Pumpkins and Painting Oh My!

We had horrible weather nearly all summer. It was first week of June or so before I could put my herbs out and plant in the garden because we were still having frost overnight. Then out of nowhere ~ BOOM! ~ summer hit with a vengeance. No in-between. We had extreme heat and humidity. So bad that it was like how my friend described it, "like being in a dryer with wet clothes." Very apt description. I would go out very early in the morning to weed the garden and since it was so dry despite all the humidity... (How the hell can it be 85% humidity with 0% chance of rain?! Aish! ),.. I would go out just as it was starting to get dark and hopefully was cooler to water the garden. And since we have no hose hookup, it was several trips around the house with a big watering can.

Things are starting to finally really grow. It took two months for my carrots to look like carrot tops and not weeds! My onions are still looking like chives, though. The lettuce did fine, but... I think my pumpkin plants ate my spinach.

So bear with me for a moment here. I've never grown pumpkins before. I should have researched it like I do anything else. I never would have put them in the garden. I'd have put them closer to the rhubarb. We had to build, what I now affectionately call The Trump Wall to try to contain them! They're mutants!

Tiny garden with huge pumpkin plants. 

 The Trump Wall. But the plants will not be contained.

The flowers are closed due to rain, but look at the size next to my grand-daughters!

So I've been really wanting to get back into painting. I enjoyed it when I did it years ago. So I got some supplies. I'd lost many of them over the years. My kids borrowing brushes for projects, some lost in a move, etc... I still have more to get, but I'm really excited about getting to it again.

I had already bought a portable easel during the winter. Comes in a case and everything. Today some more supplies came in.

Yes, those are Bob Ross paints. I like them.

 This little bit was almost $200 with the shipping.

So now I need paint knives, more brushes, a big clear palette, more canvases, and a few more colours I forgot to get, and odourless turpenoid.

I want to play with them now, but I'm not ready supply-wise. So it's killing me to look at them and not touch them.