Busy and beautiful August days....

 August 16, 2026

Enough with the cucumbers! I'm calling 'Uncle' on the pickling, although I am saving a couple of big, ripe cucs to make Hubby's favourite relish. I marked them earlier with some flagging tape so I wouldn't pick them by accident.

The first harvesting of green peppers, other than the random ones we've been eating.

They got blanched, sliced and dehydrated, their tops and tails cubed and frozen. There are lots more, as well as the red guys that are maybe starting to colour...

You have to look really, really closely! There are lots and lots of peppers, a really good pepper year. They love to be planted together. I have 16 plants in a 4' X 4' grid.

The paste tomatoes are colouring...

and they seem to be out-pacing the ripening of the beefsteaks.

Pumpkins are out-growing their slings on the fence, popping right out of them. I think they are sturdy enough to hold on without the slings.

Other squash are growing, 

some winter squash and acorns, 
 

and always later to the party, the butternuts. 

I'd been saving a good swathe of more or less weed-free lawn, cut and raked it up on Friday, then layered it into one of my compost bins with the dry, mulched leaves I've been saving in the barn from last fall. 

Making the layers here, and the result, this morning! 

Compost making is magic!

I've been blanching and squirrelling the celery away in the freezer. Bags and bags for winter soup making...what a luxury! I will be totally self-sufficient in celery this winter. 

There have been several afternoons of late, when there have been big rolling white clouds in the sky, giving us light, intermittent showers. One could get totally lost gazing at these beauties. 

The next picture was taken in the evening, and the white edges on the clouds in the picture, were glittering gold, as the sun was in the western sky behind them. It didn't come through in the photo, but interesting none the less.

Bald-faced hornets decided to build a nest on the solar array, sorry guys, not a good place,

and one of the pictures on the trail cameras was kinda' cute. Mama and young 'un having a snack.

Finally, my glads are starting to open.

Pretty nasturtiums, one with a Bumble bee's bum.....