A blogging break....

Wow! I can't believe I haven't blogged in almost 3 weeks. What have I been doing, you might ask, my faithful readers (both of you...)? Well, pretty much this:

and this...

Pretty much my thoughts have been consumed by the garden. There is nothing I look forward to more than growing our veggies and flowers. Last year, thinking we were moving, I didn't really do much with the garden. But here we are, and probably we'll be here for awhile, so I have really enjoyed getting my hands in the earth this year. And I am determined to actually enjoy it this year - you know, seeing the lovely plants and flowers instead of the weeds.

A bit of the front garden:


The first squash of the season. Woohoo!


And G.'s favorite - sugar-snap peas. mmmmmm....



For veggies, we have 6 varieties of tomatoes going - all of which I started from seed way back in the cold days of March. Then we have pumpkins, swiss chard, leeks, pole beans, 3 kinds of cucumbers, bell peppers, and squash. For herbs, basil, German chamomile, thyme, rosemary, chocolate mint, lemon balm, French sorrel, and spearmint.


And I just love these impatiens, which I also started from seed. They are made to tolerate more sun than regular ones and the colors are so bright and vivid. I have two big buckets of them that I just love.


So that's where I am if you need me - in the garden. Hopefully we have a good harvest and I'll have more pictures for you. Because I KNOW you want to see more, don't you?

Salamanders!

What luck! A spotted salamander found its way into our basement last week after days and days of thunderstorms.

Ron put it in our backyard bug & toad collector with some mud so the kids could see it upclose, and they promptly named it "Spottles." Reluctantly, they found some rocks near the edge of the woods (there is a stream there) to release him.


Goodbye Spottles the Salamander, have a nice life in the woods