The sun doesn't go down, it's just an illusion caused by the world spinning 'round

This week's Friday, End-of-the-Week Blogging-Wrap-up Musical Interlude seems apropos for the week - sad, but optimistic because things are bound to get better.

 

Some of my more loyal readers may have noticed that yesterday I didn't blog on a non-holiday weekday for the first time since beginning The Nearly Constant Gardener. You probably also noticed that I really phoned it in Wed. in a pitiful excuse for a blog posting. The truth is, I'm still stinging from the epic failure of The Peacock Project and the mysterious disappearance of two chickens while we were on vacation. I just wasn't in a blogging state of mind.

As it turns out, the two incidents were pretty much unrelated. The nefarious, remorseless opossum that killed the two chickens was, apparently, not responsible for our lack of peacock success. I'm not going into the details, though - too emotionally distressing. 

I have turned an emotional corner, however. I dealt with my pain the way any responsible adult would. I got extremely drunk at Happy Hour with some of Travis's co-workers and took the opportunity to dramatically recount the ordeal to a captive audience of people I barely know (or barely knew before I emoted all over them Wed. evening at The Hole in the Wall).

So, on this more positive note, we have not yet named our new chickens, but I am enjoying the suggestions. Check out the comments below the post to see them and leave some of your own. I think we'll keep it going a bit longer for fun.

Some new young okra

I've also decided the red chard's time had come. It was looking pretty ragged from the heat and daily attacks from grackles that seem to enjoy trampling it for no apparent reason other than their spiteful nature. In it's place, I have planted some cute little okra plants.

I've never planted okra from these weird little clumps of shoots before. Normally, they are single, larger young plants. I don't know if I'll have to thin these out or what the deal is, but I guess we'll see. The great thing about okra is that it is the easiest crop to grow in our bizarre climate so I'm not too worried about it.

I also got this cool purple basil. I've never tasted it, but it does look pretty.

Purple basil (requires Purple Rain and Purple Haze to grow)