Summer Was Short This Year

We're back to cool, sunless weather again after our few sunny, hot days. (I KNEW we shouldn't have complained about the heat!)

I planted my beans like the day before the hot weather started (how smart am I?) and they had time to sprout and make good growth. But for the last week they've had no sunshine and cool temps. If you can read the ruler in the picture, you can see they're not even 4" tall yet. But they did germinate rather than rotting in the ground, so I'm betting all will be well as soon as we get out of this (once again) current, gray, cool period.

I'm wondering if it's lack of sunshine that's affecting my nasturtiums, too. Whadda ya think? I've got 4 boxes like this one and 4 hanging baskets and they all look the same. Not the healthiest color and some downright yellow leaves. I'm confident it's not from over-watering so maybe they, too, will look better with the return of some sunny days. (Heck, I even know some people in this very house who would look better with more of a sun tan on their skin.)

I think (cross my fingers, toes and nose) we're going to have a really good strawberry harvest. I just told a friend this morning that we didn't have anything close to a ripe berry yet. Then I went out to the patch expecting to see only berries like the ones pictured above.

But I found two that looked like this one (whahoo!) and a TOTALLY ripe one that I gave to my strawberry lovin' husband . . . which he immediately gobbled up.

While doing some weeding in the blueberries I took a careful look and have to report we don't have a lot of blossoms on the bushes. Last year was a really, really good harvest so I'm thinking it's maybe gonna be an "off" year for them this year. That's okay. Everybody/thing needs a rest now and then.

The raspberries, on the other hand, seem to be ready to burst forth with a great crop. Looks as if we may be relying less on blueberries and more on raspberries and strawberries for jam and smoothies this year. Nothing wrong with going with the flow and trying to live with what Mother Nature provides. All is well. Well . . . it would be if we could conjure up a bit of sunshine soon. A little warmer weather (high of 62 today) would be kinda nice also.