The Fruit of Our Labor

 It's been a long time between posts, again.  I'm a bit embarrassed by the lack of posting here.  It's not that I don't think about it; I do, It's just trying to find 15 minutes in my day to actually do it.  I've been busy all the way around lately; I won't bore you with that, but I would like to show you some of the gardens!  I've been trying to save a little money here and there (and will do a grocery post about that, very soon) but for now, I'll show you where I've spent some time.  Above is a window box filled with impatiens and cascading petunias.  They are both a long time favorite of mine.  

This Blessed Mother statue is one of my favorite pieces to display in my front garden.  I have several rose bushes planted around and behind the statue with impatiens spread before its feet.  They are filling in nicely as they do every year and it is a beautiful display all summer long.

                                            
 The zucchini is flourishing this year and I haven't seen a spot of discoloration on any leaves.  I had a huge problem with some kind of fungus for two years in a row, but this year the problem seems resolved and we have many zucchini coming.

 I just finished weeding the carrots this afternoon.  They are coming up nicely, too.  I think we'll be able to get in a second planting!

 Kale and lettuce are growing in this box.  I just pulled a head of Boston lettuce for lunch for me and the girls today.  It was sweet and delicious.  We still have enough for salad tonight!

 Mint is growing abundantly.  I've made mint iced tea and mint water for our afternoon drinks.  It's delicious and refreshing.

 Peaches are coming, too!  Looks like this will be our first year with some decent size peaches.  I believe the trees are three years old.

 I've been doing a lot of work in the garden today and my hands are sore from all the weeding.  I'd love to be laying here in the hammock reading my book, Into the Wilderness.  Goodness, I've been  reading that one a long time.  It's a thick one but very good.  I only have 350 pages to go!
                          
I'd like to be laying here, too, floating around on a float.  The pool gardens are in full bloom and just beautiful.  Think I'll go take a break for awhile and do just that.
My next post, which shouldn't be too far off in the future will be about saving some money on the food bill.  Promise.

Some Catching Up

So much has been going on since I last blogged.  A family Mother's Day picnic and whiffle ball game at Harkness Park...

A two week every day run to School of Swimming (which is over an hour away)...

And a lot of gardening.  The front garden is all cleaned out with new mulch and some new annuals put in.  As the garden matures over the summer, it will look very full.  It has already filled in quite a bit since this picture was taken.  The  vegetable garden is coming along really nicely with all the rain we've had.  I'll take some pictures of the garden beds once the weather clears up a bit.

Which leads me into my next topic; the price of food and how to cope.  I don't know about you, but I've seen a noticable increase in our food bill.  I'm committed to trying to feed my family healthy meals at a reasonable cost.  I'll be back with what I've been doing to  lower our food bill without compromising our food quality.