How Does Our Garden Grow?

Things are happening in the garden and I’m not talking about the weeds growing, although that is happening too.  The bean flowers are turning into beans.  They look bigger in these pictures than they are.  Even so, I think we will be eating beans very soon.

The cherry tomatoes are looking a little less green, but not yet turning red.

In the Midwestern US, the saying is that corn should be as high as an elephant’s eye by the Fourth of July.  The Fourth of July has past and the corn isn’t as high as an elephant’s anything, but a few of the stalks are as high as my knees.

Can you see an onion in front of the corn and little lettuce behind it?

Trying to practice Japanese

I’m always trying to find situations where I can say something in Japanese, and hopefully be understood, simple as it may be. So far no one seems to understand me and I’m not able to understand much of anything either.

One day when I was at the garden clawing weeds by myself, an older man stopped to look at our plants.  I said konnichiwa ii tenki desu (hello, nice weather today) and he said hai (yes). I think he said something like kore wa nan desu ka (what is that) and pointed to the sunflower plant that has not yet sprouted a flower.  I said hana (flower).  Then he started rattling off a bunch of other things, like he thought I knew what he was saying and started chopping some weeds with his hoe! I said arigato gozaimasu (thank you) several times.  He bowed a couple of times and left in his car.

Yesterday when I was walking home from the garden, I saw a man walking a fluffy little white poodle.  As he got near me, I said konnichiwa kawaii inu desu.  He pulled his dog in closer and walked by me. I thought that was strange, most people will say hello.  Then I got to thinking… Did I say his dog was cute (kawaii) or scary (kowai)?