Vegetables in the Garden

Let's take a walk through my vegetable garden.  I know I've said before that the flowers are all the work of my mother, but I personally prefer to plant something that is going to give back something to eat - so I did.  The eggplant this year have been super productive.  We've already made eggplant curry and eggplant casserole.

And we've only harvested one yellow squash so far, but it was huge and, as you can see, there are a bunch on the way.

Here we have some yummy grape tomatoes...

And some yellow cherry tomatoes.  I'll be making tomato jam with these in another month or so when we have more than we can easily eat.

Green beans!  Basically once a week we have been able to harvest enough to serve at dinner - delic!

And I love the tendrils they send out. 

I planted butternut squash (above) in between the tomato cages and the green bean trellis and it turns out they have also made good use of the trellis.

And have taken over part of the lawn as well... we're mowing around them.

Cantaloupe.

Watermelon... these have also overgrown their boxes and moved into the surrounding lawn.  I think in another couple months we'll be overrun.

Zucchini... these have also been way bigger than the ones you find in the store.

Arugala (nice and peppery) and, finally...

Swiss chard.  Every other day or so we cut a bunch of the last two, add some of those tomatoes, and maybe some avocado and croutons for a delicious lunch salad.  Great stuff.  Now I'm hungry.

What Happened to July?

Clearly, July got the best of me.  Basically I was swamped.  A recap goes something like this:

• My desktop died causing me to have to finally break down and buy a laptop
• We had guests in town for a few days over the fourth of July and my son saw his first fireworks
• My husband and I spent a weekend at the Dave Matthews Band Caravan
• My son was sick for two weeks with a nasty cold and ear infection 
• I volunteered at a conference
• I spent an unimaginable number of hours in and around creeks, detention ponds and wetlands, helping with the inventory for my internship (which is watershed planning)
• I had to give a presentation for class
• I wrote an essay a week for my summer class
• I finished three baby blankets and a small pile of taggie blankets
• The vegetable garden has been going like gang busters

I think that about sums it up.  Here are some pics of all of that.

My boys on the Fourth of July...

A turtle out in the watershed and I think the berries below are nightshade.

A pretty frog.  No idea what kind.

American hazelnut.  By the way, I can now identify a handful of native species of plants as well as a bunch of non-native and/or invasive ones as well.

A green heron.

Dragonfly.

I'll post these separately, but here are the three baby blankets I finished.  I will also post all the pics of my garden and vegetables separately.

The two quilted ones were both super fast and done in maybe a couple hours each over weekends.  The knit one was what I carried with me and worked on the rest of the month.  

The nice thing is I have so many babies to make gifts for that I can post these and there is no way their respective mothers could figure out which one they are getting.  Total incoming baby count currently at 11.  Yes, eleven.  Between now and January.

Taggies for everyone!

And here is the fabric I have set aside for another baby quilt.  This one will be a bargello. 

And last, but not least, I have one more essay, one more class, and one more day of tromping through creeks before my family and I get my first and only true vacation of 2011.  To celebrate I finally got around to my first mani-pedi of the season (ridiculous).  Does this color say "vacation" to you?

Garden Tour

Between my internship and classes I've had very little time for blogging in the last week.  

But I have been working feverishly on a project...

... except it's for the handmade gift exchange so I can't share my progress with you.

Instead, I have a tour of our garden for you.  (I took the pic of the irises earlier this year - they're long gone now.)

Can't claim credit, though.  This is all my mom's handiwork. 

Look!  Squash! 

I did actually plant a bunch of vegetables... 

... not much to show yet, but as soon as there is I will have pics.

Love the trellis.

The peonies are also long gone, but they are one of my favorites.  They remind me of my grandfather - he always used to plant these.

Work and an Idea

I've been working on Urban Utility II this week.  I wanted to quilt it differently than Urban Utility I, but my attempts involved a lot of seam ripping.  It will be a little different, but not much.

Seems it may be time to clean my machine.

Did I mention I love my new walking foot?

And then there is this...

I am going to attempt to turn this drawing I did last night, or a version of it, into a wall quilt.  Totally not sure how I am going to make it happen, but I feel like I need to branch out a bit with my quilting and try my hand at an art quilt.  I am absolutely going to make it up as I go. Wish me luck! 

And don't forget, my quilt giveaway is still going on.  Click HERE to enter.

Bunnies and the Handmade Gift Exchange

While playing outside with my son the other day, we came across a nest of bunnies.

 But he was a little preoccupied with his latest fort.

Apparently, that quilt just can't stay away from trees.  There's no hope for it.

And yesterday I signed myself up for Craftaholics Anonymous' Biannual Handmade Gift Exchange.  I am so excited!  I've meant to do this the last couple times it came around and either just missed the deadline or was swamped with school.  This time I get to play - Hooray!

A Walk Along Spring Creek