monkeys and ponies

We had one sunny day on this three-day weekend, so clearly today was the day to get stuff in the ground. ( four photos, after the cut )

The six plants on the right are the tomatoes; the one in the near corner with slightly peculiar-looking leaves for a tomato (you may have to click through to see in more detail) is the blue tomato. The peas are along the trellis, obviously, though the plants at its far side are pickling cukes. There's basil and parsley running in a line down the middle, two peppers at upper left, and the big empty space in the middle is reserved for the two okra seedlings currently under a grow light on my front porch. (They'll go in around mid- to late June.)

( +7, after the cut, including kitty photos )

This one's permanent:



This one's probably temporary. I was at most two feet from this little guy, and he never once tried to fly away. He did move along the fence several times later and was gone by evening, so I'm hoping that means he wasn't sick.

I only have one aster plant, but it's covered with flowers right now. I should really put in some more next year.

As annoying as it was when the neighbors chopped down their giant Norway maple, leaving 8" holes in my yard and a (now deceased) colony of refugee carpenter ants in my house, the extra sun in the herb garden is making the flowers very happy. Especially the pyrethrum daisies:



( +3, after the cut )

One of the azaleas in the backyard is deciduous, and I've never bothered to take a photo of its leaves this late in the season until now. Which was obviously a shame, as it's quite spectacular this time of year. (In mid-June, it looks more like this.)

The tree pruners finally left, so I went out to the backyard to check on the damage and discovered that not only is our yard now full of impact craters, my beloved giant rudbeckia is GONE. One hundred percent, totally, completely gone, cut down to a few inches of stalk. It was in full bloom and one of my favorite plants to look at.

I have to think that something large fell on it, and the guys had no choice to cut it back. But I am very, very, very angry that no one checked with me first.

If this plant doesn't come back next year, the neighbor is buying me a new one.

After a relatively cool and very wet summer, we have finally hit hardcore August: 90+ degrees and humid, and scheduled to remain that way through the end of the week. This means that the cantaloupes – or maybe they're muskmelons, since I've long since forgotten what I planted – are finally getting enough sun and heat to bear fruit:



Okay, okay, it's only one baby melon out of the the many, many flowers on the vines, and odds are it won't get a hell of a lot bigger by the time things cool off again, but still, it's one more melon than I was expecting given the weather earlier this summer.

( Three more photos, after the cut. )

It was 90 billion degrees and humid out yesterday, and the massive cucumber war production machine in the vegetable garden was in full swing, so I bought some buttermilk and made cold cucumber soup for dinner last night. This left me with more buttermilk than expected, so I thought I'd surprise columbina with biscuits in the morning.

For some reason, we haven't been having good luck with our usual Cook's Illustrated biscuit recipe, so I decided to try a different one they printed a few years ago that claimed to make tall, fluffy, flaky, buttery biscuits of perfection. The batter was sticky and a bit of a pain in the butt to work with, especially when forming little balls you then had to roll in flour, but oh boy, were the results worth it. Best biscuits I've ever made -- I had to walk away from the kitchen after eating one lest I try to eat them all -- and a few will end up under whipped cream and locally grown blueberries for dessert tonight.

I would consider just having the biscuits and berries for dinner if it were not for the fact that I already have panzanella hanging out in the fridge waiting for all the flavors to come together so we can have that instead. It is just a little bit too early in the summer for the panzanella to come mostly from my garden: the tomatoes, alas, are from California, but at least the basil, chives, lemon thyme, and cucumber all came from the backyard. There's also some semi-local (Connecticut) corn in there as an experiment, because how bad can panzanella with fresh corn be?

Still, at least the tomato plants are now covered with little green guys, so soon enough I'll have most of the ingredients for panzanella (and gazpacho!) ready anytime I care to pick them. I can't wait.

ETA: From now on, all my meals shall consist of blueberries, freshly whipped cream, and biscuits. SO LET IT BE WRITTEN; SO LET IT BE DONE.

This is Black Dragon Holds a Splendid Flower, the tree peony we put in two years ago:



And this is what I found on it today:



Guess it was worth planting after all.