Take Me I'm Yours

Here's the first of my summer crop. Actually, I've picked a few tomatoes but they didn't last long enough for their photo op.



The thing is, just what does one do with banana peppers and what was I thinking? I am planning to make tons of salsa so these guys can help out there. In the meantime, they'll just hang out in the freezer.

A friend of mine volunteered, actually volunteered to take a zucchini off my hands and this is hers, weighing a tad under five pounds. I hope we'll still be friends.

I was trying to find something to keep the melons off the ground and unearthed these cloches meant for protecting early plantings during frost season. Not particularly esthetic but certainly easier to spot in that jungle of leaves.



Did I mention that I love summer?

My Mini Harvest

That wasn't just rain pounding down yesteday; it would be absolutely fair to compare it to a monsoon, although I've never actually lived any place where monsoons happen. Still, I'm sure that's what we had.

My back yard reverted to its swamp beginnings and I could have held a small regatta there.

The melon is coming along nicely and I hope it has plans for more.



The zucchini is doing well also but then we know they plan to rule the world. Slice it into hot olive oil, cook it gently, add lots of mozzarella and you have a winner. A fat winner.



What is it about sunflowers? I tenderly plant the seeds and absolutely nothing happens, they simply sink without a trace. But toss some in the bird feeder and voila---the birds fling them down and they take root wherever they fall. Case in point, this sturdy one growing from between the rocks by the pond.

The water is roiled up after the monsoon and the fish are burrowed way down below, if they're smart. Either that or they took to their life jackets.

After The Rain

We were happy to see the thunder,lightning and rain last night. We are not too happy about the occasional tornadoes that touch down in weather like this but we welcome just the right amount of rain to give us a break from hand- watering the garden plants.

The ground is nice and mooshy this morning so I zipped out to have another go at widening the bed by the nasty chain link fence.Right now my widening job looks as though a million mice have been nibbling at the edges but in small increments it will eventually turn into a swooshing, oppulent bed, and you can safely bet that a zillion vines will hide the chain link.



Estherwilliams is settling in nicely but if you startle her she can disappear off that lily pad faster than you can say "plunk".



She is getting used to her photo ops though. The fish must have clued her in.