Happy August!

Summer is almost over and it's still so hot you can't do anything

outside.   We've been in a heatwave for the last

week or so.  It's regularly 30 Celcius but with 

the humidex it's over 40.  

We are supposed to dig up the garlic but it's just too

hot!  Plus there's no rain.  

Tomorrow we are getting up at 6am to dig up the garlic

hopefully it will be cool enough.  

Even with Covid things are still busy around here.

Nova Scotia is doing well.  We've gone over 2 weeks with no 

cases in the province.  But then some people came in from 

another province and we had a few cases.

We were almost at 2 weeks again when 

someone came in from another province and now we have two cases.

It seems like we are just going to have to learn to 

live with it.  

Being not very densely populated area we are fortunate.

We never had a case in this area yet.

But that's all I'm going to say about Covid.

I'm just finishing a week of vacation.

We went to the Oak Island Inn and Marina but our tickets for our 
Oak Island tour had been cancelled.

We went on the mini vacay anyway.

Just to get away from it all for a bit.

The garden started slow, but things are ramping up.

I had to plant my yellow beans twice but they are finally

producing.  We ate some yesterday.  

The carrots are doing awesome.

I'm having a cold cellar built to store everything in there.

The potato plants are beautiful so hopefully there's 

potatoes under the soil so I can put in my cold cellar.

The spaghetti squash is coming along nicely.

We've eaten a few feedings of peas.  

But my radish and lettuce have gone to seed.

That's okay.  I'll save the seeds for next year.

My herb garden is gone wacko!!

The greenhouse is doing well also.  As you can see, my watermelon

is growing! 

So this year I've been drying even more herbs

than I did last year.

And a friend of mine dries wild rose petals for tea.

So I did that also.

My spinach was going to bolt so I dehydrated, crushed it and 

I'll use it in smoothies this winter.  I have a full 

bottle of spinach.  This was only at the beginning of

my experiment.

One interesting thing we did this year is with our garlic scapes is

dehydrate them and crush them to create garlic scape powder.

We also had a camera crew  (ok, one guy because of Covid)

come and interview us regarding our bees and gardens.

It was pretty cool.

The only thing was that it was the hottest day this year and poor

Dave had to get in his bee suit and show the bees.

He  had to go change clothes after because he

was soaking wet with sweat!

Last night my mom and dad came over to play radio

bingo. It was finally cooling off.

And Grenouille likes the heat.  She was panting like crazy and instead of 

getting out of the sun, she'd just pant some more.

So I put her on the stool beside me so she could cool off.

We went a few weeks ago to some public gardens and it was gorgeous.

Our friends took our picture.

Well that's the summer update so far.

I hope things keep going well.

Have a Blessed Day

Coffee Shop Musings

Here I sit in a coffee shop writing this post.

I never thought I'd see the day.

But I'm on vacation and Dave had an appointment in Yarmouth.

So I thought I'd try writing the blog in a different place.

Might make things more exciting.

Maybe people will think I'm important 

sitting here with my tiny laptop, my iced coffee

(which incidentally I've just discovered I hate ice coffee. blah!)

pounding away at the keyboard.

Yup, I'm so important.
So far it's been a hot and muggy summer.
We've even had heat warnings.
Like today....that's why I'm in Yarmouth and not at home.
Yes I have air conditioned, but it's going to be hot as Hades outside.
So when I get home, I'm packing up the dogs and we're going to the beach!

It's also been a very dry summer. In the last 17 days we've had less than
2 mm of rain. Not good for the plants or the wells.
We are getting less and less precipitation every year it seems.
Even in the winter, less snow and rain.
We need the snow for the wells and the plants. Because snow is also water
and I know a lot of people complain about the snow, but it's good to have it.
Especially when the rain is almost non existent in the summer.

Aw man!!! Someone is smoking right outside the coffee shop and the smoke is coming inside.
ugh. gross and it's only going to get worse in October.....

Anyway I digress....
Despite the dry summer, the garden is doing very well.
Oh yes, I do have a few, what the heck did I plant that for moments.
But in all, it's doing really well.

This is one of those WHY!?!? plants.
Black Nebula carrots.

The greenhouse has officially turned into a jungle.
It's churning out cucumbers, basil and green onions faster than they can be used.
The tomato plants are massive, but not many tomatoes on them. I've been chopping off leaves
so I'm hoping that'll help and put more energy into tomato making and not leaf making.
The peppers are really doing well. So well that we're going to have to stake the plants. I've never had that problem....
I have 3 different kinds of peppers in the greenhouse, Kalocsai, Biquinho, chocolate and sweet banana. Ok that's 4 not 3. the Kalocsai is also known as paprika plant, and they grow upright.Weird.

Strawberries.......

Peppermint chard. Sadly doesn't taste like peppermint.

Rainbow carrots are actually very good! We now prefer them to regular ones.

In the raised beds I've been harvesting, Swiss Chard and Swiss chard and more Swiss Chard.
Note to self, only plant one kind of chard. Strangely enough, even in this heat it hasn't bolted.
Our strawberry plants have produced enough to feed us for 3 weeks
 and make 6 quarts of freezer jam.

Found this clothes dryer and re-purposed it into a herb dryer.

I've been diligently collecting herbs this year and drying them. I'm usually slack on that part
and they go to seed. This year I'm on the ball. So far I've collected an entire 1 litre
jar full of chamomile, also some lavender and sage. I had planted cilantro to make salsa
but it's gone to seed before the rest of the stuff is ready. So I'll save the seeds to make coriander.

funky looking pea pods. And tasty also.

Patty pan squash. Haven't tried them yet. Next week they'll be large enough.

It was our 25th anniversary last week so we bought 2 rhododendrons
to commemorate the occasion. A red and a white one. They're going to be so pretty.

Well that's it for this time.
Have a Blessed Day!
Lisa