Come in, come in, won't you?
I have some curious garden specimens to share…
Such as, the teeny tiniest most perfectest little punkincake I ever did see.
How teensy you ask?
A miniature, really.
Why, I just scooped that little thing up and swooned when I saw it.
A gift from the fairy pumpkin patch, me thinks?
We also have some conjoined tomato babies…
And when flipped over, you find a perfect set of kissy lips.
Sort of eeeeeeewe, and sort of, cuuuuute.
🙂
A little Frankensteinish, wouldn't you say?
Mmmmmmwuah!
There have also been some astoundingly huge sunflower heads in the jungle of a vegetable garden this year. So huge that as their petals opened they slowly began to droop droop droop down…
On the left side of the photo below, you can kind of see the giant leaves of the hugest sunflowers. The mini gazebo is about 8 or 9 feet tall, so you can imagine what it feels like in there with the huge sunflowers.
As the sunflower heads get too heavy for anything else, I chop them off.
Off with their heads 🙂
Giant things.
Sooo many seeds in one giant sunflower head.
Oh my!
A little rain puddle here and there, as the vegetable garden starts to turn. Looking older, and wiser, and ready for a nap. Soon, not too soon, but soon.
There are still things growing to eat, but more and more, that change is visible.
Of course, the flower garden will have a second spring in late October early November, but the summer vegetable garden will have been long gone by then.
It's been a great, long, difficult, magical, wonderful, exhausting beyond words, astoundingly good garden summer. With extra buckets of unending heat thrown in for good measure.
Nothing a sprinkler and some popsicles can't fix.
With sweltering nights of power outages tossed in for excitement.
I am ready for a vacation.
Maybe just a couple days of rain, and dark skies, and some really good thrillers.
But, I did dream of that last time didn't I?
I guess my vacation dreams have not changed.
Haha!
I am a gnome spinning in circles, it seems.
I'll begin speaking gibberish soon if I go on like this, heehee!
Looove, V
ps: Have you seen the autumn issue of Country Gardens?
Oooo, it's lovely.
I absolutely adore your garden oddities. How special!!! I cannot get over how ginormous the sunflower head is with Mister Lovee. Both of your hard work & dedication has certainly paid off, V. <3
Last year I had a rogue gourd vine sprout up from underneath our broken down lawnmower. I was lucky enough to collect 20-30 beautiful gooseneck babies of all sizes and colors from it. THIS year, I have had not 1 but 2 wild pumpkin vines pop up from a trashcan that I simply dumped old potting soil into when I was repotting things at the end of spring. With all the rain we've gotten this summer, they have each grown to be well over 8-10 ft.! Their leaves are twice the size of my head which is no small thing. 😉 I am wishing with all my might that one of those beauties will be from last year's fairytale pumpkin. She was most beautiful shade of a rich mauve. Fingers crossed.
Love the photos, as always! What an odd and glorious little tomato :-)It so makes me wish for just a little garden to play in. For now I have to settle for container gardens outside the cottage, lol.
That wee little pumpkin baby on your dollhouse porch was just utter perfection!
So sweet!!
i love your teeny baby punkin! i keep checking my vines everyday for a similar one, but all i find are blooms, never any fruit… 🙁
that sunflower head in front of Mr. Lovee is amazing!
love and blessings
~*~
Cutest pumpkin EVER. We had to put down our dog today – poor thing got old and sick and couldn’t get up or walk well. I’m going to miss him so much. Fox was a wonderful, beautiful dog and even though I’m a cat person he totally won my heart over. I’m looking for things to cheer me up and your pumpkin made me smile, thanks.
Nicki
58Cherries
Ooooooh!!!! LOVE that tiny pumpkin.
Is it on a mini-cottage porch?
That reminds me of your screen door. Did you paint up the little house to look like the cottage?
Did you blog about it and I missed it somehow?
Good GRIEF that’s a huge sunflower. Biggest one I’ve ever seen.
Vanessa:
Here I am again….with the pumpkin envy! I may want to marry that pumpkin!
If that lippy tomato were in my garden, I would be soooo tempted to give it a kiss. Just a little peck. Did you kiss it?
I cannot believe the size of your sunflowers. I bet the birds are loving those seeds. Do you roast them to eat for yourself?
xoxo
Kim
Gerushia’s New World
Hahaha, those kissy lips are great! And the baby pumpkin…oh so adorable. I can’t believe how big that sunflower head is either!! What amazing treasures you grow.
Hugs,
Jamie 🙂
Fairy pumpkins! =D
So much cute for something so teensy weensy… ^-^
Those are the biggest sunflower heads I have ever seen… @_@ They’re ginormous! You’re going to live in the middle of a sunflower forest next Summer if you plant them all… Hmmm… I think a forest of HUGELY TALL sunflowers sounds kind of nice… =D
XOXO
Dang!! The sunflowers are jolly green giant king kong monster sunflowers, wow, amazing!
The wee pumpkin has to be the cutest pumpkin EVER! It is perfectly proportioned!
Now about the tomato Frankenstein kissy lips… This may sound weird (but consider the source -ha!-) If you turn the picture upside down, they remind me of those Hollywood starlets that get lip enhancement injections. Every once in awhile you will see someone on TV that has suffered from uneven injections. The tomato kissy lips remind me of that. Puts a whole new twist on the old saying “bee stung lips”… Yikes… OK, I’ll stop now before I really get into more trouble.
Have a great day.
Always, Queenie
What a lovely little pumpkin!!!!! He’s so tiny! And the tomato is cute too 🙂 I can’t wait for summer to transform into autumn…sigh. 😀
Magical & gorgeous! And I love the “Alice” reference.
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Miss V, your photos are made from magic, when I view them I can also smell and hear the goings-on there! Such a beautiful welcomed escape from this corporate boardroom today! Thank you x x x
That little baby pumpkin is just toooooo cute! I think your right about it being a gift from the fairies.
Wow, you have some supernatural stuff going on there! The sunflower made me laugh out loud and the tomato had me staring at my computer screen a long time. You said it right – Frankensteinish, complete with stitches around the lips! The little pumpkin is a gem, so sweet. Your garden shows all the wonders in nature. It’s amazing how lush and green it is in spite of all that heat. I picture you out there, watering watering watering. Great job, Vanessa!
Dear Vanessa,
I loved this post. The photos of the teeny little pumpkin,smoochie-lipped tomato and enormous sunflower head made me grin from ear-to-ear.
I adore how you see the world. I want to be more like you when I grow up! 🙂
Warm regards,
Grace
Ooh I especially love that dinky little pumpkin, so cute! Some photos of my mum’s beautiful colourful on my Idle Bakes blog now, have a look when you get the time. x
oops I left out that all important word ‘garden’! Thanks so much for your visit earlier, I’ll tell Mum how much you love the garden and she’ll be thrilled 🙂
Yours is looking fabulous as usual. Fantastic freaky tomato lips! x
I enjoyed the pictures very much!
Just read mine today and it was extra good! I am really feeling the need to have the hubby build a copy of the garden house on the front! I swoon.
XO,
Lisa
Lisa, did you notice that the garden house is teeny tiny?? I couldnt
get over it. The door is way smaller than 6 feet – and the whole
place is only 4 feet wide by 8 feet long? Its a real childs
playhouse!! So deceivingly amazing!! He cut everything to be well
proportioned. Loved it!! 😉
My garden has been acting funny this year as well. The mums have been blooming since June….one by one….they’re not supposed to bloom until the Fall. A local farmer told me the Earth is closer to the sun this year and also we’ve had lots of sun spots…this is why all the strange’ness has been occurring. I knew something was going on!
~magick~
Meliss
I simply LOVE pumpkin babies! I can’t wait to find some for fall decorating. 🙂 My mind is on autumn lately…I want it here now! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sunflower head as large as that!
Isn’t it amazing what mother nature produces for us? The cutest itty bitty pumpkins ever.
Great post Miss Vanessa.
Your mini pumpkin is adorable! And the ‘kissy lips’ conjoined tomato is delectably, ghoulishly, squeamishly, juicily, (gross!) crunchably kissable!!! Should be a tasty morsel to eat.
I hope you have some rain and thunder storms. The clouds begin forming in the Sierra Nevada twenty minutes from our house (the foot hills that is) and for the past week around 4 P.M. we can see clouds that form clear to our neck of the woods. There were lightening showers in the deeper parts of the mountains…i.e. the Redwoods. I get to see the Redwoods every October (nearer to the Grant Grove area). I love those trees! You can Google that area but it doesn’t give any close ups of the trees (darn!)
Anyway, your sunflowers are astounding! Your garden seems to be growing and overflowing this year even more than last year.
It warms my heart every time I come to your blog to see the seasons come and go via your lovely photos and inspirational comments. (Now I’m starting to sound like a book review!) I am not as prim and proper as that!
hugs,
Miss Teresa
That is a d a r n, my dear girl. Those r’s and m’s mesh together so annoyingly close. Darn! That’s better!~
Oh, and please, me wants to see more photos of your teeny tiny doll house the teeny tiny pumpkin, of which, is sitting on the teeny tiny porch. It looks so very much like your cottage!
😉
Right here next to lovely Teresa!
What a joy it is to visit you, dear Vanessa! Love that tiny punkin…
Have a beautiful weekend!
xoxo,
– Irina
i once had a lovely garden like yours but we moved….slowly we are turning our very small yard into one…but it will be years before it makes me swoon! I love your photos…..just lovely!
Vanessa!! Mister Lovee looks like he’s been gobbled up by a giant sunflower plant…bbbhhwwwaaa. Me thinks maybe you could do a short film for entertainment purposes. Let’s see, the story line should go something like this: pan to our Beloved fanciful friend enjoying early morning pumpkin scones with sunflower butter. That Mister Lovee just can’t get enough of that delectable butter and keeps slathering it on his scone. The next thing you know he turns into a giant sunflower monster…”Oh NO! Say it isn’t so?” But yes it is true and he chases you out of the vacation cottage and down the path (whilst his ginormous sunflower head is bobbing from side to side :-O)…melodramatic music here)). He chases you into the pumpkin patch and all the pumpkin tendrils wrap around his legs and pull him down down down beneath their huge swaying leaves.(More melodramatic music). You search for him and search but he is no where to be found, until he appears, a short while later, on the other side as his beautiful bohemian Jewish self.He vows to never eat sunflower butter again!
OK, when can we expect to see your film produced…hee hee?!
Love me
Oh! I forgot to mention that your wee pumpkin is perfection and its wee crown of leaves are most definitely swoon-worthy. That little kissy tomato is quite the thing too. Strange how a tomato can take on a personality all its own :-).
Niki at 58 cherries so sorry about your dog.
your garden is quite magical with teeny little punkins and giant sunflowers
Nicki, I am so utterly sorry for your loss of Fox… sniffles…..
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 8/15/2012 1:43:22 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
Cori, that is so funny and so brilliant, I am still howling ;)))))
xoxoxx
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 8/17/2012 7:26:59 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
ahhh…..Miss V,
I also subscribe to Country Gardens!!! Oh the shed on the front cover is to die for🖤
Also love how your tomato looks like pouty lips…funny how things grow sometimes…and by the way, your garden as always looks amazing!
say Hello to all the boys for me🖤
~~xoxo
Dena
They should feature your garden in Country Gardens!
I absolutely ADORE the sunflower trained over the garden “door.”
Dearest Miss V,
That little squirt of a punkin is absolutely adorable. What a magical find. It could be a pumpkin carriage for the tiniest of elf queen.
And those kissy tomatoes. Weirdly Wonderful. Of course I would not expect anything less in your Magical Garden.
My dear Big Hatter could not get over the size of that sunflower and neither could I. Oh my goodness. It is Humongous. You could wear it as a hat, or that is probably what I would try to do with it. Hehehehe.
I am so happy I was able to visit and take a stroll in your Enchanted garden today. It was a treat.
TAke care and Have a wonderfully magical day.
Wishes and Whimsy
Wendy from Wonderland
You could start a new trend for weddings…..Basil Bouquets! I would carry that gorgeous specimen & the handmade card dangling off it too!!! I don’t know who your friends are but they should thank their lucky stars for you……
Please hurry and post the pizza dough……You could be on the front of a cooking magazine with that yummy looking pizza 🙂
Such amazing images and so cute too. Am a huge fan of people who love their gardens and share with others