Dan's Ramblings

 Dan here ~

Was out by the fire as it was a very nice evening. I had my doubts but the wind calmed down quite nicely. 

I find it very hard to believe that today was July 1. The season is flying by. We survived the violent storms that were predicted over the last few days. Most of them went around us except for the torrential rains. It makes it difficult to know if my plants need watering.

The big flower bed has filled in very well. 

There are even “weeds” that seeded over from last season that are about to blossom. 

The Cleome is a voracious self seeder. I move the small little plants around the property. Most do ok with the move

We have a little fence at the edge of the property to prevent the dogs from racing through. I planted some three to four foot sunflowers beside it. I thought it would look good if the wind doesn’t knock it over. It seems to be surviving the wind but I noticed that something was plucking off the petals and pulling out the seeds. At first I thought it was ants or some other bug. Carol solved the riddle, a gold finch was the culprit. Carol said it would sit there and pluck off the yellow petals then have breakfast. Probably one of the same finches that I fed all winter. I guess as long as it doesn’t bring along a bunch of his buddies and clean all the flowers off. 

No tomatoes or cucumbers yet but I have eaten a few sugar snap peas. I used to call them "walk about salad."  In Rangeley I would fill my shirt pockets with them to munch on as I worked in the garden. My much smaller scale of gardening means that my walk about salads are much reduced in size.

As predicted my time is mostly spent on clean up, the wood pile and tending my few plants. I burnt a pile of wood the last couple of beautiful evenings. I hauled down four tractor buckets today to refill the wood box.

In the studio I’m still working on #16 for 2024 . I have made it to the borders so probably will be complete by next time.

Otherwise nothing too exciting happening here. Erin was here and about wore out her mother walking and kayaking. 

So back to the schedule of no real schedule. Will wait to see what the holiday brings, I doubt nothing on our end but that doesn’t mean that activity may still be about. Time will tell.

Stay safe and enjoy the 4th of July celebration, leave the fireworks to the professionals, I will.  I would hate to have to learn how to sew with fewer fingers.