Plums!

They are so very ready! I just looked at one, and it came away in my hand! (Sorry Mom, I looked with my hands, not just my eyes!)

They're still small, but soft and juicy. I could never get a plum this ripe from the store. =)

Yum, yum, yummy! It was very sweet and flavorful. I know what my breakfast will be for awhile.

The pit was also small, so I was worried about the size for no reason. (I thought they'd be all pit, and no plum.) I do wonder though, is it small because it's a young tree? Or is it small because of the type of plum that it is? (Which could be Burbank or Methley. Thanks for marking my tree twice, Lowes!) Methley is supposed to be "medium to large", and Burbank is touted as "very large".

Any plum growers out there know the answer?

Lazy Blogger

 I just realized that I haven't posted an update on my fig cuttings from UC Davis. So, here it is. =)

The first one is "Genoa". Only one of the three cuttings has leafed out, though the others still look green and good.

Next up, we have "Giant Amber". Same thing, one out of three.

The next one is "Violette de Bordeaux". All three have leafed out, and have a neat-looking skinny leaf. My only concern with this one is that the leaves are slightly discolored. They have these lighter patches, and I don't know if that's normal for this variety, or if it's a disease like Mosaic virus.

 The fourth one is a Early Violet. All three have opened up, and look good. Whew!

Last, I have "Black Madeira". They only sent one, and it hasn't done anything. The tip is still green, and it looks like it wants to open any day now. I'm planning on taking this one in the house over winter if it doesn't open up.

 My newest project is.....  Grapes!

 These first two pictures are the green "champagne-type" grape. It looks a little ratty, probably from shipping, but the roots look lovely.
 I soaked them in water for a day first.

Then, planted them out in buckets.

 This one is "Crimson". It looked much better from the get-go. Fuller, darker leaves, no black stuff on it anywhere.

Edited to fix the blurry mess. =)

Plum update

 My plums are really coloring up! But they're not very large yet, I hope they get a bit bigger by the time they're really ready. I haven't found any information yet about when they color vs. when they grow. (Lots of stuff about plum "stages" including coloring stage, but nothing comparing growth pre-color vs. post-color.)

And on Thursday night, we went to a local firehouse fair. It was raining, and so much fun! They did close early when the rain got too heavy, but I felt like a kid again, playing in the rain! =)

Yes, I rode in the dragons' belly!

Friday at the Rodale Institute

I guess the title gives it all away. =) On Friday, I went with my friends, Anne and Jane, to the Rodale Institute for "Field Day".

It was very educational, but not very hands-on. We rode around behind some tractors, and listened to some speakers talk about their projects.

I loved the rice paddy:

And the hydroponics:

This geodome was neat, but not being used for anything:

We got to pet some animals.

And look at the beehives. (But we didn't get to pet any.) This is a hybrid hive, the bottom being a divided top-bar hive, with a Langstroth hive on top for honey collection. It can hold up to 3 colonies of bees. I'd suggest that they use smaller honey supers on top, since they're going to be very heavy when they're full!

It was an interesting day, but very, very hot!

Catching up, July Edition

On Sunday, we went to the mall to get a case for the girls new phone. It was bright and sunny when we walked in, and humid, hot and wet when we walked out. Then, we watched another storm coming in.

You could watch the edge of the storm rolling in. Blue skies on the left, new storm on the right. This may become my new background picture. =)

The showers passed, and we went picking wine berries around town. Sorry I don't have any pictures, my hands were full! Also, it rained again, so I'm glad I didn't take my camera out of the car!

 Too bad there are other plants out there! Poor Girl picked up a rash. It's not poison ivy, but I don't know what it is. It seems to be getting better now.

This week, I noticed that the plums are blushing! They're still pretty small, I have to look up how big these are going to get before it's time to pick them. They're about the size of a ping-pong ball.

The new plants all went in, since it feels like fall today and I had to keep moving to keep warm! Look at that, the butterfly bush works as advertised!

 Last night, we went to see Garrison Keillor at the Ives Center. It's the second time for us, and he's still entertaining. We love Fred Newman and his sound effects!

As evening started, there was a rainbow to add to the show... I don't know how they did it. 0_o

Then this morning, my new grapes arrived! One is a "Crimson" and the other is an unknown green, champagne-type grape.

They have to soak for a day or so. In my lovely vintage glass vases...

Whew! Now, we're all caught up!

Saturday at Annes and Home Again

So of course, I spent the night at Anne's. Because we just hadn't gotten into enough trouble yet!
We spent Saturday morning at Martin Viette. The visit was so much better than their website!

I loved this green-roofed shed, it looked healthier and happier than the one we saw at Rodale. (Which I didn't mention in my post about Rodale, because it looked like crap.)

These are adorable garden whimsey, that I wish I could make, but they look too involved for me. All those nails in all those little sticks? I see total frustration there. So, I'll just enjoy the pictures.

This is the shed that I want in my yard. I think I need a new yard to put it in though.

Anne in the background, Black Knight Butterfly Bush in the foreground. I bought this puppy. =) And the tiny touch of crocosmia lucifer in the lower right? Yeah, I bought some of that too. Also, a yellow crocosmia, whose name I've forgotten.

Grown-up-sized garden whimsey. Don't you want a giant apple to curl up in? At ten thousand dollars per apple, this is something else we left behind. =(

These chairs were painted for charity, which I'm sure was totally worthy, but we didn't buy them anyway. Just more pretty pictures to look at.

This little bell thing is neat, and, if I can find my childhood brass bell collection, is something I would try to make... I think I actually have my box of bells here in the basement, remind me to take a look for it.

 Sunday we went to the concert-on-the-green. I brought the two dogs that I'm sitting for, Shadow and Wilbur.

They really were good dogs, for the most part!

Not a pet, but it hung out over our heads for most of the performance...

 A local character. I don't know who he is yet, but every Sunday, he puts his chair waaaay up front, in the middle of the field that the kids play in, and just watches the show. =)

And we came home to this guy on the door. Any ideas what kind of moth this is?