{bits & pieces}
The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
We’re in that tricky period in the garden where things look like they’re growing fine but you just never know, as the only harvest so far has been kale, garlic scapes, basil, and raspberries. Will the tomatoes come in? Will the cucumbers do that overnight die-off thing? Will the eggplants mysteriously refuse to bear fruit?
Doesn’t prevent me from being obsessed. The green beans are making a comeback, now that the fence is at least up (it will receive further improvements, including a gate, but for now it fulfills its function in keeping the bunnies away from the green beans!). I have a back-up plan with “pole” (actually old shelving) beans in what I call the “far garden”. The volunteer squash in the compost is burgeoning.
The squirrels and birds have definitely moved in on the raspberries. And the bees love the kale blossoms!
Let’s have a little tour, shall we? Edited — I will put descriptions above the photos because a reader asked for captions so that he could identify the plants, and I like nothing more than going on about the garden! So forgive me…
Foreground: cucumbers and beefsteak tomatoes; in the back: a row of Brandywine tomatoes, which is a great heirloom variety IF it comes through, and a row of yellow pear tomatoes.
Foreground: eggplants; behind: garlic, almost ready to harvest.
Foreground: eggplant; next: left to right: garlic; two rows of bell peppers. Next: sunflowers with a couple of ground cherry plants, with a row of cucumbers in that bed as well; and on the right, my recovering green beans (bush variety).
Here is that bed with the ground cherries (also called Cape Gooseberries) — they are still small; and the cucumbers with basil in front of them.
I just really love red geraniums and decided I needed them sprinkled around!
This is a couple of squash plants that volunteered here in the compost heap. I guess they are butternut, but they might be pumpkin!
Here we have a variegated sage plant.
In this bed in front you can see cucumbers and beefsteak tomatoes behind them.
I plopped one of those squash plants that was doing quite well in the compost here, in one of my new beds.
In my “far garden,” which is beyond the raspberries, I have my bets hedged against the bunnies with these pole beans. The shelving was in our garage forever. Since some of us have trouble throwing things away, I decided they would work for the beans!
Kale is a biennial plant — it grows in year one and flowers and seeds in year two. This kale ought to be cut back, but the bees love it! There’s a row of new kale (and weeds) growing alongside.
And for good measure, Rosie’s kids playing with the rose petals that their Aunt Sister Louise-Marie brought by, just for fun!
On to our links!
Department of “it takes a miracle”:
It’s 1982, and Mother Teresa prays a cease-fire into existence in deepest, most desperate war-torn Lebanon, so that she can take care of spastic children left behind in the rubble. I remember seeing footage of her and the other sisters taking care of the children — the love they showed them with their firm and intimate touch was palpable through the screen.
An abortionist who left his bloody trade to become a doctor bringing healing to women and their babies tells his remarkable — miraculous — stories of life.
Military-ish:
Sketchbooks of a 21 Year-Old World War II Soldier — do show your children. Sometimes we despair a little when we are trying to get our kids to write, to learn the craft of writing. But there are many ways to communicate. People are different and their contributions and talents are different. These sketches, which represent an amazing historical record at this point, might open up a different way of looking at the whole topic. Along with nature-journaling, maybe we can widen our horizons and be inspired to try different ways.
Have you ever seen the U.S. Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon? It’s like a dance and (as mentioned in the comments) the world’s longest secret handshake wrapped up in one uniformed precision maneuver.
Miscellaneously:
Another doctor reveals an underreported means of preventing miscarriages.
A forgotten saint with a real-life Cinderella story (complete with evil stepmother) can help our self-absorbed age find meaning in suffering.
A short and sweet reminder from John Cuddeback to carve out time to enjoy… to do what you like to do (as opposed to what you think others like); perhaps to rediscover some overlooked enjoyment, like sitting on the porch, that may transform the ordinary into… real life. The book he references is one we love, A Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander. I wrote about it here, just a little. It can go on the shelf next to David Clayton’s Way of Beauty, a book that illuminates the patterns Alexander doesn’t have the vocabulary for — the transcendent ones of order and beauty in the Liturgy.
A moving (if shocking — child abuse details alert, not safe for tender-hearted kids) story of a policeman’s generous soul.
Happy Feast of Blessed Peter Vigne!
From the archives:
If you are stressing out about how last year in homeschooling went with writing, I do have posts that might help: First steps in helping a child to write is the first.
Bees and peas. (My peas were a complete bust this year, boo.)
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