Random Updates

*  We had a wonderful weekend camping with friends (me managing to not take a single picture all weekend).  I do have to show you this, however:

 Our tent has a pet door!  Complete with mosquito netting, so a pet could presumably have a window to the outside world without letting bugs in.  I love it.

*  One of my new "whirligig" zinnias bloomed while we were gone:

which is now my current favorite flower, followed closely by this:

 which is (I believe) a candy-stripe zinnia.  Now that it has actually successfully grown, I'll check the package.  I try not to get too emotionally invested in anything in the garden until I actually see it growing. 

*  While we were gone, my zucchini overabundance problem was taken care of:

by squash bugs.  Part of this may live, but I'm not working too hard at it.  I have removed a bunch of eggs from the zucchini plant that I actually planted, so we should still have MORE than enough zucchini.  I have sprayed the cucumbers and remaining squash-related plants, so hopefully the problem has been contained.  With any luck, I killed some slugs as well.  

*  Still no sign of any ripe tomatoes except for those on the Sweet 100 cherry tomato.  Sigh.................