I took a few pictures around the yard for you. You can click on any thumbnail to enlarge photos.
We cut back in the vegetable garden this year; there just aren’t enough hours in the day for even what we have. Gary does most of the work, and I take produce to the market and pocket the cash. Well, okay… the money does really go into general revenue.
The flowers are mainly my department and I so enjoy sharing bouquets and seeing what’s new on a daily basis. It will seem very sudden that some blooms are dead and gone (or hanging around waiting to be trimmed off), but others burst forth to take their places. Summers are so short, but just when I think it’s not worth the bother to have so many perennial beds and shrubs and trees, some new precious flower shows itself, sometimes right from under weeds or an unruly neighbouring plant. I refer to the flowers as “precious”, but really I don’t have anything that is rare or expensive or delicate; I don’t like to fuss over things or have to coddle them in preparation for winter. I have enough trouble keeping plants from being choked out by thistle, chickweed or stupid quackgrass.
I’ve had a “good” couple of days since I last wrote in this blog. At the Dunster Farmer’s Market I had SUCH a good time. Not one single person teased me about selling food; I sold most of a cheesecake and a couple of dozen jars of jam, and four trees. I had many chats with friends including some who had grown up around here and moved away, and were just visiting again.
I hurried home from the market with a quick side trip to Dunster General Store where I bought a case of frozen mangos (and in the store someone DID make a joke that I should only be making jam from LOCAL fruit). A potential customer wanting to look at fruit trees thought they’d meet me at my home by 1:30 or 2 pm. They phoned me to tell me that they were delayed but “on their way”… then I waited most of the afternoon, later finding out that they went to the garage sales that I was missing while I WAITED!! Grrrrr. Oh, but they DID show up and buy three trees, so that mitigated the situation.
Actually, I must have a bit of a reputation for not missing garage sales in my small town. I got a phone call that evening from one of the folks who’d had a yard sale, offering all that they had left of “gardening stuff” free, if I’d just pick it up. So that’s what I did, for one thing, today: I went and loaded the items, mostly plant pots which were certainly worth having. During her sale, my friend had remarked to her mother, “I’m surprised that Ann hasn’t shown up by now; she must have got held up somehow.”. Too funny. It’s not a bad reputation to have, I guess. Could be worse. HAS BEEN worse.
You might gather from the photo of the raspberry rows that I picked berries today. I got four gallons of raspberries, and I just froze them all this time. I was nearly out of white sugar again, and I was determined to make more plum jam because they were rapidly deteriorating in the box: I made the jam and then froze about 10 pounds, all cut up and pitted. I also had 10 pounds of peaches that were very ripe, so I canned all of those in a dozen pint jars.
On Friday, I ordered 20 dozen of my “signature” jam jar… a nine ounce hexagon, so I’m seriously committed now to selling more preserves at the Markets. I had remarked to Gary only 2 weeks ago that I was just going to make jam UNTIL I ran out of jars, and not buy more either, but I got caught up in the marketing and the positive feedback. *Sigh*
It has been very hot here again. It keeps Gary and I busy just watering enough to keep plants alive, and we haul water from town when the well is low. My poor nursery stock just fries in their black pots; I need to get more organized so that I can cover the pots with sawdust to keep them cooler: have to haul the sawdust in the truck and find more space to have this wannabe “nursery” thing happening.
We’ve had three days of the extremely hot weather after two weeks of almost steady rain. Why can’t we have a happy medium? Before that we had roasting heat for a month straight. All in all, it has been a beautiful summer with not many mosquitos, and the most excellent haying weather that the farmers have had in a few years. Shouldn’t complain.
Well I’ve gone on and on. Writing here is like sending a letter to many friends and my family at once; I appreciate the audience and any feedback I get. Naturally, there are things that happen in my week that I can’t discuss in a public blog, but those closest to me know that HERE is shared just the synopsis (and occasionally some raw emotion).
I hope everyone is well. Feel free to comment or to send email… I know you all have interesting things to say!
Love, Ann
