I can grow anything, especially weeds!

With fall right around the corner, harvesting season is in full swing around here. I've gotten over fifty pounds of tomatoes so far, which currently take up precious ice cream space in the freezer. When Gene gets back from hunting, we are going to make salsas and sauces. I love prowling around the gardens, harvesting basket in one hand, camera in the other, checking on everything to see what's ripe. For the most part, all the fruits and veggies did amazingly well. With one noticeable exception. Back in February, I carefully planted (and labeled, I swear), a batch of exotic seeds imported from Africa. Several aloes, a cactus, and a couple varieties of trees. Not surprisingly, since even in the greenhouse the climate is nowhere near their homeland, not too many seeds sprouted. But I did lovingly tend to what I thought was a gorgeous, exotic Chaste Tree (it has lots of medicinal benefits - Google it!) For months I've watered it, fertilized it, and repotted it, catering to its every whim. Imagine my horror when a few more of them spontaneously sprouted in the garden. Apparently I've been tending to a weed for like seven months. No wonder it's over six feet tall. I blame the seed people for not putting a picture of the tree on the seed packet.

But onto happier subjects - after six long years, I've finally been rewarded with an actual guava on my guava tree! I was ecstatic when three of them blossomed for the first time ever, and now I've got an actual fruit! I have no idea if it's warm enough for them to ripen in this climate, particularly since winter is coming, but there's only one way to find out. This is definitely a summer of firsts - I also finally got some fruit on my Goji berry tree - one is ripening, and the other three are just sort of hanging there, looking somewhat sad. But the important thing is they're there. Finally. The Goji tree is also about six years old. Lucky for them I'm a very patient gardener. I'm hoping for avocados next year!

As relaxing as the last two week have been outside the house, they have been packed with drama inside the house. Within three days of each other, poor Ceri's earache came back, and then Thing 2 had to be rushed to the emergency vet with a blocked urinary tract. The poor kitty had to stay there for three days and needed around the clock care (yes, it's every bit as expensive as you're probably imagining). Right now our kitchen cabinet looks like I robbed a pharmacy - both Ceri and Thing 2 came home with three or four bottles of meds each, with every pill needing to be dispensed at a certain time. I actually had to make a chart, and feeding time is now as complicated as your average zoo. Thing 2 needed special, prescription canned food, which now all the cats are on because it's good for them. And for what it costs, it better have miraculous results. Chunk is pissed because he's on a diet, which started immediately after I noticed that Thing 2's vet referred to him as a "very large kitty". Since Chunk is probably twice his size, the dieting commenced. Now it takes me about an hour to separate the dogs from the cats and medicated food from non-medicated food, then dispense accordingly. I have to laugh, though, because the stampede at feeding time is pretty funny.