A Balmy Christmas Eve – Part 1

Christmas Eve, we drove around the Twin Cities looking at Christmas lights.  We had a record-breaking high of 55ºF and it had been steadily raining all day and night.  It was still 51ºF and raining during our adventure.  I was taking pictures without wearing a coat - just jeans and a T-shirt, and I wasn't cold.  In Minnesota, we don't normally still have patches of green grass in December!  

The wet roads added something special to the festive lights.  

More images from Christmas Eve to come.

Twenty-four Hour Triptych 2023

We got 2 inches of snow for Halloween.  Some call it a trick.  Some call it a treat.  I think it is pretty, but much of it has already melted.  The first and last images are exactly 24 hours apart – to the minute!

Late Blooming Babies

 It's late September and my peppers and zucchinis finally decide to start producing!  

Nothing but flowers all summer from my peppers.  

The zucchinis have had beautiful flowers all summer long, but some critter keeps snipping them off before the veggie can grow.  

It's a coin toss as to whether I will get any harvest before the first freeze.  The biggest pepper is about the size of my thumbnail.  The zucchini is about 1.5 inches long.  They are very cute though.

Caprese

 Made some chopped Caprese salad with fresh tomatoes and basil from the garden.

Fruit of my Labor

 We had strawberry plants when I was a child.  I bought a couple plants this year to see how it would go and so far I've been really pleased with the plants.  They are getting big and starting to produce lovely ripened fruit (as long as I get to them before naughty critters.)

They had a rocky start with some of the earliest fruit in June getting bug infested or chomped on by critters.  I'll get more plants next year and work harder to keep pests away.