Summer’s End

Alas, summer sun can’t last forever. The days will grow cooler and shorter, and our skin will once again pale.
— Sarah MacLean

To say it was a beautiful day would not begin to explain it. It was that day when the end of summer intersects perfectly with the start of fall.
— Ann Patchett

Summer was over in twenty minutes that day. Finished. At four o'clock in the afternoon the roses were quiet on their stems, full-blown, fulfilled; the water in the pool was warm; the leaves on the trees quiet, too, and green. The cat lay with his belly to the sun, steeped in heat.
― Elizabeth Enright

Last week I talked about the first sign of the ending of summer – the CNE. This was followed on Tuesday by the kids going back to school. The days are staring to grow shorter, the nights cooler, and it’s time to clean out the gardens in preparation for next year.

Mother Nature, however, needs to get with the program.

While the days are definitely growing shorter, last week was one of the hottest weeks of the summer. This is Canada, so very few, if any, schools have air conditioning. The poor granddaughter just about melted, and with her busy afternoon schedule she was only able to make it over once to go swimming.

I was happy to go in with her – the pool temperature was 80F, the highest it’s been the entire season. Ironically, it didn’t feel that warm because the air around us was so warm. Figures, eh? Needless to say, we were back to being sealed in the house with the doors and windows shut for the week.

As for the gardens . . . well, thanks to the Japanese beetle infestation, the green beans aren’t doing all that great. Was it only last year they were growing so fast I could barely keep up with picking them? This year I have to fight my way in because they’re so tangled with the tomato plants, and I’m finding just enough for a meal each time.

The tomatoes are doing well though. We have an insane bumper crop of cherry tomatoes, thanks to the hubby getting four plants. The three we have in a planter on the deck look like they’re just about done, but the one I planted with the regular tomatoes is still going strong.

I worried about my tomato plants because I accidentally planted pole beans instead of bush beans and they grew right over top of them, but I shouldn’t have worried. They’re covered in tomatoes, but they’re all still pretty green. I’ll be making enough spaghetti sauce to keep us going for the winter if they all start ripening at the same time.

Actually, I’ve started picking them anyway. If you wait until they turn red, they start to rot on the vine. But if you pick them when they get just a hint of pink to them, they’ll finish ripening in the house. And last year, a lot of our tomatoes where still green when the frost warnings started, so we picked them and put them in paper bags – they ripened slowly and we had fresh tomatoes right up until Christmas.

The lettuce is done. I will be planting less of it next year – we just couldn’t eat it fast enough, despite it being the best lettuce I’ve ever grown. Never saw a hint of the beets I planted, and I’m not sure what happened to the spinach – I think it’s somewhere in the morass of beans and tomatoes, but good luck finding it.

The carrots may not be a bumper crop, but they held their own. I’m leaving them in the ground for now because they’re still a little on the puny side. But the peppers! Wow, have we got a good crop of peppers going. My neighbor (who gave me the plants) said to leave them on the vine until they turn red. So far only a couple of them have got that far, the rest are big and green. I might pick a few of them anyway, just to make sure we don’t lose them to bugs or rabbits.

So looks like summer isn’t quite done with us yet. What do you do to mark the end of summer?

Almost Over

With summer being officially over on Monday, I figured it was time for one last picture of the pond garden and back patio.

Hopefully the plants will survive the winter and it'll look even better next summer

Melopepon Monday

melopepon ~ any of various kinds of squash

Last week I had my yearly eye exam, and I’m pretty sure I had a reaction to the drops the doctor used. I’ve had both kinds before – the ones for the diabetic check and the ones for glaucoma – but never both at the same time. Anyway, I woke up in the middle of the night having a reaction to something and spent the rest of the week getting over it.

Obviously I didn’t get a whole lot accomplished last week. It was my last week of babysitting but it was also a short week so it kind of eased me out of it. Which was just as well considering the way I was feeling.

We offered to take the grandbaby out to lunch, but she didn’t want to sit in a restaurant. Instead we went to good old MacDonald’s so she could play in the play area, and then we went to one of the local parks to visit the ducks and took a short walk to watch the fishermen on the bridge.

There really wasn't much else to see because summer really is over. We haven’t had to use the air conditioner in weeks, and the nights are getting seriously cold. We had a frost warning last night! The temperature dipped to 10 C (that’s 50 F for you Yankees) overnight. Sorry hubby, I don't think there's going to be any more swimming this year.

Today I’m going to spend some time changing over to my fall/winter wardrobe. Normally I’d wait until later in the month – this is Canada after all and the weather is nothing if not unpredictable – but I don’t think there’ll be any coming back from this.

I learned an interesting gardening fact yesterday. If you plant pumpkins too close to squash, the squash become hybrids. My neighbour gave me a piece of what appeared to be an acorn squash and I cooked it up to have with supper last night. It had a definite pumpkin flavour to it.

It was a really short growing season this year - the gardens are starting to look a little rough. I picked a pumpkin, the hubby picked another whole bagful of beans, and I discovered a teeny tiny little pepper hiding behind the broccoli that did nothing but take up a lot of space in the garden. I'm pretty sure the carrots are ready to be picked and I have another tiny orange pumpkin and a bigger green one.

Concerned about the frost, I raided my linen closet for an old sheet to cover the tomato plants. Picture this: me in my jean jacket and the hubby in his pajamas, late at night, cursing only a little as we tried to cover as much of the tomatoes as we can with a sheet.

Oh, the things we do for our gardens!

Bunny Love

*sigh* Remember how Monday I made the flippant comment about hoping the bunny left the rest of my squash alone? Well he seems to have lost interest in the squash. My tomatoes and carrots on the other hand. . .

This picture was taken later that same Monday:

Malariology Monday

malariology ~ study of malaria

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, I tell you what! Summer is well under way with the weather alternating sunny and hot with damp and hotter. I think the hubby has only missed one day of swimming in the pool so far. But for me the best part of summer is road trips.

Last week we took the grandbaby to Reptile World, which is about an hour north of us. This zoo is famous not only for the variety of snakes, turtles and lizards (not to mention the crocodiles and alligators) but for the fact they’re all rescues. One enclosure had 10 -15 alligators, all rescued from some guy’s basement. Seriously! Who in their right mind would keep a congregation of alligators (and yes, that’s the name for a group of them – I looked it up) in their basement?

It’s not a large zoo, but there was a lot to see. The reptile house had the snakes, lizards, and turtles, there was a separate building for the crocodiles and alligators, and scattered throughout the property were enclosures for various tortoises.

While Ellie loved all the creatures she saw and was particularly fascinated by the crocodiles and alligators, her favourites were the turtles.

My favourite, however, were the green snakes. I think there were only two of them in the enclosure, but they were super long and were constantly in motion so it was a little hard to tell.

The other big attraction for kids at this zoo are the dinosaurs:

These dinosaurs are all animated, complete with sound. You can’t really tell from the picture, but in this one the grandbaby is roaring back at the dinosaur. LOL

We also went for a hike on a nature trail inside the park and I do mean hike! The path started on a gentle slope into the woods, then got steeper, and steeper, and steeper. Just when we were starting to wonder if it was going to be uphill both ways, it levelled out for a few yards before coming to a very sketchy looking pile of rocks masquerading as a staircase leading downwards.

According to the map, the trail went down, along the edge of a pond, and then looped back up again. We couldn’t really see very far down, and we were in sandals, so discretion being the better part of valour we turned back.

All in all, it was a fun day. It’s no wonder both the hubby and the grandbaby dozed on the drive home. I would have too if I hadn’t been driving. ;-)