And I realized that, actually, was true. My yard is a peaceful place to sit. I just haven't done much sitting in it.
This last month has been a bit depressing as far as the yard and garden go, so I haven't been paying it much attention. That, and I have been busy with many other things, so the yard has been neglected, a little.
I've been keeping up with maintenance, and that's about it.
But, sunrise was beautiful this morning:
And while I was out there enjoying the sunrise, with my friend's comment echoing in my thoughts, I realized it wasn't all bad.
The month started off good...
The peppers were doing really well.
There were some big green tomatoes.
The cucumbers were doing very well.
Then the squirrels started in on the tomatoes. I tried a spray made out of pepper and hot sauce and some other stuff. I think it worked, a little. But I think Dusty killing one of their number has more to do with the recent lack of squirrels in the yard. Even still they got more tomatoes than I did. For all the bushy growth, the tomatoes haven't produced much. I got a couple good ones, but I haven't seen anymore out there.It was hot in July, but about the end of the first of week of August the weather changed. We've had days in the 90s but nothing like the heat wave in July.
And that's when everything started dying. I don't know if it was the change in the weather or what. But, first my pepper plants wilted and dried up, even though I was watering every day. Then all but one of the large bottle gourds died. One of my sage plants withered and died. Now the cucumbers are looking really sad.
I've got one bell pepper plant left. And it's still looking OK.
The small bottle gourd is still holding it's own.
The bottle gourds have white flowers.
The one large bottle gourd is mixed in with the cucumbers.
The cucumber vines don't look all that good but they have lots of flowers on them.
So, I'm hoping there might be some cucumbers in the near future.
I did get some veggie goodness out of the garden at the beginning of the month. I've dried some sage and oregano, and the cherry tomatoes have been good.
The volunteer tomato plants have green tomatoes on them, but I don't know if any will be ready to pick before the end of the season. Right now I'm watching the cucumbers and the bottle gourds.
Not much is happening in the flower garden.
There are a few of these pink flowers blooming, but that's about all.
Not many yard visitors.
This little guy was hanging out on the door, one day.
And one day I had a visit from a ground hog.
I had to take the picture through the window. He was very shy and surprisingly fast.
That little shadow by the big planter on the left side of the picture is the ground hog. That's as close as I could get. I didn't know that wood chucks were ground hogs. Didn't find that out till I went looking to see if he was going to be a destructive addition to the yard. He would have been, but he didn't hang around. I only saw him the one day. I guess he figured out that my yard wasn't a real good place to set up housekeeping.
The Cardinals are still hanging around. I hear them all the time, but don't see much of them.
Last week I saw the garter snake. Dusty was trying to play with it. I made her come in and the snake beat a hasty retreat under the house.
All in all, August has been anti-climatic.
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