I Miss My Blog!

I'm just waiting for things to get back into a routine here after a three-day weekend spent geocaching in beautiful urban Kendallville, Indiana, followed by two days of working, one night spent at Jenna and Joe's, and seven-mile and four-mile runs on Sunday and Tuesday. I'm kinda tired.

But once again, there's much to blog about - new things since the last time I got behind and posted a list. I've got some nice photos taken at Earth Girl's haunt, the Gene Stratton-Porter Historical Site. We visited there on Saturday and enjoyed the beautiful weather for a stroll through the wildflower gardens and a tour of the cabin.

Meanwhile, the garden has gone on in spite of our absence. The tomatoes are coming on and how! This is absolutely by far the best tomato year we've ever had. There's one large Brandywine ripening, but we've been enjoying the yellow pears and Sungolds and other minis for a couple of weeks now. Well, Romie is anyway. I don't care for raw tomatoes. I like them in salsa though, and might make some this year.

We've picked the last of the sweet corn and have enough for a couple of meals yet. We decided we need to grow 'Sugar Pearl' again next year because it took the prize for the crispest, sweetest corn we've ever eaten.

I'm thinking of tearing out the purple bean plants because they're looking very tired although they're still producing a fair amount of beans. We prefer the green ones, but we're actually getting tired of eating beans.

I don't want to jinx it, but I haven't found a single Japanese Beetle in the last three days. Maybe their invasion of Our Little Acre has come to a close. This was the worst year yet for them, since I started keeping track in 2006.

The honeysuckle is blooming again, and the hummingbirds have returned. They also like the red daylilies, as well as the 'Fireball' hardy hibiscus.




'Plum Crazy' is blooming, too. The size of the blooms on those things is amazing. Ten-plus inches across!






Some parts of the garden are looking like they're preparing for fall. Some plants have finished blooming and are starting to dry and die back. I'm sure the hot, dry weather we've had has played a part in that. The daylilies are mostly finished, although 'Franz Hals' is in its prime, providing striking color in the middle of Max's Garden.

Speaking of cats, we've had two strays that are getting braver and seem to want to join our already large family. One buff-colored tabby and a skinny black one have been sneaking into the pool house and garage to get some food. Romie calls them "Blondie" and "Blackie", which goes against his rule that no cat gets a name until they let us pet them. Blondie is close to that point, but Blackie is very timid.


We don't need more cats...