Random Summer Images

Layered popsicles. I saw them somewhere and had one of those AHA moments: finally a use for all those leftover bits of smoothie no one can manage. Now I pour it into a popsicle container, let it freeze a bit, and pour a bit of something else over top, poking a popsicle stick into it somewhere along the way.
This one's blackberry smoothie, mango juice, and rhubarb juice. The kids think the rhubarb is pink lemonade. Since they don't like rhubarb, unless it's peeled and sitting next to a dish of sugar, I am reluctant to disabuse them of this notion, although I heard Max whisper "I think it's really rhubarb" to Dominic the other day. Not so slow on the uptake, that kid.


My little window greenhouse was so successful at heating up, even with it's afternoon shade, that I eventually had to remove both windows. There is one centre window that I cannot remove, but I don't think I've ever had peppers grow so big before. These ones are easily 4' high. There is a Tigerella tomato on one side, dripping with fronds of tomatoes, and a bay tree and a lemon verbena plant on the other.



Our painted ladies became butterflies, right before our eyes. We let them out one warm morning, to sit on the geraniums before taking off into the wild unknown. And our black swallowtail caterpillars disappeared a while back, after which we fretted for a while, worrying that some greedy bird pinched them, but the other day I was watering in the garden and a black swallowtail was lazily floating around the flowers. It paused on some roses, then the scarlet runners, then the potato flowers. It was big and oh so gorgeous and I felt a glimmer of hope that this might have been one of our fennel caterpillars.