Early summer garden update

12 tomatoes, 3 okra, 13 peppers, 2 watermelon, 3 pumpkins, 32 runner beans, 2 artichokes, 1 eggplant, 1 squash, 1 zucchini, 1 acorn squash, 1 butternut squash, 1 cantaloupe, 6 cucumbers, 18 marigolds, 18 nasturtiums, 2 fennel, 1 cilantro, 2 parsley, 1 chervil, and 6 basil...

I'm back with a cool literary meme

You know you've been away from the blog too long when your dad says, "I think something's wrong with your blog; it isn't showing any posts since mid-May."

I have lots of interesting things about which to blog, including

• Papafest
• motherhood & parenthood
• our trip to Texas last month

But for now, I'll kick off my return with this interesting meme, which I found on a stroll through the 32-akre wood. It's cool, and I'm looking forward to hearing from everyone out there.

The rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

"In the spring there were cold rains, that turned the street into canals and bogs; the mud would be so deep that wagons would sink up to the hubs, so that half a dozen horses could not move them. Then, of course, it was impossible for anyone to get to work with dry feet; and this was bad for men that were poorly clad and shod, and still worse for women and children. Later came midsummer, with the stifling heat, with the dingy killing beds of Durham's became a very purgatory; one time, in a single day, three men fell dead from sunstroke."

That's page 123 of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. To tell the truth, there were actually 2 books closer to hand, but neither Around the World with Phineas Frog nor My First Book of Sushi had 123 pages.

And if you're reading this, you're tagged.