Mid July Garden

The woman paints and writes while the man goes on his solitary rounds in the garden. We are each busy is our tiny fiefdoms; after I show you my latest journal pages I'll show you the garden.

This is a summer unlike any before it. I can feel the great wheel of change turning and all my old solutions falling away. The problem is what next. The answer is unknown. Certainly I will teach again starting this fall but not as often and to smaller classes. I have missed teaching this week. I am ready to return now.

So here we have taters, tomatoes, the big apple tree and the Douglas firs that border our property.

The rose that grew up out of the root stock that supported Touch of Class. I can't bear to prune it off. I am a sucker for suckers.

The peaches are not as prolific as in past years so we'll have to treasure them even more. They are coming along.

Spider Mums. When I painted watercolors these were among my favorites to draw. I love to draw twisting, reaching things.

Lavender. Crush it in my hand as I walk the garden in the dewy morning. My hands smell good all day.

The gentle farmer and his onions, pepper plants in their little houses so they don't mix pollen. The walnut orchard in the background. The farmer put up a new chain link fence to keep the deer out and it's working but now we have wild rabbits and skunks that dig up the tomatoes.

It's been the year of cherries. This variety is Northstar and it is deep red all the way through. It is a pie cherry but not so sour as most. I can eat it raw and I don't usually like sour things.

Borage. Fuzzy, edible, friendly borage. The bees love it though so you have to be careful.

Blueberries. Lots and lots of blueberries. 

The blueberries are huge as you can see by comparing them to John's hands. 

More comparisons. Big big Matalija poppy.

Lace leaf hydrangeas. I love hydrangeas and other blue flowers.

Green tomatoes. We've had a few ripe ones but the best is yet to come.

The mystery rose. A huge bush now that we started as a cutting after capturing it on a country ride.

Another variety of hydrangea. John humors me; these are not his favorite flowers. He thinks blue is a weird color for a flower.

Those little plants in front of the beans are all different varieties of basil. As in YUM.

Artichokes. They taste like summer, like olive oil, like heaven.

Lots of bean trellises. We are bean eaters.

Fairy Rose.

Sweet daisies.

Tomato blossoms.

Peace rose.

Chayote growing on a trellis next to the grapes.

Tater flowers.

Cape fuchsia for the hummingbirds.

Yucca flowers.

Gladiolas.

Strawberries.

Sunflowers.

That's all for today folks. Just watching John garden makes me tired.