The Harvest

Today's harvest - this is our first pepper, at least the first one that survived to "adulthood". We have already had several zucchini and summer squash and lots of little tomatoes. These are the first of the bigger ones. I can't find the seed packets, or I would tell you what they all were. There are standard grape tomatoes, but then we have yellow pear shaped tomatoes, not much bigger than the grapes. Also some smallish yellow tomatoes, some medium reds and the huge reds - maybe those are the Brandywines? I'm not much of a gardener - ask me about sheep - I can sound much more intelligent!

It is lovely being able to go out to our very own garden and pick things. Of course, if we didn't have chickens, there would be much more to pick! They seem to thrive on tomatoes! And I did notice a pretty big spider web out there yesterday. If the enormous garden spiders have moved into our tomatoes, this may be the last of the tomatoes that I harvest! I'll fight the chickens for the crop, but the spiders will win hands down!

Gardens and Yarn Stores

The herbs are going nuts in the garden - basil, cinnamon basil, two varieties of thyme, the cilantro is going to seed and we will soon have coriander.

The tomato patch looks like a jungle and the various squash and pumpkins are threatening to take over the tomato's territory.

I attribute the record growth to the beautiful raised beds that Larry built this spring and the abundant rabbit manure that he added to the bags of topsoil!

For yarn related content, I purchased the yarn below at Knit and Caboodle in St Charles, MO, when we were spending a long weekend in St Louis. The dark blue variegated is Trekking's Hand Art and the white with the blue spots is Claudia Hand Painted Yarn in the colorway Tea Cup. A very nice yarn store in the middle of the historic shopping district of St Charles - a beautiful shopping street full of brick buildings and lush gardens. We, unfortunately, did not get to spend much time there, as we were meeting family back in St Louis. But I fed my yarn fix for the weekend.

Back here in Wisconsin, I have just watched the Brewers lose to the Braves and the mosquitoes have not moved to the neighbors. But, on the up side, the 90 degree weather they were predicting a few days ago has not materialized, although it is a bit humid. I'm torn between wanting an early frost this fall to rid us of the mosquitoes and a late frost, so the hundreds of tomatoes that appear to be growing on our plants can be harvested. I can only eat so many green tomatoes!

Red Jersey

I have decided to award myself the red jersey in the Tour de Fleece. My goal was to spin every day (or almost every day) and, while I did spin more than I normally would in the heat of the summer, I did not spin as often as I had hoped. So, red jersey.

I did do a bit of knitting while we were out of town last weekend - but I am not a good "car knitter" - I have a tendency to want to watch the scenery go by or take a nap, but I did get a bit knit up on my son's red, white and blue socks. They are pictured here along with some of the oriental lilies that I plucked from my overgrown garden this morning. I am not a gardener to begin with, and this year the mosquitoes are about the size of my sheep, so I try to spend as little time outside as possible. Thankfully, my husband and son planted some tomatoes, peas, beets and squash early in the spring and I got a bunch of herbs in - before the mosquito crop hatched and before the weeds took over. Maybe some garden pics at a later date. Today the lilies and part of a sock will have to suffice!