Art in veggies.

The garden is fading. There aren't any more cukes on the vine, the tomatoes are almost gone and the echinacea is crispy. The okra will keep on giving until the first frost. I thought I'd put together a little art instillation for my final beautiful, bountiful harvest. Hope you like it.

I can't remember if I've ever put up a picture of our awesome two-sided compost bin that Chris built for us. It's really working out nicely.

Those darn bugs.

The garden is slowing down quite a bit. We have cucumber beetles and it's a huge bummer. They have almost completely killed my cucumber plants and we have to pick tomatoes before they are ripe or else the bugs will devour them. However, the okra just keeps on truckin' unscathed. I'd say that it's been our most bountiful crop. Brian from Henry's Plant Farm told me that after about 3-5 years of gardening I'll have those kinks (like cucumber beetles) worked out. You have to expect the unexpected and those problems are tougher to solve if you want to grow organically.

I did some canning yesterday with my friend, Josh. It's nice to have a partner there to help you. We canned 14 jars of okra and pickling cucumbers. I L-O-V-E pickled okra.

Our windowsill is lined with ripening tomatoes. Mmmmm!

My garlic chives just flowered.

Look at how tall the okra is in the background! It's almost getting hard to reach up to harvest the okra.

These peppers are called Wenk's Yellow Hots. I'm too scared to eat them. I know they are too hot for me. I think I like to grow them to give away.

That entire picture is our HUGE cherry tomato plant with NOT A SINGLE TOMATO on it. What on earth?

This is called a True Lemon Cucumber. They are so cute and delicious.

An okra flower.

There were 2 of these gorgeous butterflies drifting around the garden and I watched them for about 15 minutes. They made me so happy.

My fellow junk collector

My old landlord, Mark Larson, died unexpectedly a couple of weeks ago. Chris and I lived above him for 3 1/2 years in his house that was built in 1870. Mark was a pack rat and a dumpster diver and did not want anything to go into the trash that could be reused or recycled. I've been over at the house helping his friends clean everything out and getting it ready for a yard sale. It was astonishing how much stuff was packed into every corner of every room and every inch of the garage and backyard. It was really interesting to watch this man's obsessive collection be picked through and taken apart.

Mark was a good man and was very involved in the community. He would randomly stop by our new house to have a chat and bring newspaper clippings of things he thought we would find interesting. I'm sad he's gone.

These are the items that I bought at the yard sale. All proceeds are going to the KAW Council which Mark was very involved with.

Chris and I were really excited to find these signs because of the fishing theme and they are just cool. When we asked how much they cost we were told that they were from the bait shop that was in a building where one of the old locations of The Merc used to be! That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I'm thrilled to have them.

Just thought I'd leave you with some sweet pictures of my beautiful kitty, Bella.

fish

Chris and I both have Kansas fishing licenses. I even have my own pole. It's been hard to find the time to get out there on the water with work and house and garden and well, life. I am waiting for the heat to lift (it's 102 degrees right now) before I commit to a fishing outing. But Chris on the other hand, he's up for anything. The other day he went to the lake with Brian and managed to catch these guys. They'll make a really nice dinner. Maybe I'll even throw a dinner party.

She's a beauty.

I was preparing myself for disappointment because my tomatoes were all green and have been that way for a while. There are a lot of them on the plants, there just wasn't even a hint of them ripening. Then, all of a sudden, I peeked in one of the plants and saw two of the most gorgeous, gigantic tomatoes I've ever laid my eyes on. I'm not good at guessing weight but from buying tomatoes at The Merc and the farmers market, I'm going to guess this one is close to 2 1/2 pounds. How 'bout that?! She's a beauty. It's going to be hard to eat her. (But not that hard.)

It's really interesting to watch this flower close its petals and turn into an okra pod.

This is from a Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana). They are an invasive plant but I really like them. The flowers turn into dark purple berries. The young shoots are eaten in the South and the root and berries are used sparingly in the Herbal Medicine. They are poisonous so can you imagine what they are used for?

Wild Grape and this vine (which I don't know the name for) are taking over!

There is a 4 ft tall bird feeder somewhere in there. It was fun to see it slowly disappear over the last 3 months.

We have so many cardinals. They are really fun to watch. I think my bird feeder is the party spot for the female cardinals.

The baby doves have flown away but we have been seeing them hanging around our yard. They also visited me in my dreams the other night.

Dog days of summer

It's a heat index of 110 degrees outside! Not much else to say but ahh, the lazy days of summer. Here are a few random pictures of what's going on around here.

My first harvest of Sweet Chocolate Bell Peppers.

Herb garden.

The cool thing about having our new truck is that we can pick this kind of stuff up and bring it home. Our friend Bianca let us have it for free if we would come and get it.

Some lovely ladies and I had a gathering last weekend where we learned how to make dreamcatchers. It was a fabulous evening.

Our dove babies look ready to go at any minute! Mama dove is having a hard time fitting in there with them.