Monday, July 13, 2009

What's That Bright Light in the Sky?

Gasp! Can it really be the SUN????

Maine has had the rainiest, foggiest June ever. I doubt we saw the sun more than three days all month and unfortunately, July is looking pretty bleak as well. However, we did have a few days of glorious sunshine and blue skies last week and H and I took full advantage of it with an annual tradition of attending the Belfast Garden Tour.

We visited 6 lovely gardens and I was heartened to find that my garden was not alone in falling behind due to the gloomy weather. Many of the gardens showed signs of the nasty slug infestation that was so difficult to keep under control. And I awarded myself bragging rights as no one had as many tomatoes as I do! The experiment of bucket versus garden planted tomatoes so far, has the bucket planted tomatoes ahead by a mile. One of the plants has a tomato the size of a baseball - I'm excited!!!

Each of the gardens were unique and one stop on the tour was the Cellar Door Winery near Camden.

The view of the vines from their deck was spectacular with the Camden hills in the background.


However, I think H and I enjoyed the glass of wine on the deck of the winery best!


We met some lovely ladies on the tour and it was very apparent from their accents that they were not from Maine! Turns out they were from Georgia and with H, being originally from Alabama, a discussion of the finer points of boiled peanuts ensued. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly H and I fall back into our southern drawl. The ladies were kind enough to get a picture of the two of us together for a change.

These lemon yellow daylilies were so bright and pretty they made me smile.

Always one to find uses for the pile of twigs I end up with after pruning, I found this little masterpiece quite interesting. Looks like a cute way to prop up the floppers in the garden.

Remember that humongous pile of wood we had delivered to the door yard last month?

Well, there only remains to stack another 1/2 cord and we will be finished with the task!

Yesterday, we stacked 24 wheelbarrows full before the spirit finally gave out......


ah, but there's nothing more satisfying after a long day of stacking than looking at what one has achieved. Our winter will most definitely be warm and cozy.

As lovely as the gardens were, we were happy to get back home to our own for a bit of relaxing in the sunshine. As Dorothy said, "There's no place like home"!

The goatsbeard is in full, feathery bloom right now.


The nonstop begonia is putting out a great effort to brighten the front porch....

and the fern garden out front is really getting lush. I think I may have to transplant the remaining hosta next spring to make room for the lady ferns behind it.

Despite the ravaging of slugs, the cabbages are looking pretty good. Now that I've gotten more slug bait, the nasty creatures shouldn't be a problem. I was getting pretty tired of looking for them every morning with my spray bottle of water and ammonia.

The green beans are finally beginning to climb the poles

The lovage in the background is blooming and is larger than I have ever seen it. It must really have loved the rain, as unfortunately, did the weeds. I've just not been able to keep up with them.

So, Dear Ones, this day finds me finally able to sit down at the computer and blog. And to my blogger friends, please rest assured that I'm keeping up with all of you, just don't have time to do much commenting.

Life is Busy and Blissfully Good!

Hugs, Giddy

1 comment:

Diana LaMarre said...

Hi Giddy,
So nice to catch up with you and H.

That twig trellis is awfully cute, but looks like it might take some time to make.

Hmm...I could get some of those buckets from work and maybe try tomatoes in them next year.

Tomatoes never do much for me, so I gave up on them a couple years ago. I decided just to buy some at the farmer's market. I don't can or anything, so we don't need many. Still there is nothing like picking my own and eating it fresh from the vine. Maybe next year...