Squirrelling it away....

 September 20, 2026

 Yes, that is frost coating the grass Saturday morning. 

A quick check of the weather forecast Friday night before bed, had me going out with headlight and covers for the cherry tomato trellis and the half unharvested pepper patch. The frost didn't do a lot of damage, as there wasn't much cold sensitive stuff remaining in the gardens. The basil is very unhappy, some of the marigolds are singed and blackened a bit, but the zinnias appear unscathed. I'll leave it all for the pollinators that are still around.  

The rest of the peppers got harvested Saturday, overfilling my very largest, big metal bowl.

Earlier in the week, the rest of the squash was picked as the powdery mildew was marching on relentlessly. 

Maybe, just maybe, this will be the last pail of apples I'll process this fall. It has been an amazing year for apples, bumper crops on all our good trees.

After spending this morning in the kitchen processing peppers for dehydrating and freezing, it was pleasant to sit in the warm afternoon sun at the picnic table, and clean the garlic for storage.

The Jerusalem artichokes are one of the last things to bloom, and they are a bright spot against the cedars over beyond the garden shed.

Behind them along the stone fence, the Winterberry bushes are loaded with food for the birds. They look so Christmassy!
 

My asters planted here and there are finally blooming.  

I'm looking very much forward to taking a break from squirrelling away the harvest, and having more time for other pursuits!

 Farewell summer.

 

Foraging, harvesting, and butterflies....

 September 13, 2026

According to my gauge, 8.5cm of rain fell during August, and it didn't stop falling when August was over. We had another 3cm early in the month of September, and as a result, the bush is absolutely brimming with all sorts of fungi. The garden and the apple harvest is keeping me busy, but still I try to get out and see what is happening in the woods. 

 I had visions of lovely sauteed slices of puffball in butter for lunch when I spotted this guy...  

Sadly, his interior was yellowing, so he was too far along to enjoy. 

A beam of sunshine was perfectly spot-lighting this guy in the middle of the hemlocks, looking like a mini campfire. 

When we moved here in 2017, this big beech tree was perhaps the largest beech on the property, and was green and growing, although if we'd known about beech bark disease then, we probably could have spotted the signs. It didn't take long for him to succumb to the disease, and now the top has crashed down, and the remaining stub of a trunk is shrunken and riddled with fungi.

It saddens me every time I walk by him.

The rain and humidity has hastened the powdery mildew on the pumpkin vines, so they had to go. Strangely, the other squash are still holding out with no sign of it....yet.

I pulled the oldest and biggest of my succession planted rutabagas. It is smooth and firm, but am wondering if there will be a hollow in it's centre when we cut it open. 

Back in the kitchen, a morning was spent making blackberry and chokecherry jelly. It has been a few years since the blackberries have been as prolific as they have been this year.
 

The excessive rain this late in the summer has caused some splitting on the beefsteak and cherry tomatoes, but so far the paste tomatoes show no sign of being affected, and are ripening gradually. This may be the largest tomato off of the one Brandywine plant I grew. 

One afternoon a few days ago, there was an influx of Monarch butterflies, perhaps a migrating group? They love the zinnias that are blooming in several places throughout the gardens. I stood between two beds with zinnias, and dozens of beautiful Monarchs were fluttering around me, nectaring on the blooms. There were more Monarchs around me than I've ever seen together in one place, in my life. It was an absolute thrill to stand there in the cloud of butterflies.

September 1, 2026

How can this be possible??

Mornings are cool, foggy and very dew-wet, and morning forays to check on the gardens require rubber boots. On sunny days, it is noticeably later before the shadows of the trees along the eastern side of the clearing recede to allow sunlight to shine on the field garden, and it is dark by 9PM. The leaves on some trees appear to be a paler shade of green, and here and there are hints of colour other than green. 

There has been no shortage of rain for the last couple of weeks, some storms rolling up, blotting out the sunshine and making a surprise attack on otherwise sunny days. 

Blight is starting to show up on the tomato plants, but so far, surprisingly, no sign of powdery mildew elsewhere. The gardens are looking a bit tired, but are still producing so much food. The last patch of beans was ripped out yesterday, and buckwheat planted in it's place. The previously planted buckwheat in the garlic patch is going gangbusters.

Another bowl of green peppers to process, and lots more are sizing up, a bumper crop this summer.

The red guys are starting to turn...

Cherry tomatoes continue to provide lots of snacks,

and we have been enjoying a thick slice of juicy beefsteak tomato in our toasted tomato sandwiches for lunch, a treat we look forward to every summer.

The paste tomatoes are finally starting to colour up, and are picked as soon as the colour change becomes noticeable, then are boxed to continue ripening in the back porch, away from critter paws and teeth! 

The last two jars of last summer's harvest came in from storage, and soon there will be enough to start processing this year's.

The pumpkins hanging on the fence are starting to colour.

It has been hard to count them amongst the greenery, but now that they are colouring, it looks like there are 9.

Apple season is pretty well upon us, as apples have begun falling from the apple tree beside the driveway. 

Apple sauce is on the immediate to-do list, as well as apple pie filling, and lots of frozen slices for winter treats. 

With all the moisture of late, the woods are full of mushrooms. A couple more distinctive shapes and colours caught my attention,

but alas, I missed the flush of Black Trumpets...finding only their shrivelled remains. Peak mushroom foraging time always coincides with peak garden produce processing time!



  

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.....

 

Take time to.....

 August 10, 2026

...smell the roses phlox. Hey Foxy, glad you enjoy them! It really does look like he/she is having a sniff, but I doubt it.

Up here on the hill, it is not unusual to have a fly-over by the military. One hears the unmistakable, rapidly increasing volume of sound of approaching aircraft practising low level flight. You have very little time, but seeing as the doors are open, a quick dash through the screen doors and out onto the grass, to witness the low flying plane. There are usually at least two, one after the other. I rushed out and could look up at the belly of the big plane, seeming to just skim the ridge line of the roof and brush across the tips of the trees on the edge of the clearing, while it's roar is all-encompassing for a brief moment. It is always a thrill to hear and see them. (forgot to grab a camera)

On Friday past, I had a summer get together of my crafting group. We take a break from the end of June to the first of September, but in the summer, one or the other of us hosts a craft circle at our homes. We had a lovely day, the Hummers, butterflies and pollinators in the flower bed in front of the verandah kept us entertained while we chatted and knit/spun. 

On Saturday, Hubby and I braved the crowds and explored the 'Taste of the Valley',  https://www.totv.ca/ which made a stop in Barry's Bay. There are always so many interesting vendors to explore, and I came home with a fat bag of combed fleece to spin. 

 Back on the home front, the large amount of precipitation we received a week ago, has soaked down to the water table, and the water level in the pond has risen. Every growing thing is appreciating the moisture.

Today I began digging up the celery plants to process for the freezer. 

Cherry tomatoes are ripening just fast enough to keep us in daily snacks. 

The 2 vertically supported zucchini plants are getting a little ahead of me with their fruit production. 

I've picked two blushing beefsteak tomatoes, but the paste guys have not shown any colour as of yet. There are certainly a lot of them, but that's OK, because I have plans for all of them! 

The onions were harvested yesterday, their spot smoothed, compost added, and few fall things planted; lettuce, bok choy, radishes, green onions and two cabbages. We'll see how far we get with those. You never know unless you try! Protective screening is in place to thwart curious skunks, raccoons and foxes. The onions in the foreground are big, sweet guys, which will get much bigger as summer progresses.

We got a nice surprise on Bird Cam when we checked the chips over the weekend. Here is a Black and White Warbler posing in front of the camera. 

There were also many pictures of the flying squirrel going back and forth to the ball of nesting material. I'll bet there is a nearby nest box for birds being retrofitted for his winter quarters!