Wednesday, July 11, 2012

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Where on earth does the time go??????

We are finally enjoying some hot weather here .. so that means the veggies in the garden are growing .. I can see some pumpkins and squash, flowering and fruiting .. that is a good sign.

The garlic .. well, I dug it all up today.  Except for some in pots.  There are a variety of sizes and I’m at a loss as to figure out why.

The first bundle that I dug up were mostly large.  And today, there was a mix .. some healthy sized bulbs, some medium-sized, some rounds (which I’ll plant in the fall, for large bulbs next summer) and a lot of smaller bulbs.

The cloves that were planted were pretty well the same size.  And I think that spacing the cloves out a bit more gives the roots the opportunity to spread out and grow more.  I was just antsy to plant as much garlic as I could last fall.  So this year .. I’ll try to be more mature.  But, not by much!

I do know that the EM & the seaweed made a big difference as all the bulbs were much larger than last year’s crop.

I’ve been picking raspberries, blueberries and cherries.   For the past few days I’ve been drying cherries in the oven .. they dry like raisins.  And I’ll use these in my granola .. that I’m going to make.

The winds had been so strong in the past few weeks … I was despairing of having enough fruit from the cherry tree for us to eat .. as the winds were causing quite a few fruits to drop to the ground.  I’d gathered up lots from the ground, so as to dissuade the wasps from visiting.

Anyway, 2 days ago, I noticed that the lower branches were dripping with ripe cherries!  That was a great surprise as I hadn’t noticed them before!  So I gathered quite a bit and pitted them, dried them in the oven and now have a good supply in containers, for my next batch of granola.

Today I gathered more and am waiting for a few more days for more to ripen .. and then I’ll make up some cherry pie filling!

Lots of cherries at the top of the tree for the birds and enough for us at the lower edges.

Last weekend we went to Port Alberni for DH to go sailplaning …. beautiful weather .. except we saw lots of cloudy weather which turned out to be the outflow from fires in Siberia!!

Anyway … DH arranged for me to go for a flight with the lead instructor … we were up in the air for over an hour .. sheer bliss!

At one point, we were flying over a pair of eagles who were soaring a thermal .. how utterly exciting was that!  I took pics, but they are only dots in the screen.  Suffice it to say that this was a wonderful moment.

And as if that wasn’t enough .. soon, we were flying close to DH .. that was utterly fantastic!    He was flying along at the same height .. and it was so lovely to be in the air at the same time!

A few dips and turns and such a lovely time.  I just didn’t want to land .. rather, I wanted to stay up in the air for a few more hours.

Look forward to a self-launching two-seater sailplane .. a gal can dream, right?

Well, outside to hang up the garlic .. or rather, to find a place where I can hang this lovely crop .. to dry!

🙂