I have a garden, I lovely garden . . .

 I also have a kindergartner who has been plucking cherries in all shades of pink, trying to hasten the harvest. Finally Papa said it was time and he was out there before breakfast, up on the ladder and shaking the tree.

 Joss, holding forth on the finer points of cherry picking (or explaining why he didn't have to wash them first -- Pesticides Ahoy! as Homstarrunner says).

 Various plants here. We've tried sweet peas for several years and this was the most successful to date, but they still turned out much shorter than the flowers of my childhood. Our onions are finally growing past the scallion stage and I have no idea what is different. We tried lettuce-leafed basil and you could make boats out of the leaves. And the zucchini is freakishly big this year. Waist-high before it produced a single fruit. The kids groaned when they saw it, because they know it's open zucchini season now.

Rob's plum trees have now nearly covered the sandbox. It felt like it was years before they produced fruit, but now we get mounds and mounds of them and they're all still eaten before we can make a single Zwetschgen tart or batch of jam.

OK, so it's small, but we still get a lot out of it. Already we've had rhubarb, dill, parsley, mint, cilantro, loads of arugula, leeks, cherries, basil and zucchini. We should be out picking apricots right now, but Rob's got some big editing deadlines and I'm sitting down. So shoot me.

This is the birdhouse that Rob and Sebastian had to make for some cub scout requirement. This was made entirely out of odds and ends from the garage, and it's been up now for more than six months. I've been impressed at how many birds it attracts right outside the kitchen and dining room windows. I thought the birds would quit coming when the snow thawed, but we've had a steady string of visitors even now in the heat of summer. Two great woodworking projects -- I can't wait to see what Rob and Joss make in a few years.

Best though, are the kids the yard attracts. They manage to find lots to do even in our tiny bowling alley-shaped backyard. Here's to the first tomato!