Worked the last couple of weeks on spiffing up the dock.  Painted the whole thing in three sessions, each session with a gallon of deck paint.   Really looks nice.  Then I focused on the jungle around the dock.   Looks better than new.    I had several yard art items that I had set up down there and had grown into the landscaping over the years.   I retrieved them, gave them a good cleaning and put them back in their places.    The other task was to improve the path between the dock and the neighbors on both sides.   We had a wind storm a few weeks ago that brought down a ton of leaves and pine needles.   Joey and Mark raked those up into large piles along with needles on the roof and in the gutters.    Then I top the path with the needles.   I’m about 3/4 of the way finished – waiting for another storm to bring down a finishing load of debris. I’m going to try to keep up with it this time so it doesn’t get back into the jungle mode – forest path ok, jungle trail not.

The garden is producing prodigious amounts of veggies and the new neighbor is a good picker.  Gretchen is a vegan and not shy about harvesting greens.  And she’s still bringing over vegan desserts – this week a loaf of banana bread, still warm out of the oven.   The weather has been perfect with no need to cover or water.  It’s cool enough to hold the bugs down.  Lovin’ this global warming.   I’ve started second plantings as an area is harvested so I’m really space limited right now.  On my third round of turnips which turned out to be the surprise crop of the season.   They’re nice to grow because they germinate in only a couple of days and then are ready to pick within 2 months so if I plant a row or patch monthly, there’s a continuous supply. It’s also a nice crop because you can eat both the root and the greens.  We’ve always mashed them with carrots but this year tried using sweet potatoes instead of or in addition to the carrots.   Really tasty and nutritious.