How does your garden grow?

Well, I forgot to put up pictures the other day, so I will put them up now. Apparently the only things I have taken photos of this summer are the gardens, so that's what you get. :)
First we have our leafy greens: There is some kale & parsley in with a couple kinds of lettuce as well as beets & a few huge zucchini leaves. Our salad greens are by far the most successful thing we grow- thy don't ever get big like the ones in the store, but they are abundant, happy & tasty.

Next we have cherries! We planted the little tree 2 or 3 years ago, and this is the first year we'd gotten anything from it (as expected). We only got 5 cherries, but they were delicious! Also, I just really liked this photo.

Here is a photo of our entire veggie garden ( and Stitch). You can see the hops growing up the garage in the background. (The electrical inspector came by today & passed us for this preliminary wiring stage, so R is doing a good job so far, even if it frustrates him most of the time.) I always manage to take photos at the worst time for light- it's too bright, oh well.

Our front yard is also doing well now that it's finally summer: We have foxglove, lilies, California poppies, lavender, lamb's ear, and dusty miller in bloom visible in this photo. Our flower garden is finally starting to look lush & vibrant! I wish our lilacs & hydrangeas would grow though.

The last picture is a small bit of harvested veg, thinnings & some artichokes, but I thought it was a really neat composition photo.

Time to go pick things before they bolt, I hope all of you are doing well!

Summer time, and the livin's easy

Actually things are busy, as summers always are, but good. Work is going well, though I'm having to re-do my Sea Otter program entirely- it's just too long & not focused enough. It's good to be out on the beaches and trails again, though honestly I feel like as soon as I get back in the swing of things, my time will be up. At first our program numbers seemed low, but now I don't believe any fewer people are camping than before, high gas prices be damned.

It always feels like the weekends are never long enough, I want time to relax as well as do all the necessary chores, and do things like make jam or bread or cookies. I did make some tasty banana-zucchini bread though. I dislike working from 9-5:30-- it's not enough of a sleep-in to make a difference, and if I get up with R I don't have enough time to do much that is productive, plus my evenings seem so much shorter now. R is always working on so many big projects (shed, garage wiring, etc) I feel lazy. Often I don't even want to cook, garden, or knit when I get home, sit in the sun & drink beer or do nothing.

Today we re-did our little stream, which drains our gutters into what will eventually be a water garden. It was hot & dusty work, I hope the finished product eventually looks good. The whole N side of our back yard needs so much work, it's hard to even come up with ideas. I want a fire pit though! I'd like to make a little shady nook, since the fruit trees we planted 3 years ago section that area off, but we still need to replace the ever-more tilting wooden retaining wall with stone, so it's hard to plant trees there at this point. I wish I knew more about landscaping, we have a lovely blank slate to work with.

Since I really enjoyed Emilie's recent photos, tomorrow I'll share some of my own, but here is a picture of my Brother's family:

A busy week

Last weekend we drove up to Portland, somehow managing to accomplish pretty much all our goals: we hung out with Eli, Fred & Melissa; attended the Organic Brewer's Festival & ate hotwings at Fire on the Mtn; had breakfast with Brandy & Evan at Petite Provence; met Mindy for lunch; went to Trader Joes & Costco as well as the brew store & Yarnia. We got to see Tina & Patrick; have brunch with my Mom & Aunt & 2 uncles; hang out with my Brother's whole family including holding the tiny new baby; and visit my Mom's new house. I also cast on for my new sweater on the ride up. It was very hot and very busy, but a good trip!

This Tuesday I had paperwork/orientation for my Park's job, which should be all naturalist work, thankfully, but is unfortunately only about 9 weeks long this year. Bummer. It's been good to get back to the park though, and I jumped in feet first with a tidepool tour and my first attempt at my Sea Otter presentation on Thursday. I have to come up with a good idea for a program, and I'd like to do one that doesn't involve powerpoint, so send any ideas my way-- what kind of Ranger program would interest you if you went camping on the Oregon Coast??

Anyway, it was a long week, and yesterday had both vastly disappointing (losing the top half of the octopus beak we had just spent 20 minutes removing from a carcass on the beach while stupidly trying to rinse it in the waves) and some very exciting events (seeing the first whales of the summer -breaching!!- and a pod of harbor porpoises), so I'm glad it's the weekend.

Today I took it easy, sleeping in (it's really nice to have a day off with R during the summer, typically I get random weekdays), working in the garden, knitting, making mint oreo ice cream & banana zucchini bread, talking to Victoria. Tomorrow Steph and I are playing tourist, we're going to take a road trip a bit south and stop at every roadside stand and cheesy gift shop from here to south of Bandon, it should be fun.