Transition

I spent yesterday in transition. The kids have been launched into a great new school year. Now its my turn.

I took my luxurious second quart of coffee in the garden and read Titus and Annie Book 2 out loud, start to finish, including all the notes in the folder. Then, with thoughts of preposterous only children floating in my head I started prepping the garden for fall crops.

Once again it was the summer of good intentions in the garden. 

The grape vines were the biggest success. They like where they are and topped the 10 foot trellis faster than I had hoped. 

My tomatoes punked out. Not enough lime and blistering heat in the south. But two volunteer tomatoes have popped up and show some promise. 

The rain barrel was a great success despite our drought and I'll be buying another one in the spring. 

Smile for the camera.

We also had enough rain to help mother nature remind me of a wood working rule:  place boards with the end grain pointing down.  Frowny faces are good.  Smiley faces are bad.  This bench earned its place at the top of the workshop to do list.  

This years lima bean crop measures 8 oz's. But I forgot about them so they dried on the fine. Let's just call that seed saving, shall we?

I have a few quarts of gingery red lentil and butternut squash soup in the freezer. The squash were small but tasty. Not bad for a 1'x3' container bed squeezed into the margins last minute. 

The kale in the summer shade experiment failed but the shaded swiss chard bed shows some promise with tweeking. 

The collards were great. Don't wrinkle your nose up at collards. They are just as yummy as kale. However, I don't like them cooked with ham hocks or fake ham products. That's where the yucky smell comes from. I make a vegan collard recipe with olive oil, onions, garlic, lemon juice and smoked paprika.

The fig tree is working on its second batch of fruit.  Just in time for me to make some Frog jam.  Figs, raspberries, oranges and ginger.  Yum.  Plus, the name is just awesome.

Kate loved her sunflowers. We clipped the flowers when the petals started to drop and saved them for instant winter bird feeders. 

Colin's pumpkins were a fail but he found these really cool irridescant yellow caterpillars on the leaves. So he's good. 

The peppers haven't given up yet. The poblano plant is just now flowering at 3 feet tall. Fingers crossed. I would love to have a peck of peppers to put on the smoker.

The herb garden continues to be a perenial success, even if I forgot to plant basil this year. There is enough cat nip drying in the panty to keep our three beasties blissed out over the winter. The oregano needs its own zip code and the thyme really likes its home in the new village garden bed we started in the spring. 

The family camera has failed to make the transition from summer to fall. Once it turns up or gets replaced, there will be pictures. I promise.