garden update

In I-can't-believe-this-is-happening news: After two previous attempts to grow my favorite food of all time, I actually have strawberries growing and about to turn red. AND the squirrels haven't gotten to them yet! (So shhhhhhh!)

I'm going to assume the squirrels haven't gotten to the strawberries yet because they are preoccupied with the bird seed at the other end of the yard. While my feeder is supposedly squirrel-proof (it's called Squirrel X), they still like hanging out around it as every bird in my neighborhood picks seeds out of it and drops a lot on the ground. In fact, this week, it took those birds all of four days to descend on my yard and turn this...













...into this.

They better learn to eat more slowly. I'm only going to fill that thing up once a week IF they're lucky. (If I can ration my Marks & Spencer Scottish Shortbread cookies, these birds can ration their wildbird seed mix!)

Finally, my new mint plant is getting bigger and is so far bug free. And the rosemary and lavender that I'm propagating is still alive.. the lavender is even budding a bit. Yay! I want that especially to root so I can plant it in a sunny spot, hardly ever water it and watch it get ginormous like the lavendar in my front garden :)

things that make me smile: summer fruit

When I was a toddler, I had a red splotch on my back that my mom and grandma swore looked like a strawberry. As a result someone bought me a cute dress with a strawberry on it that I think all of my living relatives own a copy of and that my mom decided to sketch out as a big piece of art ... which she then decided should hang in my house in the exact spot in my bedroom where the previous owner also had a sketch of a young child. 

I tell you all of this because in addition to (or maybe in spite of  ;) the above, I LOVE strawberries! They are not only my favorite fruit, but quite possibly my favorite food on the planet. So summer (aka strawberry season) is a faboo time for my sweet tooth and taste buds. 

But strawberries aren't the only summer fruits I adore. Here's a peek at what is currently taking up at least a quarter of the space in my fridge right now (thanks to a trip to the Costco refrigerated room today ;) 

Why can't these be in season all year like boring apples are?

Cherries! Love them! Hate that they cost so much :(

Green grapes. Red grapes. As long as they're seedless, I don't care :)

Nectarines! I always forget how much I love these till I buy them. 

PS: I'm also a huge fan of plums, but don't have any to take pics of right now. Boo.

PPS: My LEAST favorite summer fruit is kumquats... if you've ever been to my backyard you know why.