July! July!

Actually, it is almost August... the perfect time for July's last hurrah. There are many things I like about July. I like that it is hot and sunny and the days are long. I like that I'm here and not in Winnipeg in my third floor apartment, which I hear is no pleasant place to be in, what with that heat wave they had out there. There are a lot of other things that I like about July, which I shall communicate in photo format.

I like that we can have fresh cut broccoli. This photo documents the first time we cut broccoli. It is pictured alongside "Grandmere's" meat pie (this piece came from a pie nestled in the freezer  that Pam was saving for the visit of her youngest son... but he was kind enough to let us eat half. It was delicious) and new potatoes. And the last turnip from last season.

I like that what was once asparagus is now a forest of wild looking ferns.

We were up very early one morning, cutting wheatgrass, and the dew was looking misty in the first light in the aspargus ferns. It was beautiful.

I like that the zuchinni are ready to be picked... and eaten, of course.

And I really like that the tomatoes are turning red. This is the most exciting thing. I can barely wait for fresh tomatoes.

We are also upon a different season for wildflowers. The time for lupins has passed. Now the road are lined with Queen Anne's Lace...

... and wild chicory.

I like Queen Anne's Lace because it lookes like a doily, and doilies make me think of grandmothers, and I love grandmothers, both my own and many others. And I like wild chicory because it is a lovely periwinkle hue. When I was a young thing in elementary school, I went through a phase where my favourite Crayola crayon was "periwinkle." It is no longer my most favourite crayon, but I still like it, and it gives me fond memories of colouring pictures in grade two. Also, wild chicory is edible.

Amid all of the changes in my botannical sorroundings there are some things that don't change:

Baby Kitty's peculiar mannerisms are as constant as the rising sun in the morning. She sure is strange.

May your gardens look as nice as Pams, and may you enjoy the last days of July. Until next time.

Flower Girl

When I was six I was a flower girl. I got to wear a simple white dress with a red sash around my waist, and those lacy socks with the ruffle on the top with my white sandals, and my hair was done up all fancy and had babies breath in it. I held one rose and I was so excited that I snapped it in two and had to hold it together so it looked whole while I walked down the aisle. That was unfortunate...
Speaking of weddings... and flowers... Pam and I went to a wedding yesterday that Pam did the flowers for. On Friday all we did was cut flowers, clean flowers... we were up at 6:30 and Pam was making flower arrangements until 3:00 am. I couldn't really help her with that, but stayed up with her for moral support. It was a long day. It had the same feeling as staying up late finishing a major essay.
Anyway. The house was full of flowers. It was quite beautiful, but it made me sneeze.



Happy Potato Festival

A few days ago Hartland celebrated it's annual Potato festival. What's even more exciting is that Brandon's visit overlapped with this joyous occasion. We went to the parade. I took pictures of my favourite parts.

I thought that this was funny:

And the lady on stilts was pretty good too:

Oh- we also got a bit of candy.

A lollipop and a freezie! Holy Smokes!

As thirlling as the Potato Festival was, I also made sure Brandon saw some of the trails that I haunt.
The sun was bright.

And the river was calm.

Pam and I made Brandon work a bit too. Now he has left and we are very busy cutting flowers and worrying about the weather for the wedding Pam is doing on the weekend. Yikes! Let's hope it doesn't rain all day tomorrow like it did today.

Babies

I am (how did this happen?) at the halfway point at my time here and baby fruits of all sorts are starting to pop up everywhere.

Baby grapes.

Baby peppers.

Baby broccoli

Baby tomatoes

I love babies.

I also love Baby Kitty, whose latest antics had Buster in a puzzle.

She was clearly doing this for attention of some sort.

So Buster brought his bowl.

Yet she continued to act like an idiot.

At this point, buster gave up and lay down. Moments later Baby Kitty left for some sort of expedition in the great outdoors.

On Sunday my friends Dale and Joseph came for a visit. We drove around listening to Beethoven very loudly (the people stared) and went over the covered bridge twice. They loved it more than I. Yesterday I got a package in the mail from my mother full of candy. And today my "beau" (Pam's word, not mine) comes to visit. It's been an exciting week.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

It was sunny and hot today.

The perfect kind of hot day: not ridiculously humid, very windy. Pam and I worked very hard in the morning so we wouldn't be in the heat too much in the afternoon. I spent a small chunk of the morning weeding the "house garden." Pam uses a lot of mulch and plants some things in black plastic so there aren't a tonne of weeds.

Behold- the house garden:

In here you see onions and beans and peas and zuchinni and carrots and cucumbers (which will climb up strings stretched between those white posts) and broccoli and cabbage...

There are many beautiful leaves in this garden. Among my favourites:

Beets

Red Cabbage

Winter Cabbage

It's been five weeks since I arrived here (holy cats!) and nearly a weeks since I've written (I'm sorry).

Also, my worm phobia is improving. Today, while weeding, I found a poor little worm, writhing on the carpet between the beans and the beets. So I took a deep breath, picked him up, put him back on the dirt, and covered him up. I did not scream or flinch. I'm not sure which is more impressive, this bare-handed worm saving, or the fact that the last two times I pumped gas for Pam I managed to get it $20 on the dot.