Friends And Flowers In The Garden

  

  Boy, we sure don't get many chances to entertain anymore.

  Why? I guess it's because we're often downright pooped out. How do people with kids, grandkids, animals, whatever else...do it? I swear, I get home, and all I want to do is :

1) Put on my jammies

2) Pour myself a glass of wine

3) Kick Mr. J's ass in a game of Foosball...in my jammies

4) Call it a day

  So when we recently had a small but mighty group of pals over for an actual dinner, I was a bit out of practice.

  Thank god these pals are the kind that will love you forever, no matter what. (ummm...right, dear friends...? ehheeheheeh...eeeeeh)

  I put on my apron, and started a-cookin'.

Speaking of small but mighty...that's my kitchen.
Ain't no school like old school!

 I didn't take pictures of everything I made, because I was so busy doing, umm, well...it must have been something..... because all I have is a shot of my famous roasted veg:

  

Red onions, rainbow carrots and fennel.
Lots of rosemary and good olive oil. And salt.

  Now I remember, we were busy making the table out in the 'Dining Pavillion' pretty.

  It's a tough job, but I was up for the task at hand!

We had to move the foosball table to make room for actual
dining in the Dining Pavillion...

The theme was Rosemary.
And don't you love my grandparents gold striped glasses?
Well, I do.

  We had some proseco and treats by the fire pit in the garden to get this lil' party started. So lucky that it was a nice evening, too.

They may look normal and nice, but when this group
gets together...mayhem can easily ensue.

  

While I was getting the first course -a beautiful caprese salad with burrata and my home grown tomatoes- started, the gang was enjoying the ambiance of the evening...

I love our funny 'Dining/Foosball' Pavillion...especially at night.

I'm ringing the dinner bell, but I'm being ignored,
damn it.

  So, anyway, we had big fun eating ourselves silly, and doing a pretty good job of drinking ourselves silly, too, so as usual, mayhem indeed ensue.

  

Normal after dinner chat..

...becomes a total fire danger situation.

Not really, it was just good, clean sparkler fun
for our pal's birthday.

  

Even though I didn't get many photos, I can say that we had a  grand time, ate pasta, drank wine..and had my homemade tiramisu for dessert.

  I need to get out of my routine and do this more often, ok?

  Startiiinnggg...NOW.

  

  

  So that's the friends in the garden....And here are the flowers..

  Fall can be so nice here on the central coast, especially after weeks, even months of cold and grey fog.

  I was very good about feeding my flowering plants more this year. I've been a bit lax in that department, so it has been great to see the results, most notably with my remaining roses.

  Ive been using a product called 'MaxSea', which you add to water. The potted plants seem to really benefit, but I also use is as a foliar feeder.

  Plus, when you are mixing it, it has a very pleasant smell..like the ocean, in a good way.

I can't remember the names of my roses anymore...
I blame it on, ummm...I can't remember.

This is Nymphet! I got it!

This one is 'John' something or other.
Man, there was a day I could remember them all...sigh.
I like my sage shrub under there....

Pretty.
Sadly, a couple of days after this, we had a killer hot day
and these all got crispy.

Clematis 'Durandii'.
I love this one.

A last shot of old
'What's Her Name'.

  All of these particular plants are in large containers, so the MaxSea works super well. I give them a dose about every three weeks during growing season.

  It's good to remind myself just how rewarding it is to have Friends and Flowers in the garden.
  Can't wait for next time.