Birds and Blooms Update

Around our house the cucumbers are coming like crazy, so our neighbors and friends have been enjoying them, too. We've been using them in green salads, cut up as snacks, and also in a Greek cucumber-tomato salad with a balsamic vinaigrette.

Ella's favorite part of helping to grow veggies is picking them off when they are ripe. We usually water and check in on them every day and she always asks if she can take some off. I like that she is starting to learn about where food comes from as we garden, go to the Farmers' Market, and cook/bake together, as I think there are many kids who think that food just comes "from the store." I want Ella to have lots of experiences outside with nature--like touching earthworms, planting and picking vegetables, digging in the dirt, rolling in the grass, and collecting "specimens" (ask my family about my crazy refrigerator door collections). (See Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods book).

Anyway, on to the pictures from our yard:

last banana pepper, but it's turned bright red! Not sure if it's still okay to eat like that, but it looks neat, anyway

Ella searching for the best cucumber to pick

Hallelujah for cucumbers!

nestled in the leaves


rubbing the 'spikes' off of the cucumber

The two eggplant are still growing well. Here's what the largest one looks like now:

eventually to become some yummy eggplant parmigiana
(I made it last week from a Farmers' Market eggplant, but tried a recipe that baked--instead of fried--the eggplant before baking and it wasn't quite as good)

In addition to the 2 grape tomato plants that have been giving us handfuls and handfuls of sweet tomatoes, we have 3 additional plants that are growing larger tomatoes (not sure which variety since they were given to us as starter plants from our neighbor). I got creative with the stakes and made my own from extra molding I found in Rob's work area and bright red Christmas ribbon. So far we haven't had any ripe tomatoes from them, yet, except for two that fell off the vine and ripened on our window sill. One of the plants is Ella's and is right next to her little house.

Ella's tomato plant


larger tomatoes with homemade stakes

mystery plant--does anyone know what this is? I thought it was a weed, but it comes back every year in this spot and it seems like a plant

here's another picture of it up-close

another mystery flowering bush--I know this is definitely a flowering bush, but not sure what kind it is--I love their flowers. I cut the whole bush back really far in the Spring and it is huge and beautiful now next to Ella's little house

What is this?

one of its flowers

another view

The bees love this bush's flowers! They're were tons of them gathering pollen from the center of the flowers--they're little legs and bodies were covered with yellow dust

Our hibiscus is blooming! I am not sure which variety it is, but it is amazing to have flowers as large as these--they are bigger than my face--they look like the size of frisbees.

this one is probably about 12 inches across

up close

one more

Black-Eyed Susans in the front garden
(and side ones, too)

The birds are loving our feeders--we have one large one filled with songbird mix and another slender thistle feeder specially made for yellow finches. Today was cooler, so when we had the windows open, we could hear all of the birds enjoying their food. We have a pair of yellow finches (one male, one female) who are feasting at the thistle feeder constantly throughout the day. Their song is very distinctive and they are so bright. I have tried to capture their picture, but they are too fast for me. Hopefully, I will some day.

Back to what we've been making with our veggies---yesterday I made my first quiche. I am not a big egg person, which is probably why I never made one before. But, yesterday I decided to give it a try following a recipe from Simply in Season. I altered the recipe by using a pre-made crust.n I was surprised how easy and yummy this turned out to be. I am not sure how well it will taste reheated, but for dinner with crusty bread and applesauce last night, it was good.

quiche with just the veggies
(zucchini, tomatoes, onions)

with the egg/milk mixture poured on and the cheese sprinkled..

ready for the oven

ready to slice into after being baked