Heat Wave

Sing it, Linda Ronstadt! Or if you prefer, sing the one by Irving Berlin or the Motown song performed by Martha and the Vandellas. I’m not giving you links, people. Use your search engines. 

Now that we have a sound track in place, let’s look at the before pictures.

Hot, hot strawberries

“Feed me, Seymour!”

Thirsty tomato plants

“Water, water,” pant, pant, pant.

After an early watering and another later in the day, I thought I heard the strawberries saying “We feel MUCH better now!”

It's so peaceful in the evening breeze!

“It’s berry, berry peaceful in the evening breeze!”

Ah. Water. Such a relief.

“Ah. Water. Such a relief.”

And since the plants are talking to me, I’ll take that as a sign that it’s really too hot to be outside. What’s the worst that happens to you when it’s hot? Leave me a comment, please, and TTFN – TaTa For Now.

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Garden Clue – Daisy’s version

Sergeant Pepper, in the garden, with a purple stake.

Maybe.

The mystery started with Free Super Saver Shipping. I was short 81 cents – cents! I tell you. Less than one simple dollar!  I brought my order to the magic $25 by ordering a packet of seeds. The seeds, Rainbow Peppers, cost just enough to put me over the minimum.

Clue number one: the package

Clue number two: my pepper plot, including jalapeno, banana peppers, and the “wide array of color” rainbow peppers.

The Peppers

Many Little Peppers and how they grow! 

Clue number three: an honest to goodness jalapeno, maybe. Or it could be a yellow banana type. It’s a little too small to tell.

A single pepper - so far

A single pepper – so far

Clue numbers four and more: what in the world of gardening are these creatures?

The Fairly Odd Peppers

The Fairly Odd Peppers

A Closer Look at The Fairly Odd Peppers

A Closer Look at The Fairly Odd Peppers

Back to the beginning: I guessed Sgt. Pepper in the garden with a purple stake.

Well, readers? How about you?

 

 

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The To-Do List never goes away.

Subtitled: One thing leads to another.

So far:

  • Labeled and put away jam from last night’s canning session
  • Discovered I’m nearly out of 1/2 pint jars
  • Started a shopping list for a trip to Fleet Farm
  • Had breakfast (cereal with blueberries) and made sure Amigo ate, too.
  • Put more blueberries in the refrigerator (from 10 lb. box we bought Sunday)
  • Reheated coffee from yesterday
  • Realized coffeemaker could use cleaning
  • Threw swim towels over shower curtain rod
  • Knocked down shower curtain rod
  • Replaced shower curtain rod AND swim towels
  • took Internet break and realized the rug in the den need vacuuming

Now the world was looking a little more complicated. It was time to multi-task.

  • Started the coffeemaker with water-vinegar mix, and then vacuumed the den.
  • Brought frozen blueberries downstairs to the freezer, and then laid out more blueberries for freezing.
  • Sampled a few blueberries; quality control is part of my job.
  • Used vinegar water from coffeemaker to attack a slow drain in the bathroom. Success!

And so on, and so on, and so on.

 

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Variations on Murphy’s Law

The original: Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. 

If you water it, rain will come.

If you plant it, something else will grow.

An appointment with a specialist guarantees the problem will heal on its own – one day before the appointment.

If the store in which you’re shopping has a loyalty card, you will have a different store card in your wallet when you reach the checkout.

So, readers, what do you think? Can you add to the list? Add your example in the comments.

 

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Questions, questions, I have questions

If I use a strawberry dump cake recipe but replace the strawberries with blueberries, cherries, and a diced peach, what should I call it?

When the rain barrels are full and there’s more rain coming, should I put out buckets to save even more rain water?

If I water a strawberry plant with the leftover liquid in my coffee cup, will the strawberries have caffeine? Is there such a thing as a decaf berry?

Why is the city-planted grass in the terrace playing host to more weeds than grasses?

How much of the terrace should I actually weed, given that we’re going to have our service sidewalk replaced and a new baby tree planted and more people digging in the terrace dirt?

Health and circumstances have cut into my time and energy. Does anyone really mind the weeds?

Will the city crews avoid the water and gas lines this time? Don’t. Even. Think. About it.

Why does Krumpet the bunny get so worked up when I’m grinding herbs in my mortar and pestle?

Why is Sadie the bunny shedding – in July?

When should I schedule our garage sale? We have plenty of good things to sell, and the little collectible junk will make people happy, too.

And why has Grandma Daisy been so quiet lately? There’s plenty going on, and I’m sure she has opinions on just about everything coming out of Madison and Washington, among other places.

 

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Guerrilla Tomatoes and more tomatoes

I’m blaming a colder than usual winter. That’s one possible excuse for the compost not fully composting, which is an excuse for the random tomato seedlings turning up in random places.

Tomato and Dill

Tomato and Dill

 

tomato and grass

tomato and grass

Tomato and - mums?

Tomato and – mums?

It’ll all be irrelevant if we get an early frost, so I’ll just nurture these little strays of mine and maybe I’ll get an extra salad or two.

 

 

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Herbs! Through the grinder!

I’ve brought herbs inside for the last few winters. They don’t always do well indoors in this cold climate. This year’s herb collection is doing well on the deck – so well that I’m attempting the process of drying and crushing and storing herbs. I’ve tried two different locations in the house for drying. So far, the attic is winning out. The basil didn’t fully dry, though, even after hanging for about a week and a half. I ended up putting the basil (and its friends oregano and cilantro) in the oven on a low heat setting for about 20 minutes. At that point, I could pick up a leaf and crumble it.

The fun part was playing with my new kitchen toy: a ceramic mortar and pestle set. The set is rather pretty, and it grinds nicely. See how it works!

Oregano!

Oregano!

 

Basil! Purple basil!

Basil! Purple basil!

The poor rabbit, though. Little Krumpet, the tiny and very furry lion head rabbit, was upset when I tried to grind herbs in “her” room, the den. Maybe she didn’t like the overwhelming odor. Maybe the grinding sound was hard on her fuzzy bunny ears. Whatever it was, she kept thumping when I tried to grind.

You know me, readers. I relented and finished prepping herbs in the kitchen.

 

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Growth Rates

I repurposed a few containers to make room for the volunteer tomatoes and mystery plants. I think one of the mysteries is basil; they other might be peppers. But anyway, back to the repurposing.

Wow! These are reaching for the sky.

These are reaching for the sky. That’s La Petite’s old laundry hamper.

Not far away, on the other side of the rock garden, lies another repurposed container holding tomatoes.

Much smaller, slower growing.

Much smaller, slower growing.

This batch is growing much more slowly, but the carrot seeds are starting to germinate. Carrots love tomatoes, right? Maybe they’ll both put in a good effort and produce some produce.

The crate gets a lot of sun.

The crate gets a lot of sun.

This picture reminds me that I must water the chives. The tomatoes and the mystery (basil?) are coming up quickly now that they have space.

So readers, gardeners, eco-scientists, what do you think? Is it as simple as the sunlight, or does the basket have some other reason not to grow as fast as the others? Leave a comment. Let me know your thoughts.

 

 

 

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To Market, To Market, and home from the Market

Last time I reviewed a table full of Farm Market purchases, I told you what I didn’t buy. This time I’ll point out the unique, the not-quite-typical fun finds that made it into our bags.

Home from Downtown!

Home from Downtown!

We’ll start on the left. The large plastic bag contains ice and two fresh, cleaned trout, ready for cooking. Chuck cooked them on the grill.

Directly to the right of the trout you’ll see two, no, three packages of pasta made in town. We enjoy their unique flavors. Last year Chuck came home with a package of fettuccine with squid ink. The noodles were black, and the taste was, well, unusual but tasty. In this picture you see two kinds of fettuccine: roasted beet, spinach/garlic and finally, a mix suitable for soup or salad.

Peas, corn, carrots, and then wine. There’s an upscale deli in City Center Plaza, right next to the ramp where we like to park. Chuck picked out a Spanish wine to bring home and serve with the spinach-garlic pasta and grilled trout.

So there you have it, folks. And if you’re wondering just how fresh those trout were, see below. They were still flopping on the scale. For a small fee, the vendor prepped them and cleaned them.

Fresh trout for supper! And I didn't have to bait a hook.

Fresh trout for supper! And I didn’t have to bait a hook.

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