Friends and gardens...

This first picture is of the Teeter-Totter, after I painted the metal part a bright silvery color....

The strawberry plants I transplanted into the "Pyramid" earlier this year are doing quite well! We even got a couple beautiful berries from them this Summer.

This is my jungle:

It is on the inside of my round garden. The path is disappearing from view more each day!

There is a bit of Love-in-a-mist in my round garden:

...and some volunteer Indian corn from last year...

My zucchinis are finally coming along... Pretty soon we can EAT them!

These sunny little flowers popped up in my new flower bed and, as they were part of a mix, I do not know what variety they are? The flower is mainly a pail yellow color and then is fringed in white. Could it be a Daisy?

This is how our Buttercup squash is doing...

Our squash/melon jungle:

As the cord (to pull start it) on our tiller is broken, we haven't used it lately, obviously! I'm not sure where those flowers came from as we didn't plant any there?

Inside our greenhouse area (which I think I mentioned before is no longer a greenhouse, as the big wind storms we've had have ripped the plastic to pieces...)

The Tomatillos (husk tomatoes) are growing and growing and growing, and are generally taking over everything else! Now I need to figure out what to do with them... I've never used Tomatillos before, so am wondering if any of you have, and if so, what is your favorite thing to use them in?

Some of them are very large!

Do you know what that little funny shaped thing is?

It is a fig. :) The leaves of a fig plant remind me of giant maple leaves. See?

We've picked one ripe tomato so far. The rest look like this:

....And, my dear friends, do you know what this giant leaf is from?

Yes, from one of my banana trees!

My Hops vine has done quite well and enjoys the fact that there's no plastic on the roof restricting its growth any more!

Amongst all this greenery,

...I found this muskmelon:

And, amongst this finery, I found,

...this "Moon and Stars" watermelon.

Our garden has been a bit disappointing this year, but we are grateful for the things that are growing and praise the Lord for His very abundant rain showers this year! We've hardly had to do any watering...

In front of our house, I'd planted some Petunias and Pansies in these pots. However, they fizzled out in the top 2 pots for some reason, so I transplanted some Morning Glories in there and they seem to like their new home just fine and are now starting to bloom!

This picture was taken yesterday when the boys took the semi over to Ferns' land to bring a load of hay and the tractor home. My brothers are such a big help on the farm now, it's hard to remember what it was like when they were small and couldn't help out very much. I know Mother spent a lot more time in the fields then... Today, we had company! :) Sarah K. and her children came for a visit (and for some farm products) and it was so lovely out when they arrived that we all headed for the swings...

Ila, looking lovely in the dress her mama sewed for her...

Mother, swinging with sweet little Arianwyn...

When we first met the K. family, Ila was Arianwyns' size. We've been friends ever since and will miss them all so much when they move to SC in October!

Jacob was kind enough to take this picture of all us girls together. :)

I whipped up a batch of pancakes and cream quick, with peach/blueberry sauce to go on top...

Then, as Mom and I are drinking our meals these days, I held the baby while Sarah and Mom helped the other children with their food. When my dad called (he was hauling grain for a farmer), I tried my hand at multi-tasking. :) It turned out that, while we were showing hospitality in our home, someone else was doing the same for my dad and served him a delicious meal at their table. :)

Sarah had her hands (and lap) full after the boys were done eating. I guess a big meal like that makes little boys sleepy! Someone else was sleepy too. Do you see her?

For part of the time while Sarah was here, our boys were fixing up a pen to move our billy goats into. They drug the calf shelter in the pen too, so the goats will have shelter.

After Sarah and all left, we cleaned the house and cooked up some meatloaf; mashed potatoes; and banana cake for the guys' supper. Dad, Andrew and I also hopped on our rider mowers and got all the lawn mowed in about an hour and a half.

It was a good day!