The Toad and I

This is a guest post from Jim.

A couple weeks ago, I hauled home a quantity of paving blocks with which to build a walkway in our garden and stacked them nearby. Today, I finally got around to it, hot and dirty though it was.

At the start, I noticed a fat toad peering out from under one of the bottom-most blocks in a particular stack. It must have been his semi-permanent shelter because he had hollowed out just enough space for him to squat in the shade beneath.
Not wanting to harm him while moving blocks around, I pulled him out and sat him aside. He immediately toadied back inside his nook.

So, I left him be while digging the bed, laying plastic for a weed barrier and doing all the things necessary for the job at hand.

The toad kept his place throughout and seemed to be watching my progress, offering no comment.
At the end, I had 4 blocks left over, so at Karren's suggestion, I made a right turn with 2 of them. 

Problem was, the toad was still under one of the pink blocks, which I needed to maintain the pattern.
I carefully moved that block and just as carefully substituted the one leftover gray block.
The toad is as before and seemingly content.

Glad it worked out that way.

Harvest Monday

I haven't gotten out into the garden much in the past few days, so wandered out there this morning and found bounty out there needing to be harvested.  
Each garlic plant had thrown up a scape that needed to be removed.  That's the flowering part of the garlic plant.   If you leave it grow, it'll make little bulblets that you can plant, but they take much longer to become the wonderful garlic plants we love than if you plant a clove, so it's best to clip them off.  I've always heard about how delicious fresh garlic scapes were, and so I carefully snipped that alien looking growth out of each of the many garlic plants that are growing so well this year and brought them inside.   Now I just have to figure out how I want to consume them.   I can pickle em, blend them into pesto, add them to greens for a mild garlic flavor, or chop and make a pasta topping.   Yummmm, maybe some each way.
 There were a lot of peapods to harvest too, about a cup and a half of strawberries, and a lot of basil.    Turnips, beets, kale and lots of various kinds of lettuce are all ready now too, but will probably wait until tomorrow for harvesting. 

I love this time of year.  Talk about eating locally!