Summer has been bountiful. Not all of the bounty has been completely welcome. The constant bickering that has now become habit for one nearly 9 year old boy and his 4 1/2 year old sister, for instance. There is also not a bounty of dollars or minutes...but that is not so troubling really when one has her fill of friends, is happy with her work and one's garden is producing delicious figs, tomatoes and basil.

I also have a bounty of critters. Fortunately, they do not like tomatoes and figs and basil.

tomatoes and basil from Kimmy's GardenThe learning co-op our family has been a part of for five years now just met to start planning for the fall. At our last meeting I felt so very pleased to be involved with these 13 families and I'm looking forward to working with the children. I splurged on a very nice book about nature journaling and will be leading workshops in co-op next year. 

The Mother Bars I've been selling on Etsy and around the neighborhood to friends and acquaintances are now on sale at the Globe Hopper, the shop where I am the chef and a barista. Mother Bars are selling really well and it feels so good to be feeding people good, simple, tasty food!

Oh, regarding the bickering siblings. I know I am not the only parent who has lamented this unpleasantness. I have yet to master not letting their negative energy affect me. I have yet to figure out to appropriate method of helping them work out their conflicts but I did find find a way to spend 2 shining, perfect hours with my children while also cooking dinner.

I let them turn the kitchen chairs in to little beds and boychild toted his tape player into the kitchen. We listened to Red Wall on tape while I cooked. They had a snack and girlchild played with seashells and fairy magnets. It was 2 blissful hours and a fun way to cook dinner. If you haven't read or listened to Red Wall, I recommend it.. It is a fabulous woodland creature epic fantasy.

Yes, one could say I am basking in the bounty of my life.

Growing my own vegetables has always seemed like a doable thing. In February I start looking at seed catalogs. I am wowed over the beautiful chards, striped tomatoes and unusual gourds. In March, I think about starting seeds but usually don't get them going til April.

This year, I decided to try out Four Square vegetable gardening. My garden looks so well organized. Is is a method of intensive gardening whereby each squarefoot holds a certain number of plants depending on what you're growing in that square. For example, one square foot for one tomato plant. One square foot can hold 4 lettuce or 6 pea plants. The lettuce seedlings I bought from the Tricycle Garden did so well and were delicious.The greenbeans, cucumbers,pepper plants and chard looked  lovely until last week.....

I find that I am not match for the critters. 

We have the groundhogs, Percy and Mazzie. This year they have not been quite so bold....yet.

 
 My biggest rival right now is a very rascally raccoon. The raccoon has remained unnamed unless you count what I call it under my breath. She (or he) not only deflated our fun inflatable pool but also  had a blast tearing apart the new $8 Slip and Slide. I know because she left prints everywhere. She woke me up three time this week rummaging through the recycling. Little creature really wanted to open the peanut butter container. Raccoon has also nibbled all the tender tendrils of my greenbeans and swiped several cucumbers. She made my pepper plants and ruby swiss chard disappear.

You can deter a groundhog to some extent but what can you do about a raccoon? Smart little badass.

All I know is I'm thankful these critters don't have a taste for butternut squash, granny plum melons, tomatoes or basil because I would cry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

photo by Kimmy Certa, Howdershi in his Catnip Pot , 2008

We ate the bamboo but one can only eat so much bamboo. Mulberries, however, won't be a problem. I've got plans for these under appreciated berries. Today we made muffins. Tomorrow, mulberry wine !

You may also notice that some of the mulberries are white. For a few days I wondered why the mulberries on one tree in the alley weren't ripening and then I noticed that some of the berries were large and soft. I tasted one and it was sweet and ripe. Then, I recalled from my readings that there is such a thing as white mulberries. They taste just like the black ones to me.