A Moose and a Poppy

Iceland Poppies:

aren't they just lovely?

A moose in the neighborhood. These suckers will devour all of your most precious plants and trees....

Okay....

I'm not done posting Alaska photos. I didn't realize it would take me so long to post them! I'm at least more than halfway done...whew!

So...in other news....Annika is in FIRST grade. Oh my, how did she come to be a first grader? Seems like she was just a toddler...right?

Annika says she wants to be a Scientist when she grows up. And live in an RV. Hmmmm....

Fall is approaching fast. Too fast. I still have a few hummingbirds hanging around but I expect them to leave any day now.

Garden Update:

The veggie garden was...ummmm....how do I put it kindly? Pathetic. That's it...pathetic. I think if I'd grown strictly cool weather veggies I would have been fine. I think we had the coolest July on record. The tomatoes started out beautiful and healthy but even by the time we left on our Alaska journey we only had green tomatoes. And that was mid-August. Mid-August is usually when my tomatoes are at their peak and producing red ripe tomatoes by the bucket load. Drat. It didn't help that they also got some sort of blight (cool and wet are not good combos for tomato plants). The good news is that I had ZERO tomato (or tobacco) hornworms this year. Last year, I had at least a dozen of them chowing down on my lovely plants. Home-grown tomatoes are about my favorite food so it's been a little disappointing. The peppers have picked up speed and look beautiful. Thanks to my sister-in-law's (Thanks Beth!) suggestion of placing grass clipping around the base of the plants. They went from scrawny plants to big and healthy. My pumpkins didn't fare well either but the butternut squash plants have taken over the garden. I *heart* butternut squash!

Anyway, it just goes to show that gardening will keep you humble!