The growing season

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These pictures were taken yesterday, a day on which there was sun. This is a change from the weather of the past two weeks, during which it's rained just about every day and we've been subjected to some spectacular thunderstorms, which don't seem to break the oppressive heat but just make the humidity worse.

Thanks to the rain, the garden has started to explode. We've been out picking peas, sometimes twice a day.

Yesterday, we did a little digging in the garden...

...and then sat in the hammock and worked on a hidden-picture mystery book called Art Auction Mystery (by Anna Nilsen). This is part of a series where famous paintings are "forged" and then you, the detective, must find the mistakes made by the forgers by comparing the fakes to the real paintings. These books are a fun art-history lesson for kids.

I have way too many tomato plants, planted way too close together, but I did manage to get one shot of some babies:

After my daughter and I had carefully raised some organic seedlings (grape, paste, and regular tomatoes) and planted them in the garden, the goats made a quick pass through and ate about half of them. I filled in with garden center plants, plus a couple of cherry tomatoes given to me at the plant swap. So now we have over 20 plants, 7 varieties, in random order in the garden. August should be interesting....

It's the growing season for chicks, too:

They are still not quite as big as their adoptive mother, but it's close. She is ever-vigilant with them, but now that I've opened up their pen, she does allow them to roam the yard. Surprisingly, the two big hens (not to mention the turkeys and peacocks) don't persecute them at all. I even saw one barred rock chick steal a piece of bread right out of big fat Daisy's beak.

Genevieve:

Random turkey and goat shots:

I don't know if I mentioned it in my last post, but after a long disappearance, one of our peahens is back in the yard and staying! The boys are trying desperately to impress her, but they've moulted and have almost no tail feathers to speak of. The second peahen may have succumbed to coyotes or could even be sitting on a nest somewhere. I doubt we'll see her again.

Notice that this post is light on knitting content. There is none. However, I have been tagged by at least three bloggers (of whom I believe Carol was the first) as one of these:

I have no idea what this means or where it came from, but it's a good chance to highlight 5 cool bloggers. Since I fritter away spend lots of time reading a lot of blogs, it's hard to decide who to tag, but I'll try. In no particular order:

• Bea of Bea Knits, not only because she is a great knitter but also because she has possibly the cutest baby who ever graced the blogosphere.
• Donna of Random Knits, who is knitter with a strong sideline in sewing tulle ballet costumes for her daughter and who has a house bunny with a face you can't help but love.
• Obsidian Kitten, who finds life with poultry to be as fulfilling as I do, only she has llamas, too!
• Stasia of Yarn and a Barn, who has things in common with me besides knitting, such as an old house, goats, and rescued dogs.
• Jess of JessaLu Knits, the only blogger of these five I have met in person. I met Jess through our blogs, but found out soon after that she lives not a mile away from where I grew up, in a town of 1,500 people (or it was when I lived there). Small world.

Honestly, I could tag another 100 bloggers with no trouble at all. I hope you'll at least check out these five if you don't read them already.

We're off to Boston for the weekend, where my stepson will be wrestling in the Bay State Games. He turns 18 today. :-)

Comments

[Carole]

Your garden is looking wonderful. Have fun in Boston!

[jackie]

I have a deer (or two) that love my peas and beans. So far they have left the tomatoes strictly alone.
Have a great time!

[Bea]

Your garden is looking amazing, I saw this book on Amazon that made me think of you and your family and your menagerie of animals. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060852550/1n9867a-20
When I saw that I got a rockin girl blogger I got SO excited this morning! It totally made my day, and Robby's too :) Thanks Jessie! This will help us get through days of top teeth coming through... it's been rough around here lately, no one is getting much sleep :P

[Heide]

Happy Birthday to your son and I hope you have a great trip. The chicken family is priceless. That carrot is huge. Did the goats get sick from eating the tomato plants and/or green tomatoes?

[Katy]

Ooh, I think my daughter would like that art mystery book!
And those peas make my mouth water. ;)

[CindyCindy]

Sounds like you've been busy. The heat and rain are great for the garden, but suck for almost everything else. Especially knitting. Happy B'day to stepson and have a blast in Boston.

[Libby]

Hooray for your garden! It seems to be plentiful :)

Good luck to the stepson...Boston sounds like fun! (Good knitting shops, I hear :)

[michelle]

I hear you on the tomato plants. I'm one person in my house and I planted 9 tomato plants! Two are cherry, four are misc./staggered blossoming plants and three are non- red tomato plants. All heirloom plants.. should be interesting come August. Not to mention the several cucumber plants that are starging to form tiny cukes. I forsee some canning in my future!

[Little Miss Curious]

Is that a carrot you're holding or...? Sounds like you're going to have a winter with lots of tomato sauce. I have never done any canning, but I was thinking I would give it a whirl this August. Maybe I should host New England Knitting bloggers "can your veggies and knit" party...Fiber/Harvest swap opportunity. I hear these a lot of down time with all that simmering and stuff. Perfect opportunity to get some on-hold summer knitting done.

[Carol]

Now I'm hungry for fresh food! Yum! The chicks are getting so big, they have a great mommy. I forgot about goats eating everything including your food! Bad goaties! Have a great weekend!

[lisa]

Hard to believe that our (in ME) snow peas are past yours! We don't get that much sun on our garden...but our carrots are just little hair-like wisps in the ground. Wow-you have a BIG tent! We are used to camping in backpacking tents, so it looks like you were hanging out in the lap o luxury!

[Natalie]

The chicks are so pretty! So many different colors.

OOH. Please dye me some sock yarn inspired by the chicks! I have sock yarn money to burn.... :)

[Marie]

Homegrown peas, yum! The chickies are looking so adorable with their adolescent scraggliness. :) Have fun in Boston!

[Kathy]

The garden looks fantastic!

[Jess]

Thanks for tagging me! You rock! :o)

[Joan]

Garden goodies look delish. Dang those goats for wolfing the organic stuff. Murphy's Law intact. You better stock up on canning supplies for those tomatoes. ;-p

I'm 3 repeats away from completing Gothic Leaf, had to put out an SOS for a ball of hemp to complete it. I will be so happy to have thos one over with.

Hot & hazy down this end of the state too.

[Dorothy B]

Happy Birthday to your stepson!

Your garden is looking great and the chicks are cute! Poor Genevieve. She's going to wind up like a little Italian Nonna. Small, but don't mess with her or her babies.

Glad one of the peahens came back.

[obsidiankitten]

House bunny! I want one. Except...the cats would be very puzzled.

And...thanks! *blush*

Now...how do i pick just 5 cool bloggers? you really wanted to spread the stress around, didn't ya? lol

[lisa]

Oooh, that milo is very cute! Are you going to keep him as a barn kitty? Neutered? House cat? LOVELY sunflower pics. And kind of funny about the bear, but kind of scary too.