Flight of the Bumblebee

With Dr Cohn calling on Jen's cell phone, I had to take work calls from outside to make sure I had signal strength. The two Chaste Trees are in the midst of blooming and looking closely, there are thousands and thousands of large bumblebees. I was completely in awe. Jen signed up for the The Great Sunflower this spring which counts the number of honey bees so I was interested how many were here......I could not find any....there were well over 100 bumblebees before I started to lose count. It was pretty cool to watch though.....a little nerve racking to get close enough with my digital camera though.

Last few days have been a blur, Jen is still the same and Dr Cohn ordered a brain MRI with no contrast yesterday. After calling 4 places, we had three appointments one of which was the same day. Laura came to babysit so I could go and while in the waiting room, the MRI machine broke. So today we went at 11:15, got the films, drove them over to Dr Cohn and by 3:30, had semi good news. With his untrained eye, his interpretation was that there was nothing out of the ordinary, abnormal or anything grabbing his attention. He will wait until Tuesday's report shows up form the Radiologist, but he seemed to have a good sense and feeling: all clear. Jen's blood work was normal as well....at least the absolute worst is ruled out but still no answers.

After the kids went to sleep, I headed out to the garden. With all the crap lately, I have not spent much time out there. Jen picked two zucchini well over 24 inches, I found two more and inspecting them tonight, I will have three more in the next few days. The squash do not set as much fruit but they grow just as quick.

After watering everything and rooting around, I noticed that there were a huge number of Sultan Peas ripe. I have only picked one or two to date but today I got a good bowl full and left plenty on the vine. The vine itself is well over 7 feet tall as it is starting to come back down the far side. These are sweet and the vines are fun. Now I have to actually cook them :)

The cukes are growing just as crazy but so far I only have picking cukes. Jack doesn't mind as he ate 4 for dinner last night. i just ordered picking stuff and mason jars so hopefully I can try my hand at pickles by next week. I still have not seen any lemon or slicing cukes and I feel like I should have

Just a closing picture of Jen and Charlotte walking up the blueberries. Last Saturday was about 5.5lbs that lasted until Tuesday. We went back on Wed at lunchtime and picked another 7.5lbs. I promised Jen that we would grow our own blueberry patch one day.

Rainy Day

Trying to quit smoking for the 100th time this year. Jen is still a little sick and it is raining out so just had a frustrating morning. Ended up in the garage with both Jack and Charlotte starting to refinish a coffee table so Jen can have it double as a sand tray for her work.

Sometimes it is amazing to me, just losing focus on the crap of the day while doing something you enjoy with your kids can fill up your cup. Jack and I sanded with 6o grit to remove all the old finish. Sort of detailed work because the legs are all turned but it ended up being fun

Charlotte is not as into things like that, her patience is not too long. She joined us for a few minutes then went off to play with the bikes, then back to us, then with the dogs, then back t0 us, then with the cat......she is so Jen.

As for the garden, the first tomato is getting bigger everyday but it is split in the bottom. I am waiting to see if it heals itself or if I need to take it off. I hope it will be fine. Other than that, I have 6 little Black Cherry tomatoes and all the other plants now have flowers.




The Sultan Peas are just starting to come out and I have about 100 cucumber flowers with 3 or 4 really small cucumbers. I have picked about 5 or 6 zucchini and one yellow squash




I am starting to look into a pickle recipe and I am thinking about blueberry picking every day now....blueberries are in season and I cannot wait for the kids to turn blue....