Since last we spoke...

Summer is flying past us once again.

Kate and her daddy have completed the fort and climbing wall they were working on the past few weeks, and also made a brick fire ring which we used last night for the first s'mores of the season. While the climbing wall was under construction, Rick told Kate that he wasn't going to make it too easy, and that she would have to learn to climb it herself. He was using his tough daddy voice. She got a quivery bottom lip and looked at me for help, but I tend to stay far away from their altercations. Between the two of them, there is entirely too much stubborn for my safety. It was all for nothing though because not two minutes after the wall was complete...



So much for difficult.

The garden, as predicted, is breaking my heart. I am careening very close to the edge of crazy town here in that I nearly cried over the plight of my tomatoes the other day. At least I'm not alone. The tomatoes most definitely have blight, and something mysterious is chewing on the broccoli. The hollyhock looks like blooming death, literally. The stalks and leaves are brown or black but a few yellow blooms remain at the top. Weird. There are Japanese beetles in the lemon balm, but since I'm not eating that I figure maybe they'll be satisfied to stay there, and won't go near my vegetable plants. (That's right, I'm Chamberlain, the Japanese Beetles are Hitler, and the Lemon Balm is the Sudetenland. If you've managed to follow that, then you'll know that my pepper plants are Poland, and World War II is not far off.) I'm trying to move through the stages of garden grief towards acceptance. You know, "We couldn't have eaten all those tomatoes anyway."

At least my perennials have not let me down. Observe:

Bee Balm. Isn't it beautiful and alien at the same time? I love it. And we are eating out of the garden. Kate gets about two cherry tomatoes every other day, and yesterday i made a chocolate zucchini cake from fresh zucchini. Also, the other day i made a spinach quiche from the library garden for the library staff. They loved it.


In other news, remember the "rare" turkey sighting the other day, that I joked probably happens every day while I'm not home?

Two days in a row, this lady has wandered sedately through our backyard. That is, until I try to take her picture and she freaks out and flies up in a tree. (@#$$ paparazzi.)

And finally, for the Fourth of July, we enjoyed the parade that conveniently goes right past my in-law's front door, and then spent the remainder of the day with them. (We love them, we really do, it's not just the air conditioning... and the pool, it's not.) Kate loved the parade, and she really loved that the twins were picking up candy and automatically giving her half, without anyone telling them too. She was just sitting there in her lawn chair like a little queen and watching them run all over the road picking up candy and dropping it in her lap. We finally had to tell them to stop. She really didn't like that.

Last night were the fireworks, which we can see quite nicely from our driveway. See:




After the fireworks, Nona and Papa had planned to camp out in the yard with us, but we were all so hot and tired that we concluded it would be just as much fun to camp in the dining room. I think it worked out, how about you?