all i hear are excuses!

it's been too long and i have so many things ive wanted to post. for now an apology and brief updates.

garden: the garden started off well and i was really excited to run out to the deck every day to see how much growth had occurred. then the aphids showed up and despite winning a few battles against them the totally overtook the sweet peas. in fact i cut them all back down to the soil today. there must have been a couple hundred on just 24 plants. INSANE. defeat is never easy to swallow. [...]

the tomatoes finally started producing tomatoes... still green and golf ball size, but its much better than just flowering. the strawberries are green but few berries. the last few that did start were eaten from the inside out by who knows what.

the cucumbers seem to have recovered from my inattention to their seed starts although since they are underground i have no real idea. but im hoping underground plants will fair better than the above ground ones.

the beans started well, but are stunted. i am pretty certain my containers do not provide deep enough soil for roots to grow and water to saturate. i think the peas would have done better with deeper soil too.

the blackberry bush has some berries, but for some reason many of the leaves are turning yellow. im not too worried since it is a actual bush. i'll probably plant it in manassas in the fall so it doesnt freeze to death this winter in the pot.

the african violet finally has beautiful little flowers to compliment the amazing amount of leaf it sprouted earlier this year.

of the herbs, only the basil has grown and i have yet to use any. the lettuce doesnt grow past baby greens. the cut and come again process is working though and we have enough to stick in sandwhiches.

wedding: went off without a hitch! i'll post pictures in another blog post. :D married life is fabulous so far... pretty much nothing has changed from before with is just fine with me!

house: we had recent ant army making its way from the corner with the bookshelf all the way to the dining area to break down and haul off cat food. i spent 30 min vacuuming them up before i decided to look up how to kill them without using harmful chemicals. turns out you can mix borax and sugar in a 1:3 ratio, add a bit of water, and a tbsp of peanut butter into a small plastic tub (i used an empty cream cheese container and a crab dip container i had saved with the lids on and some holes large enough for the ants to get through poked around near the top of the dish. it actually worked. i still have no idea how they were getting in and out but i havent seen but 1 or 2 ants for the last few days. just make sure the pets cant get to the "food" in the container... borax is toxic to eat. no bueno. i also made up a vinegar and water solution to use with the mop. they dont like it and it also destroys their "trail".

travel: we've been to several wineries in the area. unicorn winery was fun and interesting to get to- you have to drive across a one-lane bridge. the wine was yummy and they even had frappe wine! (like a wine slushy). veramar was overrated. wine wasnt that great, neither was the atmosphere. twin oaks was really cool. we were able to try (and then purchase a bottle to drink on their deck) their first year of estate chardonnay. it was delicious! we spent some time chatting up the owner and vitner, Donna. i never knew that it takes three years for you to get your first grape from grafts. they've had the vinyard now for 10 years and only now had enough to produce an estate wine (wine made solely from grapes on the property). she even took us down to the vinyard and explained some of the intense work they have to do. a few hours spent stomping grapes in rubber boots sounds great even if it does end up being a 14 hour work day from start to finish!

for memorial day we met some friends at camp creek state park in southeast West Virginia. it was really pretty and we had great weather the whole time. we're heading back to the area the last weekend in june to go white water rafting with the same group plus a few more. should be fun!

our next adventure is Ireland! im so excited! the plan is to fly into dublin, head to the west coast (galway and the claire coast), the down to cork, and back up to dublin via kilkenny and a few other places. its gonna be a short trip 5 days and 6 nights.