Anna Banana's Birthday

Yesterday Anna Banana had a birthday party at her family's cottage on a lake. Here is a picture of the their dock on the lake:

We made her a birthday cake, and my job was to mix the buttermilk, canola oil, and vanilla extract. This produced a very odd-looking liquid full of little blobs:

The finished cake was delicious, chocolate with raspberry filling, but it wasn't much more photogenic:

I have no photos of this, but Richard Bonomo, OK Cap, another girl from our church, and I went out in the canoe and swam in the middle of the lake. It was a lot of fun, and we even somehow managed to get back into the canoe! OK Cap, Jilly Moose, Luxuli, an old friend from Chicago, and I stayed over on Friday night and had a slumber party, but only Jilly Moose and I did karaoke. Luxuli said I should be a salsa singer. How great would that be?

Here is a better photo of the painting I ordered from South Africa. The artist is Peter Mutsiwa from Zimbabwe, and you too can order a painting from him or other talented artists by visiting http://www.africancartel.com/

Here are some more photos from the garden. For white flowers, there is a rose, a rosebud, and some balloon flowers:

And here is the phlox growing across the fence in the neighbor's yard:

Remember the baby Chinese eggplant? It is much larger now, and there is a small Italian eggplant as well:

And finally, a blue-flowering outdoor tradescantia. I had no idea these could grow outside in this climate! I thought they were only houseplants.

Famous Hat