Wildlife.....a spotting, and an explanation

Emily spotted a lone fawn in the lot next to our house last night.  You can see it if you look closely at the next couple of photos.  We didn't see any sign of its mother, and when we checked the next morning it was gone.  Wish we could have helped in some way, but not sure what it would have been....other than perhaps to feed it some of my sweet potato vines.  I had noticed that something was biting them off....my immediate thought was of deer, but we've never seen any around this house.  I did spot what looked like deer droppings, but again never having seen any,  I chose to attribute the sweet potato trimmings to the rabbits that I have seen in and out of the garden.

Well....I guess this is proof that deer are around, and almost certainly are the sweet potato culprits!

 The garden's second harvest of yellow squash, a cucumber and some sweet banana peppers.

Summer happenings

We've been working with Lily this summer to keep some momentum going into second grade because studies have shown that kids regress if they don't practice their skills a bit over the summer.  Don't get me wrong, we are spending plenty of time goofing off in every direction, but there is also some quality work happening.  Here is Emily and Lily doing some work together tonight.

Some additional zinnia blossoms have bloomed adding to the array of color as you walk into the garden.

Oh....and CJ helped me write this post and was sorely disappointed that she wasn't in it, so we've got an impromptu picture of her at the computer and a message below.

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The English Garden

The concept of an English garden is that you mix some good plants together and just kind of let them grow.  It is not as manicured, and things are not organized neatly, but is does have a lot of beautiful plants in it growing in a wild kind of way.  Though it has been accused of this in prior years, I feel like this is the first year that the concept has really taken hold.  It is bursting with color and vegatables!  I'm doing a pretty good job and pulling the weeds and keeping things generally in their pens, but other than that it is starting to go wild!  Here are some pics of the plush beds and vibrant colors.

This bed has more flowers and herbs than most.  There are a few onions, carrots and peas in there, but it also has hyssop, basil, cilantro, scarlet runner bean, borage, sunflowers and zinnias.

 A zinnia blooming on the back side of that bed.

 Scarlet runner beans.

 Marigold (edible)

 A purple/pinkish borage (usually they are much more blue)

 Nastrutiums

 Calendula

 The cabbage bed growing strong (and feeding lots of bugs)

 Can I have a garden without gourds?  NO!  They are just too much fun in the fall.  I'm growing them up chicken wire on the fence again.  That is a spicy thai basil plant in front of the gourds.

 The sweet potato vines have finally taken off after I fenced them in....I believe a rabbit was biting them off.  Behind them is the big fall squash bed with acorn, butternut and pumpkins going.

 The trellised bed has tomatos, peppers, herbs, nasturtiums, marigolds, and yellow squash.

  I forgot to mention that I threw in a few token sunflowers....you can see them coming up on the end of the bed.

 Lily and CJ were playing a game with animals and pillows tonight....just wanted to add a couple of pics for the grandparents.

 Thatcher is no longer afraid of this camera so I can catch some of his more pensive looks....I hope its not because he's lost his hearing....at least I know for sure that he can still hear "biscuit" without any problem!

Over the river and through the woods....

to Nana and Papa's house we go!  The girls, boys and I took a short trip up to northern Virginia last weekend to visit with Nana and Papa.  Unfortunately Emily had to work and couldn't make the trip....we missed her bunches.  But that didn't stop the girls from having a grand time as they played games with Nana, Papa, Jackson and Grier.  In addition to Go Fish and Blokus, the playdough, matchbox cars and dolls were as popular as ever.  We even got to go to the neighborhood pool a few times and have Lily show off her mad swimming skills.  CJ has the bug and I am sure she will have her first lessons before long.

Here are the girls showing Papa how the pretend to eat playdough.

 Family pic :)

Making Lemonade to Help Sick Kids

We had our neighborhood yard sale over the weekend and were able to get rid of a bunch of stuff.  We made a decent amount of money too, but its value pales in comparison to the joy of being rid of so much stuff and being able to pass through the garage without having to limbo.

But the best part of the yard sale was Lily's participation.  She has been talking about having a lemonade stand at this yard sale ever since we started dreaming about it as a way to get rid of a bunch of stuff.  She decided to go with a donation model and offered free lemonade in exchange for donations to the Children's Hospital.  It was amazing to watch as people who would haggle with me and Emily over a nickel approached Lily and dropped money in her jar by the dollar.  We wish we had taken some photos of her in action, but will have to settle for her counting the proceeds and a snapshot of the receipt for her donation.....all told she raised $22.67 and counted out the money (with a little help from me).

And CJ just wanted her picture taken.....its hard to ever deny that request :)

Board and Batten

Some random pictures from various stages of construction

Board and Batten

So we decided to "stay-cate this year and spent last week doing home renovations.  The laundry room was finished up, so we went on with painting the girls' bathroom and adding some board and batten to a large portion of the house.  We liked the idea because it gave some structure and brightness to the house and created a sense of continuity....and it got rid of some brown.  Here are the before and after pictures:

It should be noted that while I enjoyed playing with my new toys very much (a miter saw, air compressor and nail gun).....Gator was completely terrified.  He spent most of the week hiding in bathtubs and closets.

Garden Broccoli

Lily is about to devour the first broccoli ever grown in our own garden (it only had two green worms on it Naneema).

I have been impressed at how well my early cabbage bed has done.  The kale has been tremendous....but interplanted with it the broccoli and cauliflower have done well too.  I actually picked a cauliflower as well but it was fairly well eaten through with some kind of bug and just threw it in the compost bin.

Garden Color!

So the garden is coming along slowly....probably the biggest impediment to it is that the grass hasn't grown fast enough to use as a mulch (which means its dry and I'm picking a lot of weeds).  Despite that minor setback, my plan to have the garden pop with some color this year is paying off.  Here are some interesting and colorful plants:

 The Scarlet Runner Bean (flowers are edible)

 Anise Hyssop

 Marigold (edible)

 Marigold (not edible)

 Borage (edible)

 Broccoli!....no green worms yet Naneema....keep your fingers crossed.

 Calendula (flowers are edible)

 Cauliflower!