Summertime . . .

And I’m really, really tired of it . . .

Now that the 4^th has passed, it’s going to get hot – ugh.  The kind of hot that feels like 100+° with 100+% humidity.  Ugh!  Our vegetable growing season has pretty much ended.  As well as the flowering season.  OK – my Orchid Tree is blooming but it’s about done too.

In the yard itself, everything is just in the "hanging-on" stage all out plants reach during summer.  However, the Monarch Butterflies are out and about.  I know this not because I sit outside and watch for them (are you nuts!  it's hot!!) but because I'm seeing evidence of their having been there.

That's a little monarch caterpillar eating the fennel to the ground.  Ah well, I don't use a great deal of fennel anyway.

Next starts the reverse of spring.  Then, I moved all the container plants to sunny places.  Now, they’re all heading for shade. 

Early this past spring, a friend gave me a couple of cherry tomato plants – which have done surprisingly well.  (I can grow nice plants but they never produce much fruit.  I just don’t have the ‘farmer’ gene.)  Then, on their own, several different cherry tomato plants sprouted up in my compost pile.  I left them and they’ve produced some tomatoes also.  But they all are getting scraggly and no longer putting on flowers.  I’ll be pulling them up soon.

One of the tomato plants I both planted on purpose and came up by itself in my compost pile, is a Wild Cherry.  It’s a tiny little thing.  To give you an idea – that picture below is a regular teaspoon with a tomato in the bowl.  It’s very prolific!  Lately I’ve taken to drying the little tomatoes on a dehydrator.  They look rather like raisins.  Yesterday I made an herbed bread and tossed in a bunch.  It’s really good! 

Sharing the recipe –

Rustic Herb Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour	1 cup shredded cheese I used cheddar, mozzarella, Parmesan
1 tbl sugar	2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda	½ tsp salt
½ tsp rubbed sage	½ tsp thyme
½ tsp dill	3 tbl butter
1 egg	½ cup plain yogurt
½ cup milk	½ tsp poppy seeds (optional)

Combine first 9 ingredients. Mix well. Cut in butter. In another bowl mix egg, yogurt, milk.  Stir wet into dry.  Mix until all is moistened.  This is where I added the dried tomatoes.  Grease a bowl or round pan.  Place bread dough in a round, fat, lump in pan.  Add poppy seeds (or coarse sea salt or other herbs or, or, or).  Bake at 400 deg for 25-30 minutes.  Cool in pan on wire rack.  Cut into wedges.

The new house is sitting quietly across from my sister.  The septic is in progress.  Hopefully the electricity will get in soon so I can call the AC people to come out and install that unit.  I went over last week and opened the windows a bit (the smell of vinyl is overwhelming) with the hope that it will start to air out some.  I also took over several Sansevieria plants.  These are excellent house plants needing little light or water.  But their best asset is that they clean the air.  The Sansevieria (aka snake plant, viper’s bowstring, mother-in-law’s tongue) is one of the best indoor plants for ridding your home of formaldehyde, carbon dioxide, and other chemicals plus, they release oxygen at night.

I have actually started to take down things on shelves, over the fridge, on top of book cases, wash them and pack and label in a box.  I have two boxes packed already!  Ok, ok, doesn’t sound like much progress BUT, it is progress.

Our governor did a “oopsie – guess I opened everything too soon” and has issued a mandatory mask wearing order for the state.  He also closed clubs and bars and has issued an order for limiting gatherings of other humans to 20 or fewer.  People are back to bitch, piss, and moaning about it.  Myself, I think he finally pulled his ostrich head out of whatever hole it was in and did the right thing. 

And, after all that, there’s nada much going on here in big W!

7 Jul 2020