It's a jungle out there

We are smack in the middle of New England's two-shower-a-day season. We finally gave in this week and put in the air conditioners.

While the rest of summer was cooler and wetter than usual, August has been pretty characteristic: hot and muggy, with a side of random thunderstorms. Only five minutes outside is needed for your skin to develop a thin film of moisture that is one part sweat and two parts whatever is in the air.

The Garden doesn't seem the least bit bothered. As you can see, our grape vines have asserted themselves rather forcefully.

This is the top of the trellis. Please see pictures from May and June below for reference.

The inside of the Garden is just flourishing with life. As you may remember, we decided to just let everything grow so that we can see what is there. For the most part, we've been cultivating weeds. Pretty weeds, but weeds nonetheless.

The Good Mr. Dr. is cultivating a fern in the urn.

More weeds and my personal enemy: the rose vine.

We had the soil tested and found that it is in good condition. We already suspected this because there are plenty of worms and other (apparently) beneficial bugs in it. With these results, the Good Mr. Dr. has decided to use the back 10 feet to experiment with vegetable gardening. Currently, this is what it looks like:

The arbor vitae, the hated rose-vine and other assorted green things must go.

According to some old maps, this part of our yard was likely a wetland (i.e. swamp) 200 years ago. Kind of looks like one now.

During two-shower-a-day season, we are forced to escape into our garden regularly for dinner. It is just too hot to cook inside the house. Here we see the Good Mr. Dr. showing off his salmon grilling skills. Those collard greens and onions were suateed on a grill wok. Thank you, Mighty Dr. S from Miami for the gift; it is being put to good use.

"Hurry up and take the picture before the mosquitoes discover us."

One final note before we go. As you know from last week, the broken stink pipe has been repaired. When I went into my sewing/yoga room to take some pictures, I found this:

(click on the picture for a larger image)

(click on the picture for a larger image)

Free weekend stay at the Starluna B&B for anyone who can correctly guess what it is.