July 9, 2011: As I drove the golf cart up to the mail box, 1000 feet away, I saw a young deer in the road. He was standing in the road looking back at me, about 40 feet away. I had slowed down at the curve to look at the yellow day lilies. He was trying to decide which way to go, I suppose. Then he bolted down the road leaping up in the air and then one big leap over the top of the hill and down into the ravine, out of sight. He was the youngest one I have seen out alone, usually a doe is around. I guess he was a teen ager, testing his boundaries.
My lavender crape myrtle is in full bloom, and so is the beautiful dark pink in everyone’s yard but mine. My deep red crape myrtle has never been pruned so it is very tall and the cinnamon colored trunks are the beauty spots on them right now.
The muscadine grapes are the size of big green peas. The big rain last night was a blessing for them. The kiwi are looking good and plentiful. The brown turkey figs are looking fat but not ripe yet, maybe in two weeks. Sometimes they do have a few early ones that I can put in my cereal, but not today.
My luck with blueberries is a bust. Everyone else around here can grow luscious blue berries, but I cannot. I know I am doing something wrong, but have not discovered what it is.
One success, is that the big black ants which I have found indoors, are now outdoors, and very inactive, as in “dead as a door knob”. The trap with sweetened boric acid has done the job.
Yesterday, Jim cut away a lot of the young trees, etc. which are threatening to fall over the electric fence. That fence has been a blessing to my garden, and a challenge to the deer. They are learning to look elsewhere for their favorite tidbits.
When the day cooled down a bit I checked the water in the batteries of my golf cart. They really needed water as I had not looked at them for a couple of weeks. I dislike this one chore, but I am able to do it as it does not require a lot of strength.
I was able to pick a few red tomatoes, but the heirlooms are not yet ripe. I am anxious to have my first one from the German Queen. That tomato plant has rambled over a four foot area and with all of the ties I had to put up it resembles a red neck spider web. In fact the entire area has the red neck stamp of approval. Maybe this was a red neck kind of day, but it is what it is.
Showing posts with label kiwi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kiwi. Show all posts
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Fall Activities
A few days ago I decided it was getting far enough into the fall weather to pick kiwi, so I did just that. I had gotten a couple of baskets full a few days before and wanted to just pick the biggest ones. One weighed in at 4.5 ounces. The average size for the ones sold in the grocery stores is 3 ounces. Perhaps next year I will see to it that the vines get some fertilizer in March as I expect next year to have them back into normal bearing.
I have some friends who look forward to these kiwi each fall. I think it will be putting them to better use to share with those folks then to try making jelly with them. However I may change my mind on that.
Hopefully this week the wild blackberry plants that I rooted earlier, can be planted on the hill in back of the house. They will be close by and I can monitor their growth much easier that way. I expect them to bear next summer. I noticed that the arapaho blackberry plants down in the front of my house have red stalks. The wild plants that I rooted also have red stalks. Perhaps they are related to the arapaho plants. If so, then I will have some very tasty, fat berries. I have tried to grow blackberries before about 12 years ago. They were thornless and not very tasty so I just let them die out. My intuition regarding these is that I will have a lovely crop !
I like to try new things and this fall I entered some of my jams, jellies and pickles in the county fair. That was the first time I had done that and I probably will not do it again. Reason being that it is just too much trouble to take the products in, register them and then after the fair is over go back and collect them. I read in the newspapers today that I could go online and see the list of winners . I did that and learned that my bread and butter pickles did indeed rate first place. The fig-strawberry jam only placed second and ditto for the muscadine jelly. So, that is not too shabby. We had rain all week so I imagine the attendance was not as great as expected in spite of having Charlie Daniels the featured singer on one evening.
When the days begin to chill it says soup should be on the menu. I did try a new soup this fall. It came from a magazine and is Vermont Cheddar soup. Rich, but filling and very smooth. A diversion from my usual vegetable soups. I do plan to make a base of tomatoes, okra and corn and let the rest just happen. My mother used to can tomatoes, okra and corn from her garden and use it for soups in the winter.
Also when it turns cold it seems a good time to make candy. My favorite is peanut better fudge. My sister would make this candy when she and her husband took us camping. She had a little camper cooker and using that on a picnic table she did her fudge. It was always so good !! I make my fudge with a very easy recipe and am willing to share if anyone is interested. It is in the cook book our church put together this year. I add walnuts to it and with the peanut butter I fool myself into thinking it is not too bad for the diet - unless of course you cannot have sugar.
So now that we are starting to use heat here in the south I will begin to look to inside activities to keep me busy. My next project is making lap quilts for patients at the Presbyterian Homes in Georgia. I have some colorful fleece prints to use. Also I have plenty of material in my stash upstairs to make adult bibs. These are among the items that are requested by the Homes. Our church will be collecting items during the month of November. The Homes will use them all during the year as gifts for the residents. I admire the people who care for older ones when they reach the age of not being able to care for themselves. I feel so blessed to not be among them, well not yet at least. In the meantime I will continue to fill my days with fun things and enjoy the beauty of nature from my window or from walks outside. I hope your days are fun filled also.
I have some friends who look forward to these kiwi each fall. I think it will be putting them to better use to share with those folks then to try making jelly with them. However I may change my mind on that.
Hopefully this week the wild blackberry plants that I rooted earlier, can be planted on the hill in back of the house. They will be close by and I can monitor their growth much easier that way. I expect them to bear next summer. I noticed that the arapaho blackberry plants down in the front of my house have red stalks. The wild plants that I rooted also have red stalks. Perhaps they are related to the arapaho plants. If so, then I will have some very tasty, fat berries. I have tried to grow blackberries before about 12 years ago. They were thornless and not very tasty so I just let them die out. My intuition regarding these is that I will have a lovely crop !
I like to try new things and this fall I entered some of my jams, jellies and pickles in the county fair. That was the first time I had done that and I probably will not do it again. Reason being that it is just too much trouble to take the products in, register them and then after the fair is over go back and collect them. I read in the newspapers today that I could go online and see the list of winners . I did that and learned that my bread and butter pickles did indeed rate first place. The fig-strawberry jam only placed second and ditto for the muscadine jelly. So, that is not too shabby. We had rain all week so I imagine the attendance was not as great as expected in spite of having Charlie Daniels the featured singer on one evening.
When the days begin to chill it says soup should be on the menu. I did try a new soup this fall. It came from a magazine and is Vermont Cheddar soup. Rich, but filling and very smooth. A diversion from my usual vegetable soups. I do plan to make a base of tomatoes, okra and corn and let the rest just happen. My mother used to can tomatoes, okra and corn from her garden and use it for soups in the winter.
Also when it turns cold it seems a good time to make candy. My favorite is peanut better fudge. My sister would make this candy when she and her husband took us camping. She had a little camper cooker and using that on a picnic table she did her fudge. It was always so good !! I make my fudge with a very easy recipe and am willing to share if anyone is interested. It is in the cook book our church put together this year. I add walnuts to it and with the peanut butter I fool myself into thinking it is not too bad for the diet - unless of course you cannot have sugar.
So now that we are starting to use heat here in the south I will begin to look to inside activities to keep me busy. My next project is making lap quilts for patients at the Presbyterian Homes in Georgia. I have some colorful fleece prints to use. Also I have plenty of material in my stash upstairs to make adult bibs. These are among the items that are requested by the Homes. Our church will be collecting items during the month of November. The Homes will use them all during the year as gifts for the residents. I admire the people who care for older ones when they reach the age of not being able to care for themselves. I feel so blessed to not be among them, well not yet at least. In the meantime I will continue to fill my days with fun things and enjoy the beauty of nature from my window or from walks outside. I hope your days are fun filled also.
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