July!

"What dreadful hot weather we have!

It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance."
- Jane Austen 

July has arrived, and brought unusually high temperatures with it!  Parts of the garden are doing well -- the pumpkins and zucchini are sprawling all over their space -- but the tomatoes in the clay pots keep wilting if I don't water them every day.  Only one of my heads of lettuce is doing well, but I've already cut from it twice and it looks like it's about to go to seed.  It looks good for the cherry tomatoes and the other tomatoes in the ground, though and it looks like I'll get a good amount of basil, too.  Hopefully this next week of really high temperatures won't kill everything!

The tea guild is getting ready to walk in the Rose, White & Blue Parade through downtown San Jose on the 4th, so that should be fun.  It's the third year we've walked in the parade and we're glad to have been invited back!  We had a lot of fun waving to the crowd and being in the parade.  Here is one of the photos from last year:          

The parade starts at 10 a.m. and runs through the Rose Garden neighborhood in San Jose, so come out and see it!  We can always use some fans in the audience ...

Jane Austen on Masterpiece Theatre again!

Late last night I caught the new version of Austen's _Northanger Abbey_ on Masterpiece Classics, and the announcer said that_Mansfield Park_ would be playing next in the series. So, if you missed the Jane Austen series when it debuted last spring, or you'd like a chance to record it or see it again, check your TV listings for next Sunday night, around 11 p.m. I don't know how long they've been re-broadcasting the series this time around, because I've often been watching television late at night on Sundays during the last few weeks and I haven't seen anything until last night.

Here is the PBS website for the series: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/austen/