Let Them Grow - June Edition

My peas finally flowered - they are almost 3 feet tall now.  I took this picture a few days ago and this morning I saw a few pea pods actually growing - it looks like the pea experiment worked.  Peas are hubby's absolute favorite - eaten raw - so next year I might grow even more.

All of the cucumber plants are flowering as well, I should have cucumbers by the end of June/mid July.  

 I switched out the Spring flowers for ones which hopefully will last through our hotter summer weather.

 I bought this Grecian style urn 2 years ago.  It is very large (2 feet high and 1.5 feet wide) and I decided I needed to part with it.  I originally bought it on our Facebook bidding site for $15 and I managed to sell it for $30.

 I also bought some of my favorite things on the bidding site this week.  Someone had listed a large box of "stuff" with very bad pictures.  I had spotted two pieces of Mexican Talavera pottery in the box and was hoping no one else had. The box ended up being mine.  I kept all that is in the picture and drove straight to the thrift store with the rest.  I can always use those glass plant watering balls, I used to have a few but they had broken over the years.  This pottery would likely have been around $15 even in Mexico but here I managed to pay a whopping $1 for the lot.  My Mexican pottery collection is growing - eventually I may have to pare it down.  Fortunately if listed properly it sells well and for good money.

Mom went to the eye Dr today for a checkup on her eye that has been operated on.   It is healing nicely.  She has been told approximately 6-8 weeks for the other eye which likely means 3-4 months...but all we can do is be patient.  She did tell me a side effect of cataract surgery is now she can see that she has way more wrinkles than she originally thought lol.

I paid $4611 in property taxes today - that is both our house and the condo my Mom lives in.  It sure does hurt to see that large amount of money exit the bank account but since we save year round for it we were prepared.  Our home insurance went up $200 this year, also paid this week ($1403) and the tax on the house went up $300 over last year.  The condo only went up $20 from last year.  I had guessed on large increases thankfully but it must be much tougher for those on fixed incomes to absorb such large increases.  At least all the "big" bills are now paid until October when the car insurance is due.  

I needed one stick of celery for my potato salad today and then again declined to purchase it as it was listed at $7.99 a pound!  I've done some research.  Apparently due to US tariffs, the current celery juicing craze and a wet spring which has led to poor growing conditions the cost of celery has been increased due to limited supply.  Needless to say I might break down and buy some for stuffing at Thanksgiving in October  but none until the price gets back to decent levels.  Instead I put a whole bunch of chopped radishes and the potato salad turned out just fine.  

I can easily see us growing more and more food over the years to help counteract these ridiculous price increases.  I hate being at the mercy of others so hopefully what I planted this year will be plentiful.

Another week on the books...that's what is shaking around here.  Cheers!