It has been a cool week with two record breaking lows at night, but not low enough to damage the garden. Things are warming back up this week to come.
Going out to gather eggs this evening, I spied a few ripe raspberries in the garden and once in there, realized there were a few ripe blueberries also. The cultivated berry season is short and over before the wild wineberries and blackberries are ripe, though I can’t get to any of them until the hay is mowed and the hay men haven’t even begun the near fields. We are among the last on the list, so maybe as late as early July. By then, the wineberries are gone, but blackberries will still be available. I will start watching the schedule for the local berry farms and go pick there.
And while in the garden, the Sugar Snap peas are ready to begin harvest, so nice fresh veggies this week and some for the freezer too. The shelling peas aren’t ready quite yet.
The Iris, both bearded and Dutch have finished, just in time for the Daylilies to begin to come into bloom.
The spindle challenge this month is to spin a rainbow. An indie dyer prepped and dyed pigtails of the 7 colors, for anyone in the challenge group that wanted to purchase them. The red is a bit too pink, but the rest of the colors are great.
I divided each color half to make two ply mini skeins. The blue and purple fiber on the left was some I bought last month to spin for a shawlette or scarf. Part of it has already been spun, but I couldn’t start on the rainbow until yesterday. Our local spinning group had an annual porch spin in and potluck lunch at one of the member’s homes yesterday. It was a beautiful day and a chance to see some friends that either come into town for this event or due to other commitments can’t make it to the Thursday afternoon sessions. It was a great afternoon. Some of the gray Shetland I am spinning was worked on the wheel while the red for the rainbow was started on a spindle.
My walks are on hiatus as I have either developed tendonitis or a stress fracture in my left foot. Tomorrow, I will explore with my PC whether I need to have it checked or just continue with elevation, ice, and Tylenol (can’t take NSAIDs). It is frustrating because we enjoy our 4 miles walks together and it is going to impact what I can do with my trainer.
When I got home from the spin in yesterday, we had another small swarm of bees enter the house. As much as I hate killing pollinators, there is no choice but to use the shop vac and a very long tube to extract them from the windows of the dormer in the living room, about 12 feet up. We noted where they entered from outside, so this week, the local grandson is going to come climb the ladder to fill the gap with “Great Stuff.” We had a swarm last year about this time and again this year. They need to find a better place to settle than inside the house.
It will be another 6 weeks before I can expect eggs from the young birds. It won’t be too soon as the two old ladies (about 3 1/2 years old) are really slowing down on production. The two 1 year olds are providing most of the current egg production and barely meeting daughter’s and my needs.
Until we meet again here, have a good, safe time.