Around here today - Flowers

If you're gonna have dandelions in your yard, you might as well have daisies too. They're in tiny patches here and there. Little habitats. I didn't notice the silky spider threads until I saw this one on the computer. Also, you notice the decapitated stem? That lovely one is in my kitchen.



Hollyhocks. I've tried for three years to get them established outside our barn. A too-mild winter, and ahem... these birds called chickens, took quite a toll. But LOOK! Blooms! Finally, I am getting closer to declaring the hollyhock mission a success. Also? Pink is so not my color, but I'm totally okay with it if that's what it takes.



The cilantro is flowering. Fine by me if it seeds itself again so I don't have to do that next year. A cilantro jungle - that's what we have.



And the dill. I planted it once, like four years ago, and it shows up right on time ever since.







So in conclusion, I probably should have titled this one, "The things that grow all.by.themselves whether I want them to or not, except the stubborn Hollyhocks".

These purple carrots

We're doing a few experiments in our garden again, a collaboration with the NDSU extension. We're nothing special. But we like to think we are, and when I word it like that... it sure sounds like we are. Special, I mean.

This garden just went crazy behind my back these last few weeks. It always does that in July. I figured we had the weeds about 80% under control. And then? July happened.

So I figured we'd better get started taste-testing these odd carrots. They're purple. I guess I told the kids these ones were going to be purple, because they were neither impressed nor surprised. With all the drama we usually have going on around here, I was honestly a bit disappointed.

We picked a few carrots. Carefully. In two bundles as to not get the two varieties mixed up.

'Cause we have to be responsible with this one, you know.


No drama to write home about.

For once.

(Yesterday was a different story... Emergency Room. Stitches. Lots of wailing and snot.)


Oh, and the girl found a very pretty squash. That was after she ate a basil leaf half the size of her head. Now do you think she'd eat a leaf of basil if I handed it to her in the house? No way. These kids always smell very, ummm... culinary(?) after a trip to the garden. One favors the cilantro, and the other two go after the basil, but it has to be foraged completely on their own.

Scratch and sniff: Basil


I'm realizing now these pictures make it look like our garden is on the moon (or Texas?), or mulched with rock, or something. This is actually up on our driveway next to the house. The driveway has weeds too. It keeps the chickens busy. Everything around here has a purpose, people.



Even the squash.

On the kitchen table...

Just as I found them:







I have no idea who started it this time, but I love these kids' creativity. Our table sees so many beautiful things.