Heading Out of Town

My mom drove down from Iowa yesterday to make a trip to Washington with Milan and I to visit my sister and her husband.  I'm not sure yet which has taken more preparation, leaving the farm for a week or traveling with a two-year-old.  At this point I feel pretty good about leaving the farm, but I haven't yet boarded a plane with a two-year-old that decided to come down with a head cold the night before his first plane ride.  Yesterday I walked around with a camera checking for any last minute fires that might need to be put out.  

The squash and green beans are looking fantastic after last week's rains and are growing by leaps and bounds every day.  A thorough check for squash bugs or cucumber beetles revealed only two cucumber beetles and I'm hoping for the same when I get back.  I'm trying not to be overly optimistic about this though.

The purple hulls are loaded with green peas which is good news for Robert because it looks like they may hold off until I get back in town.  The fact that a massive pigweed plant seems to have shot up overnight among them though gives me an idea of what I might come home to in a week.  I will say the one nice thing about not having any rain all summer is that I haven't done any weeding.  Last week's rains followed by warm weather has flushed out weed seeds all over the farm.

And finally, flowers.  The Benary Giant zinnias I've been anticipating are going to bloom....THIS week!   While I hate to miss the first blooms, I hope to come back to a whole bed of open flowers next week.  The preview I got last night looked a little like this...

After cutting a large bowlful of hydrangea stems that needed to come off the plants, I'm happy to see them loaded up with more immature blooms that ought to be perfect when I get back in town.  

With all the seedlings in the ground that are ready to be in the ground and nothing ready to harvest, it seems be a good week to take a trip.  Now if I could only do something about the buckets of snot making it impossible for Milan to breathe through his nose.  Travel updates to come!