S'up in the Garden?

Thanks to my little Sisty, Barb, for the idea of attaching cd's to the fencing for deer repellents. They swing and shine in the sun keeping away predators...maybe even birds; I'm not sure. We will not turn on the electric fence this year. Everything is producing now, although nothing is ripening all that well. Our nights are already cooling down to as low as 48 degrees, and the days this last week haven't been all that warm... in the low 70's. The watering system didn't work well in my absence this summer, so the potatoes and tomatoes didn't get their fair share with the broken line. Blossom end rot has taken a few tomatoes, and the potatoes began dying earlier than should have been expected.
The greens have FINALLY taken off and produced great quantities. Lettuce is finished, and the chard and kale are wonderful!

There IS a blossom on this eggplant, not that it will ever ripen and be harvestable.

When I lived in The Dalles I had three plants from which I harvested 18 large eggplants! The recipe in Laurel's Kitchen for Eggplant Pasta Sauce is my favorite, and I made a lot of it that year for the freezer...none this year, sadly.

There are only a few of these Amish Paste Tomatoes.

And I have many of these lovely "Connie's Dad's" Winter Squashes.

Only 36 pounds of potatoes were harvested from my 25 plants. I expected at least 50 pounds, and we had great potato-growing weather. Crop failure due to watering issues is heart-breaking.

What to do with those Zucchini Boats?

I grind them into relish using a pickle relish recipe. We like this in tuna for sandwiches, in home-made Thousand Island dressing, and in potato salad. Cucumbers are always an issue to get for me, but zucchinis are not!

That's S'up in the garden!

Little time is left here in the mountains of wild Idaho for anything to happen, and the wet and cool spring made warming the soil an issue. This is the third year in a row for very challenging gardening weather. I'm grateful for the lack of bugs!

Sold...at G'ville Farmers' Market!

I made aprons while I visited my Little Mither in B'ham. Below is one I made from a tiny set of kitchen window curtains purchased at the Goodwill in Vancouver. My friend Margaret was selling garlic at the Farmers' Market near my booth. She 'HAD' to have this one. It is/was my favorite, and I didn't expect it to really sell. It went first!The aqua/brown one below went next, my second favorite.

Below are the Little Sister aprons I had for sale too.

Big Sister/Little Sister aprons...and some of my favorites.

There are still some left. I sold 3 ladies' aprons and one child's.

I have some vintage table cloths in my stash, so I'll leave you now and get started on more aprons out of that fabric. It should be very delightful to create/view what's next!

Tour de notFrance

This is a mini-tour of some places I've been lately.

Yesterday it was a rare sunny day up here near Canada while I am with MamaPajama. We decided to take a tour of the Mount Baker area.

This is in front of Picture Lake which is still mostly covered over with snow. There were small floating iceburgs within the lake too. Mom said she'd walked around this lake in the past, but not so yesterday. It was a warm 70 degrees and brilliantly sunny.
These next pics are for you, Elaine!
Margy came up several weekends ago, and we toured an historic mansion that houses a quilt museum. The one below incorporated many men's ties.
I loved the brilliant and colorful spash of a quilt this was.This next one was a 3-D with the quilting done in chickwire-style to match the chicken theme.

The one below was also three-demensional...a cutie!

Below is the Peace Arch on the Canadian border with Washington.

The park was truly lovely with sculptures, gardens, and slow people...like us.

Mama looks a little worried, but she was very happy to have been to the border to see the arch. The Olympic Torch was passed through the arch during the pre-games run through countries.

My sister, Barb, with whom mom lives is an extraordinary gardener. I've picked gallons of raspberries for her freezer while she is away and I am here to take care of Mama.

I decided with part of the pickin' I'd make jam to take home with me. I LOVE raspberries!!!

One of my favorite get-aways is at a darling little knitting shop.

I'll spare you all the pictures of the darling houses on Lummi Island where Mom and I toured last week on another sunny (finally!) day. You can see the northern Cascades on the right in the background and Mount Baker on the left...they are obscured somewhat by the clouds that enveloped us earlier in the morning.

In the center of the picture below is a glacier getting ready to fall over the cliff. We were entranced by the stunning beauty of this place yesterday.

This is Galena Creek Falls fed by the melting glacier in the top of the picture.

I have only 2 days left here before packing up and trekking on home.

I've spent only 10 days at home this summer, and I'm ready to be there for awhile!

It has been a lovely 'visiting' summer this year.

And I needn't have worried about my garden.

Jay filled the new boxes with rich composted manure from the ranch last fall.

The 'soil' was too rich for the plants, and we have no tomatoes. Gardening is always an experiment; sometimes is works, and sometimes it doesn't.

That's life!