Garden update

Above: Lemon Tomato and Cherry Tomato plants, parsley lines the front.

After several weeks of warm to hot temperatures, many trips around the garden with the watering can, and selective weeding... we have food! I can't explain how gratifying it is to have salads on the table each night, comprised entirely of greens from our own garden. We've been eating a lot of chard as that has taken off and seems to practically grow over night. Sauteed with garlic and olive oil, thrown into scrambled eggs with some delicious cheese, and soon to be auditioned in a frittata or quiche... it's good stuff.

I'm still babying my tomato plants (I have what some might deem as "too many" at a total count of, um, 9 plants...). But, I hope that come late August, I'll be sweating over pots of tomato sauce seasoned by our own basil and oregano.

Nasty little green wormy things ate our kale leaves (center row) after our first harvest! They got onto the broccoli leaves, too (left row), but didn't touch the lettuce or the beans. Hmmm.

Lemon verbena and cucumbers in the back left corner; sunflowers growing above everything else with a few corn stalks and copious amounts of swiss chard. In the front left-right: rosemary, oregano, thyme, basil and teeny purple basil in the lower right corner.

Tomato sauce land. L-R: Home Depot Celebrity start, and 6 of my own plants started from seedlings... look who's winning!!!

Squash: yellow summer, Amish Pie pumpkins, Sugar Pie pumpkins. Mmm. Pie from scratch. I can already smell October... squash with a little cinnamon and butter baking in the oven...

Link to some wonderfulness

I regularly read a blog called Soulemama (soulemama.com). She's just had her fifth(!) child and instead of blogging on a daily basis, she's asked other bloggers to contribute to her writing space for a while.

I read THIS today and *loved* it. The last two paragraphs are the best part.

We've been doing a lot of outdoor play with the sky high temperatures and our garden has taken off. I am amazed at how much those little plants can grow in a single day with the warmth of the sun egging them on. I'm so grateful for my group of mama friends here in Evanston, with whom I gather almost every single day to watch our toddlers play, argue, laugh and stumble. And I'm loving Yard Sale season! Woot! :)

A long weekend

After two days of crushing thunderstorms, we had a hot, rain-free Memorial Day.

We made a morning trip down to Lincoln Park Zoo where we saw the current favorite: giraffes; and other assorted hot and sleepy animals. I was reminded that summer brings with it its own Toddler Packing List and we have traded gloves, hats, and jackets for a different kind of hat, sunscreen, and a spare t-shirt. In short: Christopher came home with a new neon-green bucket hat.

We played in the yard, dusted off the water toys, dug in the yard, took naps, fired up the barbecue, and proceeded to sweat through dinner because we were just all so thrilled to be outside, outside, outside.

And I think I got my first bug bite of the season which is something of a rite of passage: summer is here.