Miscellany...

 First, something new to us that we've found in our wood mulch.  Slime mold:  

Just doing a quick search, I'm thinking this is likely in the Dog Vomit family.  If so, I can attest to the appropriate name.  When I saw the first one, I actually thought it was something a wild critter had thrown up.  When I found several little mounds of this throughout a bed where new wood chips were recently spread, I realized that wasn't likely and I needed to look this thing up.

While I was, at first, wary of even poking it with a stick (scenes from "The Blob"  vivid in my memory), I was relieved to read that it is harmless.  One can even safely pick it up with bare hands.  Not that I wanted to do that, but it was a simple thing to discard it.   In case you're interested in seeing how much more beautiful than dog vomit some species of slime mold can be, there are some pictures here, and an interesting little video explaining how slime mold grows.  

Moving on...

Checking that the front door was locked one evening recently, this little fella caught my eye:

With the porch light on, he (or she) was probably enjoying a feast of insects tinier than itself.

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And, finally...

...a sneak peek at a stitching project I started recently:

Fat quarters and floss

There is a clue in the picture above as to what this project is called.  

If you know, you know.

Almost finished.  

An explanation of this project will soon be forthcoming.

What interesting, perhaps random, things have come across your path recently?

In the garden...

After recently writing two heavy posts, and the second one very dense, I'm thinking some lighter fare is in order.

We've had some beautiful days recently sprinkled amongst our normal hot and humid days.  And checking out the 10-day forecast, it appears we're going to have a string of beautiful days with highs only in the 80's.  The garden seems to love it all, and has been going gangbusters.

I'm harvesting zucchini already

And the banana peppers look like they're maybe a week or so away from harvesting.  I am planning on pickling and canning these.  I use pickled banana peppers fairly often in cooking, so I'm hoping I can find a pickling recipe that produces a final product I like.

I planted a ridiculous number of tomato plants.  And here's the story: 

I couldn't find any 6-packs when I first started looking for seedlings in early May, and finally I asked at a couple of places if I was too late to be shopping for them.  At one place, they didn't remember ever seeing any, and didn't know if they'd be getting any.  After looking for them at the Lowe's garden center,  I asked the same question there.  The person I asked started to respond similarly, but thank goodness she asked someone else.  

The second employee said, "Hmmm...  I think we have some out there with all the other vegetable starts."  Since I had already scoured the outside plants, I didn't hold out any hope she would find any, but she did!  She found a number of 6-packs that were starting to be a bit leggy, and I think they were marked down.  Looking through them, I found several 6-packs that had multiple cells containing two plants!   Same with pepper 6-packs.  Who hoo!  What a score!

As I was deciding how many tomato 6-packs to buy, my common sense shrunk to the size of a peanut.  Suddenly all I could imagine were jars of spaghetti sauce, and all the chili I could make with preserved tomatoes.  I even imagined myself making and canning salsa - which I've never done in my life.  The stars in my eye blinded me to just how many tomato plants I was actually going to take home with me when I carried three six packs of them to the check out.  

Now... remember there were two plants in some of the cells of those three 6-packs... This week, I finally decided to face the reality of what I had done, and I took an inventory.  I counted 25 tomato plants, divided more or less even between Rutgers and Romas.  And I must not fail to mention I also purchased two cherry tomato plants.  There are so many tomato plants, I can't get them all in one picture.  I'm almost embarrassed about the situation, except that I'm NOT.  😆 

Part of me wishes tomato plants didn't take up half my garden space, but I get over that by imagining all the experimenting I can do with the bounty I expect.  And it will be fun to give some away, too.  

Of course, this is all IF a blight or critter doesn't take them out.  We (and our neighbors) have been graced with a skunk visiting our yards a few times in the last week.  As I was looking up how to deter a skunk from spraying around the house, or better yet how to persuade it to leave the premises altogether,  I came to learn these nocturnal animals can decimate a vegetable garden. 😟  I've set out a gourmet dinner in the backyard; this skunk isn't going to be in a hurry to move on.

So now I'm researching ways to deter the little striped terror from eating my produce - just in case I start seeing nibbles.

At the moment,  I've got beautifully globed Rutgers:

And adorably oblong Romas:

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I'm not sure if these cucumbers are going to produce anything.  They are slow growing.  I suspect they don't get enough sunlight, and this raised bed dries out too quickly.  They  keep wilting, and I keep reviving them, but at the end of the day, I think this spot is not where they're going to thrive best.  

For good measure, and for entertainment value, I've also planted some things in pots:

I've got some herbs and flowers, and even some eggplant growing in containers.  

Not adequately pictured, but also in the garden are a bunch of green beans (pole bean style), more and various peppers, and zinnias, dahlias and sunflowers.  The zinnias are blooming already, and the sunflowers are above my head.  

My lovely garden has practically transformed my normal disdain for summer.  Enjoying 80-some degree days instead of 90+ days doesn't hurt at all, either.

How do you enjoy, pass or survive the hot days of summer?