The Deck and the Garden

Recipes have been scarce on this blog for a while and posts, too. I blame our work on the back deck. Sweetie and I have been spending every day for the last two weeks (minus, for me, the three days last weekend when I was in LA) taking apart the old deck and refurbishing it, then putting down new deck boards and putting in new posts for railing. As is normal in the summer, this has been hot work. By dinner time there is no energy for new recipes, either savory or sweet.

We have house painters coming on Monday, so we have stopped the deck work for a while (although we might work on railings) and our perseverance paid off. Both the lower and the middle deck are done, leaving only the steps, railings, and some of the upper deck! Exciting. Here is how it looks:

It might not look like much, but the larger deck is 11 x 16 feet.

The garden is the other thing that has my attention. The squash, cucumbers, beans and...finally!...tomatoes are gradually ready to harvest (see top photo for all but beans), but I find that I need to harvest the beans daily in  order to have beans that aren't huge and tough. The basil is getting big, too. The flowers are also a joy, but need deadheading and today I began the process of weeding out the old, spent wildflowers and trimming the tops off the iris leaves. Soon it will be time to put down more bark chip mulch, too. It's certainly needed near the potted zinnia and flax in the photo below. Someone gave me a sign that says, "A garden is a thing of beauty and a job forever" and they spoke the truth.

Tonight we are having grilled shrimp, grilled planks of zucchini squash, sliced tomatoes with balsamic, olive oil and basil chiffonade so maybe I'll have a shrimp recipe to post soon.