Catching up
Wow. It's been a full week, and a good one---mostly, anyways.
We put a lovely end on the first day of the week by grabbing a bucket of chicken and a couple beers and heading out for a easy picnic supper at Kensington. Because of road construction in the park we ended up in yet another picnic area that was new to us. It was either the east boat launch picnic area or Martindale beach, and alcohol wasn't allowed at the beach so.....
It was a gorgeous evening, but very windy and chilly. Mr. Man, like proper husbands everywhere, brushed off the wife who suggested it might be a good idea to take a jacket. Said wife almost always keeps a jacket or sweater in her vehicle for unexpected chilly situations. Needless to say, the husband got downright chilly. This led to a great photo op, though, as he tied a handy beach towel (said wife also keeps a stock of beach towels in the van).
Super Hubs to the rescue!
On the way home we stopped to check out the raspberry thickets around the tennis courts. The red raspberries grow there. I was surprised to see they were still flowering. The reds are usually earlier than the black raspberries. They might both be ready at the same time this year. The bushes are just loaded, though. It'll be good picking if we can beat the birds.
The week was not without berries or berry picking, though. Tuesday I hit the U-pick farm for strawberries worth every bit of the backache you get from the picking. The particular variety I was picking tend to be small even for Michigan berries (which are much smaller and softer than California's huge, hard shipper berries), with most berries being no bigger than the tip of your thumb, so it took a couple hours to pick three 4-quart boxes. My favorite picking technique is very productive, but it is a killer on your legs. I like to straddle a row so that I can pick from the row to my left, the center row I'm straddling, then pick from the row to my right before moving forward. It does occasionally lead to a bit of strawberry carnage, though.
Oh the Carnage!
Worth every penny and every ache.
I was going to make jam when I got home, only to realize I short of jelly jars. Apparently we've given away more jam than we've eaten this year. Instead I washed, hulled, packaged, vacusealed and froze them for jam making at a later date. Of course I didn't freeze all the berries. I earned strawberry shortcake for dessert, durn it. I let Paul have some strawberry shortcake, too. I'm such a nice person that way ;-)
In between the strawberry picking and the final disposition of the strawberries I spent the afternoon weeding and planting. Yes, we're still planting, believe it or not. I wanted to get in another crop of bush beans, and to replant the zucchini that didn't germinate well. And----We discovered that our community garden bed was nearly 100 square feet larger than we thought it was. Surprise! So we've added another bed for greens, which is now incubating some chard. In the apartment garden bed I added a row of beets between the radishes and snap peas.
My energy was incredibly high all that day. I impressed the heck out of myself with how much I got done. I even managed a couple loads of laundry on top of everything else.
My energy level held through the next day, too.
On Thursday, though, I crashed. I don't know whether I collided with some virus or whether I just plain exhausted myself. I got to the garden for a bit of weeding, but after that I spent most of the afternoon sleeping. My whole body ached. It seemed like I had a bit of fever that came and went over the day, my stomach was queasy on and off, and I suddenly had a productive cough. I swear that cough had the "bronchitis taste". Who knows? I was fine by yesterday.
Yesterday, as a matter of fact, my energy level was right back up where it was on Tuesday. I spent nearly four hours in the garden yesterday. I turned over and cultivated the last bed of about 4'x15' and turned it into a home for some butternut squash and some sugar pumpkin. Who know how they'll do. We know it's late in the season, but if we don't try we won't ever know.
Paul even brought lunch out to the garden to share with me. Mmmmm. It just so happens that the nearest restaurant to us, a gourmet carry-out only Italian joint, also happens to make incredible burgers on home made buns. One of them with fries is more than enough lunch for two people.
Even with being sick on Thursday this was an excellent week.
Here's a few more pictures. You can always view them (and more) here, too.
Progress
Garden Rest Area
Apartment Bed
Micro Greens
Early Harvest
We put a lovely end on the first day of the week by grabbing a bucket of chicken and a couple beers and heading out for a easy picnic supper at Kensington. Because of road construction in the park we ended up in yet another picnic area that was new to us. It was either the east boat launch picnic area or Martindale beach, and alcohol wasn't allowed at the beach so.....
It was a gorgeous evening, but very windy and chilly. Mr. Man, like proper husbands everywhere, brushed off the wife who suggested it might be a good idea to take a jacket. Said wife almost always keeps a jacket or sweater in her vehicle for unexpected chilly situations. Needless to say, the husband got downright chilly. This led to a great photo op, though, as he tied a handy beach towel (said wife also keeps a stock of beach towels in the van).
Super Hubs to the rescue!
On the way home we stopped to check out the raspberry thickets around the tennis courts. The red raspberries grow there. I was surprised to see they were still flowering. The reds are usually earlier than the black raspberries. They might both be ready at the same time this year. The bushes are just loaded, though. It'll be good picking if we can beat the birds.
The week was not without berries or berry picking, though. Tuesday I hit the U-pick farm for strawberries worth every bit of the backache you get from the picking. The particular variety I was picking tend to be small even for Michigan berries (which are much smaller and softer than California's huge, hard shipper berries), with most berries being no bigger than the tip of your thumb, so it took a couple hours to pick three 4-quart boxes. My favorite picking technique is very productive, but it is a killer on your legs. I like to straddle a row so that I can pick from the row to my left, the center row I'm straddling, then pick from the row to my right before moving forward. It does occasionally lead to a bit of strawberry carnage, though.
Oh the Carnage!
Worth every penny and every ache.
I was going to make jam when I got home, only to realize I short of jelly jars. Apparently we've given away more jam than we've eaten this year. Instead I washed, hulled, packaged, vacusealed and froze them for jam making at a later date. Of course I didn't freeze all the berries. I earned strawberry shortcake for dessert, durn it. I let Paul have some strawberry shortcake, too. I'm such a nice person that way ;-)
In between the strawberry picking and the final disposition of the strawberries I spent the afternoon weeding and planting. Yes, we're still planting, believe it or not. I wanted to get in another crop of bush beans, and to replant the zucchini that didn't germinate well. And----We discovered that our community garden bed was nearly 100 square feet larger than we thought it was. Surprise! So we've added another bed for greens, which is now incubating some chard. In the apartment garden bed I added a row of beets between the radishes and snap peas.
My energy was incredibly high all that day. I impressed the heck out of myself with how much I got done. I even managed a couple loads of laundry on top of everything else.
My energy level held through the next day, too.
On Thursday, though, I crashed. I don't know whether I collided with some virus or whether I just plain exhausted myself. I got to the garden for a bit of weeding, but after that I spent most of the afternoon sleeping. My whole body ached. It seemed like I had a bit of fever that came and went over the day, my stomach was queasy on and off, and I suddenly had a productive cough. I swear that cough had the "bronchitis taste". Who knows? I was fine by yesterday.
Yesterday, as a matter of fact, my energy level was right back up where it was on Tuesday. I spent nearly four hours in the garden yesterday. I turned over and cultivated the last bed of about 4'x15' and turned it into a home for some butternut squash and some sugar pumpkin. Who know how they'll do. We know it's late in the season, but if we don't try we won't ever know.
Paul even brought lunch out to the garden to share with me. Mmmmm. It just so happens that the nearest restaurant to us, a gourmet carry-out only Italian joint, also happens to make incredible burgers on home made buns. One of them with fries is more than enough lunch for two people.
Even with being sick on Thursday this was an excellent week.
Here's a few more pictures. You can always view them (and more) here, too.
Progress
Garden Rest Area
Apartment Bed
Micro Greens
Early Harvest