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After a storm in the garden- A's face is covered in mud- she was so overjoyed.

Four

Oh my, this baby of mine is four, one year away from school, almost at the point of enjoying time away from me, almost... for now she is still my girl, will always be I suspect, but now she has no shame in wanting me all the time, in calling out for me, for singling me out as the chosen one, (even when the job the chosen one gets to do is not a choice job- really? no one else can wipe your bum?) It is lovely and sweet, this almost independent stage, but I can already see it waning, and the self sufficient streak is showing strong.

This girl of ours.. she's a complex being, life with her is mostly much more exciting, and I'm sure we're just at the tip of that iceberg. Delicate, funny, strong, stubborn, smart, clever, insightful, caring, kind, quiet, shy, cautious, polite, social, wild, beautiful. She can identify at least three types of weeds, loves to eat portulaca, and is pretty much able to tell when things are ripe. She is most definitely a country girl, except that she's starting to squeak a bit about bugs, mostly for show I think.

She can almost read, and knows much more than she lets on, she draws pictures of us, and they are so lovely. She has an imagination that's as wild as the amazon, and she still says 'Bidiculous' instead of Ridiculous, even though she can say "r" in other words, she also says ' no problem' like " if you wanted to give me a treat, no problem, you could".

Happy birthday baby girl, I'm sure life will be full of surprises with you around.

This is the real photo she wanted me to take,
taken just seconds after the first one.

In the garden: August 22

The peppers are also starting to happen- we're growing a hybrid red bell pepper this year- with the thought that they would produce better, maybe than our self started heirlooms, but actually no, they haven't. Next year we need to find the right pepper variety, or stop growing peppers, ditto with eggplant. I don't know what's up with these guys but hey are not setting fruit, and the flowers are just drying up, the leaves are turning brown, and I've got no time to figure out this mystery... another thing to figure out when the kids are bigger.

The corn is giant, but not ready yet, and the long island cheese pumpkins growing around the base are also late. I love this arrangement though, the squash grows so nicely around the base of the corn, and the larkspur and calendula are so charming mixed in there. The summer savory is abuzz with bees, we've cut only a small portion of the herbs, and we've already got a mason jar full, I think I'll keep drying it though, it's so nice to have, and fresh and fragrant- would make nice Christmas gifts too...

The tomatoes are slowly starting to ripen, the jaune flamee is awesome- so pretty, and sweet. yummy. We've started picking the saved black krim/cherokee purple tomatoes- so far we've got 250 green tomatoes inside, from only 20 plants, and we've only picked the giant ones. We've been picking our tomatoes green for the last few years, and letting them ripen inside, which is a nice way to get them off the vine, and they do ripen nicely inside- it's much easier to process them that way as well.

how is your garden growing?

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N: picking flowers for me- so sweet

A: three cozy cuties in the crib (4 if you include the stuffed owl) - when A wakes up and cries, and N runs into the room to get her with me, but sees the cat with the baby she says to her sister "Oh, you cutie, you thought you were alone, but you weren't, you had Ferdinand with you!"

Lately

Things have been really summery here, lots of visiting, and lots of things to do. But that feeling of longing for the other, slower, seasons is creeping in on me. This is the time of year that I start to think about sweaters and jackets and scarves, and boots, and the joy of baking bread inside while hibernating.

 But also there is this sweetness that comes with August, with almost fall, because you know it's going to be over soon. Every hot afternoon starts out with a cool morning, and the sun is setting earlier, and the idea of a campfire is welcome, and not entirely ridiculous (like the one we had on a summer day that was so hot, the baby and I had to go inside to cool down, and we all sat about fifty feet away from it- darting in to roast marshmallows, wet cloths hanging from the kids necks to keep them cool). And also things are starting to happen in the garden, big things, tomato harvesting types of things, blanching and freezing types of things, Zucchini the size of baseball bats that must be turned into chocolate zucchini cakes- but there's no cocoa in the cupboard- types of things.

Ah- summer, so fleeting, and yet so intense, just like early childhood.

In the garden: August 9 & 15

Phew! it's been a busy couple of weeks- full of visiting, and kiln firing, and more visiting, and Tomato sandwiches- yum. The black Krim and our saved seeds are the only ones ripening yet- but the arbuznyi,  marizol gold, costoluto genovese, and pirkstine orange are close behind, the Jaune Flamee, and Ivory Pear are still only just flowering, with a few small fruits starting, I hope the weather keeps going into the fall to get these guys big enough to eat.

The melons, and pumpkins and acorn squash are likewise a bit behind, but hopefully we'll get some bigger ones, I think once those guys get growing they grow fast, so fingers crossed. The weather here has been very fall like, 15 degrees in the mornings, a bit rainy, but this week it's supposed to return to normal summer temps, so maybe we'll get a few more weeks of heat. We picked a last little pick of peas, which were delicious, and everyone we know is enjoying the Dragon Tongue beans, they are so yummy, and colourful, we've been eating them raw.

The other thing that's been exciting is the spinach seed! we've got lots forming, so that means we'll have our own carrot and beet and spinach seed to use next year, plus lots of flower seeds too, I'm going to try saving zinnia seeds again, the last time they didn't germinate- I think they didn't get enough time on the plant. How is your garden growing?

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N: out at the garden- with her wild, half grown out, bangs.
A: enjoying the freedom of walking around carrying a giant ball.

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A: fresh raspberries, N: washing the labels off wine bottles with Nana.

In the garden: August 1

Blushing Tomatoes (black krim)! Small potatoes, lovely flowers and back lit corn, a small frog friend, Brussels sprouts growing in their gauzy tent, Tomatilloes! Swiss chard in it's blazing glory, more zucchini than we can eat- a graceful pumpkin tendril- ah summer...

How does your garden grow?