Veggie Garden-1, Chipmunk-0

It’s been a couple weeks since I posted pictures of the veggie garden. I’m surprised, the little critters have managed to keep out of it. I think it had something to do with my scent when I weeded. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.

So, the veggies are doing really good. Even the ones we planted late.

The green pepper plant has started to flower,

And we have tomatoes on the vine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The broccoli has floweretts already, which is surprising as it was one of the secondary veggies we planted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the vines (l-r) cucumber, butternut squash, cucumber. No flowers yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the veggies we planted to replace the corn (top left) watermelon, (bottom left) early squash, (centre) corn, (bottom right) lettuce.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then a whole pile of cauliflower. We have six plants total. I don’t know if I can eat that much cauliflower, though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are peas, green beans and yellow beans. Don’t ask me which are which. Husband planted them so I have no idea.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and beans/peas in a barrel. They started hooking on to each other and I had to break a few runners to pull them apart, but so far, so good.

I don’t know which surprises me more; the fact these are growing so well, or that I’m keeping up with the maintenance. We didn’t do a garden last year and the year before I was excited but that quickly changed. I don’t know why I changed this year. Maybe it’s all those reports I keep hearing about how we need to get back into eating real food.

 YES! I SEE YOU!

Free Flying Thursday! With Pictures!

Nothing special about this post. Just thought I’d show you some recent pictures from around the house.

Remember my rose bush?

Well, now it looks like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I heard a lot of swalking outside, and when I went to look I found this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I blew up the pic, but he’s still pretty hard to see. I couldn’t get too close, he started chirping and I was afraid he would fall off and hurt himself.

Anyway, that’s all the garden pictures for now.

 

Flowers are here! So are the damn chipmunks!

I’ve been busy with revisions to book three, but I just wanted to drop a post and show you how the gardens are going.

First of all, I’d like to say that I really, really dislike chipmunks. We planted eight stalks of corn, and as you can see, the little buggers have chewed just about all the stalks. Husband isn’t happy either. We live in an area where there are corn stalks all over the place, why the hell did they go after ours?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*sigh* Anyway, all the other veggies are doing good, so I’m happy about that. Peas/beans are starting to pop up. I won’t know what they are until they’re a little more developed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bugger chipmunk got to my flower garden too. You can’t see it in this picture, but they ate one of my flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my peonies. Next year I’m going to keep more stalks in the center.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is my climbing rose bush. Pile of flower buds still coming out. I’m going to try and get a new author pic in front of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How are your gardens coming along?

Come on flowers! BLOOM!

Husband put in the flower garden at the front of the house. So far it looks really good.

We went to MIL to get some of Husbands grandmothers flowers, only to discover that BIL g/f took just about every, single one. Left us with three of the scraggliest looking lupines. Ask me if I’m impressed. I got over it. This is typical. I should be used to this by now. Anyway, I’m getting off topic.

Lupines and Bachelor Buttons are in the back. My mother gave me the white and blue flowers, and I found a small Lily of the Valley poking out through the weeds. Got one other plant from MIL but I don’t know what kind it is. Husband said we could go out this weekend and get some more.

 

It’s now time to pay attention to my climbing roses. You’re supposed to plant them, then leave them alone for a few seasons to get the tall canes. I think they’re tall enough.

There are flower buds too. When we first got them, one was white and the other was red. A few years later we noticed they were both red. Didn’t see flowers after that but I dumped some woodstove ashes at the base and now they full of buds!

 

 

 

 

 

 

My mother also brought over some hostas. Only place I could put them was in front (behind?) the rose bushes. She gave me some ground cover too. Hopefully, they’ll be able to choke out the weeds.

They really took too. They get the morning sun and they’re shaded from the hot afternoon sun by the thick canes of the rose bush.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The flowers on our lilac bush aren’t that big this year. I think the weird winter caused smaller than normal flower buds

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our neighbours snowball bush is looking good this year. There were a few years where it looked like crap. I don’t know if he did anything to it, but the flowers are numerous this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We extended the veggie garden this year, but it’s still unsure if we’re going to plant veggies. Our roto-tiller is acting up and the ground is too hard to do it by hand. Yeah, already told Husband that already.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and this bird has been driving me nuts. It pecks at our wood stove chimny, then flies off and starts pecking on our front door. You can barely see him, but he’s there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone doing a garden this year

Picture of the Week:

I just had to share this with everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t know know long Katza was in there, but he/she fits like a glove.

 

 

Picture of the Week; Update on Stray Kitten

Actually, I have a few pictures.

It’s been a couple of weeks now since we took in the stray kitten, and Katza is doing just fine. Even Miss Molly has warmed up to her. She doesn’t use the kitten as a swatting post as much, but then, Brown has been teaching the kitten to defend itself. We’re still not sure whether it’s a girl or boy, and please, don’t tell me to look and see how close/far apart the holes are. That means nothing to me, but we think it’s a girl.

Anyway, here are some pictures of Katza and the CatPack.

Ignore the dirt on the floor, please. This is where the kitten hid out for two days after we brought it inside. Can’t hide under there now, too big.

 

 

 

 

This kitten is so lovable. So trusting around people. Sithboy can turn her upside-down and she’s fine with it.

 

 

 

 

Master Brown and Katza. Brown has taken upon himself to watch over the kitten. For the first few days, he watched Katza like a hawk. Any noise or squeak and Brown was right by her side.

 

 

 

 

Katza follows me around. That’s my recycling, btw.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My mother bought some kitten food and some cat toys. Sithboy and Katza play with it the most.

 

 

 

 

 

She took to her new bed right away…

 

 

 

 

 

 

and it’s small enough that the others can’t take it over.

 

 

 

 

 

 TUNA TIME!

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Katza poses for pictures, I swear!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heh, pretty sure I just used up my data usage for this month, uploading those photos, but I don’t care.

Picture of the Week; A Naughty Santa

Oh yeah, I went there.

I love decorating for the holidays. All those bright colours and twinkling lights makes the world feel almost magical. Usually, we stick to the living room and a bit of the kitchen, but this year I took it one room further;

 

Yup. That’s Santa’s head on my toilet seat, and I haven’t sat down in the bathroom to put my socks on in over a week. I’m thinking about a festive shower curtain too. Maybe a Mrs. Clause so Santa won’t feel so lonely.

Ghost Picture: This will freak you out!

I took this picture a few minutes after I did my Ritual to Honour the Dead rite this afternoon. I took random pictures from around me (I’m sitting at the computer desk), and when I checked them out on the laptop, I found several ‘faces’ looking in the window! I immediatly took a second picture, then cut and pasted them together.

You can see them in the picture on the left-hand side, but then not so much on the right hand side.

 I don’t recognize them.

Inspirational Sunday

Here is this week’s photo. I invite you to post a few lines of inspired prose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moonlight washed through the gazebo, bathing the ancient structure in a magical hue that radiated out across the valley.

Inspirational Sunday

Here is this week’s photo. I invite you to post a few lines of inspired prose.

 

Monique eyed the structure before her. Her Great Uncle’s wish for her to visit the Count was not sitting well. If this was a castle, why did it feel like a prison?