It's finally green!

We've been getting monsoon rains lately and everything around here is growing very nicely, by Colorado standards anyway.

Mary gave me some hollyhock starts back in the spring and last week I had the first bloom.  Of the six or seven plants I planted this one is by far the biggest.  Those that are in full sun on the east side of our house are doing the best.  The three I planted in my perennial garden in the west side of the house are still really puny.  I'm thinking about transplanting them. 

A few years ago I repurposed Mr. Bean's old wagon for a planter.  Irv drilled holes in it and every summer I plant yellow, red, and purple flowers in it.  It always does really well and I think it's quite cute.

I was reading on the back deck a few days ago and this gal decided to stop by for a snack.  She'd come over for a drink then go sit in the tree.  As long as I held real still she'd keep coming back.

Our new lawnmower is getting quite the workout.  Because of all the rain the weeds have gone crazy.  We try to keep the 10 acres around the house mowed, but it's a monotonous endeavor.   I think I've about got my 5 acres done, Irv needs to get to work!

We finally finished the new landscape fabric/rock project in our front flower beds.  It's a lot of work moving those rocks around.

My veggie patch is doing fantastic.  I've got asparagus, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers, green beans, zucchini, and watermelon/cantaloupe planted.

I'm about to get my first two cucumbers.  The plants are covered with blossoms so there should be many more to follow.

The green beans have blooms, but no beans yet.  I planted two sets two weeks apart to spread out the green bean harvest so that don't all mature at the same time.

I planted a few watermelon and cantaloupe seeds.  The vines are definitely growing and there are many blossoms, but no fruit yet.  I think we're going to run out of summer before the fruit is ready.  Down in Rocky Ford, the cantaloupe harvest is already in full swing and I don't even have a sign of fruit yet.

Then there are the zucchini plants that grow like weeds.  I only planted nine seeds thinking that only half of them would sprout, but no they are all big and beautiful plants and are producing more zucchini than the two of us can eat.  I love checking the zucchini in the early morning when the blooms are fully open.

You really have to look through the zucchini plants to find the fruit.  They are easily disguised by all the greenery.  I'm always sure I'm going to find a snake when I did through the plants.  One day I checked for zucchinis and this guy was too small then two days later it was almost too big.  They really go to seed if you don't pick them when they're about the size of a mature cucumber.

Something came along and ate all the leaves off my bell pepper plant, but they're starting to grow back.  I have the cutest little pepper growing at the top of that plant.

In other news, a picture of Mr. Beans finally made it to his troop's Facebook page.  He's doing well and is excited to only have three weeks left.  They're doing so good that they got a weekend pass so he was able to go to the movies and out to eat in addition to catching up on his sleep.

I guess I  need to stop calling him Mr. Beans now that he is a full grown soldier and man.  Maybe it will be Private First Class Beans now. 

I got the underpainting done on my hawk painting plus I added the first layer of color.  Looks really horrible right now so I'm not posting any pictures yet.

Hope y'all had a good weekend!