The Remains of the Day

Here lie the remains of the squash

Today Lola and I gardened.

I've been meaning to prune my wild squash for the last few days. Last week, I staked and tied them but over the last few days it has become apparent that I really needed to clean out some of the leaves so they would stop smothering their neighbors.

But...I kept putting it off.  It was always too hot when I had time and evenings are generally a hot mess of dinner, bath, and 2 hour long bedtime stories.

So this afternoon, when I got a weather update that informed me that it was going to rain this afternoon and would continue raining for the next few days, I rushed out into the garden with Lola in tow. I tasked Lola with picking basil leaves for a garlic scape pesto for dinner and got out my trusty shears. 10 minutes later I was left with this sad pile for the compost heap.



Then Lola started whining and I realized she was covered in mosquito bites. I had forgotten to douse her with repellant. She must have had 10 red welts all over her legs and arms. So we took a breather to put on some repellant. I have been reading a lot trying to figure out a solution for killing these guys that won't kill our bees (we have a hive) or hurt our plants, but nothing has been figured out yet, though I've heard a tantalizing rumor about garlic oil that needs some research.

After we came back, the sky had darkened and the wind had picked up, so we called it a day, but not before I snapped some pictures of my baby plants! Can you guess what they are?