Gifts From the Garden & Dear Ones

Hello, friends. Last week, I harvested chard, broccoli, basil, oregano, onions, cabbage, the last of the lettuce, two cucumbers, and some blackberries and mulberries. I saw the first tomato, eggplant and asian cucumbers, which is always exciting. As it won't be much longer before we harvest our garlic, I gathered all but one string of last year's from storage, and began dehydrating it. The house has been quite fragrant! The cabbage recipe I tried last week was good, but when making it, I realized two out of three spices were off-limits, due to J's allergies. I wasn't sure about cardamom, which I don't use often, but found it was related to ginger, when researching it. So, the dish ended up being cabbage and onions with cloves. I do intend to try some with cardamom and turmeric for myself, when I have some leftovers in the future.  My niece gifted me this sweet pot and plant, when I visited.  She made the pot in a recent class, and I love it.

I've been very concerned about McNibs for some time.  He's had a large, unusual mass, in his inguinal area, so you can imagine my thoughts. His holistic vet, who now lives out of state, only comes to the area once a month, and we had to wait two months to get a spot with him. He is wonderful, and obviously beloved by many, but as he's mobile, there's only so much he can do, and recommended I take him to the local vet.  I've mentioned before that McNibs is not cooperative at the vets, ever since something happened when I took him to the emergency vet for his happy tail. So, I had to give him Trazadone before the appointment, enough to do minor things, but to really check him over, with X-rays, biopsies and labwork, they ended up sedating him. In the end, his X-rays and biopsies were all clear  . The vet suggested several possibilities, including an encapsulated lipoma, something to do with an undescended testicle that sometimes shows up in old age, or possibly a hernia. He recommended surgery, but I've decided not to put him through that for now. He still absolutely loves to eat. These days, he's started doing this little prancing thing, in anticipation, when I'm prepping his food. He walks with me every day, and though he's slower (me too), he still does some good sprints several time a week, and took off after a deer Sunday.  He plays with his toys, and gets in the pond &/or creek almost every day.  I'm thinking he's pretty much living his best life, so what reason is there to put him through that? The area doesn't seem to be tender to him. It would be different if he was suffering, so I'm just going to wait and see.

I've spoke of Daisy of Maple Hill 101 several times here.  Last week, I commented on the garden trug in her header, and lo and behold, one arrived here this week.  I can see it getting lots of use in the garden.  Thanks so much, Daisy!  I've figured out why blogger was posting so wonky.  It was set on "HTML view", instead of "compose view", which I must have hit, unbeknownst to me.  But now it's back to normal.  Hooray!  It's the far left icon, if anyone else has that challenge.  The Japanese beetles have begun their emergence.  I managed to collect them one morning, and fed them to the chickens.  I'm shop sitting for a gallery through next Saturday.  This past Saturday was very busy, with a huge amount of people in town for the US Open.  The Open finished on Sunday, so the coming week should be a bit calmer.  This man brings me hope.  Wishing you a most lovely week.