Yesterday turned out to be the last day (for the time being, at least) of our extreme heat. Even so, as early in the day as we could, Papa Pea and I took our bowls and stools out to the blueberry patch to gather ripe berries.
I've been watching this bush (one of them planted two years ago) because of the intense pink coloring of the berries as they wend their way toward ripeness. I can't remember ever seeing this particular coloration in any of our berries before. Of course, the tag we keep on all the plants indicating their variety is missing from this one. I could pull out my records and look it up, but I'm too tired to do so tonight.
I also knew there were pickling cucumbers to harvest so even though it was already getting hot, I filled a large bowl with a smidge over nine pounds of them.
Then to make sure I heated up the inside of the house, I came in and canned them.
That about took the stuffin's out of me so I tried to stay as cool as possible for the rest of the day.
In the late afternoon, the sky turned dark and started to look as though we might get some of the rain that had been in the forecast.
And rain it did along with winds so wild we weren't sure much would be standing when it quit. It was a bit scary.
This trellis with colored gourds growing up it was staked on the four corners, but when I took a tour of the garden this morning I could see it was definitely listing to the south at an odd angle.
Cosmos stems are always a bit delicate and brittle. These took a beating in the storm.
The two rows of sunflowers didn't fare well either.
Some fell on the pickling cucumbers next to the cattle panel on their left. Some are left standing, some are upright but leaning at a precarious angle.
The wind damage could have been a lot worse. But I did spend a bit of time this morning doing some earlier than usual garden clean-up. We appreciated the rain which measured a good two inches, but could have done without the accompanying heavy winds. But the storm did bring in a "cold" front and pushed out the heat. Our high temp today reached only into the 60s and the same is forecast for tomorrow. It will good sleeping tonight!
9 comments:
Beautifully coloured blues,and your picklers are all such an even size! So sad that the wind did such damage. We are expecting the change of weather to come through today. Yesterday was brutal. I have been doing a bit of watering on my fall greens patch and the watermelons, but hope we get some rain as well. Two inches would be nice!
Rosalea - Fingers crossed for you to get some good rainfall soon. But without the winds. (Oh, those watermelons should be wonderful!) :o)
The counter-fermented dill pickles I made from a friend's recipe (and cucumbers!) last year have been a winner for me. They turned out great and no canning (no heat!) necsesary. Your cucumbers are BEAUTIFUL.
Michelle - Yepper, everyone seems to have their favorite pickle recipe, and that's the way it should be. Our good neighbors make what they call "refrigerator pickles." The same recipe his mother always used to make. I'm planning on making my last batch of dills tomorrow . . . if there are enough out on the vines. The pickling cukes I posted the picture of were nice ones. But I'm not planning on growing this same variety next year because they absolutely REFUSED to climb on the trellis I had for them. They only wanted to sprawl out (for miles it seems) on the ground and have made the finding and harvesting so much more difficult. Still, nice looking though. Thanks for saying so. ;o)
Looks like it was a humdinger of a storm! It's always sad to see damage to the garden, but at least it was toward the end of the season. I know you're happy for cooler temps!
All of my blueberries go through that coloration as they ripen. I didn't know it could be any other way!
Leigh - The fact that the garden is at this stage was a good thing in my book. I know I would have been really upset if it had happened a month ago!
Gosh, in all our years of growing blueberries we've never seen these pink berries like this year. Ours normally go from pale green to tinged with the blue coloration on the bottom which then gradually covers the whole berry. Isn't this all interesting!
Wow! That is a lot of wind! Glad it wasn't worse. Mama Pea, do you two have bees? For some reason I thought you did. I posted a question today on my post about someone wanting to put their bees on our property. If if wasn't you, do you remember who has a blog that is a bee keeper?
Kristina - We have kept bees in the past but did not this year. Our efforts have been unsuccessful for the past few years as we've not been able to over-winter our hives. If you follow the latest in the beekeeping industry, you know the pesticides and other poisons that are so prevalent in our environment here in the U.S. are killing off not only honey bees but also other beneficial insects, birds and animals. Because of this, honey bees' resistance is low and mites are a real problem. I wouldn't want bees on my property that are being treated with chemicals that might further harm the environment. You have to feel sorry for beekeepers who are trying to raise bees and honey in areas free of chemicals sprayed on fields where the bees would forage. Those areas are less and less available so I can understand the man who approached you looking for a place to put his hives.
Mama Pea, thanks. We have a lot of bees with the abundance of Goldenrod, and we also have red clover out back. I guess we are blessed with that. Thanks for the input. We are going to tell the bee keeper no to his bee hives on our property.
Post a Comment