one cat and seven goldfinches...

...separated by a window.

hooray!

The sun appeared yesterday!

We'd almost forgotten what it looked like.

kindergardens - weeks 18 & 19 {eating the alphabet}

(long post - you've been warned!)

The kinder has not been in the garden this week.  Neither have his parents.  Between Irene and Lee and other random storms in between, we've accumulated nearly 18 inches of rain in the past 10 days, so we haven't been out much to see what's growing.  I did wade across the soggy yard this afternoon to pluck our last ripe (ridiculously juicy and delicious - oh, it was good) watermelon from the vine.  But other than that the garden has been largely neglected.

Since there are no updates to be had, I thought I'd recite the alphabet instead.  Here goes...

A - apples (well, no apples yet, but we did plant apple trees)

B - broccoli, blueberries

C - cauliflower

D - daikon (Japanese radish - still working on this one - we're hoping to get the seeds in the ground whenever the rain breaks, and hopefully they'll have enough time to grow before it freezes)

E - eggplant

F - flower maze

G - gourds, green beans

H - herbs, hyacinth bean

I - Indian corn

J - jalapeno peppers

K - kohlrabi

L - lettuce

M - melon (cantaloupe)

N - nasturtium

O - onions

P - peppers, pumpkins, potatoes, peas

Q - squash (we cheated...and the vine got killed by a borer, so no pics, either)

R - radishes

S - strawberries, sunflowers, swiss chard

T - tomatoes

 U - rhubarb (cheated again...and again, no pics)

 V - vines (morning glory)

W/X - watermelon/xigua (Chinese watermelon)

Y - yams (another cheat - it's really a sweet potato vine.  But the grocery store labeled it as a yam, so I'm going with it)

 

 Z - zucchini, zinnias (bugs killed the zucchini plant, too, so you just get zinnias...)

Our alphabet garden inspiration came (I think) from this book:

 We naturally had to make a few changes, since we weren't going to be planting quince or mangoes.  And we can't eat through our entire alphabet, but we sure had fun trying some new things that we would have never grown otherwise (and some we will probably never grow again - ha!).

not ready

I'm not ready for this.

Or this.

Or these.

(even though they are BEAUTIFUL)

I'm not ready for this.

Or this, either.

Fall, I love you, but I'm just not ready for you yet.

itty bitty

This little one was born during Hurricane Irene...we think maybe a little prematurely.  He is tiny!

I'm hesitant to pick him up too much, but when I do, he snuggles right in to the palm of my hand.  Makes me want to melt.

(And no, we're not bringing this one home, either).

Linking up to the Live Every Moment photo challenge {animals}.