summer days and a plea for honey bees

hi hi.

i am very behind on posting these days. this is partly due to the fact that i've had little time to write, and partly due to the fact that i have had little time to deal with the million photos we've taken recently and that i want to post. we just bought an external hard drive to store our music/important files/photos, and until we get everything off our computer and organized, things just seem to take forever. not to mention that who wants to sit in front of a computer on a beautiful summer day? or evening? not me.

but things are fine at this end. aubrey is growing and cute as ever. she wants to gogogogogo and is a bit frustrated that she hasn't mastered independent walking yet. soon, i think. and an update on weaning: the "girls" are still a bit full, but not nearly as painful. and i haven't had to pump again since the last post. i think we're doin' okay.

the garden is growing nicely...we are harvesting lettuce daily and i think cucumbers will be next. however, i am a bit perplexed by my zucchini plants. they are growing well, and have lots of male flowers on them. but not a whole lot of female flowers. there are a few, but they aren't ripening into fruit yet.

harumph. zucchini should NOT be difficult to grow in vt. i'm not sure if the lack of fruit is due to a lack of female flowers, which hopefully appear soon, or a lack of pollination. i've heard that there is a significant shortage of honey bees in new england, and i'm concerned that that may be one of the reasons i'm not seeing any baby zukes (the one that i spied the other day is missing now. maybe one of the neighborhood dogs?). i am contemplating pollinating them by hand, however, i can't do it until the weekend, because by the time i get home in the evenings the blossoms are closed up. i'm thinkin' a q-tip might be the best device to use. but i really wish there were bees around to do the work for me.

oh yes, and before i forget, i must share my new food love: newman o's peanut butter creme filled nuggets of goodness. where have they been all of my life? yum.