Aha!! Those little seeds I planted back in February are doing marvelous things now…

Since I moved to Texas in 2007, the only vegetable I have successfully grown here is jalapeños. It is just too #&@$ hot for the more familiar (to me) ones. By the time they peek their little shoots out of the ground and send out those first tender tentacles, we are in blast-furnace zone and they get scorched and die. It is very sad.

But this year, I was determined to plant early and harvest early. Maybe even get a second crop in the fall – if I can baby these things (indoors??) when it gets too hot outside. And there you see (partially) the fruit of these labors (pun totally intended). Now I have to play the “I can’t remember whether these are the little cucumbers so I should pick them now or the big ones so I should let them grow longer before picking” game.

I’m so giddy at their existence that it doesn’t even matter. I love cucumbers. I love anything fresh from the garden, and this has been a great year so far (wow – in no other context can I refer to 2020 that way).

And why, yes, that IS a blooming tomato plant in the background there. Happily, those just need a little shaking. It’s hand-pollinating the squash plants that is driving me a bit batty – but it must be done because even though I see bees around, they don’t seem to be buzzing around the squash plants. ?? It’s nothing a paint brush and some patience (and knowing which are male or female flowers) won’t solve (fingers crossed). Nice morning routine I’ve got going now: eat breakfast, make lemon balm tea, inspect every squash flower for pollination possibilities… It is a wonder to me how these things EVER get  pollinated the normal way…then again, if I had to everything the normal way, how boring would THAT be? HA!

Life lesson for today: celebrate the present, for I know not what will come tomorrow.