Kitty-Proof Forcefields and other stories

Cat picture! Look closely.

There's nothing that baffles and frustrates Maia like spotting us through the window.

Maia: "This is so weird. It's like, an out of body experience or something. WHY CAN'T I GET WHERE YOU ARE?"

Me: "Aw, kitty, you're so cute sitting up in the windowsill."

Maia: "I DON'T UNDERSTAND. There's this... this forcefield! How did you get on the other side of it?"

Me: "You really hate it when your people are outside and you're inside, don't you?"

Maia: "It's not right, it's just not right! There has to be a way around it! Where's the magic portal?"

Me, to myself: "I probably shouldn't tell her it's in the laundry room."

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It's official: the fennel is as tall as I am, which takes some doing.

In other gardening news: I haven't had flax in the yard since I was a child, and I'm loving these little blue flowers.

Also, during all the rain of the last couple of days—when it's been too wet to walk the yard much—the raspberries have begun ripening. The first batch is always the sweetest.

And I spent last Saturday rescuing the vegetable garden from the buttercup invasion, as well as handling one of the more intense tasks of the year: tying up the tomato plants and pruning the indeterminate ones. Unlike last year, when the poor little starts were wet and sun-starved, this year's tomato patch has had the freedom of warmth and shelter in plastic-covered garden hoops. When I took off the plastic cover to start trimming and tying, I found a three-foot-deep jungle.

This task involved hunting out the long-lost baby cucumber vines, which I found growing happily along the jungle floor. It also entailed planting basil starts in a few square inches of spare earth and pouring used coffee grounds around them to keep the slugs at bay, and redirecting the enthusiastic pumpkin vines to parts of the yard they're permitted to take over. I had to wall them off from the tomatoes with cage wire. I love my pumpkin vines, but they're not allowed into the tomato patch.

If I didn't suck at photography,
I'd have spotted the blue tape before shooting that picture.

Oregano, thyme, leeks, cilantro, peas and pumpkins.

For better or for worse, I do not make hard choices when I don't have to. Faced with the necessity of removing a couple of little pumpkin vines from the hill, as well as pulling a couple of tomatoes that came up of their own accord, I dragged a couple of old pots out and gave the little plants their chance at life. They're much behind their fellows, but hey, we have room.

Tomatoes on the left, new strawberry starts from Mom on the right!

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Music of the week: This Ralph Vaughn Williams piece, "The Lark Ascending", is mood music for today. I'm just loving it.



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Someone built Minas Tirith out of matchsticks. All I can say is, they'd better not let Denethor anywhere near it.

Happy weekend!