GimletBlog

We hope Thing Two’s garden will produce a harvest, in spite of the late start of summer.  Every day he enjoys watering and caring for his rapidly growing plants.

The spearmint and peppermint are doing great in their new home.

The basil and cucumbers make their debut.  So many different shades of green!

Meanwhile, Thing Two has also become interested in astronomy, and on the few cloudless summer nights we’ve had, he’s been allowed to stay up and look at the stars.  Thing One also liked planets and stars when he was about the same age, so the books, solar system mobile, and bed sheets we had bought about ten years ago are now being put to good use again by by a new little stargazer.

As with all of Thing Two’s interests, he is eager to talk to anybody and everybody about constellations and the planets.  Much of the information is accurate, and some is his own invention.  He especially likes to create his own constellations.

• All about Boötes, the herdsman or ploughman, and the first constellation Thing Two was able to see in the night sky.  He was so excited to finally see a real constellation that he danced all around the deck.

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Thing Two has been very pleased to watch his plants grow bigger and bigger.  He is less excited about the need to thin the plants, as he hates to lose any of the seeds he has so carefully tended.

The mint starts we received last year from Thing Two’s great-aunt outgrew their pots, so this year we’ve moved the mint into small raised beds:  spearmint on the left, peppermint on the right.  The transplanted mint looks rather dismal; while we keep repeating the promise that “you can’t kill mint”, we’re reminded of Jane Austen’s 1811 letter to her sister:

I will not say that your mulberry-trees are dead, but I am afraid they are not alive.

However, today we were relieved to observe several tiny new shoots in the boxes, so perhaps reports of the mint’s demise are exaggerated after all.

We also added a rosemary shrub to our herb collection.  We have been enjoying its fragrant leaves, and our honeybee neighbors have started collecting water from its drainage holes.

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Our week of sunny, hot weather did the trick and Thing Two’s seeds are flourishing, much to his satisfaction.

This year we have increased the amount of basil and chives, and Thing Two chose to add carrots, cucumbers, and pumpkins to his crop.  One tomato plant has two tiny green tomatoes on it and we hope more will follow.

Our neighbor’s honeybees have provided much to observe this week as well.

Every day they cluster in the drainage holes of our peppermint and lemon mint pots. (but not the spearmint; we wonder why?)  An internet search revealed that the bees are most likely collecting water from the mint pots and taking it to their nearby hive, where the water evaporates and cools down the hive.

Sure enough, if we watch closely, we can track the bees flying back and forth between the hive and our potted plants.  We assume the water is minty and lemony fresh, and wonder what effect this will have on our neighbor’s honey.

It has been fascinating to watch our friendly little apian neighbors find a way to stay cool.

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Between all the preparations for sending Thing One off on his adventures, and the decidedly unsummery weather we have been experiencing, we’ve been a little slow to start up Thing Two’s garden.  He wants to grow cucumbers and pumpkins this year, so inspired by this Sunset magazine article, The Gimlet built a 4′ x 6′ raised bed.

Thing Two supervised the construction process from a safe distance.

The finished product met with Thing Two’s approval, except for the fact that the box has no growing vegetables in it.  But that will come soon …

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The Gimlet and Thing One are going to WashJam this weekend, while the Team Gimlet: At Home Unit will hopefully spend a quiet few days recovering from the souvenir cold or flu brought back from the last scout camp.

But before we got sick, we harvested chives from Thing Two’s garden to use in our Sunday dinner.  Thing Two was very excited that his garden had a role to play in the meal, and carefully supervised the cutting (“My chives are getting a haircut!”) and preparation of his precious crop.

The tomatoes are getting redder and redder, but aren’t quite ready to be picked yet.  As for the mint, we’re thinking about making some mint jelly; any other ideas for putting our mint to good use?

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Thing Two is delighted to report:  his tomatoes are ripening, and turning his favorite color!

This week’s theme at preschool was the rainforest, so he made a python (which is sometimes a rattlesnake, when he remembers Camp School) and story pictures, which involved lots of monkeys.

Meanwhile, Thing One is spending the week at Camp Parsons on Hood Canal.  When it looked like Thing One would be missing scout camp this year due to our Philmont trip, Troop 125 invited him to join them for their traditional week at Camp Parsons.   Later, our troop’s calendar was rearranged and Thing One will be attending Camp Pigott with his own troop later this month after all.

This week promises to be a lot of fun.  Camp Parsons provides the scouts with the unique opportunity to camp on a salt water beach, and is one of the oldest scout camps in the USA (established in 1919), so there’s a lot of history and tradition to enjoy participating in.  The Gimlet took a few photos when he helped drive the scouts to camp, and if Thing One has time to take any pictures, we’ll add them to the Gimlet Gallery.  Watch for Thing One’s report when he returns!

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Looks like we brought the heat back with us.  Um, sorry about that.

Not only was a heat wave waiting for us when we returned, we had a lot of other things to do:

Thing Two started preschool this week!  He has been very eager to go to preschool ever since we visited the school several weeks ago, and he loved Philmont’s Small Fry program.  He’ll be attending for two mornings a week for three weeks this summer.  Then in the fall he’ll still go two days a week, but in the afternoon instead.  This week’s theme is pirates:  singing pirate songs, writing pirate stories, and making pirate costumes.  As with Small Fry, the building is air conditioned, so we all wish we could go to preschool.

The garden looks great!  Many thanks to Hå and our neighbor for taking such good care of it while we were away.

Thing Two also celebrated his birthday, and lest we forget Thing One, he got his cast off!  He has a little therapy to do each day to strengthen his wrist, which seems to be going well.  The doctor has given him the go-ahead to work on the merit badges he had hoped to earn at Camp Parsons and Camp Pigott.  Once he’s back from camp we hope we can resume cello lessons.

And now, back to the business of keeping cool …

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Here’s a last visit to Thing Two’s garden before we leave on vacation.  The mint and herbs smell wonderful, and look at all the little tomatoes!

Grandma and our neighbor have been entrusted with watering the plants while we’re away, and we look forward to seeing how much everything has grown when we return.

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