Out at Roche Harbor

I just spent the last two days, Monday and Tuesday, running my booth out at Roche Harbor for the first time this season. I have two partners, Pat McDole who does watercolors and jewelery and new this year, Beatrice Childress of Laughing Bird Beads, who does incredible bead woven jewelry.
Pat had set the booth up the last couple of weekends and I love the way she's mixed our things.
I also brought a bucket of sweet william and stocks. It tried to rain on us but it was mostly just a bit of drizzle now and then and not unpleasant. Now I'm home catching my breath. I'll be out there 2 or 3 days a week through Labor Day weekend.

Roses

This warm weather after all that rain this last spring has created the nicest roses I've had in years. Above is small pink flowered Bonica.
And the oldest known rose still in commerce, Rosa gallica officianalis, dates back to the Roman empire. These flowers just glow.
Probably my most favorite rose of all is Abraham Darby, a huge English rose of impeccable shape, color and scent. It makes a huge bush. I love it.
This year the honeysuckle and Gloire de Dijon rose are blooming at the same time. They are about the same color and the combination is lovely.
And the big bush of wild multiflora roses is in full bloom and full of little bumble bees. It scents the yard and fills it with a constant buzz. I love it when the roses are all in bloom. I give myself rose tours of the yard every day.

It's warm, it's sunny, my camera is working again. In the hoophouse the tomato plants are bigger every day and even have little tiny green fruits on them.
The beds of lettuce are beautiful.
And I'm growing watercress this year. A friend grew it last year and I was determined to try. I will have some for market this weekend. Life is good.

Herding Snakes

I haven't been posting recently I know. Too busy trying to catch up now that the weather has dried up and warmed up. but also, my camera has died. I want to put pictures of what we're up to and can't. I hope this doesn't mean buying a new camera but it well might. I hate being without one.

In the garden we got the corn planted finally and the tomato and pepper plants are going out tonight or tomorrow. Squash is planted through holes in black plastic in an area that has become infested with Canadian thistle. The black plastic works in two ways: it heats up the soil for the squash and kills the thistles at the same time. We get several years out of a sheet of the stuff as we get heavy duty type and so move it around. When we picked it up today to move there were lots of garter snakes under it. They love black plastic so it actually does triple duty by providing shelter for the snakes that eat slugs and other bugs. Anyway, the snakes were all slithering around frantically as we moved the plastic so I found myself herding snakes back under it when it was laid out. Several got up on the plastic and then just couldn't get anywhere. They were flailing around but without legs couldn't get a purchase on the plastic. These I gently picked up by their tails and showed them how to get underneath. So I spent a delightful time this afternoon herding snakes.