It's July

 Warm enough for Malcom to be outside.

The harvest is going strong: squash and peas and beans, tomatoes soon.  

We've had some nice wild mulberries and raspberries and blackberries this year.  Now the boysenberries are getting ripe!

Of course, there is still mowing to be done in summer.  

It's hot and hilly but the groundskeeper is unafraid.

Some Pretty things in the Garden

 The garden is winding down.  Just a few tomatoes left to pick.  

There may be some spinach coming up.

Now is the time for pretty flowers to take center stage.

Garden Talk

 Last week we had an ugly storm that took out the cucumber vines.  Happily their season is just about over so the loss is a few rather than dozens.

The zinneas also took a hit.  Sorry there are no pictures.  It seems that my computer's idea of updating involves the removal of pictures, writing and probably some other things that I had planned to keep for a reason.

Couldn't find Roma tomatoes this year so am growing a similar variety called Sam Marzano.  They are starting to redden up.  If all goes according to plan there will be lots of sauce in our freezer.

This One doesn't have a Skeleton!

There are so many pretty things here at the homestead.  There are some not so pretty ones too.  Last week it was creepy bones left on the trial like a gruesome decoration.  This week's creepy find appeared in the garden and was boneless.

The head gardener is pleased that this grisly gift did not appear a month ago when the place was crowded with Roma tomatoes.  Anyway.  Sometime in the night, some violence was done to a raccoon.

All that was left behind was the head and back fur.  Deciding to join the macabre party, I posted it.

Now we got us a Scare Coon.

What other sinister ornaments have we in store?

It's a Bit Nippy for June

Things are green here at the homestead.  It's been a particularly rainy spring. 

The frog population has exploded.  They've  even wandered into the inner perimeter.

They'll have plenty to eat.  The mosquito population has exploded too.  A certain ranch hand, always popular with the blood suckers, has been mercilessly tapped.

There's been some night time temperatures in the forties.  Had to cover the tomato plants!

Wild violets don't mind a nip in the air.

Neither do Great Pyrenees.

Alas, neither do mosquitoes.

May Stuff

Some interesting things going on outside.

Baby dove

Apple blossoms

The Orioles are back.

Green grass is back.

These little finches are back.

The hummingbirds are back.

All is well.

Almost Springed

Cabin fever strikes like clockwork in early March.  I've begun to leaf through that stack of seed catalogues that have been coming in the mail since the first of the year.

Daylight begins at a more reasonable hour now.  Finally, we can enjoy our morning coffee with the sunrise.  Alas, in a few days we'll be back to drinking in the dark.

On Sunday, we spring the clocks forward.

That's a good thing!  Right?  Sure it is.

Soon I can enjoy that "saved daylight" after bedtime while I'm trying to sleep.

August Flora

Rose of Sharon.   Pretty.  Such a pretty little tree.

Meanwhile, this pretty flower has exciting possibilities.

Roasted sunflower seeds!  My hope is that by November, when baseball is all over, I can spit sunflower husks on my living room floor like the ball players do in the dugout.

Speaking of foodstuffs.  This is a fig tree.  (Well, the one on the left is a fig tree the other is oregano.) Anyway.  No figs yet but maybe  - if the tree survives under a blanket in the garage over the winter and bears fruit next year- we will have figs!

Let us return to the pretty.  This is what a poinsettia plant looks like in August!

Stuff that's Happened Lately

The mower sits as dormant as the grass.

The rain barrels have long been empty.  The squash plants are wilted.

  Finally.  A glimmer of moist hope.

Meanwhile, the humming birds are unconcerned for sugar water is not rain dependent.

There was an incident in the night a few weeks ago.  The power went out and the top of the electric power pole was on fire.  While guys in a firetruck watched, utility workers put the fire out and restored power.  Then a couple days ago, power men in multiple trucks appeared.  They cut off the charred part of the old pole and put a nice new pole next to it.   They added more lines for "communication".

Communication with what or with whom has not been explained.  What we need is a little irrigation to cultivate a suitable conspiracy theory.

Garden on Hiatus

There is something sad yet hopeful about the garden this time of year.

Snow, a clump of cat mint, the support for the boysenberry and fox footprints don't tell the whole story.

Underneath lies promise of things to come.

Seeds to sow in little containers in the house....

Before long the garden will take off again.

Some Like it in a Pot

While cutting the first thyme this season, I found a squatter in the pot.

A thyme for frogs, you might say.

The little frog hung around the pot for a couple days, then vanished.

Maybe he didn't like living on borrowed thyme.

Garden Dreams

At this time of year I begin to get just a little antsy.  Thoughts of growing things start, well, growing.  It's too early to do anything about it.  That won't stop us from looking back, though.

These are the last of the tomatoes from last year's harvest.  It was November, frost was becoming a regular occurrence.  Thus, I picked all the fruit off the plants.  Most of them ripened on a plate inside the house. 

The Praying Mantis remained outside.

Capped Off

The final mow of the year.  For a while at least, no more ducking branches, no more pine needle stab wounds, no more worrying about inadvertently chopping up toads and snakes.   The thistle eating finches have flown south.  Soon the grass will be gray and dormant.

I pulled into the garage, wondering if the area over the septic tank may need just one more trim before putting the snow shovel on the tractor.  I dismounted, brushed the pine needles from my butt and noticed the gaping hole where the gas cap ought to be.

Uh oh.

The cap has come off before, presumably the vibrations of the tractor unscrew it.  It has always remained with the tractor though, hanging from a black plastic tether.   This time:  no gas cap, no tether.

Let's see, how to find the missing gas cap.  Retrace the cutting path...but what if the cap, when free of its tether, was flung into a non cut area?  Chances of finding it then, seem awfully bleak.

For three days I looked for the gas cap.  No luck.  Though resigned to having to purchase a new one, I determined to look for it just one more day, then another.  My persistence was rewarded, for the gas cap appeared smack in the middle of a mowed area.  How I could have missed it, I'll never know.

 

 

I suspect my nemesis, the fisher, placed it there for reasons nefarious.