The harvest!

So, last summer was lost to me.  Once, I sent Rob to the dacha to harvest the garlic.  What he brought home wasn't much; but whatever, I couldn't do anything about it.  I didn't know what had happened.  When I went to the dacha for the first time this year, I saw SO MUCH garlic sprouting in clumps.  What???  Ohhhh, Rob had missed an entire section, so each clove from each head was sprouting again.  Shoo.  I did separate a bunch of it, in an attempt to let the heads get bigger, but I only finished about half.  The rest I had to leave.  Which means that we have many more heads of garlic than normal, but of a smaller size.  I have about 200+ drying here in the porch.  Wahoo!  Sancho, you are quite welcome here.

And then there was Mission Zucchini... accomplished!

A crowded kitchen

When I cook, my babies immediately begin crowding my space.  In our old house, I had a nice rectangle with only one open side for myself which was therefore quite easy to protect.  Here, all I can mangage is a small equilateral triangle, with two open sides, which is very penetrable.  They are next to me.  They are behind me.  They somehow get in front of me.

In preparing tonight's dinner, the darlings are outdoors, inspired by the NBA Champs, playing basketball.  And yet, my kitchen is still crowded.  I'm making rice with garlicky greens, mostly cabbage.  As I was inspecting the rather bedraggled-looking beet and kohlrabi leaves, They came.  Belaynesh.  Addis.  Mimi. Senait.  Muluatua.  And Konjit.  And so I rolled up those totally edible, nutritious leaves, sliced them and threw them in the pot.  Thanks, my sisters.

Birthday twins!

 ¡Jolín!  "What a weekend!" as Templeton kind of said after his carny-fest.  So it was with the twins' birthday.  Again I say, "¡Jolín!"

Of course, the festivities began promptly at 7:00 the day of, with Ty's requested bacon-topped doughnuts (🤮).

And then, well, let's have a look.

G keeps us all supplied with knives.  (I got mine for Mothers' Day.)

Pumpkin made Ty-requested mooncakes and gave the boys cat shirts.  Ha!

Koshka even joined the fun.

Sophie visited a Black-owned plant store with Tita.

Her first pedicure!  What?!

And then Rob rented a Lime scooter for everyone to try.  Wheeee!!!

Thanks for the idea, D-hams!

So, I believe that everyone felt loved and fêted.  Now let's see if I can give a little update on each of the birthday kids:

Sophie:  The child is tall and thin!  And if her feet give any idea of the future, she's going to be taller and thinner yet.  We've again shaved off her hair, resulting in a cute little 'do: We'll see what the next year brings with that.  She is still a very hungry bookworm, although she is taking way too long to finish Across Five Aprils.  She is very cariñosa.  She is great at cartwheels and is working on her tour jeté.  She gets VERY annoyed by her brothers, resulting in a lot of time spent braiding her dolls' hair.  (She's so good at it!)

Tychik:  The boy LOVES to watch sports with Mr. Meyer.  He spends hours with his Legos, proudly showing me what he's constructed with his imagination.  (I'm quite against these sets that come with instructions.). Ty loves carbs. and swimming.  He does not love the sun and heat.  

My babies!