Watch out for bugs

The freezes lately have killed all my basil plants, and I am reduced to having to spend $3 for 3/4 ounce of fresh basil for cooking. Once the greenhouse is up and running, growing basil in the winter will be a top priority. But the italian parsley is loving the colder weather and is growing like crazy in the herb garden. Tonight's meal (Bowtie pasta with potatoes, olives and capers - the same dish we did in the cooking show) requires some fresh parsley at the end. I cut some from outside in the dark and as I was chopping it indoors, I noticed a little snail was having a snooze on one of the larger leaves. He ended up going into the compost pail where he will live for the next few days, and then he'll be tossed onto the compost pile outside. The meal turned out great and we are now liking olives quite a lot. Who knows, maybe one day we will order pizza with olives on it (well, maybe not).
My dad sent some more photos of Italy, and also a few shots he took from the Adams River Sockeye Salmon run. The water is crystal clear and the fish sure are crimson! I found a great article on the web describing the salmon's lifecycle and the history of the river system. Very interesting - I didn't know that majority of the fish are on a 4 year cycle, so the next big run will be in 2010.