Mountain Harvest Basket: Some Catching Up!

Porch Table Flora - Petunias still blooming!

Wow! It has been almost 2 full weeks since I last posted anything in this my personal blog. Time for me to do a little catching up I guess.

Health
Since I last wrote I have been recovering from a nasty head cold that had me feeling very fuzzy headed and weak. I had no energy to do my daily things, nevermind any of the seasonal projects that present themselves this time of year. Well, I got over the head cold late last week and then had another bout of headache and sinus pain early this week. My theory is that the heavy pollen that has been around me lately triggers some of my sinus headaches. Mix that with stress and some early menopause hormone fluctuations and I get very painful 3 day headaches. Ahh, but they have finally gone now, for awhile anyway. I have had a bit more sleep and little more energy these past couple of days since my head has stopped hurting.

Herbs
So last Sunday I finally planted the basil seedlings that partner Bob gifted me with last March. Until very recently it had been too cold to plant them in the garden, so I had been nursing them along on my porch table. They were anxious to get into some nutritious soil, so I planted them in my raised bed herb garden along with one of my curly leaf parsely seedlings. They are doing fine as of my garden "rounds" this morning. I'll post some photos of the herb gardens another day.

Fruit
I also have been protecting my fruit trees and berry vines with coverings of bird netting. A tedious job, but if not done, the birds and other critters will eat every piece of fruit before I can harvest any. I still have a few more trees to go. I have already harvested a couple of handfulls of strawberries. Very small. Very tasty. Not many made it all the way into the house.

Flowers
Early last week Bob gave me a nice mixed bouquet of flowers that are organically and locally grown right here in our little town. He offers them for sale in his hardware store (the local general store), North Fork Hardware, and the flower growers, Three Springs Flower Garden, offer them by monthly subscription to many individuals and businesses in our area. The mix of flowers changes as the summer season progresses. Last year I received a summer long subscription of flowers which provided me a new bouquet each week. This year, I requested a break from the subscription flowers as my pollen allergies seem more severe this year and these particular flowers seem to have a lot of heavy pollen that sadly brings me nasal misery. Anyway, even though I did have to place the mixed bouqet of flowers outside on my porch table, I did appreciate and enjoy the beauty of the flowers and the generosity of the gift. See the bouquet in the photo below. There are daisies, gallardias, sweet williams and some I am not sure of.

Mixed Flower Bouquet

Then later in the week, Bob's Mom, who lives very near me, dropped by for a visit bearing a huge bucket of sweet smelling, bright red roses in very full bloom. A friend of hers had given her a whole bunch of these wonderful roses and she decided to share some of them with me. (I think Bob may have hinted that I really liked roses a whole lot...) See them in the photo below:

Mother's Day Roses from Bob's Mom

Then about 2 days later, in a fit of romance and spontaneity, Bob was out grocery shopping and spied a dozen long stemmed red roses just starting to open their buds. They didn't have that homegrown heavenly rose scent, but each rose bud was perfect, deep red and beautiful. The gift of a dozen red roses for no special occasion at all from my guy is one of the most romantic gifts I can think of. It made me feel very special and loved. The photo below does not do their beauty justice.

Romantic Red Roses from Bob

So I received many wonderful flowers last week and had them around me until just yesterday. A wonderful way for me to celebrate Mother's Day and remember my own Mom who dearly loved her flowers and her gardens. She taught me to love them too.

Veggies

Today I managed to get out there and plant summer squash and cucumber seeds. I planted 24 Northern Pickling Cukes, and 3 each of Dark Green zucchini, Raven (also dark green) zuke, Clarimore Light Green zuke and Early Yellow Crookneck Squash. All my seeds were purchased from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, my favorite organic seed supplier.

I also weeded and prepared the garden bed for planting my green beans hopefully tomorrow. Much more hand weeding must be done in between the lettuce seedlings and root crops that I planted a couple of weeks ago. I can hardly see the seedlings in between all of the healthy fast growing weeds out there.

Well, that's enough catching up today. I will write more about my garden, home, pets, social activities and dreams of my heart, etc. another day soon. I have some nice photos to share too.

Thanks for reading all my mundane stuff. It's all part of my Mountain Harvest Basket.