Lettuce Leaves and Swallowtails

Thunderstorms rolled through this morning. Our rain gauge collected one and a half inches in the past 7 hours. About 15 minutes ago the sun appeared, so I ventured out to the garden. We obviously had pounding rain because a couple of my tender tomato plants are broken and all of the salad greens are flattened to the ground. I think (or at least hope) they'll revive in a day or two. But luckily I picked a huge basketful yesterday so we can still have salad with dinner tonight.



Isn't it curious? There was a time when iceberg lettuce was the ubiquitous lettuce in the grocery stores and restaurants. Now however, our lettuce choices are nearly as extensive as our yarn choices. I always plant several tried and true varieties - Green Ice, Red Sails, Oak Leaf, for instance. But I also try something new each year. This year the newbies include Red Salad Bowl, a burgundy red leaf with a smooth flavor and Blushed Butter Oaks. It's appropriately named. The ruffly light green leaves have a faint blush of red on the edges, and its flavor is, well, buttery-delicious!

After surveying the garden damage, I took advantage of the clearing sky to get a photo of one of my knitting works in progress - the Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clark.



The yarn is from Alpacas d'Auxvasse, a hand-dyed laceweight blend of 90% Suri alpaca and 10% merino wool. I'm using size US3 needles.

Now that the garden is demanding lots of attention, my knitting projects are moving along slowly. In the case of this shawl, that's just fine. It's too hot and sticky to even think about wearing a warm, fuzzy shawl. But I know I'll be happy to have it when the seasons change once again, and colorful just-picked salads are only a photo in my garden journal.