The best laid plans, part 3

The last of the garden pics, I promise!  Well, for now at least.

I planted more flowers this year, figuring that I might need some cheering up this summer.  Asters, carnations and marigolds.

Blue Lake bush beans.

Roma and San Marzano tomatoes.   In a wild and probably useless attempt to avoid fungal issues with my tomatoes this year, I did several things.  I bought seedlings rather than start my own, I planted the tomatoes about 20' from where I had them last year, and I didn't plant any potatoes in the garden.  Last year it seemed the fungus (blight or wilt, whatever it was) started in the potato patch and spread into the neighboring tomatoes.  This year I had the hubby till up a strip of the yard, on the other side of the house from the garden, and I planted our potatoes there.  So far, so good.  No yellow leaves, no brown spots.  Fingers and toes crossed.

Rutabagas and black beauty zucchini.  I think the zucchini might take over the swedes.

And raspberries!  Loads of raspberries.  Not enough for jelly, but plenty for fresh eating.  The darker yellow they are, the sweeter they get.  At some point the resident bird population in our grove is going to get wind of the raspberries in the garden (if they haven't already), and it will be an all-out skirmish to see who can get to the ripe ones first.  Perhaps our outdoor cats are keeping them at bay.

And to end with, a few kid photos.

Benjamin had his tonsillectomy on the 13th.   The operation was done in St. Cloud, a three-hour drive from our home, so we spent the night before in a hotel.  Here the little guy is, splayed on the hotel bed playing on a DS.  We had a lot of fun that evening, having dinner with my brother and his wife, doing some shopping and playing games.

It took about ten days before Benjamin stopped feeling pain from the surgery.  He and I slept nights in the den because he would wake up screaming in pain in the middle of the night.  Even if I woke him up myself to take the pain medicine, he would still start yelling right away.  During the day he took his pain medicine just fine, and for the most part was okay, if a little lethargic.  Now he is (thankfully) back to normal, eating and playing and talking as usual.  We'll see this winter if the tonsillectomy makes a difference with his respiratory issues.  I certainly hope so.

Grouse had a doctor visit the other day as well, nothing serious.  I took him out for breakfast afterward at Java Jules, a local coffee shop.  He got chocolate milk and Belgian waffles.  Nothing like a jolt of sugar first thing in the morning.

The coffee shop has regular art displays from local and non-local artists.  This month's display was the junior duck stamp award winners.

Graham was pretty amazed that this artwork was done by kids his own age.  I told him that if you like to do something, you practice and practice and you get better and better.  I was hoping to plant a seed in his brain, hoping that he would start thinking of something he liked to do, and become determined to practice at it until he got better.  Not sure if it worked, but we'll see.  I know from my own childhood that sometimes it's the subtle seeds sowed in a child's mind, that grow steadily and bloom into the largest flowers later on in life.