What to do when a thunderstorm is coming

When the sky rumbles like a delivery truck over a pot-holed street, and the wind tears into the branches, when the light thickens and raindrops spatter on the ground, before you go inside, there’s something you have to do first. Pick a strawberry. Eat it. Enjoy the show!

May be strawberries

It’s the first little sign of my Alpine strawberries making little fruits. Isn’t it cute?

Meanwhile, on the ground

What I consider my ground covers are doing their thing. Since I want the violets where they are, they’re not weeds, they’re wildflowers. The ajuga come from a six pack that I planted years ago, and after much coddling are finally looking good. The strawberries are only a couple years old, and happily spreading. This […]

Fall colors

Here’s some random colors from pink to red. Most are the usual suspects for autumn, from pink snapdragons to orange euonymous fruits to red Alpine strawberries back after the heat for an encore. And every year my warm spot for tomatoes shelters them way longer than you might expect. Yes, we have tomatoes!

Three things that make me glad today

1. Fall raspberries are extra sweet and delicious. 2. So are fall Alpine strawberries. 3. Skunk odor remover works.

Berry seasonal

I like how the berry season overlaps. The first raspberry is ripe…

Bees in the berries

The bees are busy in the berries. Lots of bumblebees rush from flower to flower in the raspberries. This one seems to be trying to choose between a berry in progress and a fresh flower. So many berries, so little time. And there’s other bees to compete with.

Strawberries in May

The volunteer strawberries that turned up last year really are strawberry plants! Not only did they spread out in a generous swath under one of the pear trees, they are ripening much earlier. It’s still May, and yesterday I picked a handful of fruits and today another handful and tomorrow…

Bees in the strawberries

I’m seeing tiny bees everywhere, on the columbines, on the buttercups, on the strawberry flowers. Some are definitely bees when I look closer. One had long antennae and a striped abdomen. One was carrying bright yellow saddlebags of pollen. Some turn out to be flies or beetles or syrphid flies, but none of them stay […]

Cinco de flores

Flowers, flowers, flowers, flowers, flowers, What more is there to say?