Our new Swedish American grandchild was born into the family on the last day of September! We are proud and excited and anxious to see her soon.

Big sister Solbritt is already helping as a very serious babysitter! I’m sure mom and dad will appreciate all the extra help from Solbritt in taking care of Lilian Rae. We have our plane tickets and will be on our way to visit in just a couple of weeks. My job will be to push the double stroller up the steep hills- of which there are plenty in Stockholm.

Here Grandpa is practicing the baby carry technique with Delphi as the not so willing participant. She would rather run and bite on toes.

Delphi is coming up on 3 months and is growing every day. In fact, her legs are growing so fast she has a problem coordinating all four legs to go the right direction at the right time. But that’s just part of what makes a puppy so fun.

Work this week included the completion of the new arbor over the east side property line fence. The wire fence runs high enough to prevent the local herd of deer from entering the garden area.

I was thinking of grape vines for the east arbor but Steffen and Julia are suggesting it would be a great sunny location for hops to grow. And think how good that beer will taste with hops fresh from the garden.

I’m fine with having someone else do the brewing. The best part for me is just enjoying the taste of local beer while I enjoy the quiet of our patio. Cynthia caught me on camera taking a break and she captured some good photos of our flowers as well!

The garden on the first of October. No frost in September, how nice is that.

An especially warm and sunny September has contributed to an abundant tomato crop this year.

Cynthia has already canned three batches of tomatoes and the vines are still loaded and turning ripe every day.

Cynthia and I joined Julia and Steffen today for a couple of hours of weeding and transplanting at our plot in the community garden. We took over the plot too late in the summer to do any planting so it has been weed management and advance preparation for next year’s garden. Some established asparagus was spreading through the middle of the plot so we worked at transplanting it to an asparagus only plot. The roots are so thick and run so deep that I broke a steel shovel blade in my attempt to move the plants!

Yet another nice photo by Cynthia!