Here and There

It is Friday afternoon...at least I think it is. Everyone I chatted with today is excited for the weekend. It is just another Saturday for us retired folks!

If you stuck your tongue out at me or stretched a finger, I deserved that..so all is well.

We received over an inch of much needed rain, so I am grateful for that. The garden is starting to look good now that the night temperatures are staying in the 50s. Here are some recent photos.

This was our first time trying to grow garlic and it seems to be doing well. That is some green crunchy lettuce in with the garlic. NO, so far the lettuce does not taste like garlic but it enjoys having filtered sun on the warmer days.

Seems like with broccoli you get a heck of a lot more leaves than you do vegetable itself, but you can see the crown starting to form. It should be ready for the table in a few weeks. YUM! And Judy doesn't like it, so it's all mine!

This is a biblical flower, from way way back. It is called phlox and as a child I always heard that shepherds watched over their phlox by night. No? Well, anyway, this is a shot from the back yard looking out toward the woods. It just grows wild out there and I wait until it fully flowers before I whack it down.

Below is our very own field of dreams.

Every late spring and even into summer we get these vivid colors from our very own poppies. These were the first to pop into sight but when they really get going it is gorgeous.

I just tried to buy a pallet of pellets. Every year at this time I get 2 or 3 tons (each pallet is a ton) and store them in our garage until the winter nights turn cold. But when I called our supplier today, he said he would not have any until this fall. I asked why and he said they weren't sure. I am at the point where I have a hard time biting my tongue, so I asked, "Waiting for the price to go up?" I got a nervous chuckle, so I think I guessed correctly. Then my oil company said there would not be a price cap for oil, so I might have to resort to burning the pallets the pellets come on! Just kidding. We will be fine, but I have we will have to dig deep to help low income families afford their oil this winter. I hope prices get better before they get much worse!

So, back to gardening:

• Judy told me about some edible herbs we can grow. It was sage advice!

• I woke up rather early the other day and took a stroll in the garden. I wondered where the sun was....then it dawned on me

• I was in the garden the other day on my knees and my neighbor asked me what I was doing. I said I was planting seeds in alphabetical order. He replied, "Really? I don't know how you find the time." I told him it was easy...it is right next to the sage.

• Judy came in the other day furious. She said that our neighbor was out sunning herself without any clothes on. Me, I'm on the fence.

• How did the gardener get rich? He was working a pansy scheme.

• Why did the gardener quit? Because his celery wasn't high enough.

• What do you get when you cross poison ivy with a 4-leaf clover? A rash of good luck!

• Why should you never tell secrets in the garden? Because the potatoes have eyes and the corn has ears!

• and FINALLY!! What do you call a cheerleading herb? An encourage mint!

Peace out and remember!