Happy July 1st, Everyone!

Once again it's time for me to post a first-of-the-month photo of my raised beds to show the garden's growth as compared to previous months.  Once again this comparison post will be delayed because today we're having a steady rainfall interspersed with periods of heavy fog.  Getting a good picture isn't going to happen today.

Currently it's raining and blowing so hard that I'm not going to venture out on the deck to check our rain gauge, but peering at it through a window, I'm guessing it has a bit over 1-1/2" which has fallen since the rain started early this morning.  The outside temp is at 63 degrees so it's feeling a little cool and damp . . . even inside, but of course that's what they made zip-up sweatshirts for.

In lieu of my comparison garden post, I'll share something else with you.

Have you seen this little book?  The small print under the title is:  511 suggestions, observations, and reminders on how to live a happy and rewarding life.  Some good stuff in here, folks.  The mostly one sentence notations are numbered 1 through 511, and nearly all of them are thought provoking. 

The one I'm currently thinking about is number 107:

Smile a lot.

It costs nothing and is beyond price.

I don't know a single person who doesn't look better when they smile.  Not one.  Often times when I'm smiling about something, my husband says, "You're so pretty when you smile."  (He may or may not have had his glasses on at these times.)

As a young adult attending a family funeral, my mom re-introduced me to two elderly, distant relatives I rarely saw.  One of the ladies said, "Of course I remember you, you've always had that lovely smile."

Hunh.  And here I'd always thought my teeth were too big and stuck out when I smiled.  I'm thinking this person didn't see my teeth but perhaps the effect a smile had on my whole personality.  (Or she may not have had her glasses on either.)

I was at our recycling center a year or so ago when I spotted a man taking items out of his truck.  The lettering on his truck identified him as a very gifted photographer in our area whose work I had admired, but whom I'd never seen in person.

He had the most awful scowl on his face and gave off the sense of being very unhappy.  Maybe he was.  Or maybe he simply didn't realize the unpleasant vibes his facial expression was giving off.  How drastically different he would have looked if he had been smiling.  And how different my impression of him would have been if he'd had a smile on his face!

Even when we're feeling like the last thing we want to do is smile, doing so can literally change our emotions from down-in-the-dumps to something that feels so much better.

I know when I'm thinking (ouch), I tend to frown without even realizing I'm doing so.  I need to have number 107 from Life's Little Instruction Book imprinted on my brain and remember that everyone does look better when they smile.  Plus, you just might have a beneficial effect on others around you!

Strawberry Fields Forever . . .

Good golly, Miss Molly, I'm glad I don't have strawberry fields, but rather just a strawberry patch.  If it weren't for my strawberry-loving husband, I'm not sure how readily I would agree to maintaining our strawberries.  Of all the berries one can grow in their home garden, I find strawberries to be the most labor intensive.

But enough grumping and grousing.

Our strawberries are coming in earlier than usual this year and also are exhibiting different characteristics this season.  We've had only our second harvest of the year so far, and things (and my thoughts) could change by the end of the season.

We woke to bright sunshine this morning.  I made my latte and settled in front of my computer as I usually do.  A half hour or so later, I got up to rinse out my empty mug and was shocked to see it looking as dark outside as at 9:30 at night.  Whoa!  I expected we had a chance of rain later today, but this looked more like Armageddon!

Knowing there were ripe strawberries out there, I grabbed two bowls and ran outside hoping I could get at least two of the varieties picked before the rain started.  Soon Papa Pea came out with another bowl, and I directed him to the outside row of Earliglow berries.

Luck was with us and we finished the three rows just as the first big plops of rain began falling.

Although for my records I'm keeping the yields from the three varieties separate, we got a total of just under six pounds this morning.  Not too shabby.

BUT.  Normally in the first couple weeks of the berry harvest, the fruits are very large in size then progressively get a bit smaller as the season goes on until the very last harvests are often only small hardly-worth-picking nubs.

I'm not happy to see these first berries not being large.

Granted, we have been lacking moisture this year and sad to say, we still don't have a handy-dandy, efficient irrigation system in place.  Our current system is me standing with a hose, and I must admit that although I've been diligent about watering the rest of the garden, the strawberry plants have been looking so large and lush that I haven't taken the time to water the good-sized patch more than once.  We could have set up our small sprinkler which automatically rotates over a given area, but have been negligent in doing so.  (Perhaps not the brightest move.)

Are the berries the plants are now producing smaller because of lack of water?  A good guess would be yes.  (Picture Mama Pea mentally kicking herself in the tush as she types this.)

I just tip-toed across the rain soaked deck to check out the rain gauge.  Our dark and ominous storm is over and it gave us a good 1/2" of rain which the garden will be loving.  Especially the strawberry plants.

The strawberry rows after the rain.

More rain is forecast for the rest of the day.  Flash flood warnings and damaging hail (not good) have been issued for other parts of our county.  Hopefully, we'll just get more of the nourishing rain.  We can use it.

Plus, this day should give me time indoors.  What will I be doing?  Trying to create a balance.  A little knitting on the couch, some machine quilting in my quilt room and cleaning out and defrosting freezers in preparation of the coming garden harvests.  It will be a good day.

Strawberries and a Present Via Snail Mail

I picked our first real harvest of strawberries today.  Got close to three pounds.  Enough for strawberry shakes for afternoon break, a dish of sliced berries with vanilla ice cream (Papa Pea) and a bowl sliced with cream (me) for dessert tonight.  There are still plenty for a   
Strawberry Cream Pie for tomorrow and some to share with Chicken Mama.

I also did another clean up of weeds in the strawberry patch.  I've never seen so many large, healthy, robust dandelion plants growing right smack dab in the middle of so many of the strawberry plants.  Arrrgh, how aggravating!  There's no way I can dig them out without destroying the strawberry plant.  Right in the middle of the plant they are!  Why do they have to grow right there?

* * * * * * * *

Last week, a dear, kind, thoughtful friend in New York state said she was making a trip to her favorite yarn store and would like to pick out and send me a skein of yarn for socks I could make for myself.  She inquired as to what color I would choose and, of course, I said orange.  (With any color of green as a close second, but I do have a weird propensity for the color orange.)

This is what arrived in the mail today.  Is that coloration gorgeous or what?!  I can hardly wait to get it on the needles and see how it works up.  Thanks so much, Linda, for being such a sweet, generous Internet friend!

Shorter Days Are Coming

Can you believe it?  Seems as though summer has barely started and already we've reached the longest day of the year.  That means it's all downhill from here, folks!  

So who thinks this turning point in our hours of daylight comes way too early in the summer season?  (Hand raised high here and waving.)  Shouldn't the longest day of the year occur in . . . oh, perhaps August?  Okay, maybe even July would be more appropriate than June, for heaven's sake.  Personally, I've always thought of mid-July as being the middle of the summer season.

I truly don't mind whatever time it gets dark at night (well, okay, darkness shortly after 4:30 p.m. in December can really cut into your day), but I do love the early morning hours of light and brightness.  It definitely helps me get up and going when the light streaming in our bedroom window at an early hour seems so pristinely fresh and the only sounds of the beautiful new day are those coming from awakening birds and the occasional squirrel or chipmunk scrabbling up the pole to the sunflower seed feeder.  

Isn't it easier to pull yourself out of bed without the shocking glare of an electric light being turned on?

I won't get all Debbie Downer about our shortening days.  After all, it will be a couple/few months before any noticeable difference will really be detected.  Still plenty of time to thoroughly enjoy this season currently upon us.  Life is good and each different period of the year holds its own attraction.

The important thing is to enjoy and appreciate the here and now.  Try not to live in the future.  Or as the saying goes:  Don't put off your happy life.

The rest of the daylight days of 2018 will be good days, even if they are going to be a smidge shorter from here on out.

P.S.  The flower pictures aren't of the garden this year yet.  I'm just dreaming of things to come.  (Oops, is that "living in the future?!") 

Little Quackers

Our daughter snapped a couple of good pictures of the recent hatch of ducklings.

Here it looks as though the family just came out of the pond.  Mama Duck is preening herself . . .

. . . and the ducklings are settling down on a patch of warm soil in the sunlight for a rest period.

Whenever possible, having animals (fur or fowl) raise their young in the natural way is a joy to see.

Garden Walk Between Storms

A healthy 1" of rain was in the rain gauge this morning as a result of the beautiful, soaking rain we got over night.  Today started out dark and foggy, then that lifted and the sun came out for a couple of hours.

Now in early afternoon, the skies are graying up again and we're expecting another thunder storm to pass through.  Oops, sounds like I got outside to snap these pictures just in time as I can hear the rain drops starting.

I don't know why chives aren't a part of every flower garden or border as they are one of the first green and growing plants each spring and what can beat the gorgeous blossom display they put on?

My only tomatoes this year are three cherry tomato plants I started inside.  Papa Pea helped me put the wire cages around them one day this past week so they can start going gangbusters any time now.  We even have yellow blossoms on one plant so far.

This is a 40' row of potatoes I hilled for the first time last week.  After being completely covered, the vines are already poking through again.  This is a new plot we've been working up and I can't tell you how many tons of rocks we've hauled out of here.  At least I think we've gotten all the big ones now.  Maybe.

And this is a 20' row of taters that were planted in the field garden a couple of days after the 40' row.  They, for some reason, have been very slow to germinate and just now are ready to be hilled up.

I think a planting of multi-colored lettuces is just about as attractive as blooming flowers.  (Tastes a lot better, too.)

The sugar snap peas are juuust about big enough to start climbing on their experimental hoop trellis.

Chicken Mama grew some scarlet runner beans last year that bloomed wildly all summer long.  She dried and saved some of the seeds and gave them to me at Christmas time so I'd have them to plant in my garden this year.  They're growing around my tepee trellis and I'm sure are going to be spectacular.  I have carrots planted on either end of this bed but I just thinned them and at the moment they're invisible to the camera's eye!

The cauliflower (closest to camera) and broccoli (two beds in background) are lush and healthy.  I've had to stake up some of the broccoli plants that wanted to topple over and lie down in their bed.

My bed of Blanak garlic had very poor germination this spring so I filled in with some parsley and tall marigolds.

The Siberian garlic in another bed has come on in good shape.  It's about three feet tall already. 

In an effort to have an adequate amount of shell peas fresh frozen this winter, I put in one-third more of them this year.  I've planted them on either side of these three trellises and they're looking good . . . but not very tall yet.

Lastly, I tried to strike up a conversation with the geese and asked if they had anything they wanted to add to this post.  Apparently, I interrupted their late lunch as they were intent on filling their bellies before the next storm hit.