Barbecue and blogging milestone

The skies cleared up enough yesterday that the MSG/SNA barbecue could go on as scheduled. The event was attended not only by gardeners but members of the Stonybrook Neighborhood Association; many people were affiliated with both. When my daughter and I arrived at 6:00 my priority was nourishment. Until my plate was filled with corn, potato, and pasta salads along with a burger off the grill I could not go about the business with catching up with some of my fellow gardeners, including a few I hadn't seen since the barbecue we had in June because many of us have such different schedules. We all had different reports about our vacations, the start of school, and creative projects, but when it came to gardening everyone complained about their tomatoes.As usual, I forgot to take photos until dark, which seemed to arrive too early. As I took out my camera drops from a brief light shower fell on my display, so it went back into my pocket until the main performance by Brian, who had been providing nice background music the whole time, and Joe, who added special lyrics to "The Garden Song." Some of his parody described the realities of gardening, from slugs eating the harvest and emergency runs to the A&P, but I was particularly amused by his lines about being a Steering Committee member that were inspired by his partner's complaints, I mean reports of her activities. Unfortunately, I don't have a decent photo that includes Curtis, who performed the essential task of holding up the sheet of lyrics.

My daughter's best friend in the garden was unavailable and it was too dark to read, so she amused herself with my camera. Her candids of people having a good time came out much better than mine, although the flash was blinding.

And so I've come to the end of this, my 100th post. After all of my dismal reports of rotted tomatoes and rained-out weekends, I found it a happy coincidence to have something positive to cover. I know that a few of my readers have passed this milestone already, given the length and frequency of their blogging, but I'm feeling rather pleased with this accomplishment. There were times in the past fifteen months that I wanted to quit, due to lack of topics, lack of comments, lack of desire to write about lackluster results, and lack of gardening activity in the off-season. But then I look back on how the act of blogging has forced me to get off my butt to really notice the progress of my gardens and learn more about improving my practices and it all seems worthwhile. I don't know if I have another 100 posts in my future, but I appreciate the attention, the comments, and the camaraderie among other gardening bloggers. Thanks for visiting.