How The Garden Grows

Last year my garden did pretty well, but I planted a little late for Arizona. This year I got an early start and planted the last weekend of January. I only had to cover the plants 2 nights in February when temps dipped near freezing. Now everything is growing wild and happy. We have had a couple of bad wind storms that have caused occasional breakage, but otherwise the garden is doing great!

 See the overall lushness of the garden. There are Asian peas, regular peas, cherry tomatoes, early girl tomatoes, green leaf lettuce, romaine, spinach, green beans, yellow squash, cilantro. The basil has had a slow start since I used last years leftover seeds. The germination rate wasn't as high.

Here are some closeups:

Cherry tomatoes. We did already have three that turned red, but we ate them.

The green beans have really only gotten going this week but I just picked a handful of them.

 The lettuce has been awesome. We have been living off of a lot of salads. I cut some off and it just keeps coming back. Pretty soon it will start to get bitter from the heat. For now it has been really tasty.











These are the Asian peas. Last night I made a beef with snow pea stir fry. 

The squash have started to flower. Nothing to pick yet, but soon. 

Dee's Parents Come to Visit -or- Exploring the Desert

We spent this week with Dee's parents. They ventured all the way from Idaho and made it here the perfect week. It was beautiful weather, great for any outdoor activities you could want. We took them all sorts of places.

To the Sonoran Desert Museum:

Dee's parents in their appointed sun avoidance hats and sunglasses. Yes, even though it is still technically winter, we are in short sleeves and lots of sunscreen

Here is a great picture of a Harris hawk during the raptor free flight. It's fitting that it would perch on a statue of itself. 

To Kartchner Caverns:

You're not actually allowed to take pictures inside the cave, so we just have the memories, but it is pretty amazing. 

Dee's dad had a great time squeezing through the "cave openings," and hopscotching across the pathway.

Dee also managed to climb through.

We also went to the airplane bone yard on a Pima Air and Space Museum tour:

 We saw lots of planes. It is amazing how many they have stored here.

Dee also took his dad hiking and biking. The weather here changes frequently. This day it was raining. And only two weeks ago we had snow.

We had a fun week. Sadly Dee's parents had to leave to make it back for work this week. You lose track of time when you are off of work. I cant believe it's a new week already. Hopefully everyone survived without us while we were gone.

Snow!!

 Approximately every five or so years we get snow. This year it came down heavier than it has in the past and actually stuck to the ground. It snowed a couple of times during the day. Fortunately the sun came out and started melting it right away.

 I had to cover my garden to protect it. 

Our poor tree did not like being weighed down by it. 

Valentines Day Flowers

Dee was so awesome and came home with these beautiful flowers for me.

 I bought Dee his favorite candy. It was gone by the time the pictures were taken.

Visiting Becky and Tom in San Antonio

This Christmas we went to visit  Becky and Tom in San Antonio, Texas.  It was really fun to be there with them. We also visited Aunt Jan and Uncle Ron who live about an hour north. Here are some of the things we did while there:

Opening gifts on Christmas morning at Becky and Tom's house.

Braving the cold at the river near aunt Jan's house. We didn't stay too long, it was just too breezy. We'll have to come back in the late spring when it is warmer. 

 Us at the taking the Riverwalk on the way to the Alamo.

At the Alamo. No pictures of Becky since she got the flu and couldn't make it.

And finally the boys went shopping without us girls. The seem to have such fun. We should let them do it more often.