Kickoff to Summer Blog Hop and Giveaways

Join us June 5 and June 6 and enter for giveaways!

Today I am thrilled to welcome you to the Kickoff to Summer Blog Hop featuring author friends who are outstanding writers AND  my critique partners. When this group, dubbed the Koffee Kuppe Writers,  first met not one had a published book. Now four of the five are traditionally published with approximately fourteen books pubbed or contracted.

We, the Koffee Kuppe Writers, are gathering together online today for a fantastic, Kickoff to Summer Blog Hop. Not only will you learn  more about my special author friends, but you will have the opportunity to win the random drawing on each author's blogsite. Just leave a comment to enter. The winners will be announced on June 7.

Please visit the rest of the Koffee Kuppe Writers to discover their unique stories 
and win their great giveaways:
 Mystery author W.S. Gager, 

YA paranormal author Tess Grant, 

and Sweet Romance author Joselyn Vaughn 

on June 5 and June 6 on the

***Kickoff to Summer Blog Hop.***

Win a PDF copy of my mystery, Sunshine Boulevard, but if you can't wait for the drawing,  Sunshine Boulevard, is specially priced during this blog hop at my publisher's bookstore, Muse It Up Publishing. The winner will also receive an excerpt from my latest mystery, Coda to Murder, which will be released by MIU Publishing February 2013. You will be the FIRST to read it. AND what would be a giveaway by J Q Rose without some kind of flamingo as the prize? So you can win a cuddly flamingo too! 

Veggies from our vegetable garden.

Our Main Summer Activity

Throughout our marriage, my husband has been a gardener. Our summers are focused on gardening and eating! We have a pretty good deal worked out where he does all the soil prep, planting, weeding, fertilizing,  harvesting and I do the prep and cooking. Yep, that's it. No bugs or weeds or pickin' green beans for me.( He doesn't like the way I pick beans, therefore I am off harvesting duty. The beans are the same color as the leaves and stalks so I "overlook" the beans. He even planted purple beans several years to help me find them lurking in the green foliage. Needless to say, I even missed the purple ones! Yes, really. Purple beans are tender and turn green when you boil them.)

Can you find a green bean in here? Neither can I!

He was so intent on gardening that on our FIRST anniversary over 40 years ago, he went out to till the garden. I was shocked! No romantic, candlelight dinner? Not even a pizza from the take out pizza shop to celebrate? Needless to say I was in tears when he came in that evening. And being a man, he had no idea I had expected some celebration and romance. That was the beginning of learning to communicate with each other. After forty years we are still working on it.

We continued to garden even after having our first daughter. He loved taking her out to the garden with him.

Green, purple, yellow, and pole beans.

Bean Planting Time

Our two-year-old daughter, Sara, toddled around the spring vegetable garden as my husband carved rows to plant the bean seeds. It was a perfect evening to enjoy the outdoors. So many fun things for the little girl to explore….hoses, buckets, new plants springing up, lots of dirt and bugs.

My husband grabbed the bag of bean seeds from his pail and noticed how enthralled Sara was with the beetle-like black June bugs crawling around the dirt and through the plants. She picked them up and let them crawl along her small hands and up her arm until it tickled her, then she would shake them off and pick up another.

“Sara,” he called. “Don’t step on the onion sets, the green stuff there in front of you.”

Sara looked up from her play with the bugs. She squatted down and gently touched the delicate sprouts arising from the row of onion sets. She checked with her daddy to see if this is what he meant not to play with.  “Yes, Honey, don’t play with the plants, okay?”

He watched her for a minute and smiled as she carefully reached for another June bug. Turning his back to her, he began planting the bean seeds in the rows.

My husband heard a rustle behind him and checked to discover little Sara following him down the row. He turned back to the planting, then heard Sara crunching and chewing.

Whirling around to our daughter, he yelled, “Spit it out! Spit it out, Sara.” Fearing she had eaten a mouthful of June bugs, he rushed to her side as she slobbered out pieces of bean seeds.

What a relief. Sara ate bean seeds, not June bugs!

Sara is now a grown woman, and her sons toddle after Grandpa in the garden. So far, no grandsons have eaten the bean seeds during the spring planting….that we know of.

Through the years, we learned a LOT about gardening. We especially enjoyed sharing tips with customers who came to our greenhouse in the spring. A few years ago I decided to blog about our gardening experiences and knowledge on The Garden for Eatin'  for Practical Vegetable Gardening. If you're a gardener, you may want to check out the site to follow our journey this year. If you are the cook and like trying new recipes, please e-mail me for a copy of The Garden for Eatin' Recipe Collection with tasty recipes using fresh veggies from your garden or local farmer's market. My email address is jqrose02 at gmail dot com.

Thanks for Kicking Off the Summer with us! Comment now to be eligible for the drawing and visit the other authors in the hop to learn more about them and discover their entertaining stories. Leave a comment to win!


Wishing you a fun-filled, relaxing summer season!!