My Secret Garden - Motivating or Discouraging?

My garden is a mess!  I haven't done anything with it in months.  No watering or weeding or trimming or picking - nothing.  I ended up with a few spare minutes the other day and thought to myself, "I really need to pull up some of the weeds and dying plants before winter sets in."  So I went out and started working and lo and behold found this:

That's right, fully grown, ripe watermelon that I didn't even know were there.  By the way, I didn't even plant watermelon this year - these are volunteers!

I also found these raspberries which was a surprise since it didn't appear my 1 year old raspberry bush was producing berries, but I guess it was.

And of course I have a healthy bush of serrano peppers - again, I didn't even plant serrano peppers this year. They just came on their own.

We had many wonderful cantaloupe this summer, but I thought all the vines were dead and that they had stopped producing - I guess I was wrong!

I also had a wonderful beet crop this summer, and left some of the smaller beets in the ground when I picked the rest to can them - looks like they grew up :)

I also pulled up my 6 sunflower plants at the end of summer - they were attracting too many bees!  I guess they weren't ready to go yet (the bees or the sunflowers).

All in all it was a wonderful surprise harvest.  I still have more beets and carrots and tomatoes and raspberries yet to pick.  I also picked lots and lots of tomatoes this day, but they didn't make the pictures.

We have obviously had some magnificent weather this fall - sunny and 80 degrees most every day.  A rain shower would come through once every couple weeks to keep things wet.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I don't think my garden did half as well when I was actually tending it.  Next year I think I'll just toss some seeds on the dirt and come back in a couple months to see what grew.  Neglect - the key to a bountiful harvest.

Parsley bush is thriving

Cherry tomatoes on the vine

My weeded garden

Dear Grandma . . .

A picture's worth a thousand words - and the tears of joy you will shed when you see this picture!

Love,
Heidi

Your amazing and adorable grandchildren

P.S.  You're welcome :)

P.S.2  I have many more to share :)  :)

P.S.3  Click on the picture to bring up the full size image - then copy and save to your computer - well, if you want a copy that is :)  :)  :)

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Ryder's having a stellar year playing football.  It's amazing how much he is learning.  He started out the season as the new kid on the team, so they just used him to fill in on both offense and defense, but he has shown great improvement and is now a starting running back.  I just love this picture.  When Ryder first saw it his comment was, "Mom, Chase (red #77) is holding."  Love that he understands the game.

Here he is again.

He can also block bigger kids.

And recover fumbles.

And of course do the fun stuff like have everyone cheer for you as you burst through a banner! (Yes, they do have their own Pirate Cheer Squad!)

Life on the football field is good!