The Phantom Moon

Of Kites And Cherries

Summer is finally making it's appearance, which means that today is the start of our first official heat wave.  Oy vey.  This weekend was glorious though.  Breezy but not too warm, which of course makes for the perfect kite flying weather.  We flew our kites for a good two hours at the park and then came home and enjoyed the first burgers of the season as well.  Very nice.

Today I pulled the very first cherries from our cherry tree in our yard.  And let me tell you, they were delicious.  The tree is still a baby so she's far from producing huge quantities (I can dream, can't I?) but the fruit we've gotten so far ... well, it's enough to make my mouth water just imaging what it'll be like in just a few years.

Our poor little peach tree produced so much fruit that I had to pull off at least 95% of it just to get her to straighten up once again.  All of the fruit I pulled weighed 2.2lbs ... yikes!  She was definitely swollen with fruit, and that's a word I don't use lightly.  But fret not, she looks fantastic today and I can't wait for her to continue to grow up nice and healthy.  When we purchashed the trees, one of the experts said that we should pull ALL of the fruit this year and next year.  Yes, ALL of it!  Since I'm short I left a few peaches at the top (I can't reach) so we'll see what those will taste like in a few weeks.

Waking Blossoms

I hope everyone has been enjoying the gorgeous weather we've been having lately.  I know I have!  My beautiful trees are starting to wake up and I'm beyond thrilled.  

My favorite bloom so far as been from our baby peach tree.  I mean seriously, how pretty are these pink blossoms?  And to think, we'll have delicious sweet fruit after this as well ... I'm so excited for our harvest this summer (fingers crossed).

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to our local playground to enjoy this breath of fresh air with our resident Kindergartner.

No Trespassing Please

One of the things I loved most about our "new" home was the size of our yard.  It was a baseball field compared to our first house (though it still holds a special place in my heart :), and I knew that I'd try my hand at growing some veggies.  Last year was hit or miss so this year we tried the easy guys again, like tomatoes and basil.  And let me tell you, my tomatoes were the envy of the street this summer!  
They grew like weeds and swollen with yummy juicy fruit.  Then we decided to take a few back to back trips a few weekends ago ...

So you know what that means, a little watering for the garden babies in the morning and then straight out the door for our adventures!  So imagine my surprise when I went to water my tomatoes the other morning and noticed half of the leaves were gone!  Did I overwater?  Was it too sunny?  Was there a blight on mah babies?  Upon closer inspection, we found a group or rag-tag trespassers who were gorging on my lovely tomato plants ...

These dirty B's are called tomato hornworms, and if allowed will completely ruin your tomatoes.  And  yes, they looks like nasty little aliens here but I will testify that they are even uglier and gross in person.  Blech!

And heaven help be but they are strong buggers!  I had my husband pull them each from the plant (there was no way I was touching them!) and we disposed of them organically as suggested by various online sources (ie. google).  What does that mean?  You toss them in a cup of soapy water of course!

Thank God we haven't seen anymore trespassers since then because I don't know if my stomach (or tomato plant) can take anymore...