Early August

Just a record of some happenings over the last week or so.

 Someone crop dusting started up their helicopter at 5:30 am.  They were 2 fields away so the noise was unexpectedly loud.   They were finally done at almost 9 am before they headed off to wherever.  It was a day for a nap!

I was outside gardening when I noticed the sky was this intense blue.  I snapped a photo and a few minutes later it had lightened up to its more usual paler blue.   It was a great colour and reminded me of the skies when I was a kid, living much further north.

The garden was hit by a fallen tree in a freak storm in early July.  The garlic ended up being smaller this year because their roots were severely disrupted but the tomato plants were knocked over and almost all the growth tips broken.  They've been sending out suckers, and leafy new growth to repair themselves which has resulted in my having to prune them once or twice a week since then.  They've also grown tall.  Luckily, it's late enough in the season that I can start pinching off the tips to encourage the fruit to ripen and the flowers to set.   Not a lot of fruit so far this year, I think because of the damage to the plants.   This tomato (a heritage Mortgage Lifter variety) is larger than my hand!   I think that poor tomato plant is pouring all its effort into that one tomato.  

A hollyhock.  I'd planted seeds for black and regular holly hocks.  I think there was one black flowered plant and a few white and light pink one's. Now they've settled into just this colour.  They are pretty though.   I haven't had enough flowers to try dyeing with them, so I'm just enjoying the mid summer colour.  Thankfully they seem to be surviving the wild raspberries that are volunteering that that bed and the chooks who like to hid out there.

It was quite cool the other night so I pulled out the quilt my daughter made me for last Christmas.   Dion adores it and if I don't get it folded up in time, he claims it for the day.  He's a sweet kitty, who is so routine driven it's crazy.  He follows it every single day and you can almost tell the time by his routine.  He does love a good belly scratch though, which is also sort of odd, since most cats won't let you touch their bellies without shredding your hand up.