Lurking in the Shadows
I’ve been admiring the size of the watermelon vines I have planted in the biggest pot you’ve ever seen on my back patio area. The vines are starting to overtake everything else growing in the post around them.
Last week I noticed a small melon lurking in the shadows. I’m hoping the weather warms up enough for it to ripen. I put it up on a black plastic flower pot, I’ve heard that helps with ripening.
This is my first year growing watermelons, I saw them at the greenhouse and I figured for $1.15 I’d see how they grew in my gardens.
Anyone have any great tips for growing melons or do you just enjoy eating the ones someone else grows?
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The Simple Things
Sometimes it’s the smallest things that catch make us smile. Earlier this week I harvested some tomatoes and brought them into the house and placed them on the dryer by the back door. I ran in to get something and when I came back into the laundry room I had to run and get my camera.
I don’t know what it was about the basket of tomatoes sitting on the dryer by the back door, but for some reason I had to take a photo of them. I love the light coming in the door, the graininess of the photo because of the dark room, and the blurry basket. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that bring us much joy.
What simple things bring you joy?
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A Little Fun
Who said canning wasn’t fun? Last year I introduced a friend of mine the joy of pickled beets. He now loves them and always helps us pollish off jar after jar of them. I decided while canning some this year I’d make some just for him. Since he’s a fan of the The Office, I figured I’m make his with a special label.
Do you share your harvests with friends & family?
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Benefical Plants: Queen Anne’s Lace
I always love the season of Queen Anne’s Lace. It really is such a lovely wild flower (or weed). It’s like a snowflake in the middle of summer (particularly from underneath).
Queen Anne’s Lace was one of my grandma’s favorite flowers. I remember her always commenting on how much she loved it (perhaps that’s why her crocheted doilies always looked like it).
We seem to be having a bumper crop of them this year, and I don’t mind! Sometimes in order to not see something as a weed all you have to do is look at it closely and find something beautiful.
It is a very beneficial plant, even though many people classify it as an invasive weed. Queen Anne’s Lace provides beneficial nectar to insects during this dry part of the summer when they don’t have many options. Caterpillars of the Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly eat the leaves, bees and other insects drink the nectar, and predatory insects, such as the Green Lacewing, come to Queen Anne’s Lace to attack prey, such as aphids.
Can you appreciate the beauty and benefits of a weed?
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Quote of the Day: Morning
I can see the orange haze on the horizon as the morning
exhales a yawn, and seems to be ready to rise.
~Jeb Dickerson
Mr Chiots and I usually aren’t early risers. We are usually up working late into the night and we sleep until we wake up in the morning, generally around 8-8:30. A couple weeks ago we were up before the sun (at 3:45 am) for a road trip.
Mr Chiots managed to snap these photos while zipping along the bumpy back country roads at 55 mph (he wasn’t driving). Not the clearest photos, but they still convey the beauty of the sunrise that morning. It was particularly foggy that morning in the low-lying areas which made the sunrise all the more beautiful.
Are you up early enough to see the sunrise?
