Life at home

It has been very interesting going from dormitory life to home life. It's a bit like coming back from a city to live on a farm, only we don't really have enough animals to be an actual farm...

The first thing to greet me when I got home was the bee swarm. It'd taken up residence in a trashcan near the grill, and though it'd been relatively polite so far, my parents called in a beekeeper to take it away. She appeared, and mother and she talked and then Mom found out that there was a beekeeping class in town this summer. So of course I'm enrolled now. This is what I get when I don't have a summer job. We may end up with a beehive.

Yeah. Unlikely to want a job at this rate!

For the rest of the time I've been pottering around in the garden, picking things. It's the beginning of the summer, and it seems like absolutely everything is producing something. The cucumbers are appearing, huge green coils hidden in spiky leaves, and the squash, which are fat green globes, hidden in itchy leaves. The green beans are practically holding the plant up (more itchy leaves), and the lima beans are fruiting for the second time this year. Even the parsnips are coming in! I thought this very irregular indeed, as parsnips are usually something one encounters in winter, but we pulled some up yesterday as long as my forearm. I'd post a picture of them, but my phone isn't sending it to my email, because it is being a rat.

There are also apricots, and potatoes and the tomatoes are looking threatening. As a committed tomato-dreader, I'm worried about that. The parents planted a LOT of tomatoes this year. The potatoes, though, have already reached the end of their broadcast day. We managed to get most of them before the gopher did, but not before a few succumbed to the same pest that caused the Great Famine in Ireland, and we spent the evening picking crunchy potatoes out of the potato salad. The good ones were amazing, though.

And, most importantly, home is very, very quiet. I like that.