Took a break

...from blogging. Here are some random pictures from last week though. By the way, caught the neighboring forest lady owner and told her about the pocket plum disease and she said I could go in her land and cut the bad ones and throw away if I want, if it helps. She also said I could take as much fruits from her land as I want, cause otherwise it all goes to waste. How nice.

The grapes are starting to pop out, still very tiny though

The hanamizuki next to the kitchen. Nothing special at first glance

Looking closer reveals a caterpillar pretending very hard to look like a branch.

Finally ladybugs are starting to frequent the snapbeans

I even caught these two having sex

Mikan flowers. I had no idea they were so fragrant. Heavenly

Frogs are slowly growing tiny legs. Still can't move them though

Mini leafs and salad lining up

The extended strawberry patch

I removed the tunnel over the strawberries so that they can expand all over the wide bed. Was gonna take a picture of the new patch when I noticed the huge shadow cast over it from the hanamizuki. Gave the tree a nice and big pruning. Now the strawberries can get lots of sun. The berries are plenty and sweet. But maybe too sweet. Many of them are invaded by ants before I get a chance to pick them. Ordered DE to sprinkle on the ground to kill the ants... In the meantime, we eat the berries before they are fully red. Still very sweet. Came home the other night and noticed that each and every berry has been carefully wrapped in tea bags. Chika is smart.

Chika's countermeasure for berry-loving ants

it's raining more and more and the pond is getting fuller and fuller

The kabocha flower is huge!

Another problem was the figs. There were tiny fruit developing until last week, but one day I noticed all of them were gone. Some bird must have stolen them. Oh well, now the tree can focus on growing bigger. Next year I will watch it more carefully.

Fig tree with no fruits left

Every time I open the meal worm box I catch the adult ones in middle of various sex acts