I meant to add this photo of my “Zen Garden” earlier. I picked up the pebbles on the walks with Bode on the trail by the brownfield meadows meaning to use them for the bamboo shoot I have in water. I left them on the front walk to let the rain wash away the mud, and found that I liked them there. Don’t take any watering at all, just need to re-arrange them now and again.
An observant person may well ask how I got igneous rocks (quartz and pink granite) in an area that is famous for sedimentary deposits. They are gifts from the river and glaciers. I have a sharp edged piece of pink granite I picked up in Ontario last summer which matches the rounded pink granite pebbles I found along the river bank. I find river stones when digging in the yard, as well as sandy patches.
Last week I harvested three nice garlic bulbs planted as cloves late last summer. Just chanced to put them in a sandy spot under the spruce tree and they really thrived, stalks were almost 3 feet tall. The Roma tomatoes near them produced two huge fruits, the best tomatoes so far. The alpine strawberries are getting bigger fruit and very tasty although only a few berries a day. The red raspberries are almost done, but their second run on the new canes have blossoms and green berries. Yesterday I picked enough green beans from the flower bed out front to eat a good sized portion for dinner and have some leftovers for lunch today. I got peaches, apricots, onions, and eggplant at the farmer’s market on Saturday. Hadn’t had fresh apricots for a number of years. I only had one onion from the sets I planted, despite the garlic success. One of the reasons to garden is to appreciate how even if you do everything “by the book” success is not guaranteed. More like playing solitaire where you will lose a good deal of the time, as opposed to chess, checkers, or go, where you have a 50:50 chance of winning unless you make mistakes and an edge if you go first. Helps to appreciate the efforts of people who produce our food.
It has been a strange summer. The lightning bugs are still coming out at night, as they have been since the middle of June. The cicadas have been buzzing in the trees since a month ago, that dry summer rattle sound.
It was 59 deg. F this morning when I went out. With the hot muggy weather we had earlier I was dreading what August might bring, but so far the weather has been lovely. Warm but with a good breeze and clear blue skies with great fluffy cumulus clouds. It is a pretty much what I expected in June.
