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| I've had this old white fitted sheet laying around awaiting its transformation into a ghost for Dominic's Halloween costume. Meanwhile the kids decided to use it for a place all their own.
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| Yesterday, I chaperoned Dominic's class field trip to a local pumpkin patch. All the kindergarten and first grade classes went, so Dora was there as well, but I didn't see much of here while we were there. We would give waves and blow kisses across the air whenever we did see one another, usually from a distance. This pumpkin patch was great, it's named Eugsters Pumpkin Patch. It has animals to pet, spooky houses to run through, playgrounds, corn mazes, food, etc. The kids rode tractor pulled wagons out to the patch and picked out their pumpkins and then rode back and got to explore the other areas. There were enough parents with Dom's class that I was only responsible for three kids making it very easy to do lots of different things. They wanted to go through the haunted houses first so we held hands tightly and walked through those. The owners had purposely kept them more G-rated for the school group, with non spooky music and lots of extra lights, but it was still fun and the kids were thrilled when they came out on the other side, boasting how it wasn't that scary.
We checked out some of the animals which was really neat because you got to go inside the enclosure where some goats and hickens were. There was a big sign that read, "DO NOT CHASE THE ANIMALS!" We were the first in the pen and my group was good about slowly approaching the animals, not scaring them, it was great. Others groups followed us in and I don't know if the parents with those groups hadn't read the sign or the kids didn't listen, but the first thing those kids did was run after the chickens scattering them. Fortunately for the chickens there was a fence they could escape through.
Behind the fence the chickens escaped through, was a burro. Dom was thrilled when he offered it a leaf and the burro ate it up.
Dom with one of his classmates in our group.
Dom with the other classmate in our group.
The whole class:
They like to be goofy:
It was a fun trip.
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| The garden has been a bit neglected lately due to my recent tonsillectomy. I'm feeling much better, still sore, but functional. Last night we were grilling burgers so I rode my bike out to the garden beforehand to see if there was anything grill worthy. We had just been out there a couple of days ago to check on things, but had apparently overlooked a huge zucchini and an eggplant. The eggplant was a surprising shape and color. I wasn't sure what had happened.
I checked the marker this morning. It's an heirloom variety called rose bianca. I had somehow failed to observe and research this unique name upon purchasing the seedling at the farmers market. It's supposed to look like this.
We roasted it tonight and it was yummy.
This is the fun time for gardening. Everything is ripening and all the hard work is paying off. This is what I brought home after biking out last night before dinner:
4 cucumbers, 2 zucchini, 2 chilis, 1 funny shaped roma tomato, 1 eggplant, 10 cherry tomatoes. Not too bad.
We grilled the smaller zucchini and chilis . They were fabulous. The cucumbers don't look very pretty, cucumber beetles have been feasting on them. But peel that off and the one I had tonight was sweet and refreshing.
This morning I decided to spend the morning out there and weed, weed and weed. It's been awhile. Fortunately, the mulch has been doing it's job at keeping the weeds at bay and the roots are easy to pull.
There is a family of cranes that enjoy the bounty of the community garden. They were around when I got there, breakfasting in a plot not too far from our own. They moved on when they saw me approach. They are such beautiful, graceful creatures. I don't mind sharing the harvest with them a bit.
So I weeded and then I weeded some more. Did I mention I weeded? Then I took a break and took some pictures.
This is Borage. Bees love it. It's rather prolific. But the more bees and bumble bees the better.
I planted lots of zinnias this year. hoping to cut them for inside, but they look so nice outside and die so quickly inside that except for one small boquet I've left them alone.
We have lots of pie pumpkins this year. I keep turning the vines to keep them out of our neighbors plot. Here is the biggest fruit so far:
 
Almost ready for harvest. Yum, Yum!
And then I picked a whole bucket of beans. We don't have that many plants, but boy do they grow beans. Now what to do with all of them. Green bean recipes anyone?
A view of our 20X25' plot:
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| Whew. I just finished canning my first ever batch of strawberry jam. Tomorrow we shall see if it's a success. I'm a little concerned the pectin and sugar settled to the bottom of the pan before I poured it into the jars and the contents won't set up. While I was boiling the filled jars I discovered a little test you can do to see if it will set up or if you need to add more pectin. Oh well. We went to pick strawberries this morning at a farm south of Madison. The season is almost over so most of the big strawberries are gone, but the flavor of those left are amazing. Dominic is not much help with picking. He had his own container, but he wanted me to fill it up for him so he could eat them. I refused. He complained some about not finding any, which happens when you just stand over the row looking at it instead of kneeling and looking through the leaves. I showed him how to look for some and directed him to some big juicy ripe ones. He kind of got the hang of it, but he was still swiping from my container at the end of our picking time. Dora was a bigger help, though overly concerned about not picking overly ripe berries. The man working the field had instructed us not to pick the dark ones. These tasted just fine, but wouldn't last long transporting them home. She kept asking me if this one or that one was okay and when I told her yes she'd pop it into her mouth.
When we finished with our row, the worker who had instructed us earlier, led us to another row. On the way over he pointed to a patch of trees northeast of the strawberry patch where we were picking. He told us some of the new movie, Public Enemies had been filmed right there. There's a scene in the movie where the men run through some woods all covered in mud and that's the spot. He went on to tell us how the movie makers had chosen their orchard for a part of the film. Several orchards were considered, but after flying a plane over, theirs was favored because it was old and unpruned. He said they cut some twenty foot trees down and "planted" them among the rows to get rid of some of the spaces between the trees. After they were done filming, they mulched the trees for the farm. I wonder if I'll be able to recognize the location when I see it in the film?
the patch of woods in Public Enemies.
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| It has been a week since Dora finished her last day of kindergarten. Her last day was filled with a special breakfast, a viewing of Wallace and Grommit, an Ugly Doll parade (explanation to follow) and a field day. Usually the last day ends at 10:30 am, but this year it was extended to the usual 3:19 pm release time to make up for snow days, thus Shorewood School had their first field day to fill up the time in the afternoon.
Dominic and I walked down to the school to see the Ugly Doll parade and field day. The last project this year for art class was designing your very own "Ugly Doll" based on the Ugly Dolls created by husband and wife David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim. The kids got to choose a design and fabric and then sew on the "face" and add accessories. Dora was very excited about this project and Dominic now wants me to make him an ugly doll (a bat). For the parade all the students lined the halls as each class walked by showing off their ugly doll while everyone chanted "Ugly, Ugly". It was the only time I've ever been in crowd of kids at a school where it okay to chant "ugly" as other kids walked past.
After the parade through the halls, the classes paraded out to the field for games. The kids had a blast thanks to all the parent volunteers and fantastic gym teacher who got the whole thing together.
Saturday, I was a little grouchy and Den thought I need some nature, so we loaded up the kids in the bike trailer and rode down to Picnic Point to watch the sunset across the lake. We should have remembered to bring towels and a change of clothes. But even with several reprimands of "Come back, don't go in that far!" it was relaxing and refreshing. Den was right, just what I needed.
 
On Sunday afternoon there was a neighborhood music festival going on in the Marquette/Williamson neighborhood right on the shore of Lake Monona. Den had read that a band from Mali was playing that he was interested in seeing so we went to check it out. There was horse rides and kids' games, lot's of food vendors and other vendors selling colorful skirts and scarves and jewelry, music, etc. and lot's and lot's of people. We rode the wagon and then escaped the crowd to check out where the river empties into the lake. A pretty spot and fun to watch the different boats coming and going through.
Dora watching the Mali group, Vieux Farka Toure and his band (she was also getting a back scratch in this picture):
And a clip of the music of Vieux Farka Toure and band. It has a nice groove.
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