Just East of Eden : GOING UP TO THE COUNTRY

Friday, June 14, 2019

GOING UP TO THE COUNTRY

I woke up around 3 a.m. this morning (have been doing this off and on since December 14^th, 2018): I seem to have lost my night-owl DNA since Bob’s graduation, and morphed into his early-bird habit; so I logged into FB and have been told by a fellow gardener that my Patio Apple Trees have been stricken with “fire blight”.

I have never heard of that before, so I did a google search, and read that while it is controllable, the measures used may be deadly to my Patio Apple Trees as the required pruning would remove at least half of the tree’s limb growth. Not happy about this turn of events. Bob bought me those 2 Patio Apple Trees for a Mother’s Day present 10 years ago – I don’t want them to die.

Why am I continually having to give up things Bob and I enjoyed together???

Wednesday, our bank forced me to close our joint account and reopen a new account – for their benefit, not mine. ALL they had to do was remove his name and bump mine up to primary account holder: but they refused to do that, citing legal reasons for the refusal: sounded like legal BS to me. So, that was one more thing that I have had to let go since Candy and Ron ruined our life together.

I am tired of giving things up for the benefit of someone else’s comfort at my expense …

I will make the necessary {life-saving} cuts on my Patio Apple Trees, and pray to God they survive the mutilation. Yesterday I thought it was a worm or an insect infestation (https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2019/06/ive-been-everywhere-man.html), and I sprayed it pretty heavily with BT before asking for help in my FB gardener’s group. I hope I did not spread the fire blight infection in ignorance.

But whatever I do to correct the dicey situation with the apple trees will have to wait until later this week, when Ron is gone to work (the for sale sign is still up, so his 'buyers' must not have been approved: DARN IT! I want him g.o.n.e.), and my haul from the Crawford Strawberry Farm is taken care of.

My strawberry picking adventure in Goble, OR that I mentioned in yesterday’s Blog post (http://www.crawfordberriesncream.com/), went great – good and companionable travel/picking pals, good and comfortable weather (the earlier gray clouds here gave way to a blue sky with fluffy clouds there), good Supper company, and a reasonably easy pick-over/wash/blend/storage of the strawberry haul once I got home :-D

Crawford Strawberry Farm

Loved enjoying the country air, the sounds of cows/geese/chickens/power saws in the background while we picked berries and chatted back and forth. My heart longs for the country ... I really MISS it.

My haul. I gathered 7 pounds of tasty berries, which totaled $11.35; about $1.62/lb

Homemade Strawberry Concentrate with the seeds removed. Very pleasantly odiferous and sweet tasting! I can't eat seeds because they cause internal issues, so the process was tedious; but necessary.

My 7 pounds of berries = 22 cups, which when blended and seeds removed = eight, 1 cup baggies of Strawberry Concentrate to be frozen for Winter Smoothies. I’m happy :-D

Knowing I would be gone for a good part of today, I watered my garden beds straight off when I got out of bed this morning; and was surprised to notice a white petunia peeking out of the Johnny-Jump Up violas in the yellow onion bed – how it got there is a mystery:

Moving down the line, I saw that the tiny yellow straight-neck squash I spotted last Friday – and thought would more than likely wither and drop off – is staying put; and thriving despite the uncooperative weather :-)

I will probably pick this Tom Thumb Lettuce for Supper tonight. It had reached it’s mature size and is ready to harvest …

And I will pick some nasturtium leaves, as well as this 1^st nasturtium blossom peeking out of the foliage. I have never eaten flower blossoms before in my salads because that was not something I could have talked Bob into; but, Bob is not here, so I will give it a try ;-) I did like the violas, and the nasturtium leaves I tried last week; so the nasturtium blossom will be this week’s taste experiment:

In the last 2 garden beds, barely visible BABY CANTALOUPES (!) and a tiny Golden Star Bell Pepper are making their debuts :-D

I am glad to see those teeny baby cantaloupes – usually the cantaloupe plants I buy just die to the ground and disappear when I put them in the garden; but this one that I grew myself from seed seems to be doing well, even though it is not very big or bushy yet …

Barely visible – but they are there.

What surprised me the most, was seeing that tiny pepper because all of my pepper plants are stunted due to the crazy weather we have been having here – I don’t think any of the pepper plants are more than 4” tall: they just are not doing well at all in the garden bed. I hope the pepper plants survive and get taller, prolifically producing – I use a LOT of peppers when I cook:

And THIS is WHY my garden is limping along this year …

Maritime weather here in the PNW. So tired of gray skies; I would really like to see some blue skies and sunshine that hangs around for more than a blink of the eye ..

Today is exactly 6 months, 12 hours and 36 minutes since my life status changed from wife to widow.

I have GREAT friends who got me out of the house today and filled my day with fun and laughter. Nothing does my spirit good like a day in the country ;-)