What's Growing Around Here

I have a confession to make...

Our garden is A MESS.

What began with promise in the spring has turned into summer's dry, hot reality:  a garden where the weeds have zoomed ahead of us, triumphantly soaring to the sky, as if to prove that they are the victors.  But we award no trophies for tallest weeds!

Instead, we look among the weeds for the treasure tucked away.  And we find it.

Basil, my favorite herb...

Green peppers...

...some to be eaten now, and some to be chopped and frozen to be pulled out in winter's bleakness and used in recipes for food that tastes like summer.  I'm giddy every time I think about how I won't need to buy green peppers this coming winter at the grocery store; they're expensive in the winter, and I'm pleased at the thought of saving some money.  :)

Tomatoes...

...oh, the tomatoes!  We've got all stages of growth:  blossoms...

...green ones...

...all the way to red ones.  Home-grown tomatoes are probably my most favorite item of garden produce.  If we only had enough room for one plant, I would want it to be a tomato plant.  :)

We have cucumbers...

...and more cantaloupe than we know what to do with.

Our corn didn't win any records for maturing the earliest in the county...

 ...but at last, I believe it's ready.  We'll be eating it soon.

The grapes are coming along wonderfully, and we have high hopes that an abundant harvest this fall will compensate for the last two years of very poor harvests.

And then there are the potatoes.

 How many people does it take to dig potatoes?

 *insert your own punch line here...because I can't think of one*  :)

 But yeah, we've got potatoes.

 Lots and lots of potatoes.

In dirt so hard, you'd think you were digging in a brickyard.

 Our mighty men have managed to unearth quite a few of them...but hey, we're not stingy with our potato-digging excitement.  If you'd like the chance to show us your stuff, or if you're in the need of exercise and don't want to drive all the way to town to go to a gym, or if you just want to take pity on us, we'll do this for you:
We'll leave the fork out for you.  ;-)

There are also the non-edible items growing around here.  Crepe myrtle, for example, is glorious right now...

 ...but David's marigolds, humble though they may be, are almost as brilliant in their flashy orange hues.

Speaking of non-edibles (although technically, I suppose they could very well be edibles, at least in some parts of the world), our two goats still inhabit our pastureland.  They've grown so much since we got them two summers ago that our old descriptions of "the little one" and "the bigger one" don't apply.  They're both bigger ones now!

Growth around here isn't confined to plants and animals, and this little one is a fine example of that.

Almost on a daily basis, we see changes in Shav.  New words, new expressions, new actions all spring forth, amazing and delighting us.  

These lovely days of summer are good for growing things.

These are golden days.