This guy rocks...

This article says it all...I just had to share!

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20090626_The__MANGIA__GARDEN.html

Lazy Day in Pictures

My garden is in limbo right now...everything is growing, but not yet ripe for picking! I figured today would be a good day just to show pics of what's happening in the garden. The clouds finally cleared and got some decent (not great, as I am not a great photographer!) pics of the plants. It's hot here and humidity supposed to climb way up this weekend, so I am planning on some indoor activities, and possibly being able to put up some jalapenos from the garden by this weekend. I'm not much for heat and humidity, so I won't be out there any more than necessary! Enjoy...

Pinot Noir Bell Peppers

Purple Rain Eggplant

Tomato Beds with Eggplant in foreground

"Aerial Shot" of garden...from atop the kids' fort! Some of the beds were just reseeded with squash and edamame where the peas were ripped out.

The sometimes boring but always pretty marigolds.

Out of control Mammoth Dill in the Jalapeno bed

Purple Vitex that I am training into a tree...

Blackberries

(the resident boss mockingbird is watching me as I take this one, I know what he's thinking...)

"NO BERRIES FOR YOU!!"

The Butterfly/Bird Garden...although the first flush of blooms has disappeared, waiting for next group of plants to bloom

Miscellaneous free lily that came in a veggie shipment!

Crepe Myrtles are in full bloom now

Another shot of Crepe Myrtle tree

Five-Leaf Akebia vine...all the mockingbirds live here!

My new Fig Tree! Due to my uncertainty of how long we will be at this house, all fruit trees are now in containers so they can migrate with us.

Salvia

We have tons of butterflies with the new butterfly garden, hopefully I can get a better shot soon

And no garden post is complete without a shot of one of the Garden Dogs...here is one of my Aussies after "herding the hose"! This involves her chewing the nozzle open and then attacking the spray...yes, we are on our 3rd nozzle due to this game of hers. I guess if there's no chickens or sheep, water is the next best thing for a bored herding dog!

Children...

I would just love to know what Loch's kindergarten teacher thinks of our family...here's a great moment caught on tape! Loch came home with a picture he drew in class of the homebrewing process, so I had him explain the drawing to me on video to capture the moment for daddy. He drew in great detail the primary & secondary fermenters, spigot, hops, capping, etc! While I am mortified, my husband is probably busy showing the clip to everyone on board his ship and beaming with pride in his son's detailed tutorial...

And this evening, I was able to put a child to work retrieving some creamer that was all the way at the back of the shelf - take a good long look, it's not often I can refer to a 4 year old as helpful!

That's all for tonight, I intended to take some pics of the garden, but it was a bit overcast this afternoon so it will have to wait for tomorrow. And yay!- more severe t-storm crawlers on the tv right now, for like the 7th day in a row! My plants need SUN, not more rain and hail!

Berry Picking & Birthday!

Saturday was the first day the blackberry fields opened, and we were out first thing in the morning, since the temps were to climb in the upper 90's with a heat index in the 100's! It only took us about 30 minutes to pick a bunch, and a few for the mouth while we picked! The rest of the hot day was spent inside in the A/C making berry-related goodies. I might add that it was only $10 for all those mouth watering berries the kids are holding...

Here's Finnegan "helping" to make the jam.

Here I am squishing berries...the kids thought this was hilarious.

Thanks to the kids playing with my camera, you get to see a picture of the happy homemaker with the finished jam! (Like the dumb headband?? Gotta keep the hair out the jam...)

Still, lots of berries left...so I made some blackberry lemonade. Kids thought this was awesome...probably because it wasn't watered down like I normally do to their store bought juice!

We also picked up some blueberries at a roadside stand on the way home, so I made blueberry muffins. This was the first time I had made them from scratch, and they were incredible. If you look up "To Die For Blueberry Muffins" on the web...that's the recipe I used, they even had a yummy crumb topping.

Finally, kids were off to bed and I thought that was a good occasion for a mommy drink - that's Blackberry Lemonade with a splash of vodka - YUM!

That brings us to today, which was pretty uneventful considering it's my birthday and Father's Day! We are minus the father, the kids are too young to really do anything for me for my birthday, and we don't live near family members, so I mowed the lawn and weeded the garden for my special day. Don't feel bad for me - I actually got ALL THE WEEDING DONE (for now) and my yard looks spectacular all freshly mowed and dog poop scooped...woohoo! The kids and I barbequed and ate dinner outside this evening and it felt so good to look at the backyard and garden and not be filled with the thoughts of drudgery! So it ended up being a great birthday after all! Tomorrow I still have plans for the garden, but for once all they are is to plant some of my flowers and sow some seeds, pleasurable stuff!! I will probably take some pics of my new container trees and what's blooming and update on that stuff for a change!