SURPRISE!! It's August!

So, to finish off this totally crap-tastic summer we've been having, Mother Nature decided that this week it should be 70.  LOOKOUT!  Skip the sunscreen and grab your vitamin D supplements cause it just ain't happenin' here!  Believe you me, no one (or thing) was as surprised to hear that it was August as my sad little garden.  Poor garden thought it was May, and really it was doing really good for May... but alas it's August... and I have yet to harvest a darn thing from the ground!  That being said, I almost have a snap pea, I almost have some lettuce, my apples are sure to be juicy from all this rain, and oh baby, Mama's got some Hops!  Now, with a little more sun and perhaps some *gasp* heat I may be able to secure a tomato or two... but that may be pushing it.  

In other news, I've been learning some interesting information about the life cycle of Lady bugs (yawn).  I won't bore you with the details but to summarize, my hops were troubled with aphids earlier in the year and now my hops are covered in these:  

Which are what the inter-googles tell me are juvenile and larval Lady Bugs.  BlaZOW! Take that you aphid slime!