Summer is Official

HOWDY!
It's been way too long since I've stopped in here. With the solstice last Tuesday summer is official and I thought I better get a post in before June completely passed me by.  Don't you love that pink glow from the center of this leek flower?  The honey bee seems attracted by it as well.

Life was hectic and then we took a trip to Kentucky and Ohio to visit Davids relatives; living, dying and dead.. By this I mean we visited graveyards and tombstones as well as aging and sickly aunts and uncles and then spent two good days with the siblings and niece and nephew which was a refreshing reprieve.  The weather was a refreshing reprieve as well. We drove through a cold front and when we got out of the car in Lexington,Kentucky it felt like April; dry, 70 degrees and breezy.  That was truly a blessing.

On the way back home we visited a favorite park, Cave Mountain Lake, though on the weekend it was packed with people, nothing like the time we were there mid week a year or so ago and it was deserted.  I must say I prefer the latter.

On the home front we've  harvested about 80 pounds of onions and 75 heads of garlic and will be digging potatoes this weekend.  Glad to have a good onion harvest after a couple of years of so-so production. We're covered up with squash, beans and cucumbers and the blueberries are just starting to come on but it looks like it will be a good season for them if we can keep putting enough water down there. It's dry and hot, what unfortunately seems to be the typical summer pattern here anymore.   I'm praying every day for a thunderstorm to pass our way but we've had nothing in over two weeks and the dirt is like powder.  

I'm kinda proud of these fat beets too.  Gave them some extra fertilizer a month or so ago and been giving them lots of water and now they are sweet and plump.  They are going into lots of salads with cucumbers, purple onions and either fennel flowers or fresh dill.  Yeah, that's living brother.  The greens are might tasty too.