Who's That?

It's not Throwback Thursday, but I had a hankerin' the other day to see some videos of Milli when she was a baby. That inspired me to share some comparisons of my darling daughters. See if you can tell which is which.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary....

"Hey! I am not contrary! I am a bundle of joy and light!"

Yes, my daughter is a very happy baby most of the time. This post is not really about her. It is about out garden! Here are some pics of what it looks like today (May 17, 2014). One thing I do like about Texas is that we have a long growing season. It is kind of a pain to have to plan a garden right after Christmas, but it is really nice to see things almost ready to pick in May! We picked strawberries today (not from our garden)!

We planted these last year when my sister was in town. The purple flowers dies, but the yellow ones are lovely!

This leafy plant is the only survivor of 4.

Lovely blooms. But we learned last year that they are short lived.

This is one of 4 blueberries we planted last year. Two are bearing fruit now, one is hanging on and the other died.

Milli can't wait to try one!

These are Milli's favorite plants! She loves to pick parsley and rosemary to eat.

Our mint came back this year, too!

 I'm actually not a fan of spearmint. I didn't look at the label closely enough when I bought it. I was hoping for peppermint. I did also buy a ginger mint plant that we thought was gone for good but it sprung up in two places about 18 inches apart and at least 8 inches from where the original plant was! It is still quite small, so I haven't picked any yet. We also tried to grow basil and dill here (this is right near the front steps). The basil did so well in our garden box last year. We started it from seeds this year and it began fine, but then it got spindly and did not transplant well at all. We began again and kept it and the dill inside on the back (south facing) window sill. They both sprung up and then got wimpy again so that when we watered them they all fell over. Now, they are both beginning to grow again, but slowly.

Garden box #1: tomatoes, beats, peppers, one watermelon, and some of last years potatoes that we missed.

Our beats! The blank spots are where things died.

 We planted the beets from seeds this year. Some of them died when we transplanted them. The ones that have done the best are the ones Ed didn't bother to thin because he worried about the root system. They all look healthy and should be ready to pick soon. We actually have two growing seasons for beets and might do a second planting for a November harvest this year. That makes more sense to me as I don't relish the idea of canning in July. The blank spots in this box are where we planted more tomatoes that died. We had 16 plants that we grew from seeds and only 5 survived in this box. We have another three planted by the fence that were doing well but are starting to turn yellow. We also planed some in the front of the house which died immediately.

Garden box #2: Zucchini, snap peas, white onions, watermelon and potatoes (only one of which sprouted).

 Our zukes are taking over just like last year! Last year we got two about the size of my forearm and then we were attacked by squash beetles. We are on the look out for them this year and there are so many blossoms! We have 5 that have already become little zucchini and about a dozen or so more. The onions are hiding behind the zuke leaves. They actually do get sun as you are looking at the box in the morning. The snap peas are blooming and a few pods have sprung up. The watermelons started out really slow, but this week they have sprung up quite a bit. We planted 9 potatoes but only one has sprouted. Unlike last year's box which has tons of potatoes that we weren't expecting!

Both of our raspberry bushes survived, even though we thought the dog had dug one up.

This is our only surviving blackberry bush. No berries on the raspberries, but look....

Just enough for Milli, I think. They are her favorite fruit.

Molly says, "See! I'm a happy girl!"

Space, the Final Frontier

This past Monday, I began my first college course in 8 years. I didn't quite finish my degree when I walked with my class in 2006; I still needed a lab science and an elective. So, I am taking Astronomy! It is a 5 week, intensive class that meets for 4 1/2 hours three days a week. That includes lab time. On Monday night, we got to do some dark sky gazing! We drove out to a farm in the middle of nowhere (most of the class got lost on the way due to poor directions) and looked at Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and the moon! This is pretty close to the picture we got, too. We could see three of Jupiter's moons. It was pretty cool. 

In other news, we went to Geekend in Kilgore last Saturday. It was Free Comic book day and Sunday was Star Wars Day (May the fourth be with you). We celebrated with a bunch of other folks at the first annual Geekend. We weren't in time for the free comic books, but we did arrive in time to enter Milli into the costume contest! When I told her that we were going to go look at people in costumes, she ran to her dress up clothes and said that she wanted to wear one. When we got to the contest area, they were still setting up (even though we were 15 min late) and several people urged me to enter Milli, even though her princess outfit wasn't really a geeky costume. I finally asked her if she wanted to, expecting she would say, "No." But she said, "Yeah! Sure!" in that excited way she does. I still thought she might not do it once I directed her to stand with other kids, but she did it! After the fun, we went to eat some frozen yogurt. Both girls were great even though Milli missed her nap and Molly didn't get boobs for almost 8 hours (she just didn't ask because I would have been more than willing to feed her there). Here are some pics of our fun!

Princess Leia and Batman chillin' before the competition.

Princess Milli watching a boy laugh at a cat.

Here's the cat.

These female sith were being criticized by these men for not knowing how to fight with light sabers.

"Here, let me show you how it's done." Then they almost struck my kid in the head. A real sith knows what is behind him.

Costumes.

Loki, the tortoise rocketeer.

Loki's handler.

The man in grey was the live music. The gun toter was the reason we started an hour late- but she won second place.

Kids lined up to show off.

Leia won second place and the 11th Doctor won first.

Milli's cat walk.

Adult costumes. The nerd is a teenage superman. The cat won third place and the steam punker won first.

Short shooter won second.

This was as dressed up as I got.

Milli had her picture taken tons of times by both a local guy whom we have seen at other events and by the Longview News Journal. Both Ed and I were interviewed, as well, but none of us made the very short article in the Sunday Journal. They did, however, post a picture of Milli playing in the dirt on their web version of the same article. When the photographer asked Ed Milli's name and age he said, "I couldn't resist a princess playing in the dirt." I think he has daughters. 

Space is sweet, whether in reality or in science fiction.