Gorgeous!

Last week after picking berries untill about 8:00, I came in through the back and had to run get my camera. I could not beleive how beautiful this sunset was. I wish the picture could do it justice. It looks pretty good, but not nearly as spectacular as the real thing. I wish I could paint as well, but how can you compete with God? He's had 1000's of years of practice. Hope you enjoy.

Raspberry Season

My favorite part of the canning season is when the raspberries are on. There are so many yummy things to make and it is a great pleasure to sit down to a large bowl of berries sprinkled with a little sugar and eat the whole thing.

I have often wondered how much that bowl would have cost. Usually I think about $5. Free to me and nothing is better than fresh picked berries.

I don't actually enjoy the picking part and yesterday found myself humming a real old oldie "they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles and they ran through the bushes where the rabbits couldn't go, they ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em, down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico" www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxRK3DNoa_Q This is the origanal Johnny Horton vidio.

The stickers are really unpleasant, and I continue to pick in capris and a short sleeved T-shirt. Jessica keeps telling me to wear long, but it was 99 yesterday and way too hot for long. I think I sort of like the war wounds anyhow.

After 2 long hot hours, I was done. (My patch is 15x40 feet) My reward was a 5 qt. bucket full and mounding. Now what to do?

Razzleberry Pie is always good. I made this pie a few weeks ago. That was when I had just a few raspberries and lots of blackberries.

Last night I did Raspberrie Peach Jam. This is our favorite. It's great that my peaches are ripe now as well. I picked all of one tree this morning. I got 22 pints of jam last night. That was off the first picking. I get to pick twice a week, so we'll have lots of jam and lots of frozen berries in addition to all the ones we get to eat.

Scott's favorite treat lately has been a bowl of peaches sprinkled with berries, then dusted with sugar. Yummy!

Tomorrow, we are getting to have fresh peach, raspberrie pie for our Sunday dessert. I hate cooked fruit pies except for apple, so we love to have fresh pies in a grahm cracker crust. We will be having a Jim Kelly dinner. Corn on the cob, tomatoes, turkey breast, potatoes and gravy, stuffing cucumbers etc.

I love raspberrie season!

Tending the Kidlettes

I got to tend the kids one day. Katie slept over and had brought her dress-ups. She wanted to have all the boys dress up, but she said that Dace wouldn't do it. She put this dress on RJ and he was gagging a bit. Then she pulled out the cape and carressed his face with it saying how soft and silky it was. He let her tie it on and actually wore it for about 15 minutes before he tried to rip it off. All in all, he was a good sport. Rhett will gag to see his son in girly get up, so the next pictures are to show his real boy personality. He loved this bucket and kept climbing in. He would fill it with toys and then fling them all over the room. He had a great time. Katie even pulled him around for a ride.

Any one for "Baby in a Bucket?"

Garden Update

These tomatoes are about the size of tennis balls. I can't wait till we can slice some up. They are great in a tomatoe, cucumber, red onion salad with dill vinagrette and then sprinkled with freshly grated parmesean and bacon cumbles.

The lettuce is pretty good this year. I read that it is almost impossible to grow head lettuce in a home garden, but I decided to try anyway. I chose "Ithica" for my try and it has been great. It is the left picture. I also grow butter crunch, and simpson elite leaf lettuce. It is great to have fresh greens for dinner. I also have spinich, parsley and white bunching onions to add to the salad. My tomatoes are starting to color up, so I think in a week I'll have salad tomatoes and cucumbers to add to the mix.

The corn patch finally got weeded. The best part about this weeding is that it is pretty much the last one. Once the corn is knee high, most of the weeds are shaded. There are the ocassional singles that have to be pulled, but for the most part it will take care of itself now. I just have to keep it watered and hope the racoons aren't too ambitious this summer. We had one year where they nearly devestaed the crop. I don't mind sharing a few, just not the whole patch.

I have two of these jackmanii clemantis growing in the pergola. I love the deep purple color. They will bloom untill frost as well. Too bad they don't have a real scent. Eye candy.

This is the top of the pergola. This rose bush is in bloom. They are small roses that look like apple blossoms. It is quite a sight to see how far this covers. It goes up the 8 foot post and 15 feet across the top. It is 3 years old now. it will max out at 30 feet. I picked it to cover the roof of the room.

The The peas have been great. This particular day I picked 1 1/2 5 gallon buckets. Katie helped me shell peas for 2 hours. Impressive for a 5 year old. It took from 9 untill almost 1:00 to finish. We had a 5 quart bucket full and we gave a bunch away. The peas are all done now. Even though we get tons, I never freeze them. We love fresh peas too much.

This is another part of the west hedge. I planted so that I would have some flowers from spring through fall. First is the forsythia in April. This is a close-up of the blooms. The hummingbirds love these flowers.

This is a close up of the Honey-suckle. It is gorgeous all in bloom. The blossoms are clear from the bottom to the top. This plant is 3 years old and is now 12 feet tall. It has started to cover some of the roof and I weave it under the cross pieces to hold it down.

The slightest breeze sends the fragrance through the yard and I love smelling it when I'm weeding or other yard work. This is one of my favorite plants.
Bonus: It blooms till frost. This variety is a slower grower, but so worth it. It has way more blooms than more common honey-suckle and it is the only variety with the pink, white, yellow combination. Love it.

USABA 2009 GOALBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Herschel had just scored a goal and went back to his position to wait for the coming ball. His best game he scored 3 goals to help the team win 12-6. He is still lifting and working to improve. It will be fun to see how quickly he can get better. The USA coach gave him some pointers and tips, so hope he can do well enough to become 1st string.

From l-r. Chris, Hersh, Nick, Quinten, Lewis.This is the team as they got their award for the silver. They were undefeated untill the gold medal match. They lost 4-1 to Pennsylvania. It was a tough loss. They were ranked 1st after the pool play and it looked like they would continue on for the win and National Title. Not this year. Too bad.

For the tournament, the Olympic bus came to transport the teams to and from the venue. All of the members of the paralympic team were there playing with their state team. Utah has one member, Chris Dodds. He and Herschel are siamese twins. They are the jokesters of the group. Florida has 3 members, Pennsylvania 1, and Western Michigan 1.

More Flowers

These are close-ups of the Eden rose. I love it. I chose it for my hedge as I would rather look at flowers and since it puts out such beauties all summer I couldn't resist. I planted 10 in a row. Next year should be really nice.

Here is the neighbors view of my hedge. It is over 7 feet tall. This section are the roses called Bonica. They bloom untill frost. They are about 3-4 inches across and have a light fragrance. The leaves are a great shiney green and look great trimmed. Most rose hedges have bare spots when you trim, but Bonica leafs out nearly to the ground.
This section is the Eden section. These bushes are only 2 years old, so they will fill in like Bonica. Each shrub grows 8 feet tall by 5 feet wide, and it also blooms till frost. They open up a cream with pink edges, then turn a soft pink when fully open. They are cabbage roses, so have nearly 100 petals per bloom. These flowers are about 5-6 inches across and just a hint of fragrance.

This is the Paul McCartney Rose. No, I'm not a fan of him, but the rose is spectacular. Here it is on a dinner plate. Unbeatable form and size. Great petal count and heavenly fragrance. I love the pinks, but for red nothing beats Mr. Lincoln for all of the above.

Here is the wisteria nearly in bloom. The other side is just as full. From a ways away, it looks like a bunch of grape clusters. They smell sort of like hyacinths. Yum!

Too bad they only last a few weeks. This variety, Blue Moon, will bloom once more this year. This is the only wisteria that has a strong fragrance. Double bonus.

I LOVE May!

Here are the pink roses. This variety is nearly thornless, blooms profusley and has a luscious fragrance. Everyone who comes to the comments on how great they smell. I cut a couple of 18" branches off and put in a vase. The blooms are great and you can't beat the smell.

My garden has 28 rows of vegies. Beets, peas, onions, potatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, zuchinni, pumpkins, beans, garlic, lettuce, bussel sprouts, watermelon, sweet potatoes. The rows are 40 feet long. They are double rows, so 14 water trenches. On the north part of the garden, 8 rows of corn are planted and in 2 weeks 8 more rows. Plus there are the 12 fruit trees. Cherries and apricots are first to ripen. We should start picking peas next week.

When I get a day off, it has been once a week with Hersh working for us, I spend a good 8 or more hours weeding, pruning and what ever else needs to be done. It's great! Hard work and good results. My arms are pretty tan now. The legs, not so much as I spend lots of time on my knees.

More tennis. That's the answer.

Love the yellow roses, but not as much as the pink. The flowers are 5-6 inches across. Both roses make great pot pourri base. I gather them in the morning and pull the old petals off and lay on the dining room table to dry for several days. The pale petals are the spent ones, but as they dry they darken up to the same color as the new blooms.
I didn't mention the red roses. They are in front of the garage. They are pretty, but I don't use their petals. They dry black, not too attractive. I do have a red rose I love as much as the pink. It is called Eden and is a cabbage rose. Next week it should open along with the hedge. The hedge is part Bonica and Pink Eden. Love those too. I guess with 7 climbing roses, 4 shrub roses and 20 hedge roses it isn't hard to tell which is my favorite flower.

These are my thornless blackberries in bloom. Can't wait till July! The blossoms are about the size of a silver dollar and the leaves are almost a waxy green.
The Pergola is one of the favorite spots in the yard. It's a nice cool shady place and each year the plants get better. The lilacs just finished blooming, followed by 2 different clematis and the wisteria. The honeysuckle will open next week and bloom till frost. 2 more clematis should bloom in 2 weeks, so my plan has been going well to have something blooming all summer.

Here are some of the plants growing on the pergola. L-R Blue Moon Wisteria, close-up (just starting to open), clemantis (close), clemantis

Here is my Pergola. The rose has leafed out and starting to get buds. It spreads accross the 30 foot span to make a nice shady roof.

Now you know why I LOVE May! June is pretty great too, but may also has the perfect temperatures. Not too hot in the day and the evenings are wonderful. I love to sit on the back patio or swing in the pergola (I take them down on water days). It is a soothing balm for the soul to see and smell all of the flowers. Wish I could include the rose fragrance, it's guaranteed to make you smile. Happy Summer!