Neglect

Should you wish to leave your garden for, say, ten days or so to watch your children catch

And run

And throw,

And don't make provisions for your garden beyond the bare minimum, there are some crops that do well.

Dry beans on the vine:

Peppers waiting to ripen to red or orange or, in this case, yellow.

Popcorn drying on the stalk.

Hard-shelled winter squash, now ready to be made into pies or custard or pancakes. . .

But summer squash? Well, not so happy, as it turned out. The chickens liked this 30" monster just fine, though. I'm torn between ripping out the plant and waiting to see if I can coax out just one or two more reasonable squashes.

Distance blogging

Why are the Grand Tetons blue? (Or is that Glacier Peak? I can't tell at 75 mph.) The blue is from taking pictures through the side tinted window of the car while you're on an enforced road trip with all of your siblings and your crazy mother.

In other words, I'm not so up on what the garden is doing because I'm halfway across the country taking the kids to a Frisbee tournament. And seeing lots of neat stuff, but not really having enough time to make it a "doing things" road trip. In fact, Eldest Child is trying very hard to veto a stop at the Corn Palace. She clearly doesn't appreciate Americana.

I've been up early each morning and managed to work out almost every day. I don't want to get horribly out of shape and then try to keep up with the crew in boot camp when I get home. The fires in the Dakotas and other stuff have made for interesting sunrises and sunsets -- especially when we've had to pull a long day's drive and gotten on the road at 5am. Yawn.

One other fun thing? We ended up intersecting the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally traffic. Nowhere to stay, a new friend made us dinner and then arranged a special camping spot. I have a soft spot for tattooed bikers, and cutie pie biker chicks in stunning chaps and vulgar t-shirts, but there are Too Many Motorcycles on the highway for my taste. Scary scary driving interspersed with fun sights. This Border Collie mix was wearing goggles.

It may be my age or motherhood, but the woman with the lovely deep tan riding pillion in a leopard-print bikini top, short cutoffs and flip flops just gave me the willies. All I could think about was how she would be a head-to-toe scab. Guess it wouldn't matter, because unlike the rare riders in the photo above, she and her pilot weren't wearing helmets. I get the free choice crap, but if someone has to pick up the tab for your profound brain injury care, you don't get to make that choice.

Apparently I am a little crabby.

The children are much, much less crabby with internet and texting capacity. Fortunately, the Mitchell, SD KOA has both.

They also have a lovely pool, and a perfectly adequate for the purposes mini golf course. As a reward for our horrible 18 hour day on Tuesday, we scheduled two five hour days for the final part of the first half of the tour, so swimming could be on the agenda.

Of course the temperatures have dropped 20 degrees. We're running in front of a storm front.

She's doing great driving, and I'm learning to breathe very very deeply and try not to infect her with my tension. It's all a process, no?

Updates later; time to pack it in for the night.

Other people's gardens

When away from my garden for a bit, I exaggerate what must be happening. All the crops must be ripe, the weeds taking over, time going by. I assuage my garden-missing by peeking into other folks' vegetable patches. Do they do things the same way? Are their tomatoes bigger than mine?

I noticed that at least one other person likes pretty lettuces, and sitting in the garden. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any closer, nor could I ask anyone much about what they were growing or if they had trouble with pests. I couldn't do much of anything I take for granted. Why not?


Here's some hints:
Hmm. Narrow streets, open-air markets, and . . .


Streetside cafes. It could be San Francisco.

It's not, though.

Eric and I just spent a week in Genoa, partly for a work conference for him, and partly for fun. I had most of the fun. Unfortunately, my Italian isn't really up snuff, so I was a genial but confused tourist much of the time.

The highlight of the trip, though, may have been a train trip down the Italian Riviera to visit another garden. Heiko and Susan picked us up in La Spezia and took us to visit their village and their land.

We were, I'm afraid, neither dressed for nor in shape for following them (and Eddie the adorable puppy) up and down their streets and lanes. I'd have loved to have spent more time with their neighbors, although seeing Mario's (I think it was Mario's) baby donkey and wild cinghiale was pretty terrific.


The village looks pretty from a distance:
Heiko made a lovely lunch for us from beans Susan had picked while he and I bounded up and down the terraces, talking and looking at the garden together. I think Eric was bemused at the amount of verbiage Heiko and I could produce, but he certainly liked the food.


We talked a tiny bit about the power of the internet to bring like-minded people together, virtually as well as literally, in this case. Gardening is intensely pleasurable to me, but connections such as this are the icing on the cake.