Mega Blog - Autumn Abundance and Blessings

The Return from The Dead of our Christmas Tree... with prayer flags in the distance, fluttering an affirmation of the beauty, bounty, the hope of the season...Below, Got Tomatoes? I only planted 6....seems like it was enough. Already I have 30 quarts of quartered tomatoes and about a dozen pints of salsa put up. Reminds me of my old homesteading days. History does repeat itself...
Last Sunny Sunflower Days...
PEARS... Want dependable? Plant a peartree. Pear Tea: 4-6 ripe pears, 2+ quarts of water and 1/4 cup honey. Simmer pears in water for 20-30 minutes, strain, sweeten to taste. This tea is a great way to deal with excess pears and to utilize your canned pears as well. Supposedly it is a lung strengthening brew. It is a delicious tonic.
Endless Raspberries...
Above, Butterfly atop the Sedum, which is very popular among all the flying insects. Below, Irony. As the One Persimmon we did get this year, dropped early (was knocked off by a blue jay?) and laid atop the ground ...reminding me of all that is given up, lost and ruined... in nature... and in our lives...sigh.
LEAF SHOW 2008...Some of them appear to change overnight...
The Hunted, and The Hunter...Pretty interesting natural moment, as a small garden snake stalked the honey bees that were visiting the statice. He was not successful in my observations. Below, Black Mission Figs...I am on a "spoil the figs" routine and it seems to be paying off. Maybe they do like regular water after all!
Wolf River, Granny Smith, and Golden Delicious Apples are all in abundance...
Fall Greens: Cilantro and Spinach above, on September 1st... Below, on September 21st! Go green! Way below, Lettuce and Basil. I love fresh salads so much. Basil, especially, is so awesome fresh; I add it to everything! It has been a great year for greens as it wasn't too hot. Cover Crop of Buckwheat which was planted in late August...It is blooming already and indeed, even setting grain. Buckwheat is a short season crop, obviously. The bees (and butterflies) also LOVE the blossoms....
Beautiful and Abundant Blooms of Snapdragon, Hollyhock, Cosmos, Marigold, Zinnia and the ever present Borage, grace the garden right now...Below, Thirsty Bees. Bees use water to cool the inside of the hive and it is crucial for the success of the young brood. Brood raising will cease or fail for lack of water~!~
Bees Bearding on a hot day last month...Screened bottom boards and opening the top lid some, both help to improve ventilation and encourage the bees to reenter the hive...Below, I have cracked the code to growing successful brassicas: Plant out primo starts the first week in August...keep very moist and covered most days with a layer or two or remay.... Wallah! They are the biggest blooms in the garden come late September. YUM! Home grown broccolli!
Wow...Over one month since my last post. Virtually I am failing, yet literally life is full. The grapes, and nectarines of last month were ours to enjoy. Yea! victory! The past 4 weeks have been a flow of goodness from the garden. Dead camera battery for a while...sorry. We had our first significant rain, about 3". It really helps the spring flow, and what a relief to be off irrigation chores! Life otherwise is full with school primarily. We are homeschooling the girls for the 6th year. Truly one of the best decisions we have made as a family was to chose homeschooling over any other educational choice. We have returned to Calvert and couldn't be happier. We've taken on Spanish, which is a bit of a tear jerker and I have started both girls with piano lessons. The investment my parents made in lessons for me, is paying off big time now. I am impressed with what they are capable of learning in a short time. I am so happy to be able to be home with them. We are blessed.

Bee Count!

It is a sweet obsession, my daily (hourly) sojurns into the yard to see how many bees are around, and what they are feeding on. It is such a joy and mystery to watch them gather nectar, pollen and, at the leaky spots, valuable water to cool the hive. They are my buddies, and I count them every day.
MENU: Blackberries, Green Beans...Apples and Greens....
Grapes Coming On...and Fall Nectarines. Will they be for the yellow jackets, ants, and song birds, or me? Cover Crop of Buckwheat...Flowering Succulent...

Big Max Pumpkin...Color of Sunset...
The Evening Skies have been Notable...Far Out Sunrises...
Simba, Welcoming Tigger Home. (see previous post) What a gift, we are so happy she is home. She's a pretty good cat. She has done nothing but sleep since arriving back home. I am pretty amazed at her return; I had long ago given her up for gone. Ya just never know....

The weather has been pretty ideal, and thankfully the water continues to flow. The grapes and early apples (Wealthy and Gravenstien) are good eating now. Fall raspberries and the last of the blackberries are also a great focal point. Exactly what sort of dessert are we preparing next? :) We have been eating an impressive amount of green beans and fresh herbs. The basil and mint make such great additions to nearly everything! Tonight, it was in our sushi...sort of a rice/nori/spring roll thingy...I swear, nothing beats the flavor of fresh, and especially freshly picked, herbs! I planted the basil in morning sun, with pretty serious shade in the PM from a wall of sunflowers to the west side. It has been perfect. It is growing slowly and is staying so succulent. It's had wonderful lush growth. I'm loving it~!~...THE END...

Entered the Food Chain or on a Summer Holiday? - Aug 26, A MIRACLE!

Silly Tigger. So sad since Nala left, never appreciated the dogs, other cats, or any humans besides her one person. She has been MIA since early this week. Did she come by your house? Please call.

August 26th, 2008: ADDENDUM: A miracle , after being gone 14 days, this cat, believe it or not, returned this morning !!! !!! We were stunned. She meowed in the middle of the night, outside, like a dream... Only in the morning, she was real! She does not look any worse for wear, and she had an awful lot to meow about when she first came in. What was her story?....summer holiday after all? .....or trapped somewhere?.....injured (rattle snake etc) and now recovered?....We might never know.We are so overjoyed and inspired that she is back. Welcome home Tigger.

Onward Towards Fall

FLOWER SHOW CONTINUED: Cacti above, Echinacea, with Bumble Bee Browsing, below.
Honey Bee in Sunflower Bliss. I was a little insulted at first, when the sunflowers started blooming and the bees appeared to ignore them completely! Within about a week they soon discovered their sweetness. Now I'm happy. Below, the Skin Gets Tight as a Rose "bursts" into bloom...
Zinnia...Below, Intimate Snapdragon...
Sunflowers by the Bunch...I planted so many sunflowers. We are all enjoying them.
Honey Bee Loving the Spearmint Blossoms....The mint has been a HUGE hit with the bees. It is a carefree, though often invasive, perennial herb for the garden. I am appreciating it more. Below, Green Bean Blossom.Swirling Pumpkin Tendrils....Curly! Below, the extremely popular (with the bees at least) Pumpkin Blossom. Hey! Move over!
Glads....sigh.
Golden Shiro Plum and below, the Gravenstien.
The flowers and veggies are kicking butt around here, but the fruit has been a fiasco. Damn birds. What more need I say? Though we did get to enjoy all the golden plums and most of the red ones, they reduced the nectarines, of which there were quite a few, to pits and skins in a matter of one day! Frankly, I spaced. I knew they were getting close, and then WHAM! ...they caught me off guard. I was shocked! Every blessed one was a hollow shell of its former juiciness. Nectarines are best picked just before they are ripe, and are then allowed to ripen off the tree. We got to eat just 3 :( The Red Summer Pears were a similar story, in that the window of ripeness is a narrow one. One day they were fine eaten off right off the tree, and just a couple days later there was a great many that had been molested, were laying on the ground and the cores had begun to soften and brown. These are a red pear, that have a similar texture to an apple. We did get to consume far more of those, but still...annoying. I am watering, feeding, and weeding - why? Oh right, to feed the birds! Physically I have been having a difficult time logging much time at the computer. Hip trips. So it's Granny Speed, full throttle ahead, onward to fall. Can you even believe it??