I Enter the Fair

I've been saying for years that when I retire I am going to enter something in the fair. 
I have an online friend who wins blue ribbons with her paintings and her husband with his jelly. It just seemed like a fun thing to do. 


I decided on photography. It was so hard to pick one of the many favorites. I have taken thousands of pictures over the past three years. I love my new camera and I take pictures at every opportunity. 

I quickly found out that it's not cheap to have something in the county free fair. There are rules and regulations. Frames matting and trips over there at certain times made it a bit of a drag for me. I was amazed at the selection of photo's  there.I think the last time I went there was about ten total for the flower category. This year there were over twenty.  I was happy with the 'judges honorable mention' but still complaining that a mushroom won the flower category. Here is my picture and a shot of it in the fair with the blue ribbon winner.

Pesto

The finished product. ready for the freezer.

The garden 2011..planted with seeds. 

The basil I pulled to thin the patch.

I sowed the seeds I gathered from the basil last year. They all came up. I pulled a bucket full of basil, just enough to thin them out, and thought how nice it would be to make Pesto.

I picked the leaves, washed them, used the blender and added garlic, walnuts, salt, pepper and olive oil. I will add the parmesan cheese when I use the cubes I froze as cheese does not freeze well.

An hour and a half later I wound up with six cubes to freeze. I think that is about half of the jar  in the photo. I don't have the mess cleaned up yet!

It better be extra good!  or I just have too much time on my hands!

Classic, simple basil pesto recipe with fresh basil leaves (2 cups packed), pine nuts (1/3 cup) or walnuts, garlic (2 cloves), Romano or Parmesan cheese (1/3 cup), extra virgin olive oil (1/3-1/2 cup), and salt and pepper.

The Wait for Dianthus

And a bug too!

So many colors so much beauty

Last year I planted seeds from a bag that I gathered the fall before. I had orange mini zinnias and yellow marigolds and basil.

Where did the coral come from?

making a cone of color

making a cone of green

when the plants started coming up I didn't recognize the leaf but moved the seedling around in the garden anyway. All summer I watched them grow into a clump of green spiky leaves. As winter came and things began to freeze back I was still uncertain as to what or where I got those seeds.

As the ground began to warm the green popped back out. Clumps of something I don't know what it. I decided to not till the garden. I would instead work around the returning plants and bulb planted last year and fill in with annual seeds gathered from last year.

The First bloom

.

This is what starting appearing after the last frost. I thought maybe a cone of some kind. I already knew it was a hardy plant because the frost that bit back everything else didn't seem to bother this plant at all.

Finally a bloom appears!! I've seen this before. Dianthus. how did I get those seeds? Little did I know I was about to see an explosion of beauty and color.