t like it...somehow it doesn’t even feel like summer, i’m still waiting for it to start. it just occurred to me that maybe i feel this way because this is the first time in around two decades that i’ve transitioned to summer without school. add to that the cool temperatures in spring and early summer...easily enough to disorient me a bit.

yesterday i picked up the july issue of diversity, which has been out for over two weeks, i just never remember to grab one.

they used the cute picture of reed and his friend austin, and also the one of spoony (who just started a new blog) and her girlfriend. i would’ve done the collage layout a bit differently, but considering they only had one day to put this together (i turned in photos the day after pride, the day before the issue went to press) i think it’s pretty decent.

they also used the photos i took at les bois awards. the awards show differed vastly from last year. in 2009 they did this big production, with lots of sponsors, speakers and performers, and the show went on for a few hours--this year it was like nothing, they sped right through the awards, minerva sang a song and that was it. i had a hard time getting photos of all the winners because many of them didn’t even give acceptance speeches.

best of all i like what they did with the cover on this issue. unfortunately they’re not doing full-page cover images anymore, but this still looks good i think.

the other day i took photos of kids at the idaho writing camps, for use in promotional materials. i went to these camps when i was a kid--you go on field trips every day and an author does her/his best to prompt you to write, then you share and workshop and eventually get your work published in an anthology. fun stuff. getting to tag along for the photo shoot was like being a li’l camper again.

i faux pased pretty hard, though--there was this girl walking alone in the group, and she looked like maybe she hadn’t made any friends yet, so i went up to her and asked her if it was her first time at camp...she was the teacher’s aide. it was then that i realized the age group of the other campers was somewhere in the 7-9-year-old range. i felt like SUCH an ass. so i spent the next five minutes talking rapidly and trying to make her laugh and forget that i’m an ass, but i probably just made her more uncomfortable, i don’t know.

this september i’m shooting a wedding for the first time. i met up with the bride yesterday--she’s a really cool person, very easygoing, and it sounds like the ceremony will be nice and laid back, thank goodness. i was dreading the whole thing before, but now that i’ve met her and talked to her i’m looking forward to it. if all brides were like her i would even consider trying to make a go of it as a wedding photographer. but they’re not, i know they’re not.

this morning i went to the new sunday market at bown town. i got all excited when i heard about this, because bown town is only a couple minutes from my house by bike--one of the reasons i often miss the weekly saturday and thursday markets is because i’m too lazy to ride downtown (even though that’s not far either). sadly, though, the bown market is super lame. there were hardly any vendors and i didn’t find any of their booths interesting.

i hung my herb clock that reed and i got from the new thrift store in mccall. it was broken but i took it apart, fixed it, cleaned it and put it back together, now it’s good as new. i love that it’s so deep it creates a little shelf--i hung it very sturdily so it can even bear some weight if needed.

last week i harvested some fun things--the first round of carrots!

i pulled them all at once, even though i knew they’d be different sizes...i wanted a group photo, and the numbers were dwindling after pulling so many test carrots in the last few weeks.

the purple ones are tastiest. they’re orange inside with a yellow core.

i almost forgot about the peas i have growing behind the fence. rather than growing vertically on supports i allowed them to sprawl out across the tall grasses, so they blend in. this is the first time i picked any of them.

bush beans are starting to mature...

and so are some zucchinis. they go well together:

i sautéed them in olive oil with salt and pepper. extremely simple, but extremely tasty--this was honestly the most delicious squash i’ve ever eaten. it turned all buttery and melt-in-your-mouth. the beans were tasty too, and amusing to watch the purple ones turn green when exposed to heat.

these are stuffed collard greens, like stuffed grape leaves. for the filling i stir-fried bell pepper, mushrooms, sticky rice and soy curls, seasoned with garlic, soy sauce, cumin and fennel seed. the fennel seed was the magic ingredient, even though i’m not a huge fennel fan. these were delicious. the next night i made the same thing only i chopped up the collards and threw them in the stir-fry rather than stuffing them.

this afternoon i made raw cucumber-avocado “soup” for lunch (it ended up being a veggie dip, though, because it’s way too heavy and rich to eat as a soup). no cucumbers from the garden yet, so the only homegrown ingredients were the parsley and the borage garnish. here’s the recipe:

1 medium-sized cucumber, peeled, seeds removed, cubed
1 1/2 small avocados (or 1 large), cubed
3 tablespoons raw sunflower seeds
1 lime, juiced
2 tablespoons water
handful of parsley
salt, pepper and cumin to taste
borage flowers for garnish

i basically just threw everything in the food processor and let it run until creamy. a blender would probably work better, but i prefer the food processor. thinning it out with a cup or so of raw nut milk would most likely make it more acceptable as a soup.

three more garden freaks this week! this carrot reminds me of the baby-shaped mandrake root from pan’s labyrinth. or the root baby from little otik. basically it’s a creepy possessed carrot freak root baby and i’m not eating it for fear of being impregnated by demons. not that that happens very often, just want to play it safe.

my first fused tomato is very underwhelming. it’s a currant tomato, so even though it might end up being twice the size of a normal currant tomato, that will still be smaller than any other tomato variety i’m growing.

double-bloom on a borage flower! the pink one eventually turned blue after being exposed to the light for a while. i’m glad i caught it just after opening because i like the contrast.

i’m crazy about this borage. i love watching bees freak out over it.

the prickly caterpillars are maturing, looking more and more like caterpillars:

more tiger lilies are opening:

some of the romaine lettuce stumps are unexpectedly sprouting again. i don’t think much will come of this, but it’s cute:

and, as always, my little garden helper is cutest of all: