Bounty Shots

2010 was a banner year for our garden. We managed to produce vegetables we've never been able to before. Eggplants, red peppers, romanesco, basil -- all the warmer-climate produce that up in Maine usually only manages to eke out a tiny, unripe fruit or two before the first frost, was fabulous this year. And so, here are some gratuitous produce shots.
Alden, his face still messy with breakfast, shows off the zucchini he grew. (He helped me plant all the cucurbits and beans this year).
Our romanesco! We managed to harvest 9 or 10 heads in total and they were absolutely amazing roasted with olive oil and sprinkling of kosher salt.
Benning's Green Tint patty pan squash and swallow eggplant.
Here's a shot of all the veggies I harvested in one sweep of the garden right before for dinner.
Clockwise from lower left: Valencia tomatoes, Zeppelin Delicata squash, Red Kuri squash, Arcadia broccoli (still productive in mid-summer!), Japanese Black Trifele and Brandywine tomatoes, New Ace red peppers, Revolution pepper (large green one), Bulgarian Carrot pepper (green, in little bowl - very hot!), Jimmy Nardello's Sweet Frying peppers (awesomely sweet!), Swallow eggplant, basil.
A fall harvest of salad greens and chard. This is the biggest bowl we own and it still couldn't contain all of the greens I pulled out of one bed.
The potatoes did OK this year. We got about 60 pounds total -- not bad, but definitely not as productive as in years past. They probably won't last the winter. However, the mean size of the potatoes was much larger than in years past. This is the first year that we grew Kennebec, a true Maine spud, so I don't know if the varietal is especially well suited for our climate and soil or if it just produces larger potatoes. I don't have any shots of the starchy leviathans by themselves, but I'll try to get a few posted soon.

Alden and Sophia

Alden's best friend is Sophia, a lovely little girl he met at daycare. She has sadly started a new preschool, so he doesn't see her every week anymore. We can tell he misses her because he likes to watch the videos of the two of them playing in the evenings. We are trying to keep their friendship going by arranging regular play dates with her family. Here are some pictures of one such play date on the eve of Sophia's third birthday.
The pool was fun.
Emptying the pool one bucketful at a time was even more fun.
Best yet was the lift and squeal game on the lawn.

For Sophia's last day at daycare, her Mom brought in a cake shaped like a lady bug. Alden prefers to call it by the Spanish name, mariquita.
"Remember when you ate mariquita with Sophia?" he asks me before bed. He still get his personal pronouns mixed up.
"I do remember when you ate that cake," I lie between my teeth (I was at work when this magical event took place).
"That was really, really tasty."
Coming from a kid who generally loathes birthday cake, this is a big deal. It just goes to show what a high regard he has Sophia. We're going to do our best to keep the two of them in touch, despite their different schools.