A Break in the Drought and Cantaloupe Thieves

New cucumber plants

We have appreciated the rain. The garden is growing super quickly with the extra water and the cooler temperatures. We have some corn on the way, purple hull peas, okra and peppers. There are new cucumber plants with little cukes and some odds and ends of other things. We also have melons, but we are in a race to see how many we will get before the varmints eat them all.

Unripe cantaloupe

Banana peppers

When the cantaloupes are about one or two days away from picking they begin to send off fragrant fruit smells. Before we pick the fully ripe fruit, something comes along and eats it. I am guessing it is a raccoon, possum, squirrel or rabbit, or maybe several of these. They don't come every night and they only eat the ripest ones. They don't get all of them, but they have gotten several of them. We have yet to see what it is; very frustrating. They are either climbing over or under the fence. They may even be hiding out in the garden. It happens at night, which makes me think it isn't squirrels. They haven't eaten the corn, and I think raccoons would do that. Oh well we will keep trying to figure it out and take some kind of corrective action.

In the not so sneaky department, I caught a box turtle sneaking up on my compost makings. I sat the peelings outside to deter the fruit flies and when I opened the door to leave this morning, I caught the turtle checking out the container.  It surprised both of us. I can handle sneaky at that speed. 

Spring ReMix and Patience

Flowering Cherry Blossoms

The weather here is in the iris, spirea, poppy, azalea blooming stage.  The rhododendrons and deciduous azaleas are just opening.  The redbuds and cherries are finishing up.    I told my granddaughter that these flowering cherry blossoms looked just like her play tutu.  She is young enough that I can't tell if she really understands what I mean.  We walk around the block, well I walk and she pushes herself along on here hand-me-down Hot Wheels type tricycle (see previous blog photo).  She has trouble pedaling and steering at the same time, so she usually contents herself with pulling and pushing all  the way around.  Sometimes it is a little frustrating for Type A personalities.

We go around the block and look for lamps.  She has been watching The Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie and I told her that the lamp posts were from Narnia so now we stop and discuss every lamp around the block, there are many!  It is a nice residential area with lots of old homes, nicely remodeled.  The sidewalk is interesting, especially when you contemplate it from a toddler trike-riding point of view.  Some of it is smooth and old, some of it is smooth and new, a few spots are broken and pitted, and some parts are displaced by huge old maple roots.  In places the roots are growing over the sidewalk.

Peas in Paper Cups

There are no trees of any size in the immediate vicinity of our house here.  It makes working up the soil for beds much easier.  I am planning on planting these peas at the end of the porch and in a back corner.  The tomatoes haven't come up yet, probably not warm enough on the porch to get the tomato seeds to sprout.


My granddaughter and I are making a play space in the narrow back yard.  I will
probably take some pictures soon.  I am hoping that I can come up with some ideas that put re-purposed objects to good use and at the same time will allow her to use her imagination.  People around here obligingly put things out on the curb for others to use.  There was a beautiful old green velvet chair that would need to be reupholstered on the curb  It was heartbreaking to leave it out for the trash pick-up.  But at present there was nothing else to be done.  The kind of weird things that I am looking for are not always the kinds of things people think other people want.  Oh well I will just keep my eyes open, the right things will come along.  Patience plays a big part in riding around the block, art, and life.