What I've Been Up To in the Back Yard

This year, my 4 foot X 4 foot garden has the following:

• grape tomato
• yellow pear tomato
• beefsteak tomato
• red bell pepper
• jalapeno pepper
• yellow banana pepper
• 8-ball squash
• radishes
• flat leaf parsley
• sweet basil
• thyme
• cilantro
• green beans when the radishes are done

I took this picture earlier in the week. Everything has pretty much doubled in size as we've had plenty of rain and warm weather. 

Everything else has been blooming for a while. The begonias up front look great. I'll take a picture of them once the Asiatic Lilies open up. There have been several baby birds in the yard. A few very young cardinals and assorted "chee-chee birds" as my dad calls them. I potted dahlias this year in some new blue pots I got a good deal on and one old one I've had for ever. 

All that warm weather and rain has been sticking around. Last night my friend Elisabeth and I ran a 5K out in Blue Grass, IA. It started at 7 PM and was 86-degrees and high humidity. Elisabeth was great and ran slow with me and walked and was a great running buddy. I beat my 5K personal best by a little more than a minute. Finished in just over 43 minutes.