lazy afternoons

Lee here...
Its been hot and sunny, but breezy and cool under the maple tree. For the past couple of days, Annie and I have gone outside mid afternoon, with a book and a stuffed animal or two, and we've even fallen asleep!
I appreciate the freedom to be able to have a siesta! How cozy does this look?

I'm back....

It has been quite some time since I have blogged and I want to thank you Lisa, for keeping the blog going....and hope to hear more from Zee too...
Most of my vegetable garden is planted and that feels so good! I have a few pickling cukes to get in and a couple of rows of bush beans, but last week I was able to get the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zuchinni, squash, melons, carrots and beets in. I also finished my little bean arbour and planted two kinds of pole beans. The second block of greens has already popped through the soil and we've been eating our way through the first batch. SO TASTY! The lettuce seedlings survived the 32+ temperatures last week (barely) and the new lettuce seeds that I started are also up. I am anxious to be able to eat more out of the garden...especially the sugar snaps! The lovely rain we are having today is badly needed and will give the plants a good deep soak.
I really enjoyed our annual Plant swap last weekend and was so happy to see people that I don;t get to see often enough. It was a wonderful day of family, friends, plants, food and chatting. What more could you want! Next year is our tenth year of hosting the Blue Mountain Plant swap....we will have to think of a special way to commemorate it!
In my next blog I hope to share the story of the ongoing "Potato Wars"....

Blue Mountain Plant Swap

Lee here...Annie and I headed up to Kathy's house for her annual plant swap. We saw some familiar faces and I got to meet the writer of a blog that I read frequently. http://www.andreacameron.blogspot.com/ She seems like such a gentle mama!

I like this picture of Annie. She is such a happy kid...most of the time anyway.
Kathy sells veggie seedlings and these are some of the left overs. I picked out a few for my sister.

Folks come and look at all the plant offerings and then at 1 o'clock sharp, you take as many plants and you brought. I don't have alot of garden space ready so I took 6 plants. Kathy's sister also gave me a couple of plants that I had been looking for which was so nice of her! I will plant them today in a spot until I can find a better, more permanent home for them.

We packed a yummy, healthy lunch for ourselves...and brought a treat to share.

..."worms in dirt" cupcakes was the most accurate description of the treats we made!

Thanks for a great day Kathy!

I love planting!

Lee here...so nice to be finished with the initial weeding, adding manure, and tidying up the beds. The fun part is all the planting of seeds and plants! I moved my swingset over to the tomato garden and planted 6 tomato plants...tying them with string as a stake. We have 12 tomato plants in total, 6 of which are sungold which is our favorite!
Kathy gave me some netting for my peas. It was a challenge putting it up but I think it will serve the purpose. I planted a nice thick row of sugar snaps that I saved from last year. I hope they grow! I have assorted seeds on each side of the pea trellis...carrots, purslane, some cilantro, lettuce..

I dumped all the winters compost into this bed and covered it with leaves, some peat moss and manure...I will add some soil if I get some. Its looking really good! I was going to leave it covered with straw to "cook" over the season, but I think I might put some squash in it.

I planted aspargus last year. I was really thinking it wasn't going to come up this year but it is....not all of the plants but half of them for now. I just took the straw off of it today and noticed more coming up out of the soil....maybe I should have taken the straw off sooner?

I am going out with Annie tomorow to pick out some annuals for her garden, maybe some cutting annuals for spots in my beds, and some lavender. I plan on finishing the planting this weekend. I still will grow some more greens later and another planting of beans. Happy growing!

So Sad:(

Kate's kitten died:( We are all so sad. She just started having a seizure or something and then stiffened up and stopped breathing:( It all happened in a couple of minutes.
Lee

Spring flowers

Lee here...not a very good photo but these lilacs and tulips really brighten up the room and smell lovely! I wish I had lots to say about all the gardening I've been doing but there hasn't been much going on in that department. I think there is just so much to do (and becoming more everyday!) that it is overwhelming to get out there and get started! I think I need to make myself a smaller, more doable, to do list.

New kitten for Kate

How cute is she! We had promised her a kitten for a while and then saw this one at the Humane Society. Her name is Scout (from the book "To Kill a Mockingbird"). She needs more shots the end of this month and then will need to be neutered as soon as she is old enough. She is so small and cute and playful :)
Lee