(a random assortment of recent thoughts and happenings. . .)

I've been missing these flowers from the farmers' market. I'm not really into roses and other "fancy" cut flowers; I really prefer something a little more scraggly and suggestive of wildflowers. We've been so busy we haven't made it to the market for several weeks and I'm sad that the local flower season will be over soon.

These onions are growing in the flower bed beside my driveway. . . does anyone know if all ornamental onions are also edible?

This baby robin flew into our porch screen door the other day. He was a little stumbly and shocked for a while and sort of wandering around along the side of our house (he recovered obviously), and his birdy mama was so concerned for him that she went and got a worm and fed it straight to him! Good mama!

Since the raspberries were done for the season I decided to go ahead and prune out the fruiting canes and trellis the primocanes. Look how much neater! Next year the new primocanes will come up behind these, and this year's primocanes will be fruiting floricanes, with easy access to the berries.

This guy. He hasn't made many appearances in this space! I promise I have some pictures coming in the next few days :)

We took down this bug-ridden crabapple tree in our backyard a couple of weeks ago. It was the right decision, since it was really pretty lousy looking and now our yard seems much more open. But of course it was only after we cut it down that I discovered that most edible apple trees are not self-pollinating and need another compatible tree nearby to swap pollen with in order to put on fruit (that tree in the corner is our edible apple tree). Rookie mistake. Chances are good that the crabapple tree was planted with the intention of pollinating the apple tree. We're crossing our fingers that the crabapple tree in our neighbor's yard is compatible and close enough, but we won't know until it's time for the tree to put on fruit next year.

Two weeks ago it was all..."Oooo! The first peach!" And then a week later it was like...

OH MYLANTA WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH ALL THESE PEACHES.

And after eating tons of peaches and picking TWO of these bowls (I typed "Bulls" initially. . . we're watching preseason football while I'm writing this post) full - 8 pounds worth - the tree still looks like this...

And then my dad came over and he filled a grocery bag full and the tree still looks the same to me. So far I canned 6 pints of honey spiced peaches and I am planning on some peach butter and of course have been freezing some as well. I think I'm probably just suffering a little under the bounty and just hate to see any go to waste, almost like it's my responsibility that every peach makes its way into a belly, but I'm sure I'll mellow out in future years. That said, if you come over, I WILL let you pick peaches (and if you give me enough notice I can even promise cobbler, too). Please. I'd rather you eat them than Blackmouth The Terrible (the local thieving squirrel that my mom nicknamed for the distinctive patch of black fur that surrounds his mouth). Although I suppose I could muster enough generosity to share with a squirrel... he has good taste.