Chilli’s gone wild (well, I guess they’ve grown quite a bit)…

I’m sure the only thing on your minds the past few days has been the very real possibility that the chilli plants had died either through negligent watering by their owner, or alternatively a break and enter by our racoon friends. Well, I’m pleased to advise that neither situation has arisen, and in fact record growth has occurred over the past couple of weeks, but with the blog-revamp there was no time to provide updates. I just hope you’ve all been able to hang in there, as you’ve patiently waited on a new post.

As you can see from the photo our babies have really stepped things up. We now have something that actually looks like a legitimate plant on our hands. The leaves are fuller and greener than ever and the stems have become somewhat more trunk-like (well kind of).

The only question that really remains is “when will we see peppers”. Well, this is literally the only question on the minds of my kids. They”re now fully checked out on caring about the plants steady growth and now just want results. There’s no more “oh daddy, look, another leaf has appeared”, but rather an increase in “daddy, where are the peppers…there’s still no peppers!”. I honestly think at this juncture that they’ve lost all belief that these are actually chilli pepper plants. For real.

So as each day passes I eagerly await news of a pepper making an appearance. Who knows how long that might be, but heres to hoping it’s sooner rather than later, for our kids sakes more than anyones!

As an aside from all the chilli pepper growth talk (because I’m sure you wait with bated breath), all is also well with our in-house racoon family. We’ve fortunately been able to find time to get together for socially distanced gatherings a few times a week. During these get-togethers we like to enjoy a cocktail or two (the kids are all about the Negroni’s right now), but the coons aren’t big drinkers; they prefer a quick snack (typically on our outdoor plants) and to entrain us with their play-fighting routine on the back deck. We’re okay with this setup; the kids really love the banter…

…as an extension of our get-togethers (but maybe a little too close for comfort), my wife did also have a moment of panic (or maybe excitement – no, definitely panic) a few days ago when she heard rustling in our chimney. I’ve literally never seen someone with a torn ACL move so quickly as she leapt from her chair and hobbled through to the kitchen to grab my attention…”we have racoon babies back in our chimney she exclaimed!”…”for the second time!” – Yep, you heard correctly, we experienced a family of racoons living in our chimney a few years back; likely around the time our love-hate relationship really took off with them.

Anyway, given our past experience this was not amounting to being a particularly positive situation, until luckily, through a little investigation work, and by seeing our kids run past the window five or six times during this period of analysis, we fortunately concluded that the noise was in fact coming from our kids completing their “cross-country course” (circuits of our house), passing over the gravel that sits outside the chimney. What a relief that was!

Oh boy are we ever living the dream…something I’m sure you’re all thinking…umm…

…well, until our next update…