Storm and Morning Garden Walk

We had a storm last night that 'bout knocked our socks off. Except we had just gotten into bed and our socks were already off.

Lightning, thunder, high winds and hard rain which totaled out at three-quarters of an inch according to our rain gauge this morning. I'm not surprised the storm happened as our temperatures yesterday afternoon and early evening were very strange.

In our immediate area the temperature was rapidly falling with it going down to 47 degrees at the official reporting spot in our nearby town. Thirty miles north of us they had 89 degrees at the same time. When our daughter arrived at her home (an hour from us) around 9 p.m., she called to report that her temp was in the mid-80s.

Grid power went off sometime in the night. We weren't on solar power because we've had several days of gray, overcast weather during which our batteries lost more power than they gained.

But this morning calm has returned and the sun is shining. It also feels like stepping into a sauna when you walk outside. I have hopes that will pass as the day goes on.

Above are two big healthy raspberry canes that got blown down last night. How they escaped the trellising holding them upright is a mystery.

We're going to have a bumper crop of our domestic blueberries this year.

This is a raised bed that I had cherry tomatoes in last year. This spring we tilled the whole bed and planted a cover crop of buckwheat . . . which didn't germinate. But lots of weeds did. This week when I went out to weed the bed, I found interspersed with the weeds approximately 5,074 little volunteer cherry tomato plants. I rid the bed of weeds, judiciously transplanted eleven of the little tomato plants and figured since they had survived all they did, they deserved a chance to do their thing.

Although we aren't gardening this year (ahem) and vowed to each other not to start anything new in the garden (ahem) someone who shall remain nameless (he is sometimes referred to on this blog as Papa Pea) sheepishly presented me with some Jerusalem Artichoke tubers this spring that he had "forgotten" he'd ordered and which needed to be planted. They seem to be thriving in this raised bed which we hope will contain them and keep them from spreading all over the acreage.

Last but not least, I found the first strawberry with color on it during my morning stroll through the strawberry patch. If we get some sunshine, it looks as though the strawberry harvest will begin right on schedule this year. July 4th is the date we usually get our first bowlful.