Garden Update

Our garden is really starting to take off! I had my first salad from the garden last week, strawberries are really coming on, and we'll have chard and peas in a couple of weeks. The beans, cukes, and squash are all off to a good start, and all but one of my new hop hills are thriving. For some reason, one of my vines is just getting hammered by aphids. I grabbed a handful of ladybugs from throughout the garden and placed them on the vine, but it may be too late. Hopefully the rhizome will be healthy enough to grow again next year.

Our potatoes are also doing phenomenally well (so far) and I cannot wait for fresh tomatoes, peppers and basil. Yum!

Midnight Visitor

Last week I was cleaning up the kitchen when I heard a hollow thumping noise coming from the general vicinity of our chicken coop. I stuck my head out the back door and saw a dark form scurrying off the roof. I grabbed a flashlight and a camera and found this fellow staring back at me from the neighbor's oak tree. Thankfully, it would appear that our coop is in fact coon-proof. No chicken dinner for you, buddy!

South Whidbey State Park

Two weekends ago we had a fantastic camping experience on Whidbey Island. Ordinarily, Seattle experiences the "June Gloom" all month, which (as the name suggests) is an entire month of pretty cloudy days with the occasional rain shower thrown in for good measure. It reminds of an old joke: "How can you tell when it's summer in Seattle? The rain feels warmer!" Har har. In any case, the June Gloom has been remarkably absent this year, and we benefitted greatly during our three day trip to the island.

South Whidbey is a great park--surrounded by magnificent second growth forest, with the last patch of true old growth, and easy access to a beautiful stretch of beach. I took the boys for a long hike through the big trees our first morning so Amy could sleep in, then we all spent the rest of the day at the beach, flying kites, tide pooling, reading, and doing beach stuff.

On our way back to Seattle we stopped at Fort Ebey State Park, about 15 minutes north, and the boys got to check out the WW II era gun emplacement that guarded Admiralty Inlet and the entrance to Puget Sound. It's remarkable; this fortification clearly suggest that we were very worried about a full-blown naval invasion from Japan. Now, the building is fun for young boys to explore and let their imaginations run wild.