OnTamalia and her man joined us on a long ramble around the Chicago Botanic Garden this afternoon.
The weather was perfection itself, and a big relief from the oppressive heat and humidity of the past week. (Praise Jebus!) Blue, blue skies with fluffy, white clouds have made our visit here quite glorious.
Tonight is the big “game night” – a traditional gathering of the entire clan, where gaming, cheating, and eating are on the agenda.
Well… like kings who grow their own veggies. 
Last night, while walking my father around my yard, explaining what things would need to be watered in the event of a heat wave, I reached –nonchalantly– into my veggie patch and –nonchalantly– pulled out that lovely zucchini. My dad was suitably impressed with its size and my magnificence in being able to grow it.
I tried to be… oh… nonchalant about it, as if it was an everyday activity around our house, but… who’m I kidding?! My dad reads this blog, so he knows I was practically squealing with joy yesterday when I saw it.
As one of the last garden-related things I wanted to take care of before we leave for our trip, I went out to tend to the veggie patch. Much to my surprise, magic has occured over the past two days…
Squeeeeeee! The little boogers have turned red!!
I know what we’ll be having with dinner!
We’ve been having what the weathermen like to call “unstable” weather lately. If it’s not a heat wave, it’s powerful thunderstorms, or crushing humidity. On Sunday, we had all three — a weather trifecta!
The second downpour came while I was making dinner, so the boys dashed out to get pictures of the heavy rain, and the subsequent dewy garden photos.
Not only does the rain help pretty flowers grow, but the rain looks wonderful *ON* flowers!
