Spring in full swing

Apple blossoms over the fence

Every year I see this massive display of apple blossoms in the next-door neighbor's yard, and I sometimes wonder what happens to most of them. There are lots of apples, but not this many, so do some just fail to get fertilized and fall to the ground? I wish I knew more about flowering plants, but there's always the internet if I get interested enough to find out. They are awfully pretty right now, though, I must say.

Today when I walked to the bus stop, I didn't even feel the need for a jacket, just a warm vest, but I ended up feeling cold now and then and regretted my decision every time the wind picked up. I don't mind feeling cold when I know that soon the bus will arrive and I'll get warm once again. Frankly, I'll take cold any day over heat, which apparently we have coming up this weekend, just in time for Mother's Day. It is very rare for us to reach such warm temperatures so early in the year, and that makes me a bit anxious that we will have another awful hot summer. I hope not!

Lately I have been feeling a bit melancholy, for no obvious reason I can ascertain. The weather is great, I've been getting in my usual level of activity, and my days are full. Perhaps it's the news of the world, especially this country, which is on track to hit a record number of mass shootings for the year. Every time I see the chyron crawl on the TV screen, even if I'm not listening to it, I see that yet another one has occurred, with lots of innocent people slaughtered, usually by an AR-15, an assault weapon of war that has flooded our communities. 

I recently saw a statistic that is startling: In the US, there are 125 guns for every 100 people. That scares me silly, and makes me wonder for what reason do people purchase them? I don't have a gun and have never held one in my hands. I hope I never do. So maybe that is what is causing this melancholy feeling. I know it will pass as I get more involved in my day-to-day living. I am surrounded by good friends and a dear partner who helps in every way he can. 

So, I will distract myself with another walk in the springtime beauty, and I will tend to my front porch garden as well. It's time, just a few short weeks until the unofficial beginning of summer. There is so much to be grateful for, and looking for those precious moments of bliss will displace my sadness. I hope so, anyway. Now I'm off to the garden store for supplies.

:-)

Morning springtime walk

Cornwall Park Rose Garden

In returning from the coffee shop today, I asked John to drop me off in front of the Cornwall Rose Garden, so I could see how the plants are coming along, after we experienced the coldest April on record for this are. Everything has slowed way down, and as hard as I looked I could see no signs of any buds to be found anywhere. But hopefully it won't be long now, as the sun's rays reach out to kiss these branches and encourage them to give us some rosebuds.

Top, October 2021; bottom, May 2022

I also noticed that my favorite maple tree in the park has regrown all its leaves, which I admired as they changed from green to red, a little at a time, and then fell to earth to nourish the surrounding soil. Although the change appears gradual, when observed on a daily basis, the seasons continue their cycle of birth, growth, and decay. As does the entire universe, whether I'm paying attention or not: change is constant and inevitable. Even in the farthest reaches, where the light we see from the stars is millions of years old, I marvel at the technology that allows us to study distant galaxies and ponder the nature of life and existence.

Yes, I still have not left behind the fascination that has caused me to learn more about quantum mechanics and to discover how much is still waiting to be understood. It's a very fertile time to be alive! Just as spring is followed by summer, discoveries wait to be uncovered, and I hope I'll still have a functioning brain when the next new thing comes about. Ya know?

When you think about the complexity of our natural world — plants using quantum mechanics for photosynthesis, for example — a smartphone begins to look like a pretty dumb object. —Jeff Vandermeer

In the meantime, I'm going to get my hands and knees dirty, with a smile on my face and look to enjoy some of our infrequent sunshine.

:-)

Playing with my food

Zucchini, dollar bill, and big smile

After having missed a couple days of watering (and checking) the garden, this enormous zucchini emerged. I put it on the table and before long, "someone" had printed out a big smile, and added a dollar bill for size comparison (as well as eyes). 

I'm pretty sure this zucchini is the result of the sex lesson I got from Carter, who showed me the difference between male and female flowers, and he made sure that the male pollen got into the right place in the female flower. I didn't even know there was a difference, one from the other, but now I will not make that mistake again. A couple of days after my lesson, I saw a beautiful female flower just asking for a little action, but I couldn't find a male flower anywhere. And you only have a very short window of time before the flower closes up, whether or not it has been pollinated. I am really surprised at how much I've learned in this particular season, both about zucchini sex, and also about what red potatoes look like as they grow. I'm thinking I might go out and harvest some of those potatoes and cook 'em up.

We are having day after day of sunshine without any clouds in the sky. Not my favorite time of year or weather pattern. I much prefer cooler weather and some fluffy, pretty clouds to break the monotony of all thar BLUE. This Thursday the temperatures in the High Country will be too hot for me to do much, so I'm thinking of skipping joining the Senior Trailblazers and just doing something local. Somewhere that I can turn around if I get too hot and/or tired. Not to mention my ankle is better but not back to a hundred percent yet. 

How about you? How's the weather in your neck of the woods? My Southern Hemisphere friend is busy blowing soap bubbles outdoors and watching them freeze and putting the pictures up on her blog. It sure is fun to see! You can check it out here, if you want. 

:-)

Garden party

Some of the garden party-ers

Yesterday, Sunday, about a dozen of us gardeners gathered in our garden to share food and drink with one another, to celebrate our wonderful community area. We had quite a bit of shade, thanks to Carter who pulled out a nice canopy to keep us from being in the direct sun. A barbeque and food tables were set up outside the gate, since you are looking at pretty much the entire area we had to gather in. I didn't think to get any pictures of the food (sorry!), but we did have quite a nice time. And we all got to meet the newest member of our apartment complex.

Annabelle (with mom Naomi)

Annabelle is almost four months old, and she is quite the delight to all the mothers and grandmothers (especially me). She is wearing mitts to keep her from scratching her face. I never heard of these before, but they work very well. She's got a few scratches that are recovering from earlier bouts with those baby fingernails. 

Apartments behind the garden enclosure

You can see how close the community garden is to our apartments. We spent a short amount of time talking about the garden and our vegetable adventures, and much more time finding out who we all are, and where we come from. I learned that one gardener is going off to Alaska in a few short weeks on a scholarship to finish her dissertation (I think that's what it's all about anyway). I also met a few people I had seen in the garden but never had a chance to chat with. We are now much better acquainted.

Since I'm not much of a cook, I brought beer and sodas for us to enjoy, and I do think it was better received than anything I might have attempted to prepare. I loved the tray of cheeses, olives, and other tidbits to whet my appetite that Lynn brought. There was salad, hot dogs, homemade cookies, and lots more, but I got quite full before I even sampled everything. I skipped the hot dogs, since I don't eat red meat, but otherwise enjoyed everything else.

Carter says we'll have to repeat this at least once more this season, and I'm all for it! It was a resounding success, and the weather could not have been more perfect. Life is good and we are grateful for our wonderful bounty, in food and friendship.

:-)

Our community garden

Taken from my apartment's back stairs

 Since I am still not quite ready to take on a day-long hike on my injured ankle (I have been able to walk for almost 10,000 steps), the rest of the Senior Trailblazers headed up the Mt. Baker Highway to take on Heliotrope Ridge. That link takes you to my pictures from 2018. I did go for a short walk with Joy (who is also injured) at Lake Padden, but for today's subject, you get to see our apartment complex's community garden. You can see how parched it's getting around here, with the dry grass surrounding our gated garden.

Gate bringing us into the garden

Come on in! Our deer fence works because of a thin wire at the top of those posts, which keeps deer from trying to jump it. I have been surprised to see how well it works; once I was picking raspberries and heard the breath of a deer on the other side of the fence chomping down berries from his side of the fence. The ice chest outside is for people to put in or take out veggies to share.

Two garden plots with a walkway in between

As you can see here, we have plenty of vegetables and flowers. The plot to the right of the lettuce is not assigned right now, but it was full of strawberries from the previous tenant, and we all enjoyed feasting on them. They're gone for the season.

Three plots growing well

Those are Carter's garlic plants looking great on the left, flowers in the middle (not sure who planted them, but they are enjoyed by everybody), and happy tomato plants in the next plot. Because of last week's very hot weather, the tomatoes are going crazy, but nobody's unhappy about it.

Front side of my plot

Next comes my unruly potato plants in front, with red potatoes galore. Carter helped me harvest a few and cover the rest up from the rays of the sun. I think I'll have way more potatoes than I'm going to know what to do with. Many will be shared with my co-gardeners.

Nasturtiums, zucchini plants, and even some beets

At the other end of my plot, you can see how overgrown it has become, with everything sprouting at once. Carter showed me how to tell male and female blossoms apart on the zucchini, and we helped pollinate to encourage more robust zucchini plants.

Happy snail

While picking raspberries, I saw this snail who had made it up higher than my head, to a nice shady spot to beat the heat.  I wonder how long he's been there. If you go back to the first picture, you can see that we have a shady arbor on the southeast corner, with grapes beginning to appear, along with lots of raspberries and marionberries. Some that were exposed directly to the sun were burnt, but many spots were protected.

Shady respite from summer's heat

This is my favorite spot in the entire garden, not least because I can sit in a shady lawn chair and pick raspberries and pop them into my mouth. They are still getting ripe, but Carter picked enough to make several quarts of jam. Wouldn't you like to have some? I myself might actually have already reached saturation with raspberries.

We are going to have a garden party here next Sunday, and we'll share, bring stuff from both the store (cold beer and sodas), ribs and burgers, and delights from the garden to celebrate our wonderful community garden. 

:-)

Doing okay with the heat

At the coffee shop

I took this picture yesterday, Sunday morning, at the coffee shop (well, actually the sidewalk outside the shop) as we enjoyed our iced coffees with two friends I haven't seen in awhile: Robert and his son Leo). You see the familiar face of John, Robert in the green cap with his phone, and Leo in his orange mask, and Gene on the right. Gene left this morning for a week or so in Alaska. It's not so hot there, he says, but we did pretty well with the heat yesterday.

It was early and quite pleasant. We still can't hang out inside the shop, but it was so nice out on the sidewalk that nobody minded one bit. We enjoyed being together and getting caught up with all the exciting (and not so exciting) stuff going on with us. As the day wore on, though, it did begin to get a little uncomfortable. I didn't go anywhere after I got home, missing even a short walk. By the time I checked the temperature, it was way too hot to venture out. By mid-afternoon it was 97°F outdoors, and our apartment got all the way to 89° before we went to bed. With fans going and no covers at all, I was surprised that I slept pretty well in spite of it all. Cool showers, cold dinners, and not moving much made it bearable. Although the low temperature last night was much higher than usual, it was nice to open all the windows and let the cool night air take over, once we got out of bed.

Pretty purple potato flowers

As I've mentioned before, this is the first year I've grown potatoes in my garden. I was so surprised to see how the bushy plant grew so large, and produced these flowers. I also learned that they will form little green tomato-looking things, but they are poisonous! I'll be interested to see what the potato tubers look like, once it's time to harvest them. Gardening continues to be an education. I haven't been out there since I took that picture day before yesterday, because, well, it's so hot! Today I'll go out there to water. 

Today is supposed to be the last day of these awful temperatures, but it isn't even July yet, and it might just be one of those years when we are forced to endure all this sunshine and heat. Or maybe this will dissipate and we'll have a more normal Pacific Northwest summer. We'll see.

:-)

June flowers and garden news

Front porch flowers today

 I was taken by surprise this morning when I walked to the bus. Yesterday's rain was supposed to be finished, with just a slight chance of showers. I foolishly believed the forecast and made all the wrong choices about what to wear. Just in case of a little rain, I wore my raincoat but instead of waterproof shoes, I wore my sneakers. Bad choices all around: it was misting when I walked out the door, but before two minutes had passed, I was in a light rain. Then it wasn't so light, and by the time I had walked the fifteen minutes to the bus stop, I was soaked. My shoes even squished.

Our flowers and gardens love all this rain, which should be completely gone before the end of the week, but for now it's kind of pretty and the mild temperatures make me want to be outdoors. If I go out again today, I'll dress properly. But first a quick foray into the garden, since the rain has stopped.

My garden spot, with massive potato greens

I tried to get a picture of the entire plot, but I couldn't show you one end without giving you the big story of my potatoes, which have become wild and unruly, and way too close together for proper "hilling" technique. So, I'll just let them go and see what I end up with when it's time for harvesting. My kale, lettuce, nasturtiums, beets and zucchini (not shown) are also going great guns. I've harvested the Russian kale and am amazed at how quickly it grows back (right in front of the potatoes in this picture).

Sort of orchid-like

Walking out the gate, I saw this delightful flower and was pleased to see it looking so pretty with the heavy raindrops pulling it down. I don't know what it is, do you? And while I was out looking at the garden, it began to rain again. Darn! Just when I thought the skies were clearing, giving me a chance to get in today's steps.

We might actually make it to 66°F today, about the temperature we hit yesterday. When I read about the heat in much of the rest of the country, I feel real gratitude for the mild temperatures and high humidity we have here. The flowers, wildlife, and all the rest of the June abundance loves it. 

I sat down to read a new book yesterday, and by the time I had read the first hundred pages, I realized I had read it before. And not that long ago, either, since it was written in 2015. Since I remember so little about it, I'll enjoy the second read, probably even more than the first one. I went ahead and re-read the last chapter, and the entire book came back to me. Now I'll enjoy a slow immersion into the rest of it, as I currently learned that the ending is a satisfying one. Do you ever forget a book like that? I never did when I was young, but now... 

:-)

Three drizzly days

Spring flowers

I took this picture awhile ago, while walking back from the bus. Most mornings I head down to the coffee shop and walk back home via a short trail, and I saw these most lovely flowers and greenery, bringing a big smile to my face. It was raining lightly, which has been going on for the past three days. After lots of sunshine, more than usual, we have recently returned to normal Pacific Northwest weather. Light rain (which the flowers just love) and more moderate temperatures (today's high will be 12°C (54°F). I am not unhappy with it; perhaps I've become assimilated and now spurn the warmth. At least until July and August, when we lose our rain and it can actually get hot for a few days.

A few rays of sunshine teased me just now

I looked outside and saw that there's a bit of sunshine and the rain seems to have slowed or stopped for awhile, although the forecast said to expect more showers this afternoon. This is my beginning front porch garden for 2021. The pink azaleas in the foreground were a spontaneous impulse buy while at Costco the other day. They looked so pretty in a hanging basket, but I don't think they will last. The other flowers, the petunias, geraniums, and alyssum, should all thrive.

I mentioned on my other blog that I will be having a tooth extracted within a couple of weeks, and I received lots of comments about my query as to whether I should get a second opinion, since there's no pain in the tooth... yet. I've decided just to go ahead and do it, as there's little doubt that it will inevitably progress to that unhappy state. One friend had three recent extractions and said it wasn't a big deal. It's just always hard to say goodbye to an old friend. 

Meanwhile, I am enjoying life and will happily tend to my gardens, both the front porch one and my vegetable garden in the back. Stay tuned for more progress on that seasonal hobby.

:-)

First veggies are in the ground

My teeny little patch

Yesterday I prepared my little garden patch by turning over the dirt with a shovel and putting in some compost to enrich the soil. By the time I got that far, I was exhausted, working out in the hot sun and doing my best to keep on going in order to get the vegetable starts into the ground. At that point, my friend Carter, who is the Chief Gardener in our community garden, came out to help me finish. Fortunately, we got all those little plants into the ground before this old lady (me) collapsed.

And then I watered them and headed into the apartment for some needed refreshment. After I finish this post, I'll go out and water them again. Although it doesn't look like I got that much done, it sure felt good, once I was finished. I'll be posting more pictures as time goes by, and once I get the final plants in, I can sit back and let the sunshine and water finish the job!

I am also working on my front porch flower garden, and it's coming along well. You will see that in the near future, too. It's that time of the year when everything is in bloom. It sure is a good way to bring one's sense of joy to the forefront. Let's now have some fun!!

:-)

Spring flowers are everywhere

Red currant and Oregon grape

Yes, everywhere I look I see new spring growth sprouting up and showing off delightful flowers. These plants are both ubiquitous around here. On my way back home after my morning visit to the coffee shop and my friend John, I saw numerous flowering plants, and the juxtaposition of these two contrasting colors caught my eye and caused me to pull out my camera.

I almost took some pictures of the fat lilac buds that are everywhere as well, but I'll save those for a later post. We have some May-like weather on the way, and it's only mid-April. By the time we get through this heat wave (for us, that is), many of the flowers will already be fading, I suspect. But others will bloom anew. I am thrilled that we have such a week ahead.

Although I'm still limping around a little with a sore ankle, otherwise I'm in pretty good shape and am looking forward to making the drive into the Skagit Valley with my friend Melanie to see the riot of tulips that will be in their prime soon, very soon.

And it's just about time for me to start planting in the community garden. I just peeked out there and only one plot is planted already. I've got work to do! But it's such a delightful task, I am ready and willing.

:-)

Almost time to garden again

Hellebore, Western Washington University

On Saturday, Melanie and I took a nice walk around the campus of Western Washington University, and I spied this pretty flower. The only reason I knew its name is because one of my blogging friends in Seattle put several varieties of this lovely plant on her blog. I discovered this website while trying to find out which variety this one is, with no luck. What I did learn, however, is that there are many faces to the hellebore:

It’s not one plant, but a family of approximately 20 species, plus various subspecies. And it’s often called the Lenten, Christmas, or Winter rose.

 Many of them hang down and don't show their pretty undersides, unless you pick one up and turn it towards your face. I gasped at some of the pretty versions that exist. Are you familiar with this flower?

Yesterday was Pi Day, March 14, so when I went to our local co-op with my friend John, I saw they were selling some unique pies, and so of course I had to buy this one.

Blackberry Pi

Now what does one do with an entire pie when you only have one other person to share it with? Expand that number, of course. We took it to our regular coffee shop, where the barista was nice enough to cut it into eight pieces and keep some for the staff, while John and I enjoyed some reasonably sized pieces of this very delicious blackberry pie, not too sweet. We felt we had celebrated the date in just the right spirit.

And very soon now, I will begin to plan what I want to raise in my 2021 vegetable garden, as well as prepare my front porch for the flowers I plant there each year. I have been pretty lazy lately and let things slide, but the burgeoning spring is arousing my interest in getting started. Time to garden! Yes!

:-)

Hey, it's already February

Lake Padden

Anybody who has followed my blog for any length of time could probably have named that place, even without the caption. Lake Padden is one of the Bellingham jewels that I visit often. It's 2.6 miles around the main loop, with lots of horse trails behind it if one wants to go on a longer hike. My Saturday walking group always went twice around, for 5.2 miles at a fast clip. I sure miss those gatherings, and I'm hoping that at some point in the not-too-distant future, we will be able to return to gatherings larger than five, even outside.

Not that I'm in that much of a hurry, but it's already been almost a year in lockdown from Covid, and who knows when it will begin to get better? I have been unable to get a vaccine dose, and I've spent plenty of time online trying to snag an appointment at one of the four locations that offer them. I can't even seem to get on a waiting list. 

I'm beginning to wonder if we will once again miss the April Tulip Festival, which was canceled last year. Or if indoor dining in a restaurant will someday in the near future become available again. We did get a brief respite a few months back, but then our local numbers went sky-high, and I sadly cannot even visit close friends without worrying about the new more contagious variants. It would be awful to contract one, but even more awful to give the disease to someone. I'm pretty sure I had the virus in late March of last year, but it was a mild case and I am probably just as susceptible now as I ever was. 

Such a pretty natural garden

But! The good part is that it's already February, and I have spied new shoots sprouting up out of the ground, all over town, and that means that we will soon have lots of things to do outside. I'm thinking right now about what I might plant in my little garden spot and just this morning took a quick look at a seed catalog for inspiration. We are now gaining three minutes of daylight every single day, so spring cannot be far behind! Yay!

:-)

Red, white and blue

Red potato bouquet

Yesterday Carter (our chief gardener) and I finished pulling out the rest of the potatoes. We had already harvested the white (Yukon gold) and blue potatoes, which were planted earlier than these red ones. When I pulled on the above-ground dying plant, what did I find at the end of them but this wonderful bouquet of red potatoes! Plus, underneath this batch were even more beautiful reds. They are my favorites, although the blue ones are actually quite tasty and make an interesting hue when mashed. So, we ended up with red, white and blue spuds to add to our garden harvest.

Mixture of reds and whites

The last section of potatoes ended up as quite a mixture of colors. They are definitely the best tasting potatoes I've ever eaten, but I'm not sure whether it's because I actually pulled them out of the ground myself or not. In any event, I am fast becoming an experienced potato farmer!

Gorgeous flowers

These pretty flowers caught my eye at the Farmers' Market on Saturday. I meant to take lots of pictures of fruits and veggies, but I got waylaid by a package of Raven Breads' brown butter shortbread cookies. I'm still trying to work off those extra calories. In fact, I'd better get off my chair and go out for a walk while the sun is shining. The days are getting shorter and shorter so I'll finish up and go make some tracks.
:-)

Harvesting potatoes

Not my potatoes, someone else's

Yesterday I harvested potatoes for the first time ever. Having a community gardener (Carter) who plants stuff I haven't done on my own before has made it quite an adventure. Frankly, I had no idea where or how to even begin to find them. Carter had written on our community board that the potatoes were ready to harvest and told where they are located in the garden.

I went out and looked around, puzzled, and after giving up the first time, yesterday I saw Carter out in the garden and asked him to show me where the potatoes lived, so I could help harvest them. I forgot to take a picture, so I found this one on line that looks a lot like what we pulled out of the ground.

The above-ground part of the potato plants were withered, and he just stuck his hand in the dirt and wiggled it around and voila! out came a potato, then another and another. I carried them onto the picnic table and kept coming back for more as he continued to pull them out of the ground. I was surprised to learn that potatoes don't have "handles" connected to the tops, they just seemed to keep coming out of the ground, like magic.

I took a fair portion of Yukon Golds and blue potatoes and put them in a paper bag to cure for a couple of weeks. (I learned about this from a website.) The potatoes look so pretty and adorable, nothing like I imagined before I became a potato farmer!
:-)

My day as we start a new week

The coffee shop threesome this morning

I know I put a picture up last week of John and I in our new hangout place in front of the coffee shop, but when Gene joined us this morning, we got the attention of the barista, who took this picture of us as we drank our coffee and chatted. It doesn't look like the coffee shop will open to indoor customers any time soon, but we don't let that stop us from getting together. It's nice to have friends who are willing to get up early and venture out.

I just finished Mary Trump's book, the tell-all about her family and her Uncle Donald and how he became the person he is. It's not a long book, and it simply tells the story of a dysfunctional family unit that has lots of money, most of it from Fred Trump's dirty dealings long ago. After having read the book, I now understand why Trump doesn't want his tax returns to become public: they probably show that he owes millions in back taxes.

It also helps me to understand why Trump is so psychologically damaged. It was mostly his father's cruelty, something that came about when he was unloved and abandoned as a toddler. I don't know if that actually excuses his own cruelty, but it explains it. Mary does not seem to have much of a sense of humor herself and I found her no-nonsense account to be a little annoying at times. I'm glad I read it, but I'm not sure I would give it another read. I didn't learn anything I didn't already know, just from watching the news and having read other people's experiences about dealing with Trump. I think I learned more from Tony Schwartz's description of having ghostwritten "The Art of the Deal" with him.

Garden bounty

On a more positive note, our community garden is producing wonderful goodies. Now that our dry season has begun, I am going to be watering the garden every morning. It's so wonderful to see all the good food at my fingertips. To be honest, I have just about had my fill of zucchini, but I am now snatching up the cucumbers. Lots of delicious possibilities. I'll be showing more as they begin to ripen.
:-)

Summer is in full swing

Front yard in summer

On Saturday, the 4th, I went for a solitary walk and saw this home with a rather exuberant front garden. I stopped to admire it and take a few pictures. There is a short walkway on the left that allows passage from the front of the house to the sidewalk. The picture, though, shows how all the recent rain has helped to create some delightful garden spots.

More abundance

This little patch of purple and red caught my eye on the Western Washington University campus. The roses were so fragrant, and I stopped for a while to admire and, well, smell the flowers. Bees were going crazy on the purple flowers.

Today, a few of my hiking buddies went on a nine-mile hike, which is a little far for me these days. I'm learning that I have limits, and as I slide deeper into elderhood, I need to remember that. Although some of my peers can continue to push their limits past what I can do right now, I am still very happy that a six-mile walk with lots of elevation gain and loss is still possible for me. That is what I managed on Saturday.

I'm finding that diet and exercise can continue right through the pandemic, even if it's a bit different these days. I still miss the gym and my social life, but visiting the coffee shop and then drinking coffee in sidewalk lawn chairs, socially distant from my friends, we can still enjoy ourselves.

My garden patch

I just went down to the garden to get a couple shots to show you how it's going out there. All those carrots, nestled between the tomato plants and the radishes, are ready to be harvested, or thinned. I know nothing about how to do it, but I guess I'm going to have to try to find out.

Summer squash

Fortunately, nothing needs to be done with these squash, other than pulling them off the vine and bringing them inside for eating. They are good raw or cooked, and they are going great guns out there! I love them shredded raw in salads.

And although I'm not showing off any pictures of the ripe raspberries yet, it's time for me to spend some time picking them and enjoying them right off the vine. I did manage to eat enough while taking these pictures to give myself a bit of a tummy ache. Once you start, it's hard to stop...
:-)

The state of our garden

The umbrella at our table in the garden

I intended to go for a nice walk yesterday, but first I went out to see how our community garden is doing. It was midday, and way too hot for me. I pulled a few weeds and then wilted in the heat and decided against a walk.

Raspberries

Everything is doing very well out here, and one day before too long there will be too many raspberries all at once (but we'll manage). Carter, our gardening maven, drastically cut back the bushes in early spring, but still there are plenty left. I love these berries and look forward to enjoying them one day.

My little patch

I'm afraid I neglected my little plot and the carrots didn't make it, so Carter replanted them, and I promised to water them at least once a day. You can see the lovely salad greens to the right of my area, which I will take advantage of one of these days. I still need to get a tomato plant under the white cage that my friend John  made for me a few years ago. Things are thriving. I watched Carter plant a bunch of beans as I languished in the shade of the umbrella.

It's a little cooler today, so I feel like I might actually make it out for a nice walk, which always makes me feel much better about the state of the world. I had a very nice Mother's Day, even if I didn't get my walk. Hope you did, too.
:-)

Sunshine and the garden

The beginning of the planting

I am so grateful to Carter, who is our new gardening guru, for all the work he's done on our community garden so far this year. Instead of having discrete plots for our veggies, this year we will have different plants in different plots, but everybody gets to eat them as they ripen. That's my old plot in the middle of the picture, which will have carrots, radishes, and tomatoes, and whatever else I might have room to add. Carter got a yard of compost and added some to every plot.

Strawberry plants

Yesterday I watched another community gardener planting these strawberries, and I know I will be enjoying them when it's time, although I won't have done much to help. There will be plenty of weeding to do all through these plots before too long, and I promise I will do my part in order to earn my share.

Raspberry plants

We have several places where the raspberry plants began to take over, and Carter pruned them back mercilessly. However, we will still have plenty when the time comes. I didn't have any idea that they proliferated so quickly. Still, there should be plenty left. In the background you can see the colorful fence at the back of the area peeking through. It is now several years old, but so far shows no signs of fading.

We have been enjoying intense sunshine for several days, with more to come. It's not as critical to me any more, since there's little difference between one day and the next. Sometimes I almost forget what day it is, with no routines to help keep me busy. I saw one comedian remind us that there is no longer a Saturday or Sunday, there is only today. One day follows the next, with little to differentiate one from another. I am taking two Zoom yoga classes a week, but that it pretty much it.

This will pass, but I am caught between cabin fever and spring fever, and I'm wishing that we could get back to some semblance of normal one of these days. But when? And how? It's an interesting time to be alive and I think we'll be talking about it for years to come.
:-)

Housebound Tuesday afternoon

Gorgeous ripe tomatoes

This morning I took the bus downtown to have coffee with my friend John, and then over to the gym for a class before heading home to begin my colonoscopy prep. I walked by my friend Judy's front yard garden, and she beckoned me in to see some of her veggies, and offered me some to take home.

I knew that once I got home and would begin my prep, I wouldn't be going out again until we venture out tomorrow morning to the doctor's office for the procedure. This is not a fun afternoon, but it is progressing as expected. In other words, I am staying close to the bathroom.

Big green and yellow squash

She tried to get me to take one of these home, but it's the time of year when I'm busy trying to give away my OWN zucchini squash before they get too big. I had never heard of a "honey bear" squash, which is what she says that large green one is called. As she picked some tomatoes and cucumbers for me to take home with me, I began to feel my hunger. I won't get anything to eat today until it's all over, but it's not too many hours before I take my next dose of prep to clean myself out. The best part will be when I step on the scales tomorrow to see a number I'm not likely to see again for a long time.
:-)

Not hiking again today

Lake Ann in 2013

My usual group of Senior Trailblazers is heading to Lake Ann and the Shuksan glaciers today. I am not with them, since my knee is still healing from the trauma I subjected it to last Thursday. At first I was not convinced that the knee pain is related to my tailbone/sacrum injury of a month ago, but now I'm pretty sure they are related. A few of the exercises that my acupuncturist gave me to do have demonstrated a clear correlation between them. This all started because of a 19-year-old injury that caused me to break my pelvis in 6 places and pretty much shattered the right sacrum.

I have long been aware that my right leg is not as strong, and that the loss of the internal iliac artery sustained at that time, along with nerve damage, would one day come back to haunt me. It seems this is that time. However, the good news is that my knee is gradually getting better, and I can carry out my usual activities, as long as I rest the area and don't stress it like I did last week. The Lake Ann hike is a difficult one, with lots of elevation gain, rocks to navigate, and plenty of sunshine to deal with. Not a good one for me today. I've done this hike at least ten times, maybe more, and look forward to the possibility of another visit one day, maybe next year.

Tomatoes galore

In the meantime, I am enjoying the lovely markets around town, showing off the beautiful fruits and vegetables that are now available. My own little garden has lots of those Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, pickles, and kale; everything else has been harvested. Late summer is a wonderful time in my part of the world.

Fall flowers

These beautiful bouquets of fall flowers were for sale, but after I admired them, I left them for others to buy. Uppermost in my mind is that if I'm good to my knee, I might be able to make next week's hike, or the one after that, if not next week's. The one thing I don't want to do is make the same mistake of trying to get back into the High Country too soon and suffer the consequences. You'd think I would learn my lesson, but it seems the one lesson I fail to learn is patience. Oh, the rationalizations I come up with continue to make me smile ruefully.

Time to pick up my latest book and enjoy the rest of the day in my easy chair. (I did get in some exercise at the gym today, not much, but some.)
:-)