15 August 2013

We have had two sets of visitors in the past two weeks.  My parents were here for the first weekend in August, and my sister and her family were here this last weekend.  We were glad to see all of them.  My sister lives in Florida so we don't see her hardly ever, but the kids had a great time with their cousins and stayed up late talking and playing.  Nut Brown got more wrestling in (she has three boys and a girl) than usual (although Bobo has started showing a tendency to throw himself on to people).  We played lots of games and made lots of noise and went for lots of walks.  It was really cute to watch Bobo play with her little girl, who is nine months older than he is.  It's the first time that he's really hung out with someone so close to his size and he wanted to be friends.  Our kids mesh very nicely: hers, mine, hers, mine, hers, hers, mine: so it was lots of fun.

But now we're very tired. :-)

My garden is plowing along being prodigious.  My tomatos are just starting to turn red.  We picked the second one yesterday.  They are so good!  The peas are producing a second crop, which I did not expect.  The jalapeno has given us twelve peppers so far.  The banana pepper has produced only one, but that's probably because it's being overshadowed by the tomato plants.  Summer was so cool that the basil plants are still flourishing and haven't gone to seed yet.  (Looking forward to eating them with tomato if they ever finish turning red!) My cucumber plants (six of them) produced tons of cucumbers, but then they got mildew and I had to rip them out. The watermelon plant has a watermelon on it about the size of my fist.  And the pumpkin vine has six pumpkins on it.  One vine, and it covers about three square acres.  One of the pumpkins is actually in my neighbor's yard because it grew through the fence.  The pumpkin got mildew too, but Rose Pink and I looked up a remedy and have been working to save it by spraying the leaves and ripping out some of the worst ones.  (The cucumbers were beyond saving by the time I figured out what was going on.) We also prayed for it, and I think that the pumpkin is going to make it.  Six pumpkins!  Can you believe it?  It has been a very rewarding year for gardening.

Woodward Dream Cruise is this weekend, and the kids and I are going to ride bikes down to Nine Mile in Ferndale to see the Ford display on Saturday.  We may also ride over to Woodward on Friday night, which is in my opinion the best time to go.  Mr. Brown is unfortunately busy both those times so he will miss out!  The old cars have started to come out and be seen around town.  I love the Dream Cruise.