Summertime

Middle of June! How can it be?

I haven't even taken any pictures lately. We went to the car show and and Jr. got that nice shot of the Corvette and Mustang.

The weather has been alternating between very warm, and nice and cool with thunderstorms. We actually got a couple of brief downpours. Puddle making rain, it's a blessing here. Very pretty outside, green and lush, flowers blooming, but the mosquitoes are driving me nuts.

Garden update:

We had frost this month. The beans I planted out in the fenced garden got burned, even though they were covered with the blanket. Everything in the greenhouse is fine.

Potatoes are coming up out there, I thought I had dug them all up last year, but nope. I transplanted strawberries from Aunt J's garden and planted lettuce and flowers out there which are coming up slowly.

I've been harvesting radishes, bok choy, and lettuce from the box, and had the first greenhouse peas on Saturday.

Peas, zucchini, bush beans, onions, tomatoes, kohlrabi, carrots, radishes, spinach and a few flowers are in the greenhouse now. I put a tarp over part of it for shade on hot days, and that keeps the temperature down.

Animal news:

We have more birds this year, I'm sure, because there is a lot of lovely music outside, night and day. Well, it seems like night when they're singing, but the sun rises at four thirty so to them it might be morning at three.

Research on goats has made me think twice. Apparently they don't like grass and clover much, but they love trees, roses, tender tips of shrubs and pretty much everything I want to protect. They do eat some weeds, but not enough to make up for the damage they do to other stuff. Then, they turn out to be great escape artists and can undo latches and jump over fences and push through them and---what a headache!

I'd actually rather have a donkey, because they'll eat grass, and they're way cuter. But he'll need a friend, so maybe a little pygmy goat would be ok. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn't it? The goat will be the instigator and mastermind, and the donkey will carry out his evil plans. Good luck catching them once they break out.

Rusty is behaving very badly, I don't know if he's jealous or has indigestion or if he's just a brat cat. J took down the swing support so he can't climb on the roof anymore and wake everyone up three times a night. Snoodly is behaving angelically, he's turning out to be a great cat. He's happy living out in his garage, never grumbles or demands more attention. When I pick him up he's a little rag doll, relaxing into my arms with total trust and purring up a storm. No wonder Rusty is jealous!

The fish are multiplying like mad, pretty soon the tank will be a sea of orange, as the huge school of Platy swim by, and Sharky and the bottom feeders will just be flashes of silver and brown.

It's 61 degrees, sunny at 8:30 am.