DAYS OF SUMMER:3

"More grows in the garden than the gardener sows"

~ Old Spanish Proverb

Violet and Gammer




Hopa Crab apples

Today we harvested a huge mound of elephant garlic from the garden. It is so fun digging in the soil and plucking these huge heads of garlic from the earth.

We also harvested a handful of Cubanelle peppers and a bit of strawberries.

It wont be long before we will have baskets of peppers. Cubanelles have a wonderful flavor. It is kind of a cross between a green bell pepper and a chillie. We are putting a seed order in from Pinetree Garden Seeds for a few varieties that are ready to harvest in under 40 days ad are heat tolerant. I am excited. I have been working on preparing beds for the coming seedlings.

It was also fitting that I got my new Mary Jane's Farm magazine in the mail this week, and it has an article about putting up the harvest. Oh, how I love this magazine. If you want to see a cool video of her farm hands harvesting garlic on her farm click here.

DAYS OF SUMMER:2

"To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug."

~ Hellen Keller

We had a nice Fourth of July weekend. We had fun lighting fireworks. I had to light a happiness fountain for good luck. Sunday we snuck down to the waterhole at Blanchard Springs for a soak. It is so beautiful down there. Kalin and I found this particular spot it on my Mother's Day hike.

For some reason I thought that I had blogged about my Mother's Day hike, but when I went back to the archives that post was not there. Must have been a figment of my imagination. So here are a few pictures of the hike

You can get down to the waterhole but taking a short jaunt on a lower trail. It is a great spot. It stays pretty secluded, as not many people know about it.

DAYS OF SUMMER :1

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.".

~ John Lubbock

cucumber plants

Sweet potatoes

Hot pepper plants

cottage red marigolds

Royal burgundy bush beans

waiting for the tomatoes to ripen

summer squash patch

Well happy summer everyone. It was officially summer at 12:45 am June 21. We spent the weekend camping on my friends land in celebration of the summer solstice. He has had this same party every solstice for the last 30 years. It has been a big part of my husbands life and now Violet and I share this with him and the rest of the family. We look forward to it all year. Our time was spent, hanging out, swimming, playing music, and playing horseshoes. I was so busy having fun that I took not one picture. Oops.

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Today I spent the morning working in the garden. I harvested my lavender and our squash. We have a rocking garden this year. So far there has been no shortage of yellow squash and my fav, zucchini. We put a lot of work into it this spring so it has been very rewarding to be able to harvest our own veggies. Wahoo!!!

BALLET CAMP

"Fun is good."

~Theodor Geisel

Violet was enrolled in ballet camp last week. They did art projects, danced, sang songs, and played games. She really had a lot of fun. I was glad that she got to be a part of it. We are lucky to have such a wonderful ballet school out here in the sticks. :)

Cute flower ring made for me by Violet

While Violet was at ballet camp, I had two and a half hours wach day all to myself. Rather than drive the twenty minutes home, I decided to spend the time taking advantage of some of the cool stuff around Mountain View.

I got a 30 minute walk in at the park each day.

I found some treasures at this new flea market/antique store. I will post pictures later of my finds. I was really excited to run across some things that I had been looking for.

I spent some time at the Turner Coffee Bean, this awesome new shoppe in Mountain View. They have great coffee, tea, and sandwiches, and free wireless!!! Wahoo!!!! I guess we are moving up in the world.

Iced Jamine Green Tea brewed fresh on the spot. Refreshing!!!

Love the table centerpiece

I also stopped in to visit my friend Renae at Ritsy Rags. She just moved her shoppe to a new location and I had to check it out.

All in all I think that Violet and I had a great week!!!

AQUARiUM

" Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children."

~Charles R. Swindoll, The Strong Family

While visiting in Texas, Violet and I went to the Dallas World Aquarium. I lived in the Fort Worth/Dallas area for 28 of my 33 years and never visited this fine establishment. We had a blast and I can't wait to go back.

The upper level is a rain forest filled with indigenous birds, plants, monkeys and other critters. Tropical birds fly all around you. Some of them were friendly enough to some up to us and say hi. It was truly an amazing experience. I totally geeked out on all of the plant life...especially the banyan trees, which I had never seen in person. I realized when I got home over half of my photos were of plant life. Go figure.

The upper level of the aquarium looks down into this pool of water that ends in this water tunnel. You can stand inside this tunnel filled with natural light and experience the aquatic life as it swims around you. Violet totally geeked out and took a ton of pictures (once I could coax her inside) of the sharks and sting rays swimming around us.

Later that night at Mimi and Grand Daddy's, Violet drew a picture of one of the monkeys that she had seen. It turned out cute.

Being a mother, with all of its challenges, is ultimately such a rewarding experience. I feel so lucky to share these moments with Violet.