Calm thoughts at the Aerie

Terry and I went and picked another six quarts of blueberries this morning...in the fog. We got there at 8:10 AM and the beautiful view I posted yesterday was completely obscured. We could barely see from one end of the berry patch to the other.

Didn't matter. We only had to concentrate on the bush directly in front of us. And they were loaded. There's no picking on Sunday so there's lots of time for berries to ripen between Saturday and Monday morning. In under an hour we had filled our buckets and Terry was on her way to her sit-n-stitch and I was paying out $14.38 for the six quarts of blueberries. All of which has gone into the freezer making some 15-18 quarts in there now.

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The fog did burn off in that hour we were in the berry field but it didn't really matter. Clouds thickened up and obscured the sun nearly all day. The temperature ranged from a low of 54 degrees at around 5 AM and 74 degrees at 5 PM. Although it threatened, it never rained.

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Terry packed up another quart and a half of string beans this evening. We also picked two cucumbers. From looking at the tomato plants it would appear that some of the volunteer plants, those that are growing from the seeds of last falls romas that I made sauce out of, are starting to set fruit. There are tons and tons of flowers as well as little green tomatoes on the vines/bushes but nothing is turning red yet. I'm going to let them alone until the first of August and then pinch flowers off and force the plants to put energy into the fruits already on the vine.

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I'll be outside tomorrow cutting grass...again. I knew I shouldn't have spread that fertilizer last spring, dammit! The clover is my indicator. The seed mix Don put down contained some white clover which is supposed to help rebuild the soil after it's been all torn up like we did. There was no top soil of the rich dark brown variety put down, just clay, sand and stone. The white clover adds nitrogen to this pitiful soil and helps everything else grow. And it attracts bees to its nice white flower. When It grows too tall and those flowers appear all over the yard I know it's time to crank up the mower and start cutting. Takes about two weeks. I could cut every week, but that would be against the Maynard G. Grebs rule of landscaping that states one should avoid doing too much work on the landscape and merely look at it. That's why it's there.

Come to think of it, I must have violated that rule way to much already with the raised beds made from timber and stone at the Aerie and the apple orchard rehab program at the Bolt Hole.

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Trying to keep from commenting on the countries political and economical situation for the time being. Things I read about are just making me angry as hell. So, for now, I'll just take a deep breath, concentrate on cutting grass, weeding the garden, and doing a little bird watching.