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.

Apple Trees

It's finally gotten a bit warm and it hasn't rained for several days. The apples trees are all in bloom and the native polllinators are happily out and about. The trees are buzzing when you walk under them. I don't really know what all the bugs are but there are some kind of little bumblebees. I haven't seen any actual honey bees so far. There are a couple of hives on the island but they must have enough to eat closer to home.

The tree above is an Enterprise apple. This has become about our favorite apple. It is crisp and juicy and keeps on the porch until March in good condition. What else can we ask for in an apple.

A bit later than the domestic apples are the native crabapples, Malus fusca, nartive only to the area west of the Cascade Mountains. They are all over the farm. When fully mature they have a lovely round shape and in the fall are covered with tiny little yellow apples that the birds like.

The place came with an orchard planted about the time the house was built, about 100 years ago, but they are slowly dying out. We've been planting new apple and other fruit trees around the place for the upcoming generations.

Wet

It started raining again just as we got everything loaded into the truck from the boat on our way home Saturday. And then it rained all Sunday. Really rained. the ditches in the garden are full of water again.
And so in desperation we planted a bed of green beans in the hoophouse as there is simply no ground dry enough for something like beans which require a dry, warm soil.

This afternoon the sun came out finally but now this evening it is getting cold. Phooey on the weather.

GREEN

I went for a walk in the rain this afternoon. This spring is so wet and cold and miserable in a lot of ways. We can't get into the lower part of the garden as the soil is just too wet. But everything everywhere is just so GREEN. The grass and bushes in the woods, the trees, are all loving all this moisture. The woods are so lush. Makes me feel a lot less crabby about the weather.

Petunia

I'm not usually a petunia person. Much more into cut flowers or vegetables. But when I saw this one at the grocery store I had to have it. So Joel bought me 3 plants for Mothers' Day. It's called Pinstripe and is a dark velvety black with fuschia colored stripes An amazing flower.

Primrose Path

This is one of my favorite place in the garden in the spring. The path used to go over to the neighbors about half a mile away, when their daughter and our youngest daughter were school kids. Now it basically peters out at the well just beyond this photo. Once, long ago, I raised and showed primroses and I still love them.