I am grateful that my daughter wanted to plant picking flowers in the garden. They have lasted a very long time. Their burst of color is very inviting and brings joy every time we go to the garden. Sometimes we go to the garden just to pick the flowers.
I am grateful that I live in a place that has seasons. I enjoy the differences throughout the year and that each season here moves into the next right on schedule with the equinoxes and solstices.
We celebrated the arrival of fall last night with candles on the dinner table. P has been eagerly awaiting fall so that we can eat by candle light.
We have been in full swing with our fall harvest lately. Last weekend we picked some pumpkins and pulled the onions out of the ground.
This weekend we focused on the black beans. First, we pull the bean plants and let them dry in the sun on a tarp. Then, we put a bundle of plants in a smaller tarp and whack them with a stick to pop the beans out of the shell.
The last step is to separate the small plant bits from the beans. On a slightly windy day we can pour the beans from bucket to bucket and let the wind blow the light dried plant bits or chaff away.
We have also been eating lots of fresh pears from our trees and last night froze several peach pie fillings. Our raspberries will continue bearing fruit until the first hard frost. We pick the berries every other day.
I know we will appreciate our preservation efforts come January. That is what I keep telling myself.
Next on the food preservation plan - grape juice. B says the grapes are ready.
I know I will enjoy my quilt retreat next week!
Our late summer walks through the prairie are pretty these days.
I like the way there are different things blooming throughout the summer.
Some flowers make big patches of color while others, like this flax, are more subtle.
The big blue stem grows very tall. This grass is over eight feet.
We do feel the coming of fall in the air.
What end of summer things are you enjoying?
We went back to the fair yesterday.
We had to see the animals one more time.
She wanted us to build a fence in the yard and get some baby pigs.
We tried to tell her that they quickly grow up to be big pigs.
I liked the sheep.
This white one played peek a boo with P.
There was a former State Fair Champion sheep shearer doing demonstrations. These sheep were waiting to be sheared.
The rabbits were cute too.
This day old calf was born at the fair.
We are enjoying a beautiful "summer is almost over" day! Happy Bench Monday!
August always gets to be very busy around here. Much of our garden bounty is ready to harvest in August. We spend a lot of time picking, preparing, and preserving food. Sometimes we forget to slow down and enjoy the beauty around us. I am glad I have P to remind me of that. She picks a little bouquet of flowers EVERY time we go to the garden. Luckily she has a long row of flowers to choose from each time.
I like growing things such as fruit trees, raspberries, and rhubarb that come back every year. We are getting our first peaches this year from trees that we planted.
We also get fruit from pear and apple trees that were planted long before we moved here.
This is the time when I start to think about what I want to do
differently in the garden next year. What new things do I want to
plant? I think about which grew easily and which things are easiest to
preserve etc. First on the garden list for next year - picking flowers.
After three weekends away from our gardens I spent a little weekend time catching up. There is a lot of weeding to do but at least parts of the gardens are pretty.
We already have a few pumpkins ready for harvest. As soon as those apples are ripe I'll start making pumpkin muffins again!
A friend and I toured the University of Michigan with the traveling barbie camper. See my photos here and more about this fun photo project here.
We also worked on the playhouse project. We now have a foundation. A search in the barn yeilded EXACTLY the right number of cinder blocks!
Our weekend was a mixture of work and play.
What are your weekend projects?
The weather was just wonderful today! Sunny, not too hot, and the wind seems to have blown the mosquitoes away! It was a great day for a mini vacation - in the back yard!
Of course, Miss Petunia came prepared with all the essentials for a fun time under the plum tree.
I brought a book to read too!
Take out dinner, books, markers, paper, crayons, a magic wand, and a pink umbrella - just in case - THIS is summer relaxation!
What have you done for a mini vacation this summer?
Sometimes I feel like our garden gets overwhelming. The weeds get out of control, some of the plants don't "keep" in the garden and you have to keep up with picking every day. It is great to have fresh food from the garden every day for supper but the extra time for harvest and processing to keep for the winter can get to be drudgery.
Just look at all those weeds! The about to give up pea plants are in the back of the photo below. In the foreground there are parsnips, carrots, and beets. There are a few more rows to my right. This is one of five garden spaces that we have this year.
Here are Little Miss P's tips to make gardening fun:
1. Wear tights to the garden so the bugs don't bite your legs.
2. Plant picking flowers so that you don't get in trouble for picking flowers in the yard.
3. Take good care of your flowers. You have to dust them with garden dirt and then fluff them with a bit of grass.
4. Use the proper kitchen utensils. This makes the pea shelling REALLY fun. Make sure you have a spoon that is just the right size for ONE pea so that snacking while you work is enjoyable.
5. Plant pink food. It is always fun to have pink food on your plate. Beets are fun because they also turn rice and noodles pink when they are on your plate together. (I think I weeded most of that light pink variety out thinking they were the radishes that we planted with the beets to mark the row. I pulled a "radish" the other day that I thought I had missed. I bit into it and--- it was a beet. Too bad.)
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