Good morning! Come on in! Today is a good day for hot coffee and cozying beneath a blanket with a movie. It’s raining outside, at last and the temperature actually dropped a good 20 degrees from the 90’s to the 70’s. In the summer, that’s significant.

If we were having coffee, I would show you the parts of the garden I didn’t show you last week. My cherry tomatoes (upper left) are growing past their 6-foot poles. If there are tomatoes up there that need harvesting, I will either need to grab a ladder or I might be able to reach it on tippy-toes.

Meanwhile, my larger tomatoes aren’t growing as tall. I think it’s because it takes more energy (on the plant) to bear large tomatoes than smaller tomatoes. So far, I have one Cherokee Purple, 4 Brandywine Pink, one German Queen, and 4 Golden Jubilee tomatoes. Hopefully, with cooler temperatures, it will help with the tomato production.

Finally, the bush beans! I can’t remember what round I’m on for bush beans. These are just barely beginning to produce and let me tell you, these beans are a lot more normal looking than the previous rounds. I pulled out some round 1 and 2 beans this weeks because it didn’t look so good and I thought it would improve the airflow for other plants. I think it might be the seeds since these were planted with brand new bean seeds.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you I harvested my first big tomato this week. This beauty, though cracked, weighed in at nearly half pound. It’s the largest tomato I’ve grown to-date.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you I went on an adventure this week. As I mentioned last week, I got a new camera lens. Well, I got to go test it this week. I purposefully took Thursday off, knowing mom would be heading to the office that day. Unfortunately, she changed her mind at the last minute.

I thought it would jeopardize my plan but strangely, when I told her about it, she was okay with me going. But then I got a lecture after the trip about me risking my life for such an adventure despite I came home safely and didn’t get hurt or anything. Besides, what’s life without a little risks?

Anyway, the road in the photo, I drove that road and let me just say, driving that road was an adventure on its own. The road is a Scenic Backway. It’s the first time I’ve heard a road called that. It’s usually called Scenic Byway.

This road is all curves. I don’t think there was even a part of the road that was straight. It was like the road was designed for adventurous, skilled drivers, someone who’d like a challenge. Most of the turns were quick and I felt like I was driving on switchbacks – one after another.

The view was well worth it, though, not to mention it was about 10 degrees cooler. I was amazed to see how green the mountains were and saw there was even snow in some of the tallest peaks. I shot all the photos on the trip using my new lens and was kind of surprised at how great the pictures turned out, especially the panorama below. This was made by piecing 12 photos in Lightroom to become this one giant photo of the view. This lens is definitely a keeper.

#weekendcoffeeshare is hosted by Natalie of Natalie the Explorer. I appreciate you stopping by and hope to chat again same time next week.