No fertilizer this year. Occasional Epsom Salts. The picture is deceptive, it looks like some of the peppers are from the plant in the round pot--not so, the one in the round pot has no large ones--this plant is falling over with peppers. The seedlings I planted this year are also doing very well considering their age and the constant rain--see attached pic--this plant already has as much peppers as I got last year from the above mentioned plant. Please disregard the date of the pic, it was taken July 23rd. My peaches are a constant battle with the squirrels and raccoons--gonna pick em all tomorrow. Ravi

Had lunch with my Chinese friends (in a pizza joint LOL) Got another lesson in dim sum culture: 1. Dim Sum does not really mean âÂÂa little bit of heartâÂÂ, âÂÂsmall heartâÂÂ, etc. it is a common misinterpretation of the essence of the concept. Dim means to point, or to focus. In other words, itâÂÂs all about the heart. 2. Dim sum is not about eating originally. Even today, a Chinese will not invite you to eat dim sum, instead, he/she will say,â LetâÂÂs go sip teaâÂÂ. 3. WiKi is inacurate in saying that: â At first, it was considered inappropriate to combine tea with food, because people believed it would lead to excessive weight gain. People later discovered that tea can aid in digestion, so teahouse owners began adding various snacksâÂÂ. It was a common greeting in China, â Hey, congratulations, looks like you have gained a few pounds.â Fat was considered a very good thing, because you would be looking like Buddha. 4. Not too long ago in China, dim sum eating was a different thing. In the morning thatâÂÂs where scholars would meet, with their pet canary birds in exquisitely crafted bamboo cages to compete to see whose bird could sing better and they would exchange poetry and artwork. Commoners would bring their pet cricks in highly decorated boxes to have cricket fights with each other. Much like dog fights elsewhere, a lot of money would be involved, and the well known lineage of crickets could be very expensive. Little kids would bring their per spiders in match boxes, a special kind of spiders known as âÂÂGolden hair catsâÂÂ. They would have spider fights also. House wives and concubines would walk around the room to chat with relatives and friends they knew. Matchmakers would also be around to drum up business in arranged marriages. Cricket fights Such picturesque imagery. I asked him to recommend a few movies which would depict China in the old days. Hopefully with subtitles of course. dcarch

I love the revere pewter! I can't get over how much more I like it than the blues you were trying! And the drapes are perfect with the room! Definitely worth the time washing and ironing! It paid off! I like the final selection in lamps also. I'm not sure if the shades from Target you were referring to were the lighter linen colored burlap drum shade? I can see those working with the room or another choice would be the white drum shade with the black band of ribbon around the base. Also at Target. A rug like this would be the finishing touch. Don't know if you have Garden Ridge out your way, but they have a big selection, some in wool. Anyway, something like this would look great and the 8x10 is only $99!

Kate, there are a lot of rhubarb brownie recipes on the web. I was thinking about them what you said about the chocolate. I was looking for something like my banana "brownie" recipe which uses white chocolate. Rather than reinventing the wheel, because I can't imagine a straight substitution of rhubarb for banana, I found a recipe along those lines, which I hope to make tonight or tomorrow. I'll let you know once I've gotten a good result (no need to waste more rhubarb!) Meantime, I had found a couple of custard recipes, and was trying to squeeze the makings between work-type stuff and dinner, the crustless one, but I was rushing, and when I saw that this recipe called for a crust, I didn't remember that I had a different one. They're very similar, so I think they have a common source, or one inspired the other. The crustless one reads like impossible pie. The crust one has half the flour. Anyway, I just made the crust one without the crust. This is the recipe. I scanted the sugar by a quarter and it's still quite sweet. Next time, I'll try 2/3 of what it says. I also measured the ingredients by eye, except the rhubarb. The custard is only two eggs worth, but it was sufficient, since the pint is just to hold together the rhubarb. Anyway, we think it's fantastic. Quick and easy and very rhubarby. The orange zest and juice just enhance it. It is a little wet crustless, since there's so much water in rhubarb. A nice crust to soak it up might be nice... But it's so good as is, as more of a pudding than a pie, I see no need to "fix" it. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/rhubarb-custard-pie-recipe-2107834 This is the one I was supposed to be making (and posted first as a couple of following posts attest): https://www.kitchenfrau.com/crustless-rhubarb-custard-pie/