Star Spangled Greetings

Happy Independence Day!

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Random flowers

These lilies are HUGE and smell phenomenal.

Bee nice to the helenium, sir!

This bright pink dianthus just sprung up out of nowhere.
I wish more flowers would plant themselves.

Let the harvest begin!

Where to begin?  June came and went, we took a vacation, summer is here, and my crazy lady bathtub veggie growing is starting to pay off.  It was really startling seeing the garden after being away for over a week.  We actually harvested two cucumbers immediately upon our return, and two more the next day.  It's amazing to me that I started everything (with the exception of the two purple cabbages) from a seed - in the bathtub!

Roxxy likes to help weed the garden :-)

Yep, still the same three little plants.
Audrey III is in the middle -  now the smallest plant of the 3.

The pepper field - full of blooms and mini-peps!

Did I mention the tomatoes are nearly as tall as me?

The cucumbers were just the beginning...  Lettuce, radishes, green beans, onions, and peppers have all been harvested and we are ready for more!  It was a bit disappointing to learn that the purple beans turn green when cooked, but they were still delicious.  If the white pepper looks tiny, it is.  I "accidentally" pulled it off the plant while investigating it.  What can I say except it was tasty.  

OBX 2011

Shawn & I enjoyed a lovely vacation (along with my mom & her fiance) in Duck, NC from the 12-19 of this month.  We stayed in Garner - Scottyville, USA for those Idol fans - for the weekend with my BFF and her family before heading off to the Outer Banks.  Lots of fun there, but upon our arrival in the OBX...

- I received a $132 ticket for not wearing my seatbelt.  My own fault but still what a way to start vacation.

- The water pump went out in my car.  Thankfully, Shawn is a handy guy and repaired it.

- The Atlantic Ocean fried my digital camera.  On the up side, I do still have my waterproof one.

Nonetheless, it was a great week.  We saw numerous lighthouses, the Wright Brothers memorial, Jockey's Ridge, and of course bummed around on the beach.  Biggest surprise: out of the 4 of us I did NOT get sunburned!

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Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Well, in the course of the last week we've seen the rise and fall of Weinergate, Sarah Palin rewrote history, and Lulzsec had fun with numerous sites including good old Sony...  Meanwhile, I'm still trying to grow vegetables.  Not nearly as thrilling as a meat tweet BUT it certainly has its rewards.  When looking back at the last post I am stunned to see how much the garden has grown - see for yourself:

Did I happen to mention that the pumpkins also went nuts?  They have all officially spilled over the edge of the mini patch.  What's interesting to me is the plants on either side of Audrey III are seeds from the same pumpkin but they are growing very differently.  As you can see one is super long but the other one is rather bushy - only time will tell I suppose.

More exciting news: LILIES HAVE BLOOMED!  There's 8 or so currently open and more look ready to burst.  They're mostly a surprise to me since we bought them on the cheap last year ($1.65 each I think) - after they had bloomed.  Wasn't sure what colors I'd be seeing this year, but so far it's mostly white with one yellow.  I won't recognize the yard when we come back from vacation!