My neighbor across the road always calls me when the mail carrier comes down our road. I am so far from the road/mail box that I would never know when to go to check it. She has a good view of the road which is very close to her house. I appreciate these calls as it saves me unnecessary trips. Today she called before 11:00 which is early for our mail to arrive. Recently it came at 5:30 in the evening.
I planned to walk up and get in some exercise but I chickened out and hopped in my handy dandy golf cart. I did have a lot of mail and put in under my leg to prevent it from blowing away. The vineyard looked inviting so I rode down, not looking for anything in particular. I rode up to the bluebird house that my brother Gene had made for me. I have had it for a long time and it has a new door. The squirrels like to chew the 1.5 inch opening and gnaw it into a larger hole so they can winter over in the box. I do not want to have to replace this door again so I disengaged the large nail which holds it closed. It did indeed have a nest in it so I had to clean it out and left the door hanging open. The squirrels can just nest in the hardwood trees which are plentiful here.
Backing down from that end of the vineyard I noted which vines we will cut this winter. I really hate to part with any of them but those in the shade will not produce in that location so they may as well go. I saw other vines which had been cut years ago but sprang back up and are now a mass of vines and weeds. I wondered if they were trained might they produce the black grapes so many people like to use for jelly and wine. We have plenty of the pink Higgins and only two of the dark black almost seedless grape vines. My friend Bob planted them years ago. They are my favorites. I do have a grape called niagra which is showing promise. It will have green seedless grapes, much like the Thompson grapes. It was moved up in the vineyard from near the road, to give it richer ground.
While on this tour I looked for a short cut down to the kiwi vines, but they had all grown over with yellow goldenrod. I learned recently that goldenrod does not trigger allergic reactions as once thought. I had to go the long way around the pear trees to get to the kiwi. The crop this year is lean indeed. I will be lucky I think to get 30 kiwi. That is very disappointing but they had been severely pruned. One which Jim pruned is putting out growth again. It is really hard to put a good man (or kiwi vine) down. When I neglected those vines they produced heavily!
I then ventured to the raised beds with the electric fence around them. This was not a good summer for tomatoes for me. The best producer I had was a volunteer. It is now loaded with green tomatoes, but without the proper sun I have no great hopes for them to ripen. Still, it could happen.
Everywhere I rode today the purple ageratum was waving to me. Some plants just like to spread to other areas. Fortunately they like to go to areas where I am not planting other things, as along the east fence line and on the hill which is covered with ivy anyway.
One of the flowers which delights me is pink cosmos. Last year I cast some seeds around the oriental lillies out back. the seeds were varied and the only ones that grew were the pink cosmos. Now they have produced seed pods.I picked the dried ones and scattered them along the edges of the woods. Maybe some will take root and give me splashes of pink along with the goldenrod.
It is just the nature of nature to change and make us change with it. New activities, new projects, different foods and what I like most in the fall is the grapefruit season. So, there is much to look forward to even as the warmth of summer leaves and the cool winds of winter approach.
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