July can be a bittersweet month, the true beginning of unrelenting heat, a month when the garden starts doling out it’s bounty.
It’s all rolled up into one hot, sweaty will we ever be cool again, cycle of lushness, and growth that has yet to feel old, and haggard.
You’re still a baby
The veggie garden still in it’s infancy looks fresh and new.
Signs of the cold harsh winter, and long slow wet spring are now safely hidden under canopies of green.
Hot days, and sweltering nights are in the future, they will come and go much too soon when late summer swings by.
Metallic shiny green bugs have yet to decide which leaves to spin into insect lace, the sun to scorch the tender vines, and the zucchinis to conquer and claim every inch as their territory.
Weeding, reaping, and sow on, and sow on
The season gracefully offers up treats like a good hostess. A incentive that makes shakes us out of bed before 6 am every second day adhering to the soon to be in effect water restrictions. Peas and thank you’s
Plucked from the vine, a crisp green pea here, a cerise raspberry there, showers of little green grape like tomatoes discovered under a branch.
Beets with their red varicose veined leaves popping up in tidy rows, undisturbed by the quail only because they are from a seed tape, and not sown by hand.
It’s Bean a long time coming
Blossoms are being coaxed forward like shy kids at a birthday party presenting a gift to the hostess.
Buds forming, flowers blooming as fast as they fade, it’s hot, and heavy out there with damp undertones courtesy of a torrential downpour that relieved a temporary dry spell.
Butterflies in colors ranging from muted, to bright, stunning orange, deep black brown, green and whites, land with a such a degree of delicacy that causes no movement on hair thin stems.
Green stalks topped with unformed buds are closed for business, leaving them disappointed.
But they do not give up, just move away to another flower, hoping for a better crop nearby.
Grasses sway in the breeze, mint green spurts erupting from fronds, not yet the harvest gold of late summer, but still framed by a setting sun. Birds sing, cicadas hum… in the faraway sky a silver jet soars.
It’s as if the garden is under a magical spell, frozen in time, shimmering in the heat. Longing to be woken up by the cold kiss of the water sprinkler. Ready to burst forth with color, sparkling, delightful, fragrant, and soothing.
A bittersweet wait, longing for it to start, but knowing that once it does, it will be over much too soon.
I know, by the time most of you see this it’s probably Tuesday… but bear with me… read the “just one more thing” below this for an explanation. And i f for some reason I have already featured her on my newly renamed Meet and Greet Mondays, I apologize in advance, and want to let you know it’s well worth the second trip to her blog to stop by and say hello.
Have you met Stephanie, from Stephanie’s Images?
Stephanie is a Canadian blogger living on Vancouver Island who takes amazing photos, and belongs to a local camera club. Her blog regularly features images of the beach, and areas that she has visited near where she lives in Comox, BC.
Anyone who has ever been to Vancouver Island knows that the Island keeps part of your heart when you go home, her photos will make you want to book that return visit right away.
So please stop by Stephanie’s blog and say hello.
If you are a long time reader you likely know what is going on with my family after reading my posts, and our exchange of emails back and forth.
Thank you so much for your kind thoughts, and prayers, they mean the world to me.
My Dad is still in the hospital, slowly recovering from his fractured hip, but Dementia has taken a strong hold on him. My heart is breaking…
There are good days, and there are equally bad days.
For my newer readers that’s the reason for my sporadic posting, and slow returning of your comments, I’m sorry, this is not how I normally blog.
I am trying to post on Mondays, and Fridays… I’m close right? Technically it’s still Monday here.
I’m doing my best to visit everyone, return comments, post regularly.but honestly, some days I’m barely at home and it can be difficult.
I so appreciate your understanding during this difficult time.