Laowai

Today was the first day of school. Both my girls are now officially in high school. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of them by the door with their backpacks and smiles. At this point they are professional students and nobody wants to commemorate the moment with a photo. That's Okay. I did take Claire and her friends shopping the day before and then we drove by their new school. I got to hear them talking about their classes and planning outfits. A mix of dread and excitement. This morning the traffic was bad when I took Claire and her friend to school and it was a bit stressful thinking they might be late. But then we made it and they dashed off and I was left in the quiet car trying to picture my girls in their classrooms. 

So I have a bunch of typical August photos. 

My garden is looking full right now. In the back corner where I put some of my compost and planted carrots there is a volunteer squash or cucumber (can't tell what it is yet).

This view shows the crazy tomato plants.

I'm having a good tomato harvest so far and I can't resist admiring the colors and taking photos.

Other than red I ended up with lots of pink in the garden this summer. Pretty!

I've seen lots of swallowtail caterpillars but I think most of them get gobbled up. Maybe this one crawled away to make his chrysalis.

The purple flowers below are wild petunia – I just planted them last summer and I'm pleased that they are filling in. This area used to be filled with pachysandra but it was looking sad and I wanted something that was native.

I read that the wild petunia can be an aggressive spreader and it shoots it's little seeds out at high speed. I'm waiting to see that this fall. 

One last photo taken in the garden. Bea has resumed her habit of climbing the house. She likes to surprise me up there. Hmmmm.