After our usual cups of hot drink to start the morning and then a few minutes to give thanks, reflect and lift up those we know who need some special considerations from our maker we had a lite breakfast. Nancy did the oatmeal and I did Cheerios with fruit. I headed out wearing my gum boots as the grass was high and wet with dew. The vegetable plants were actually starting to perk up and I noticed some new growth on a couple of the Swiss chard plants that survived the monsoon's of late. I picked a couple cucumbers despite totally losing one plant overnight that was loaded with little ones and blooms.
I went on safari against beetles and slugs and managed to once again capture at least 50 or more on each of my hunts throughout the day. I have definitely put a hurting on their population but it seems each day they are back especially on the bean and pea plants and of course on Nancy's cone flowers and daisies. The wine berries are finished for this year and we had a bumper crop. We ate and ate as well as did Annsley when she was here. We made cobblers, and I have a bucket of must(juice, sugar and yeast) cooking(percolating) in the upstairs bedroom where its the warmest and hopefully will become some fruit of the vine(wine) and we have several frozen measured bags of the crushed berries for making jam.
The slugs are still attacking the cabbage plants as that part of the garden stays the wettest and they love wet ground despite me loosening up the soil each day with a hoe. I do believe I may get a cabbage head or two if we continue with these cool dry days. One thing that really seems to like this wet weather has been the sweet potatoes and white potato plants. Both has flourished with sweet vines all over the place and the white plants are still blooming. I must say the Zinnas plants are blooming and sending out a number of beautiful stalks loaded with blooms. The color of these flowers are so rich and deep and one never knows which color will be dominate on the plant and sometime the colors will vary on each plants stalk with shades of orange, purple and reds.
This year the circle bed that you notice when you come up the driveway looks the best its ever looked due to the poor rocky ground. The flowers are waist high and the bare areas have filled in nicely. Our butterfly bush has bloomed this year for the first time ever and gives off such a sweet pungent odor. The rose bushes haven't done as well despite being where they have good drainage but they seem to be the only flowering plants that hasn't done well due to the heavy rains.
I fired up the riding mower and did about half the yard until it was time for our daily hike to the top of the mountains. We saw no one on our hike but did see evidence that Norm was out and about and only Zeke was out at the Browning's place. It was a fast hike and we got back a little after twelve and had one of our favorite lunches of sardines, sweet onions and mustard on crackers. After eating I headed out to finish mowing and then I loaded up the weed whacker and headed down the drive to mow the road leading up to our place as well as the yards. That kept me busy and gave me a wet shirt in the process for an hour or so. I noticed the heavy rain run offs had exposed some roots around the trees in the back woods yard which made for some bumpy mowing.
I loaded up the golf cart with a shovel, hoe and rake and found where a tree had been uprooted in the woods. This made for some easy digging of clean dirt and I worked in 4 loads of dirt around the low spots and covered the exposed roots. Nancy yelled that it was going on 5 o'clock so I decided to call it a day. We had a grilled chicken breast on a bed of salad and garlic bread for supper. After the clean we headed out to the mailbox on the golf cart and saw neighbors Russ and Linda and then stopped and visited with Grant and Shirley who we thought were leaving on Sunday. We headed home and picked up the game Logo and I took a quick shower before heading back down to their cabin. Well the six of us played the game and Nancy lucked out winning on some easy questions after Russ had been in the winning circle for several rounds. I didn't fare as well coming in next to last as I don't watch much T.V. or neither does Grant as we were the last two in the competition. It was after 11 before we ended the game and we had to drive home in the dark on the golf cart luckily it has lights as it was pitch black out.
Well it was a busy fun day and the weather was awesome and of course Nancy had her camera out snapping pictures. Here are a few, LATER
