Garden update

I took these photos last weekend. So, the plants are even bigger now.

I'm pleased with how the patio pots have filled in. The in-ground plants...not so much. I should do more coleus next year. They're really eye-catching.

These petunias haven't taken over like I wanted. I don't think this area gets enough sun. Next year: coleus.

My daisies are in full bloom. I want to make about a dozen more plants just like this out in the sun where they can stand up tall. I just need to divide the ones I've got which are flopping over in the shade (see background of previous picture).

I've got a few wildflowers blooming around the telephone pole, like these black-eyed susans. The big wildflower area has been quite disappointing so far.

My vegetables are doing quite well. The lettuce is coming to an end. Ditto for the peas. I have peppers and cucumbers to look forward to in about a month. I hope they wait until I'm back from vacation to mature! You'll notice the wildflower bed beside the vegetable garden is barely 6" tall, and nothing is blooming.

My front garden is looking much better this year. I'm pleased with how well the sun annuals are doing in these pots. I'd love to get a few dwarf daisies and yellow daylilies to fill this spot next year. I'd also like to fill in the spotty phlox border along the front. Maybe I should weave in geraniums (not the red annual kind which is actually "pelagornium", but the perennial kind which forms a carpet of blue or pink) for some summer color along the front edge.

Watermelon cake

I went to a potluck cookout yesterday. My contribution was this nifty watermelon cake.

Ingredients in the cake:

• One box of white cake mix, plus the water/eggs/oil it calls for
• One packet of watermelon jello (thanks, Ma!)
  
• Chocolate chips (less than a cup; a little goes a long way; **see below)
• Red food coloring
  

Mix all the ingredients together and bake as directed.

To frost:
Reserve half the frosting for the outer green ring and color with green food coloring.
Color the other half with red food coloring and frost the center middle and center top.
Make sure the cake is thoroughly chilled before you frost. Use room-temp frosting.
I did mine in two phases: chill thoroughly; pink first; chill thoroughly again; green later.
Add a few chocolate chips on top.

One of the ladies commented, "That is so clever. Do you have kids? If not, you should!"
"No. I get that a lot," I replied, "mostly from my mother."

**When I made it, I used almost an entire bag of mini chocolate chips in the batter. The cross-section turned out a bit "saturated" instead of "speckled". In retrospect, I should have used fewer than half that much, and I should have used the regular size chips.

Nobody cared, though. It was a huge hit at the cookout.

Happy Birthday, Linc!

Last weekend I went up to Wisconsin to celebrate my nephew Linc's birthday.

We went to a place called Ella's Deli in Madison. It was decorated with tons of interesting animatronics and mechanical things. The kids were fascinated. In this picture, Linc is watching Popeye ride a rocket back and forth above our table.

Outside was a real carousel. The ride was really fun.

Linc got lots of great presents.

It was a wonderful day to be with my family. The boys are growing up so fast!