Beyond

I hope I never lose my sense of wonder. If that makes me naive, then so be it.

Wednesday 11 July 2007

progress

We're back into life as usual, with all sorts of little pressing jobs but no one that stands out and screams "do this first!!". There is work to do inside the house, cleaning and reorganizing our office thanks to some new shelves, but I want to save that for bad weather days. I did mow the lawn yesterday with the tractor, but there's still the edge parts to do (tractors and precision don't go together for me, so rather than trash my place I use the smaller mower by the buildings), the veggie garden needs some weeding, the flower gardens need a lot of weeding, the coop needs cleaning ... and on it goes.

The veggie garden is coming nicely and it just on the verge of flooding my kitchen with fresh food. The peas have pods that are fattening up, the beans have a few wee little beans on them, the tomatoes have flowers, the corn is knee-high, there are some cucumbers on the vine and some zucchini to harvest, the lettuces have already been enjoyed. There was some nice looking kale and broccoli until the chickens got in there and attacked it. It was kind of funny to come out and see their heads pop up looking a bit guilty. Perhaps those veggies will make a comeback. I have to harvest some oregano since it's taking over the herb bed, and the lavender is covered with lovely purple flowers. Blackberries are now coming in daily, just enough for us to enjoy a few each day so far.

Strawberry jam season is done for me, with 10 batches now reposing in the cellar. One of these is for goaliemom who's 'stuck' in Alaska, 2 are strawberry-rhubarb, and the rest will be enjoyed by us or given as gifts. I hope to put up some tomatoes this year, freeze lots of beans like last year, make more sweet pickles, and try my hand at hot pepper jelly. As long as we don't run out of jam in February like this year *shudder*. Maybe I'll get keen and do some peaches.

This time of year is good because I really feel the progress both with this season's own work and the overall multi-year work we've been doing. The things in the main areas are tidier and the longer grass nicely hides things not done yet (a copout, I know, but I take what I can get). So, on to the day's little pressing tasks, hoping that in doing them I will make that one more little step in the progress of this place.

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