coolpix5000

The honey bees and bumblebees are at their peak right. Happy, happy. Above is an ecstatic honey bee on a Shasta daisy, which are great homestead perennials. This clump actually came in with a scattered cut flower mix several years ago...

Volunteer Sweet Pea (love 'em) and an immature garden spider...
The cloud activity has been notable...Day Lily Show Soon To Come...Day lily close up.....
The Santa Rosa Plum...Now completely done, but what a feast it was! The plums are truly coming on. What a banner year for stone fruit. A bountiful (perfect spring) year like this, happens only a couple times every decade...More Santa Rosa Plums...These are later, way meatier, and less juicy and tart. They are my favorite. This tree is young, and appears to have a more upright habit than my other SR plum, perhaps it is an improved version...
This Yellow Plum from Stark Brothers is the most amazing little tree! It is so catalog perfect in appearance, and the flavor is wonderful. They are mild, meaty and not acidic at all. Plus, their yellow color makes them less inviting to the birds. It is obviously early to bear too, as this tree has only been in the ground 2 winters...
Amazing California Poppies....Late sown poppies...rare white and red varieties...
Snoopy...
Pepper...
Grapes...Pinot Noir...
Coolpix5000 trial run...
Am I smarter than the camera? It sure helps if you read the book! I have been playing around with a new camera and the download had me stumped for a while...It is loaded with options but relatively easy to operate. It provides awesome close ups, and great design in terms of handling - EZ grip.

What a great time of year! The weather has been foggy and pretty much on the cool side for about a week. Makes for less pressure on the watering chores and lovely mornings after sweet cool nights. More later... Jj

Untitled July Post

Wildflower...
Amazing Cloud Action...

Unknown Flowering Ornamental Shade Tree...From the Salmon Creek School Plant Fair ...I Picked this up several years ago...I do not know its name but it is a beautiful and hardy ornamental. The blossoms reminds me of snapdragons.....Does it have the word "monkey" in it's name? Maybe...you tell me...
Satsuma Plum...I have thinned and thinned, and this plum tree is still absolutely laden with fruit. They are already cracking open from the rain. So far, the Greengage, and Santa Rosa have shown no signs of splitting. We are eating lots of plums. More pics to come...
Poppy...
Wild, BlackCap Raspberry...
Apples...
Glads...
Lavender Soon Over...In the afternoon light....
Day Lily Show: Part 2....
I am loving the Sunflowers....and below, rare RED California Poppy, preparing to pop.
What can be said? The days are long and time is short. The weather has been cool and somewhat cloudy since our big rain on Wednesday. The sun tried to shine today but it was barely warm enough for shorts. I continue to water even though the ground is moist all over. The rain was sweet, but even though it rained hard enough to runoff, the ground is moistened only about 3"-4" down. Still, many of the cracks in the earth did swell some, and the garden feels fresh and moist. I am using these overcast days to deep water, and mulch. I am amazed at the beauty of the last week. Many flowers are coming out, the fruit is luscious and plentiful, and with the rain, everything is moist and inviting. We made a fantastic mulberry crisp today. It is one of my favorite quick, and EZ desserts, for when there is a bounty of fruit that needs to be consumed.

FRESH FRUIT CRISP:
Preheat the oven to about 350*. Line the bottom of your pan with fresh whole berries, thinly sliced apples, sliced pears, peaches or plums, or combination that you have in abundance, or seems appealing to you. Generously dot the fruit with margerine or butter (for low fat, simply omit) and top with 2-4 TBS sugar OR honey. (If using pears or apples, I always add cinnamon) In a separate bowl, combine equal amounts of margerine/butter OR oil, and sweetener, such as brown or white sugar, maple syrup or honey. Add to this, equal amounts of oats, flour, and finely chopped walnuts. This mixture should be crumbly, not wet. (APPRX> 1/2 cup oil, and1/2 cup sweetener, to about a 1 cup each, oats, flour, and nuts...) Bake your crisp until it is bubbly on the bottom, and a crispy golden brown on top. Cool. Enjoy! (Fresh fruit crisp is especially good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or dollop of Brown Cow (Cream on Top) yogurt!)
Have a bloomin' good weekend!

Jj

MidJuly

Bear Butte...Notice how dry and brown the hills are.
Day Lily Flower Show...I love Day Lilies and Tiger Lilies. They are very bright and cheery.
The squash are taking off in all directions...Baby Blue Hubbard...Do you see the two little sow bug buddies out for a stroll??Summer Squash...
I planted this century plant, rescued from a garage sale, this winter. Poor thing, it had been miserably trapped in (actually literally busting out of!) a two gallon pot for at least a year after its rescue due to its dire conditions! I essentially just come by, and give it a kick every now and then. And look! it is rewarding me with a baby! These succulents are very hardy and grow quite well around here. When they bloom they send up a massive top heavy blossom cluster, about 20 feet into the air. Impressive! Above, a close up of the unique and interesting patterns on the leaf of the century plant. It is an imprint of the neighboring leaf.They are tightly curled together and must unfurl themselves from the bunch. In the process there is some kind of compression image formed. Very interesting. The squiggles fade some as the leaf matures until the oldest leaves have little sign of it.
Summer opens like a blossom. Just realized i downloaded this last batch of images in size large- sorry. I have lots more AWESOME images to share. I will stop for now, and post anew later, with the remaining pics a bit smaller. Peace.

P.S. We had an amazing (unseasonal) rain last night! There was about an inch in the bottom of my highly unscientific 2"X 6" PomTea drinking glass- rain gauge. I even had to ditch the road! It could really spell trouble for the grapes and stone fruits though, and I'm sorry if I sound unappreciative. The nectarines are susceptible to splitting, and then mold or insects, and the grapes can also split, or fall victim to the dreaded powdery mildew.!

9 days a week

Butterfly Bush....Sort of a water hog, and it has such a brief blooming period I am not certain I am 100% sold on this ornamental. The hummingbirds and bees adore this bush though...Ours is planted a bit too near the deck so I have to prune it back every fall after it is done blooming. Butterfly bush can tolerate a lot of pruning. Unpruned they can grow to well over 15ft.
What? Verbena? Teeny little seeds I got from Marian many years ago. They freely reseed, and have established themselves all over the yard. I dig them up like weeds. They are not much unlike the feverfew, lemon balm, or catnip which all border on invasive but at least these are somewhat polite in their sparse leggy habits. They are interesting, spiky, background type flowers, and can grow to nearly 6 ft. tall. The purple blooms continue until frost.
My Aloe (not medicinal -but some form of aloe) Makes a Dash for the Sky...I love the blooms from succulents.
Danjou Pears...
Whoa. So much for posting at least weekly. No digital life. The summer is a rush of heat and chores. A kaleidoscope of changing beauty. Odd shots from early July today. I need to download the paltry few pics I have taken this week, battery crisis. Sorry. We had some cloudy/windy weather last week and only today is it finally starting to get hot again. It brought thunder, and a wimpy little drizzle. It was from a Mexican monsoon blown too far northward...For now, the garlic has been harvested, and the plums are coming in. I lost an apple tree (6 years old!) to the vole/mole/varmint/critter realms, and the birds have started to eat the nectarines and are continuing their harassment of the apples. There are still millions of berries that we are getting to enjoy, and the ground is dry, dry, dry.....
Very weird digitally enhanced view to the northeast...Equally weird digitally enhanced view of the rose and it's leaves. Color takes me there.