Monday, June 25, 2012

YARD REPORT


Mike and I had been in town for a week – appointments and various activities. Mike participated in the Idaho Senior Games, winning two firsts for target shooting with his new Browning pistol. He hadn’t planned to participate in the cycling event, but once he read about the route, he decided to sign up and took first in his age group. And Saturday he showed his Barracuda in the “Cruzin’ to Clarkston” show and enjoyed it.

 
As we left the town house Sunday morning, this unusual cloud formation caught my eye, and Mike stopped so that I could take pictures. What a beautiful sight! It was difficult to get the pictures against the sun. Mike the Manual Reader says there’s a setting for that.

Driving in to the farm, I was dismayed to observe that it hadn’t rained here much at all – lots of dust. We had a rather short but refreshing shower in town Saturday evening. You never know where those “scattered showers” will land.

We arrived here mid-morning, and I always think by the time we load up and unload, I’ve done a day’s work. Nevertheless, we both kept moving. I did laundry while Mike mowed and trimmed. The day was pleasant (77) with a cool breeze.

The gardens didn’t entirely die but were pretty thirsty. The spinach was wilted and the strawberries were parched. “Where have you been?” they demanded to know. But, some of the peas had sprouted and the lettuce is coming up. Oh—and one carrot. I have a terrible time with carrots.

The hummingbird feeders needed attention first thing. One was empty but the other still had some spoiled nectar and was difficult to clean. Next time I’ll just empty the feeders when we leave. Apparently the hummingbirds know enough not to drink the spoiled stuff, and they also know when it’s fresh. It didn’t take long for them to begin to feed once new nectar was available. (By the way, they know if you skimp on the sugar, too.)
 
The deer paid a visit to the yard while we were gone and munched the young sprouts on the gooseberry bush. I was so delighted to see that bush take off and now it’s been munched! Just because a plant is deer resistant doesn’t mean they won’t taste it. They also nibbled some of the hollyhocks. I mean – we’re surrounded by grain here. Why are they bothering the yard?

The cherry tree seems healthy enough but didn’t set on many cherries this year – not even enough for a pie. I hope it’s just that the blossoms got caught in a freeze and not some other weird thing. The good news is that it looks like we’ll have plenty of raspberries. The patch has become a bramble with plenty of new canes, so this fall we’ll expand the patch.
 
Two of the rhubarb starts down by the barn died, but the remaining two seem very healthy. 

Well, I'm off to water and weed. The prediction is that a storm will move in this afternoon. The weatherman says our high tomorrow will be 55 -- yes, that's right -- 55. I'll let you know. KW

3 comments:

Chris said...

Hmm, well my "garden" is still in containers since the weather has been cool and my gardener has been busy. We're just planning on a few zucchini and yellow squash to keep us going this summer. We have ton of green beans already canned so we're giving them a pass. This morning is soooo soggy that I'm certain it's widespread; your little plants should be happy.

Kathy said...

Soggy is the word. We are confined to the house for the duration. It began at 5:00 a.m. I really worked over the raised beds yesterday hoping to take full advantage of this rain and cool spell. I also hope this rain will make weeding and edging easier tomorrow. Today -- inside chores.

I planted a few beans yesterday and some lemon cucumber. The peas really fizzled this year -- too hot now to worry about it. And though I planted zucchini, it hasn't taken off.

Leah said...

The cloud formation is very unusual. Don't know if I've ever seen a pattern in the clouds like that. Now if someone would paint a picture and make clouds like your photo, art critics would say the clouds were a fantasy.