a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

  • Summer Is Here

    shungiku

    It feels like the first real weekend of summer. I slept in too late to try and see the comet, Neowise. At 10 last night it was still too light to see it. I should set an alarm for two in the morning on a clear night so I can see it. A patch of shungiku, Chrysanthemum greens, is perfect for picking. This is probably my favorite green to eat.

    shungiku on cutting board
    magentaspreen

    Magentaspreen are up in force. An onion in bloom with it’s little cap is proof that summer has arrived.

    onion flower

    primary ballot
    And I had a chuckle when I opened up the primary ballot that came in the mail a few days ago. There are 36 candidates running to be governor. How many hours is it going to take to research all those candidates? It’s something to think about while I putz about in the garden.

  • It Blooms, It Dies

    blooming bamboo grove

    I’ve seen bamboo my whole life, but this is the first time I’ve seen a grove bloom. The grove of bamboo next to the cabin is blooming. The leaves are drying and falling. Bamboo can go decades before blooming, but once it blooms, the whole grove dies. A bamboo grove really is just one plant, each year sending new shoots up new roots.

    bamboo blossom

    The flowers are small and plain, like most grass flowers. I’m curious what the seeds will look like. Will they be grain like? Something I could turn into flour and bake into bread?

    artichoke

    Summer has finally arrived. Each morning blue skies await when I wake up. The long rains of June and early July ruined the cherries this year. They were small and many split. But the plum trees are full of fruit. So are the apple trees.

    hollyhock
    white plums

  • A Cool Start to Summer

    Chuckanut Drive on a summer day

    Summer seemed to have started this weekend. I’ve got pictures to prove it. Summer here usually doesn’t get going until after the 4th of July. Sunday morning, the views on Chuckanut Drive were as summery as possible. The dogwood in the woods is in full bloom. Thimble berries are ripening. The hydrangea buds are opening.

    dogwood in bloom
    ripe thimble berry

    Thankfully, thimble berries don’t ripen all at once. It’s a strategy to entice seed spreaders and gardeners to come back often to graze, and to wait to trim their overgrown branches. What gardener in their right mind is going to trim a thimble berry dangling bunches of yet to ripen berries?

    hydrangea in bloom
    Garden snake
    two garden snakes

    Frequent sightings of garden snakes prove that it is indeed summer, though today’s cloudy skies and chilly air, and a forecast for more cool days to follow, make me doubt it.

    forecast

  • Each Flower Has Its Own Strategy

    tiny blue flowers

    We are well into summer, though we’ve yet to feel much warmth. It’s still chilly at night, and it’s only on sunny days that it feels warm.

    ripe thimble berry

    It’s been warm enough for at least one thimble berry to ripen. A few more weeks and we’ll be gorging on these delicate morsels.

    pink poppy
    Japanese stewartia flowers

    Each flower has its own strategy to get a bee to pay a visit. Some flowers put out sprays of small flowers making bees flirt from flower to flower, spending a second at each.

    bee in Japanese stewartia

    I watched the bees on the Japanese Stewartia. The Stewartia strategy is to put on a feast and get the bees to spend a long time in each flower. How much more can that bee eat and gather? I wondered as I watched the bee bury deep into the heart of the Stewartia.

    Japanese stewartia flowers on the ground

    To love flowers is to have a broken heart. Most of them last for such a short time.

  • Disaster Averted

    hens on nest

    The longest days of the year are here. It’s still light at 10 p.m. when I go out to put things away before bedtime. The summer solstice always comes too soon. Every day there are things to make me smile and laugh.

    purple flower
    snowbells
    snow preening

    These days, I don’t get to see Snow but once every few days. Today has been three days since I’ve spotted her. Most of the time she’s on her nest, but where is it? I’ve looked all around the pond for it for several weeks.

    I knew from the way she hissed and spread her tail feathers when I got too close to her that her nest was nearby.

    snow preening
    snow on way to nest

    I got curious when I saw her head out across the grass.

    snow in nest

    And when I saw her sneak into the burn pile, I got my answer. She has her nest under the pile of brush we’ve been building. Two days ago I nearly set it ablaze. It was a good day to burn the brush. If I hadn’t seen her sneak into it this evening, we may have lit the pile in a few days. I’m so relieved I found out where her nest was before it was too late. Disaster averted indeed.

    yellow flowers