KNOW WHAT I LOVE?

I love having a cute little watermelon in my fridge, personally autographed by the farmer who grew it.

I love having faces to match the names of the farmers and ranchers who raise my food.

I love having tomatoes that aren't all the exact same size, shape and color -- tomatoes which not only taste like summer, but smell like it too!

I love it that, for once, the deer have allowed my Purple Hyacinth Bean vine to bloom abundantly in several different locations.

I love it that, after that vine blooms, it gets big shiny purple bean-like pods all over it. If you leave them there to shrivel and dry, you can then pop the pods open and out will tumble the cutest little seeds which look like Oreo cookies! Stick a baggie-full in the veggie drawer of your fridge, and you'll have seeds aplenty for you and everyone you know next year.

I love it that all that rain we got in the last few weeks took plants that were on their way to being summer-seared and gave them new life!

I love it when I stumble upon a color-mad juxtaposition such as this one -- one which occurred entirely on it's own, with no help from me. The butterfly weed keeps reseeding itself, in new locations each year, all from one tiny plant that I put in several years back. The funky fuchsia gomphrena with the fireworks-yellow tips is a new, plump, long-stemmed variety which is leaning down from the beds above.

Most of all, I love, love, love it that my American Beautyberry, which didn't get any berries at all last year, is now covered in bright fuchsia clumps of them, and that those berries will stay on into winter, even after the leaves drop off.