It's July!

 It is now the second day of July and we've had some lovely hot days as well as some big rains. This year I planted my vegetable garden in rows, instead of my usual blocks. When you plant in blocks, you can fit more in, but I wanted a traditional look to my garden. 

As a result, things are growing and getting bigger. I still have many barriers in place to keep the bunnies at bay. They especially love tiny beet seedlings. I have replanted a couple of times. 

Underneath the "ghost" are two zucchini plants. I have had problems with cucumber beetles for years now, to the point where I don't even bother to grow cucumbers. But I have enough fabric that I can cover the zucchinis and just lift it to pollinate and water, if necessary. 

Something different that I did this year was to plant a double row of zinnias and cosmos. I just put the seed in the ground in very late spring and they are coming up very well. I can't wait until they start blooming! I planted all of my tomatoes inside and had grow lights on them. I did the same with my peppers, but I did buy a four pack of jalapeno peppers. 

I also have green beans, yellow beans, two kinds of lettuce, carrots (they are not coming up so well), onions, beets, potatoes, basil and dill which self-seeded from last year. I did plant some strawberry plants but they are only just getting established. I will have to wait until next June to get some berries. 

Anything I didn't or can't grow, I can just procure from one of the many Amish farm stands in my area. How is your garden growing?

Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer

 It's July the 5th and it feels like summer and I love it. As I've said before, you will not hear me complain about the heat. I have very distinct memories of sub zero wind whipping snow into my face and the cost of heating this old house during those long winter months. 

They are definitely hazy days of summer, with the humidity and some lingering smoke now and again from the fires (many caused by arsonist humans by the way). However, they are not lazy. Husband has a list as long as his arm and every day he is doing something by way of fixing, building, improving, investigating... Currently, he is trying to figure out where the last little leak is happening in the pool situation. He's already done a bunch of work on the skimmer. Ahhh, pools. They are fun, and the "fun never ends", there's always something that needs doing.

Our resident pool boy, Murphy, thinks that the pool area is his own personal oasis. He has been supervising all the work that husband has done. 

As well, he continues to insist upon his almost daily floatie ride. Yes, he's the one who wants it. He will come to the edge of the pool and meow, or if the floatie is on the deck, he stands on it and meows. He is an anomaly of a cat.

On the other hand (paw), this is about as close to water as Scooter is going to get. He rarely comes onto the pool deck, and if he does, he hurries briskly to disappear through the fence. 

My new hens are keeping me busy. They are very, very slowly figuring out the place. Night time is a process where almost all of them go into the coop by 9:00 p.m., but there is still one silly girl who sits just at the bottom of the ramp to go into their little chicken door and I literally have to pick her up and stick her inside. 

Here is some of the flock. The very dark hens are laying, although still sometimes on the floor of the coop instead of in a nesting box and one almost always lays a brittle shelled egg ON THE RAMP inside the coop, where by it rolls down the ramp and breaks. (Yes, they have oyster shell for added calcium). One of the grey with darker head hens is also laying, but I don't know which one.

It is somewhat hard to tell, but the lighter egg is much smaller than the others. New layers often start out laying smaller eggs, or sometimes double yolked eggs, which we've already experienced.

My vegetable garden is growing well, with rutabagas being a real winner. 

They were an experiment this year, so who knew! I have a resident rabbit (or rabbits, because quite frankly they all look the same, so I might be seeing a different one every time) who is being a bit of a pest and the garden covers that husband made for me years ago have come in handy to cover young plants. In fact, I could use a lot more. 

The cover in the above picture is over top of beets. I have other beets that weren't covered and when I chased Peter Rabbit out of the garden, he honestly had a beet leaf still in his mouth! 

The monstrosity covered up in the same picture by row covering is a couple of zucchini plants. I have been so disappointed in the past few years with zucchini, cucumbers and pumpkins being decimated by squash beetles (little yellow striped demons) that I swore I was never going to plant them again. Then I purchased some row covering from Amazon and bought some zucchini plants. I've kept them covered, watering as needed, and even pulling back the cover to perform pollination (getting quite good at it and have a few close to harvest size). I now realize I should have cut a larger size of row covering and may bring out the large piece I have left over and switch it up. 

I know that I have the dastardly beetles because in my "compost garden" (where plants just grow from things that have been thrown into the compost and I let them thrive there), they are attacking the cucumbers that are crawling their way around the compost bin. I shall let that happen as a diversion in the hopes that they never discover a sneaky way to get under the cover on the zucchinis. 

So far, I have harvested different kinds of lettuce, arugula, and spinach for salads. With this heat (currently 28 degrees, feels like 33) and the sprinkler put on late in the day, the garden should continue to explode over the next few days!

We've also had some fun, with the kids at the pool and camp fires in the evening. This picture only captures three of us. 

It's hard to get good camp fire pictures. If there was "scratch and sniff" with blog photos, this picture would smell like wood smoke and bug spray!

To finish, here is a close up of some spiderwort and spirea Antony Waterer which are both blooming right now. The bees are loving it.

Friday, May 28, 2021

 It is almost the weekend, and I realize I haven't posted in a while. I spent a good portion of this last week getting my vegetable garden ready. I do not have raised beds or separate beds, but just one big open space with a compost "container" in one corner and a big rhubarb plant in another. I had previously dug out the many weeds and grasses that had come with the warmth of spring, and then it was rototilled, first in one direction, then the other. Raking smooth and picking up big-enough-to-bother-with rocks came next. 

I decided this year, don't know why, to lay things out differently. I've always been a row person, but I played around with "blocks" instead. My method of making straight rows involves using cut-offs of rebar from an old construction project with garden string tied to them, and a small hand sledge hammer to pound them in. I am TERRIBLE at straight, so I need guidance otherwise my rows would weave to and fro. 

I used a very precise way of measuring, which is pacing heel to toe in my Birkenstocks and counting my steps to figure out how I could divide up the garden into blocks with paths that would be big enough. Perhaps tomorrow I will take a picture so you can see the criss-cross pattern I made. I've already planted some things: onions, beets, lettuce, beans, potatoes, and peas. I am waiting to put in my tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini. Alas, I do not have room for my pumpkins. I'm not sure what to do, or what alternative I have because I started a couple off little pumpkin plants and it would feel like murder to not use them. 

Husband opened up the pool. Of course, something needed dealing with: the T-cell which has something to do with chlorinating, I don't really know, wasn't working. Instead of throwing several hundred dollars toward a new one (or more!), he managed to MacGyver a solution to the problem and it seems to be working - fingers crossed. It will be quite some time before the pool is ready to take a dip in, as the weather is C-C-C-C-Cold!!!! Yesterday after supper, daughter and I went for a usual walk, and we both wore gloves. We almost grabbed winter hats, too, but just couldn't bear the thought in late May. 

Something exciting, and humbling, happened. I did my second Supply Teaching job yesterday. My first one was at my old school and the teacher made things very easy for me (keep in mind this is all online, done from computer involving Zoom-like interactions, although our Board does not use Zoom). However, yesterday I went to a different school and did a job for a teacher who had a grade 1,2 split class. I thought I would take the job because how hard could a 1,2 split be online?? It can't be too "techy" if it is only a 1,2. Ha ha, old girl!! Think again! The teacher kindly emailed me his plans (VERY detailed and thought out) and informed me how he does things. Thank heavens for a 25 year old daughter in the house who gave me a crash course in screen sharing, accessing videos from Teams and sharing those, and accessing and using a virtual white board and sharing that. I still managed to mess up and of course a couple of the little darlings in the class informed me (kindly) that that's not how Mr. A. does it, they usually do this, and then this, and then that. It was a humbling experience for someone who has spent 31 years in the profession, only to be corrected by a seven year old. HOLY COW, was that ever a stressful day. But I proved that old dogs can learn new tricks, but would do well to practise those new tricks in order to really perfect them.

I've agreed to do two more days of supply work (and yes, all online unless the Ontario government finally lets kids come back into class region by region instead of painting the whole humungous province with the same Corona-coloured brush), but both of those jobs are at my old school for classes and teachers that I know, so I feel a bit more comfortable. 

If you recall, we got a kitten. Yup. She is very cute and cuddly...when she is almost ready to fall asleep. However, if you look at her in the eyes too long at other times, I'm pretty sure you can see the demon that lies inside!! She is a holy terror when trying to burn off her kitten energy - scaling furniture, grabbing ankles, arching her back and dancing sideways, playing with ANYTHING (I can no longer hang tea towels on my fridge handle, as they get pulled down immediately). I know this "adorable" stage will only last for the first few months and hopefully get replaced by a more subdued purring soft kitty, warm kitty. Our other cat, Scooter, is a good boy and only gives her a good low growl or hiss, and what I imagine to be an exasperated cat eye roll, and then retreats back outside. He's pretty much an outdoor cat anyway and we are NOT letting Molly out unsupervised, nor are we showing her the cat door. She's too little at this point, but later, like every other cat we've ever owned, she will be allowed to be an indoor / outdoor pet. This Monday she goes for her first set of shots. 

I got the book The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman from the library a while ago (again, curbside, like a drug pick up in a paper bag) and haven't really given it a good go yet. So far, it seems enjoyable, fun, nothing too deep or intellectual. Maybe with this unseasonable weather I can settle in for a longer read. Bye for now, all!

Anticipation, an-ti-ci-paa-tion

 Do you now have Carly Simon in your head? 

What am I anticipating, you ask?

Oh yes, the tomatoes are coming! With the ridiculous rains we had over the past couple of days, these beauties have toppled over despite having cages and stakes and various methods of tying them up and supporting them. 

I decided to do some pruning, cutting back unnecessary foliage and even taking off some sections with yellow blossoms that won't amount to anything before frost arrives. I am hoping this will help keep things from falling over even more by reducing some weight. As well, the plant can put its energy into ripening versus producing more fruits. Also with this rain I'm starting to see some yellowing and brown leaves, so extra air circulation is probably needed. 

I cut back about three big tubs full of foliage and now I can see even more lovely tomatoes.

Toasted tomato sandwiches... 

Tomatoes with basil and olive oil and those round squishy balls of mozzarella cheese...

Tomatoes turned into orchard fruit chili sauce...

O.K., enough of that. I also have three lovely pumpkins (and one smaller pumpkin) that are starting to turn colour. The one in the picture is about the size of a basketball.

Don't be all that impressed however. I planted three pumpkin plants! And all I have are four lousy pumpkins. It is due to this lovely little creature:

source

I started out the summer season by hand-squishing as many of these as I could get (they move pretty quickly!) on my zucchini and pumpkin plants. They congregate inside the yellow blossoms, however I also damaged a lot of yellow blossoms by trying to squish them.  As time went on, their numbers increased so much that it was beyond me. 

I have tried something like insecticidal soap sprayed on them and they laugh at it as they gleefully fly away to land on another member of the squash / curcubit family. They would have killed off my cucumbers as well (if they have survived... sigh). These striped cucumber beetles decimate the blossoms and carry some kind of fungal disease to the leaves and vines as well. They are the reason I harvested two, TWO zucchinis this year. Most people would be knee deep in zucchini by now, giving them away to anyone who would have them. I have had two. They are also the reason for four pumpkins from three pumpkin plants instead of what should have been at least twice that much. 

When those pumpkins fully ripen and turn a gorgeous orange colour, I shall give them a place of honour on my porch and makes things look very autumnal.

Remember I said in my last post that something was eating my plants again? (Don't remember, that's o.k., I often don't remember what day it is). Here is some evidence.

What you are looking at used to be a green bean plant. Now it is a small collection of leaves and some stems. 

On a different note, I do have something that is doing very well. I had a plant that was growing in my compost container. I didn't know what it was but suspected some type of squash, likely zucchini. I just let it keep growing. 

There it was, growing robustly out of my compost, big yellow blossoms braving those nasty little beetles. It looked very healthy (compost will do that) and I left it and wondered what it would grow up to become. (By the way, I've noticed that "robust" is now the new buzzword. I've heard politicians and administrators use it. Listen for it. Turn it into a drinking game!)

Here's what it is:

It's an acorn squash! In fact, there are about four fruits developing nicely. I have NO idea how this happened. I did not plant acorn squash in my garden. In fact, I have never planted acorn squash in my garden. I can't even remember buying acorn squash and if I did, it would have been three or four years ago at least. I have emptied out my compost since then, a number of times. So herein lies a mystery. 

I will leave you with one last image. With bindweed and cucumber beetles and huge rains and seering heat and hungry rabbits, there is one plant in my garden that chuckles "heh, heh" in a deep menacing tone, "bring it on!".

If you recall (and you probably won't) at the beginning of planting season, my son was working at the garden centre of a grocery store and wanted me to plant a pepper plant that he brought home because he likes hot sauce and such. It is flourishing and gorgeous. Nothing bothers it. 

There's a reason nothing bothers it!! It is a "super chili" according to the tag. The first one that he picked and was quite excited about was brought in the house whereby we each tried a little bite of it. HOLY MOTHER OF ALL THINGS HOT. According to the Scoville Heat Range (yes, that's a thing), it's 40,000 to 50,000 SHU. That places it 5 to 20 times hotter than a jalapeno pepper, which many people would be able to relate to. By the way, SHU stands for Scoville heat units. I'm guessing Scoville is the brave person who created this scale by trying out all the peppers in the world?? 

Anyway, what the heck do we do with these things? I don't even think I would include them in a salsa recipe. I like to be able to use my mouth for a day after eating salsa! If there is anyone out there who knows how to use them in a recipe but decrease their heat, let me know. Otherwise, these are to remain ornamental. 

I hope your gardening is successful. May your tomatoes ripen and your rabbits run away!

July 28, 2020

Not much happening around here except for the everyday things which make me contented, the necessary jobs involved in meal making, keeping house, taking care of animals, and apart from a pandemic, a really great summer with lots of heat and almost the right amount of rain.

I laid out two soaker hoses in my vegetable garden, which, once again, is one of the best gardens I've had in years. It then rained overnight which gives much better results than any hose watering.  Maybe the success of this garden is about starting a lot of my plants from seed indoors, as well as having fresh seeds (ordered online during the thick of the pandemic). Or it could be that most of my completely full compost container got worked into the soil and it is a lovely, hot, humid summer.

I always love to look at the intricacies of plants. I don't have a fancy camera (in fact, it's just my phone) and I am finding that the new blogger does not provide crisp, vibrant images anymore. My header photo, for example is much brighter than you see here. Does anyone else find that to be the case?

Regardless, my peas are climbing and have little pods and beautiful white flowers with delicate curly-cue vines.

My three pumpkin plants (yes, I am aware that my garden is too small to house three pumpkin plants plus everything else, but all three germinated. What could I do??) are taking over the world and as the vines reach the edge of the garden, I redirect and let them continue to wind their way through onions, carrots, and beans.

The blossoms are so pretty. (Notice the squash beetle? Bastards.)

I always grow leaf lettuce, rather than head lettuce. This is almost too pretty to eat. 

I grew dill with the intention of making dill pickles, but we all know the story of my cucumbers, so now I just pull a bit off and squish it in my fingers to smell it. Heavenly!

Here's another colourful, although likely not edible plant. I did not plant flowers in my urns, as I was too late and all the good stuff had been scooped up by isolated, bored people. This coleus was a great alternative, grown by an independent green house owner.

Please imagine it to be more vivid than the photo is showing. It really is fabulous.

Blooming right now is my Russian sage, a perennial that is both big and little at the same time. The plants themselves take up quite a bit of space, but the flowers are small and understated, providing a "wash of purple" from a distance. I apologize for the out of focus one in the foreground. (No reading glasses at the time).

My header photo shows Russian Sage with Black Eyed Susan - a nice colour contrast.

Lastly, as anyone with "livestock" can tell you, sometimes something gets sick and dies. One of my brown hens was looking sick (purple-ish comb, listless, standing apart from others) and I likely isolated her too late, but I put her in a separate cage, gave her antibiotics in her water (and also put them in the water of the rest of the little flock), and a variety of food that she might like, but it was not to be. Now this morning, I saw another one had a floppy, although still red, comb and was starting to take that hunched - over stance that chicken owners are familiar with, so I managed to grab her and put her in the now disinfected cage with fresh antibiotic water and placed her in the shade, well away from the chicken coop. 

We shall see. I am preparing myself to lose a few more. It happens.

July 21st 2020

It was a very good day. I accomplished a lot. It's funny that I always feel it's a better day if I get stuff done, check things off a list, have a sense of good tiredness. Others may think it's a good day if they do very little, rest and relax. Everyone's different.

Husband had been finishing a home project involving our front hall. All the messy, dust producing work is totally done, with just paint touch up left, so I got to work cleaning up the dust in the house. Naturally, that led to other cleaning because one thing leads to another... but it felt good to pull furniture out, really see how bad it was behind things, and then give it a good cleaning. I know, I know, lots of people did that during their isolation, shut down, lock down time, but I didn't. I was still working from home with two other people working / studying from home. 

After I had a bit of lunch, I tackled the great outdoors. My Christmas present trimmer (whipper snipper, weed eater, whatever you call it) got refueled and I proceeded to cut the long grass along the rail fence, by the house, by the pool fence, by the chicken coop... My arm was shaking by the time I was done. Oh but what a joy to use a gas powered trimmer instead of the battery powered one I was using for years. I didn't have to stop with a job half done while the batteries recharged.

I've been doing really well "keeping ahead" of the weeds in my vegetable garden and this is one of the best years so far. 

For the past two years I have had hardly any success with tomatoes due to blight and just very little growth. This year is a whole different experience. We had very heavy rains and wind a day or so ago and although I had caged my tomatoes, they still tipped over. I ended up staking them now. The picture may not really show it, but they are lovely and big and healthy. I grew them from seed that I purchased through Mackenzie Seeds. 

My pumpkins are crawling through everything else and have had lots of blossoms. I love growing pumpkins but haven't done so for years. All of this is due to digging out all of my strawberries last year. Now I have room for lots more vegetables. Ignore the weeds in amongst the beets and carrots. If I pull them out, that will disturb the roots of those vegetables, so they can all grow merrily together.

I can't seem to get my words lined up along the left-hand side without some problems, so if the next bit looks odd, that's why. I had to replant quite a few things: beans, peas, cucumbers (x4), but everything is great now, except I gave up entirely on the cucumbers and have a couple growing in big yogurt containers. I may stick them in the ground when they look like they can handle themselves.

Here are two more tomato plants that I didn't have room for, so I stuck them in a big planter on the porch. They grew so much, I put a tomato cage in there with them. For interest sake, I am growing Big Beef and Mortgage Lifter tomatoes.

The following flower pictures are what is in bloom at the moment, all glorious "hot" colours with echinacea, daylilies, crocosmia, and trumpet vine. 

Oh dear - that's rather out of focus, isn't it? That's the problem with looking at your little phone screen without your reading glasses on!

This is daughter's very first car of her own, purchased with her own money (which wasn't much considering she's been a university student for a while). Husband is a handy guy, never afraid to tackle anything: electrical, plumbing, construction, pool-making, and mechanics and body work. (Not big on cooking, however) He is just starting to take care of the rusted sill plates (do I even have that right?). Everything else is done for it to be certified, this is the last thing that needs finishing. There's always a project going on!

I've been doing some reading. I really enjoyed Magpie Murders written by the same author as Midsomer Murders. At the Edge of the Orchard was a bit of historical fiction - not bad. I've read Ann Granger before, so I knew Rooted in Evil would be another good mystery. I tried to start Brett's Death on the Downs, but it was so unnecessarily wordy that I just couldn't stomach much past the first chapter. I wanted to shout, "Just say it!!" All of these books were ordered online through my local library's website. Now I have to think about what I want to read next.

That's it for today - now I shall read your blogs!

The Cucumbers

I planted my vegetable garden quite a while ago. The potatoes have come up well, the tomatoes that I started indoors seem to be doing o.k., many of the green beans are up and growing, although a few have been eaten, some of my tiny lettuce seeds must have been washed away in a big rain we had soon after I planted, the others things are hit and miss. But what the heck is going on with the cucumbers?

I had started some cucumbers indoors - some for pickling, some for slicing and eating. They were good healthy plants but the root ball wasn't really a ball, more a gathering of roots. I hardened them off on the porch for a bit and planted them the same as everything else. Within a day or two they had all shrivelled up and died. Yes, I watered them. 

Not to be deterred, I planted seeds in the ground. I've certainly done this before and it has worked out just fine. 

Nothing. I think maybe one came up and then most of it was eaten.

I planted again. A different one came up. By the next day, it was eaten. But what about all the others?? I was starting to feel a bit like this:

This last time, I was on the war path. I planted and then took my handy frame that husband made for me (wooden sides with chicken wire across the large rectangular side) and placed it over where some of the seeds were planted, at the same time sacrificing the beans that it had previously covered. Yes, I saw a rabbit already! For the other spots where I planted seeds, I devised other ways to protect them - a chicken wire dome, a wire fence castle. I planted them yesterday. I was already, like a fool, looking for signs of life this morning. I know, I know. It's far too early, but I'm on a mission here. 

I also replanted some peas that didn't come up. We had a cold snap after I originally planted, so that may have affected things at the beginning. 

Do you have certain vegetables that you have to replant?

June 2nd - put the garden in

This is truly one of the earliest I've ever put my garden in. I'm usually so busy with work at this time of year, and beyond (school goes until almost the end of June), there that are often times when I'm planting at the end of June. I worked very hard last year digging out every strawberry plant, as they had taken over three-quarters of my vegetable garden. I absolutely love strawberries, but I wanted an old fashioned vegetable garden with lots of room to grow many different things. I covered a big portion of the bed with an old carpet and pieces of our old pool liner to try and choke out weeds as well. I then raked a fairly thick cover of leaves onto the area of the vegetable garden that was still bare.

This late spring, I peeled back the carpet and the pieces of pool liner. They had done a pretty good job, but wouldn't you know it, that bind weed still managed to curl itself up and even attach to the back of the carpet! Well, we all know bindweed comes from hell anyway. Then I used my beloved rear-tine rototiller and worked the soil in one direction, old half-decomposed leaves with it. When I was done one round of tilling, I shovelled out about three-quarters of my compost, made up of old leaves, clippings, kitchen scraps, and chicken manure mixed with wood shavings. It was on its way to being fully decomposed, but not quite, however I think it will still add great nutrients to the soil and help keep in moisture. I covered as much of my vegetable garden as I could with compost, then roto-tilled the other direction, working everything in. I followed up with some raking to smooth things over. I was pretty pleased with the results. My garden is about 22 feet by 22 feet with a compost "bin" in the corner made from old pallets.

Today after "work" I got out my plan, and started marking out my rows. One thing you need to know about me, is I don't do "straight". I can't eyeball things and be able to tell if they are straight. I hate sewing curtains because I'd always have one a bit wonky, a slightly different length than the other. Pictures on the wall are checked by husband, as I'm probably incorrect as to whether they are hanging straight or not.

I realized that if I was going to pack vegetables into this bed with any success at all, I was going to need actual straight rows, so I grabbed, yes actually, pieces of rebar left over from who knows what building project. They are a dream to hammer into the soil. I rigged up my string and paced out my rows (did not use a tape or ruler for measuring, instead relying on my feet in my Birkenstocks to be almost one foot long - so much for accuracy, but it worked).

Do you see my humungous rhubarb in the corner?? I think I fed it some extra chicken manure in the fall.

I even stuck my tomato cages in the ground to make sure I had enough room, and the little pea fence as well. Both are very difficult to see in this picture. I don't have the tomato plants in the ground yet.

Back when the sky was falling and nobody even knew what reality would look like, I decided to order some seeds and start some plants because I wasn't sure if I would be able to buy bedding plants and such. Well, as it turns out garden centres are open and I could have bought any number of vegetable plants, and will still be buying some flowers for urns and window boxes. But I did start some seeds - tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, and zucchini (yup, had to look up the spelling again!).

Here are some of them on the back porch, becoming acclimatized. Most of those will go in the garden in the next day or so, but that one collection of tomatoes is still way too small. I think they can stay on a window sill indoors for a while longer. I planted two kinds of beans, two kinds of peas, carrots, beets, potatoes, and two kinds of lettuce today.

There aren't many perennials or shrubs flowering quite yet, even though we had a heat wave (followed by single digits at night and cool, windy days), but here are a couple:

This is centaurea which takes on an iridescence in the early evening. You cannot kill this stuff!

This is a type of viburnum shrub. The clusters of blossoms have a unique sweet smell.

Of course, because I was wandering around outside taking pictures, the girls rushed to the fence, wondering if I might have something for them. They go crazy over dandelion leaves (no shortage of those here!) . Today they got a cucumber that was in the beginning stages of being mush in the crisper and the outside edges and core of a pineapple. Life is good.

Yesterday, we lost power for a little while in the morning. Our neighbour told our son it was because a squirrel got into a transformer. It wasn't this guy, because we've seen him and his double since then.

Mr. blond tail lives to dig another walnut out of my window boxes!

Can you find the vegetables?

I am not the most committed weeder. I will go full force for a day, feel it in every muscle for the next three, then life gets busy and the weeds set in and before I know it, they've taken over. As proof, here is a picture of my vegetable garden. In it, there are potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, beans, strawberries, zuchinni, and about 5 sad little peppers currently protected by a screen. Can you find any of them?

I spent a couple of hours weeding yesterday. The carnage remains thrown around the outside of the garden to be raked up and dumped, but here are the results. I can now see patches of soil and ended up picking two huge collanders of beans and harvested a zuchinni that was about a foot and a half long!

For the past couple of years I have planted these really neat purple beans. They are called Royal Burgundy. The flowers are very pretty and the beans are a lovely dark purple. They taste just like green beans and after they are boiled in water, they turn green.

Enjoy your day!