matching tracksuits

Summer mellows and our garden follows suit.

Our garden is growing, which is as it should be, to quote Big Gray in one of L’s newest books.

This week, we got our first melon.

And another well on its way.

We’ve also taken in new tenants. They were building their nest one day last week, but I’m not sure if they completed it: daily flooding probably convinced them of the wisdom of looking elsewhere.

Tomatoes everywhere, but so far, not a single one red. When the first tomatoes do come in — and several are very close — perhaps they’ll be ready just as our mung beans have finished sprouting.

And then, it will be time for one of the greatest salads ever created, courtesy of an old friend: mung sprounds, tomato, red onion, cilantro, and lime.

Despite the ravaging neighborhood creatures, we managing to grow things. Our plot behind the house is struggling a bit,

but our squash, zucchini, melons, and onions in front of the house are doing very well.

Some are even flowering.

In fact, we’ve kept one thing in the ground long enough to have a harvest: radishes. A few are almost as big as a ping pong ball, and K explains that we have to pick those now, else they’ll be no good. “They don’t taste as good when they’re bigger.” Not knowing the first thing about growing radishes, I nod my head in approval.

Radishes are a like dill for me: they make me think of summer in Poland.

We use the radishes to make a creamy cheese spread: diced radish mixed in with farmer’s cheese. A simple thing, but then, many of the tastiest foods are “simple things.”

The cheese is a highligh of our Sunday-morning breakfast. The Girl as her usual: French toast and Maple syrup.

Then we notice our back bed has been visited again.

Enormous holes, spread through the bed. “It’s the worst it’s ever been,” K sighs.

Our raccoon neighbor? Dogs?

It’s hard not to take it personally. “What did we ever do to you?” A useless thought — best to start planning how to keep out of our garden dogs, chickens, raccoons, squirrels, bears, elephants, and whatever else might be lurking in the neighborhood.