Hey, what's that over there?

Even though August just began, I already feel like I'm transitioning into Fall. Ground cherries, tomatillos, tomatoes, cucumbers, and all the greens have found their way into my harvest basket, and the winter squashes should be ready any day now. My chores list is a mile long, including watering, weeding, and general garden upkeep. I end up spending hours outside - not because I'm that busy, but because everything around me is so gorgeous it needs to be photographed. Yesterday I was wandering in the garden, and I saw a huge black and white dragonfly land on one of the dowels I used to prop up the peppers. 167 pictures later, an hour had passed! Thank god for digital, Gene would be broke if I had to pay for film.

I'm particularly drawn to photographing the guineas, because no matter what they're doing, they look vexed. Lucia could be eating a chocolate cupcake and she'd still glare at you like you rained on her parade. She seems to be fitting in with the other chickens nicely, although I haven't seen her hanging out with the other guineas yet. I think she still thinks she's a chicken. I'm going to let Graciella, the newest guinea chick, and her chicken mama out of the brooding box next week, both because I think she'd be happier outside and because I'm getting another shipment of chicks in from the hatchery. They ran a free shipping promo, and who am I to turn down free shipping? 

Perhaps more exciting than new chicks, however, is the fact I now have at least four real, actual, Trinidad Scorpion peppers growing on my plant!!!! They already look wizened and evil, and Gene said I should already be in the habit of only handling them with gloves on. How cool is it that no matter where on the planet you go, you can't find a pepper hotter than what's in my garden? At least the peppers don't move into interesting new angles, so I only took 10 pictures of them.

In my defense, though, I feel like I have to practice for the online photography class I signed up for in anticipation of the long rainy days of fall. The class has a section on everything from nature (I'm assuming chickens count as nature), to pets. I've been practicing on the poor kitties, always trying to capture them from a new perspective. Chunk is used to me going paparazzi all over his naptime, but Thing 2 swipes at the camera. Apparently he doesn't like having the lens hover an inch from his face, just waiting to document the next cute thing he does. He's going to have to get used to it, because the class runs for six weeks and I'm not putting the camera down any time soon.