Pete and REPEAT!

I will never get bored looking at the beautiful sights I see every day. When I woke up this morning I looked out the window, whatdoyouknow, there was a large pink poppy that opened overnight. There are several more to show their beauty and each will be exciting for me. When I drove the buggy over there to take pictures, I saw a grasshopper on one of the little ones.

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I spent some time packaging up the Heirloom Oxheart seeds that have fermented and dried well. They will be stored in paper and identified and the packets will go into the freezer for the winter. 

I'm also going to try to save some of the zinnia seeds. It has been a long time since I've harvested seeds and now I really like to do it now.

So, let's see what tomorrow brings.

Beauty in My Eye

Yes. It's RED. Yes. It is a beautiful sight! Yes. It is the last of my gifts of the Oxhearts. Yes. It will not disappoint when we have lunch today. The flavor is like no other tomato. The meat is dense and juicy. This beauty will give seeds to continue on the propagation of this treasured variety. It almost hurt to slice it in half. Almost. It was a pleasure to reap the few seeds it produced. They are special. Believe me. After fermenting in their own juice for about 10 days, they will be dried, saved in a paper envelope and put in a pill bottle to go into the freezer until next spring. YAY!

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PA Tomatoes

Compared with the huge beautiful crop our daughter in NJ grew this year, our daughter in PA, who started them all from seeds didn't have such success, but it wasn't a total failure either. She has been making sauce all this week. Her tomatoes were small but still very sweet and tasty. Her neighbor grew the largest one (below) from her shared seedling but it grew against the fence and became the "mother" of our 2021 crop. (There are very few seeds to save from this meaty variety.)

This is the PA garden. Sad sight! BUT....she saved three for us.

Better late than never! These are a yearly treasure.

Labor Day Weekend

Of course James celebrates the Labor Day weekend.

I think that this is a hornet because I know yellow jackets are fatter in the middle. There is no fuzz on it so it’s not a honeybee. Honeybees are gathering around as well. Whatever it is it also loves the nectar of the sedum blossoms, as does the bumblebee.  I sure don’t need to be stung. I no longer have an Epipen. I grabbed the camera to take a photo of the beautiful dragonfly that had landed on the sedum but it flew away before I could capture it.

The mushrooms are growing again at the root of our large Douglas Fir on the beach side of the road. I find mushrooms very interesting. Yesterday a young teen walked by, spotted it and tip-toed over to get a closer look. I think he thought it was an animal. I think it is a Boletus Edulis but never would eat it even though I love edible mushrooms. It is also called a "Penny Bun."

The white geranium plant in the old piece of pipe being used as a planter did very well this season. 

I’ll end this with a promise of next year’s Oxheart tomatoes being the best ever!

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