city cabin: The Dog Days

It's been a busy summer travel season at Citycabin. That's the excuse we're offering for few home improvements and infrequent updates. During packing the most senior cat tried a classic suitcase trick but little did he know that Davey Crockett hats are not in style in Caliswedornia.

Despite a cool, dry spring the latest gardening projects were going according to plan.

Excellent pond plant choices this year have made for clear water and happy fish...

...so happy that our 4 pioneering goldfish are now 4 goldfish and 3+ baby goldfish. If you're patient and the light is just right, you might catch a glimpse of one of the small, gray offspring. Adults eat their young so professionals separate the two groups after hatching. At citycabin it's all about natural selection and we're rooting for the young to be good at hiding until they're too big to be eaten. Half-Incher is a fine young man we have high hopes for him in the future.

This isn't him. He's too good to be caught in a photograph. This is his enemy. Or mom or dad.

And the inaugural vegetable gardens offered a nice crop of lettuce, a fair amount of green beans, pretty-but-stomach-burning inedible radishes, a few cucumbers, micro carrots, and zero-yielding broccoli and strawberries. Just wait until next year!

From heirloom to cherry we have 8 different varieties of tomato plants in various stages of development. They're a bit further along than this June photo

Actually more like this:

but an early frost or squirrel attack might prove catastrophic.

In summation the summer of 2009 will be remembered most for plants, ponds and critters not from Citycabin proper but other places.

Keep 'er between the lines