Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

I went to the local farmers’ market this morning because I’m between crops; so I need to supplement.  Farmer Tesch’s tables provided lettuces and summer squash.  Murry Farms had some strawberries.  Flossie Faye Farms had local honey.  I didn’t catch the name of the citrus farmers from Dinuba; but I picked up oranges and mandarins.  With this and stuff I had, I made a smashing fruit salad.

Why on earth did I buy strawberries?  I have exactly one gajillion plants.  Yes.  The birds are killing me. They peck at one and move on to another.  Couldn’t they just finish one berry before moving on?  So I bought the basket of strawberries then went to buy some scare tape.  Three stupid dollars for strawberries?! Strips of the reflective mylar tape is now being used to scare birds from the strawberries, peaches, and grapes.  So far, so good. I do not want to lose any of these peaches to pesky birds. I then stopped by Floyd’s to pick up a couple containers of night crawlers.  This big babies were split between the four raised beds.

Other stuff going on in the garden: Second tomato bed ready for planting. More grapes are forming. The lavender is beginning to bloom. I finally captured a close up photo of the lobelia without washing out the color. We’ve got about four days like this without rain.  Tomorrow I will probably plant the seeds for radishes, chives, carrots and onions.  I may even start the lemon squash.

Then again, I may just read the Sunday Bakersfield Californian and take a nap.

What Happens When It Rains

After a recent storm, I went out to inspect the garden to survey for damages.  Fortunately, there wasn’t any and everything was freshly washed with rain.  The sun was out bright and strong in a clear, blue sky.  Something in the gravel caught my eye. Maybe it’s because my glasses were on the stool, but I couldn’t quite see what the heck it was.  Can you see it?  It’s that little white dot in the middle of the photo.  I had to get a bit closer. Perhaps it was a balloon that had drifted over the garden wall and disintegrated.  It was mostly white with some bright colors spreckled in.  Is spreckled even a word?  You know what I mean.  Closer.  I needed to get even closer to figure this out. I’m on my knees now.  Is it a wadded up balloon?  I just can’t tell. It’s some kind of 101 Dalmatians toy doohickey thing-a-ma-bob.  How did it even get here?  I’ll never know.  Probably a crow had it and, while flying over the garden, chose to unload it’s burden. Now, whatever it is is sitting by the garlic chives.  The storm brought about another question that I’ve had for some time. Why and how do worms wriggle up concrete steps only to dry out in the sun and leave a mess?

Rain is expected to continue on through the weekend which makes it great weather for Super Bowl Sunday.