Garden Fun, Peach Oven Pancake and Quiet Nights

Not too long ago, Alex and I had the habit of grazing all day on snacks and having a big dinner. We cut that out recently though in favour of having brunch and dinner without snacking. We haven't been able to figure out what we enjoy snacking on that isn't processed so we're pretty much giving that up altogether. This means I am getting lots of experience with my Breakfast Comforts cookbook! This morning I made a Peach and Almond Oven Pancake. It was SO DELICIOUS!!! The pancake itself is cooked in the oven and the peaches are cooked in a pan with brown sugar and butter. The pancake reminds me a bit of Yorkshire pudding, it's quite eggy and it was a new experience for us. I think the next one I'll make will be with pecans and strawberries. It looks small but it's quite big, 4 hardy slices, so we have some for tomorrow's brunch too.

I had some fun in my garden today. As you can see, "tomato land" was turning into a jungle. With two pots of garden peas, there were 12 containers in there. I took them out to prune, cage and separate, so they should do a bit better now.

Now they are in two separate areas. I put the Romas and peas next to the pumpkin patch, the regular tomatoes and cherry tomatoes are still in tomato land. I also put my lemon tree in tomato land, it's doing quite well with 4 big lemons that will hopefully turn yellow this season!

Speaking of the pumpkin patch...this is my experiment so I won't be upset if nothing happens. Having said that, I'm happy to report that the plants in the foreground are already flowering! Those are the ones I transplanted. The seeds I planted directly into the hills aren't doing so well. Only one of them grew (the little plant in the background). Funny huh? Everywhere I read and every video I watched said that pumpkins do not like being transplanted, yet they are thriving!

My "garbage bin" potatoes are thriving too. I added more earth to keep them growing well and plentiful. I'll add as much as I can as they grow, but the bins are nearly full at this point!

Despite the hot/cold weather this month, everything else is doing well. My second pot of lettuce is nearly ready to be picked and I planted 4 more pots. We realize that the Buttercrunch lettuce is our favourite crop, so I want to make sure we'll always have a good supply from now on. Every week I'll plant a new pot. I'm finding it very difficult making myself buy grocery store lettuce at this point!

My flowers are taking forever to grow though, they definitely need more sunny days like today. Our house guest Pavlov (running from Charlie) is having a ball. It's like he's on vacation up north! Why does Jack always look so sad in my photos? The other dogs are running around having fun and he's always focused on me and what I'm doing...aww, he's my little mama's boy lol...I can't even express how much these dogs mean to us!

Alex threw the ball into the little kiddie doggie pool and Jack sunk his face under to get it. I counted and he kept his face under there a good ten seconds! He's a water dog by ancestry, part pointer, part hound! :) At least that's what we think from looking at photos. He hates to get wet though, go figure.

These are my green beans, yellow beans and cukes...doing well also. I took advantage of the sunny morning to do my gardening and plant more herbs and lettuce. Now Alex and I are hibernating indoors because today is Quebec's national holiday and it's getting loud out there with tourists and bad french cover bands. There will be fireworks tonight so I'm preparing dog rescue remedy and some passionflower for Marlene. No offence to any francophones out there, but in all honesty, English people are the minority here and that's how we are typically treated. Montreal is more cultural but once you leave the cities, you're not too welcome if you speak English because it's associated with being Canadian - most Quebecers resent anything Canadian. Anyway...suffice to say we ARE NOT into the french thing so we prefer to just hang out indoors and watch movies this weekend.

But weeknights are still nice and quiet around here! Last night we treated ourselves to a cheese plate with some port and wine on the veranda. It was dark by the time we got around to dinner, and Alex had lit all the candles. It was so nice!

Here's a photo with the flash on. We found some really stinky Brie that is so delicious! And that heart-shaped cheese is a cheddar from England, so yummy! Alex and I try to be as frugal as possible since our dream is to purchase land and a home in a few years. But we also value the importance of enjoying each day. We don't go out much, we don't spend lots of money on clothes or vacations or "toys", so we treat ourselves to good food. It's important to keep your eye on the future, but to also enjoy each day as well, because we just never know what tomorrow will bring do we? :)

I hope everyone is having a great summer thus far, enjoying the garden and not working too hard!