Happy Independence Day!

 Happy Independence Day, everybody! Now I'm not a huge fan of fireworks, but Saturday night, we were treated to one of my favorite fireworks displays: a lightning storm. It was actually a rather severe storm that very slowly rolled through. These pictures I took around 8:15 or so, at sunset, just as the storm was building. That evening, Rich & I ate a delicious meal inside, and decided we wanted to head out to the front porch for a few more cocktails and a couple of rounds of Farkel (a very fun dice game we've become addicted to!) Once we stepped outside, the first thing we noticed was all the electricity around. In the yard and garden, countless fireflies. And reflect from the northern and western skies into the air all around the house: endless flashes of lightning. We played out on the porch for about an hour until we realized that the storm was approaching and the still-constant lightning was more and more accompanied by louder and louder thunder. We retreated indoors and continued playing at the dining room table. Within the hour, the storm was all around us: now more than lightning and thunder, but also wind and hail and what would be two inches of rainfall. The storm continued unabated and with near-steady lightning until after we went to sleep.  Judging by the time on the alarm clock in the morning, our power went off at about 2:30, which means that this storm lasted well over six hours! Now that's what I call a fireworks display!

Because of all the rain (it rained overnight again last night), I was late in getting into the garden today. But I did get to spend a few hours weeding and harvesting and killing tomato hornworms. I got about six of them today. I'm so glad Alvin showed me to look for their droppings on the newspaper mulch around my tomatoes. Once I see droppings, I know there's a worm on that plant. And, by the size of the droppings, I know whether I'm looking for a big or little worm. Brilliant! I harvested four more zucchini today, as well as the first two cucumbers (one Homemade Pickle and one Marketmore 76) as well as the first kohlrabi. To be honest, I wasn't sure what the kohlrabi was. I planted them intermixed with beets and mustard greens, but I've never seen a kohlrabi before, and thought it was either a turnip or a beet that didn't get as red as it should have. The kohlrabi is about the size of a beet, but a nice purple. I can't wait to eat it and see how it tastes!

I hope you all have a safe and fun Fourth of July!