I’ve got many posts drafted but none ready to publish. I’ve got tonnes of photos but not sorted. I’ve got two class assignments to do. I’ve got a new shipment of comics arriving. I’ve had appointments all day so enjoy my photo of this rose from Leu Gardens in Orlando. I’ll be back tomorrow once I’ve caught up!
It’s that time of year in Wisconsin where the tomatoes and peppers flow! Here it’s not like in the South where tomatoes come in from May to September. They all roll in in a big juicy red & yellow flood. Though we didn’t plant any yellow ones this year. Peppers of all types are tumbling into the kitchen in plastic grocery bags full!
Mike is freezing them daily. I’m eating them so much I’ve got a mouth ulcer from the acid. I LOVE them but I do wish we’d gotten some yellow ones since they have less acid. We’ve made salsa, we’ve made gazpacho. Mike’s hung peppers and chilies out to dry by the yards. Still they roll in faster than two people can eat them.
We always have chili on Sundays in the Winter. We feel good as we cuddle with bowl to watch NFL while the snow flies outside. It’s extra good to know the goodness came from Mike’s garden that summer before. He’s the chili master of the house from start to bowl. I just have to persuade him one habanero per pot is enough sprinkle on dried habanero if he wants it hotter. I love spicy I don’t like painful! So our daily work with the garden harvest pays off all year long!
We have an apple tree in our yard. It bears every year but the apples have never been good. The squirrels love them except one year. That year the squirrels threw the apples at us. I’m not making that up of exaggerating. They’d sit on the awning over the back door and drop the tiny rock hard apples on us as we left. I think it was their way of protesting the bad harvest.
This year the apples look good from a distance. Then when you get up close where they are apples and not just red peaking through the leaves they are spotty and deformed, not good at all. However the squirrels are enjoying them but dropping the rotting parts all over the yard, garden, garage, driveway, walk, and vehicles. I’m thinking of taking up throwing the rotten parts at the squirrel in protest. Turnabout is fair play right?
Flowers didn’t get much attention this year in the drought. We don’t water grass and flowers. We do water food bearing plants. Some flowers get the over spray being just over the fence or path from the vegetable garden. The morning glories benefited from that.
A few more shots to enjoy the bounty of Mike’s gardens.
Mary Louise Eklund 