Everything Is Growing

John said to me today: "Look, we're growing things!". It's true, our balcony has healthy plants galore- hot peppers, parsley, basil, small leaf basil, rosemary, marjoram and mint (has to have its own large pot because it's such a weed!). They smell so wonderful. And that doesn't count the beautiful begonias of all colors that are thriving as well. They remind me of my mother who grew them and loved them. And the rainbow colored coleus's are just exploding. All this is a first for us (other than the community garden in Maine which was really more our daughter and her husband's doing than ours).
It happened gradually but here we are and everything is obviously very happy on our balcony which faces south (but I do find shade for my coleus plants). We harvest the herbs and peppers and use them in our cooking. (Okay, John uses them in his cooking for us. In case life wasn't already good enough, my husband is the cook in our family!) He makes pesto, roasted hot peppers in olive oil to flavor anything and everything, roasted potatoes with rosemary, garlic potatoes with rosemary, basil on and in anything with tomatoes, and all manner of sauces and flavorings with the various herbs. He even makes his own tomato sauce for pasta with our herbs and fresh tomatoes from our weekly farmer's market. Plus, we make both green and black mint tea in the sun as our summer drinks.
Wow- how did this happen? We're now in sync with the open market and have our favorite "fresh vegetables and fruits from the fields" vendors. That and the fresh bread we buy at the local store and I'm in heaven! Or at least I can see it from here...