I'm Just Visiting This Planet

So here's our garden in August. The only reason that the tomatoes survived is because there were so many of them. The topsy-turvy planter has had lots of flowers but they've all been male-what's up with that? The beans have started to come back-who knows, we might actually get some. Everything that was high up was out of reach, which is why the topsy-turvy survived. Notice the old windows around the garden- that was working to keep the woodchucks out - for a while! One of my favorite focal points in the garden is the planter that we've named Guennivere-she looks gorgeous, as you can see from this picture, taken last week. When we put the garden to bed I'll put up the battery operated electric fence. I'll have to put it around the garden, especially since we have the wooden fence along the back. This should prove very interesting!

The woodchuck family got into the garden so often that I'm surprised we have anything left. We lost three plantings of beans, two plantings of peas and who knows how many heads of cabbage and lettuce. It's a good thing that we're not trying to live off the land. But our neighbors must have eliminated the woodchuck family because once I invested $194.00 in a McGregor Electric Fence the woodchucks disappeared-and I haven't put it up yet! So here's our garden story: this picture was taken on July 18-look at how great the peas were doing, climbing right up the poles. You can see the basil and the lettuce behind the peas. And on June 22 the beans were doing really well, as you can see in the second picture. When we got home from vacation we found out that the day before we got home, the garden looked great. The woodchuck got in THAT MORNING and had a field day. So we planted again!

I'm writing this from my hotel room in Denver-tomorrow I fly home after a wonderful two week vacation. The main things on my mind: How is our garden? Are the tomatoes ripe? Did the woodchuck get in? How much work is waiting for me? I know I have back-to-back meetings on Wednesday, and Monday is already hectic. Monday: PLV, Tuesday:NYC, Wednesday: GC, Thursday:MAINE!! And I sure wish someone could tell me what happened to June and July. After Aunt Mary's funeral I spent a week at the Faculty Resource Network Summer Enrichment Seminar and two weeks on Federal Court jury duty. I started my "new job" officially on July 1 but I had been working at it a little before. So from the end of June until July 18 there were Dean's Council and Management Council meetings, plus Strategic Planning committee meetings, plus meetings with faculty and staff. And we left for the Southwest on July 19, so that kind of explains what happened to those months, doesn't it? Good to...