The back 40

I have been so busy with work and whatnot for the past two weeks that I haven't had much time to have a look around to see what is growing and blooming in the yard (and if I had had the time, the rain, fog and constant drizzle we've had for the past two weeks wouldn't have allowed me to see all of what has been growing).

I did a walk about a few minutes ago, and I gotta say - despite the neglect, our yard is looking pretty good, and the gardens are really filling out (some to the point of overflowing!).



This Clematis (Mrs. Somebody or another) is one of my favorite early summer flowers ...

with these peonies a close second!

I thought this was kinda funny --
every few years we give this rose bush a severe pruning back, and a few years ago, we cut it right down to ground level ... it grows to be an enormous bush, and has been in the yards for over 13 years (we've been here 13 years, and it was huge when we arrived). Anyhow, I laughed when i saw that it has decided to retaliate to all of the abuse inflicted on it ... by eating our bench as revenge! It IS pretty ... but holy moley hugeness!

And in the produce section - T bought some mixed tomato transplants and planted them in containers on the deck ( we usually do this, as it is really convenient and kinda fun to go out on the deck and much cherry tomatoes, right off the vine).

The grapevine is taking the adage "Go big or stay home" to heart ,

as it makes a break over the fence to our neighbors yard!




The blueberries should be quite prolific come August

... T added a few more plants to the Blueberry Patch this spring (3 new ones in the same area as the 4 well established plants we have, and last year he added 3 other ones to a separate area of the yard - you can call me Mrs. Blueberry!),

and they will start producing next year (we pick the flowers off the first year so the plant will focus on root and plant development instead of making fruit - it worked well for the 4 older plants -- I can't even guess how many quarts of berries we got off them last year before we got tired of picking and decided to let the bird have the rest!).

Last summer was the first summer for cherries off our cherry tree (I think it is about 4 years old this year) -- and I am hoping we get lots and lots of cherries this summer

-- "they" (dunno who "they" are) say that cherry trees need to be consistently watered or they will dry out and drop the fruit (that wasn't a problem at all in June!). We should start getting ripe cherries near mid-July.

Well, that's a tour of the back 40, not much knitting news so I thought you might enjoy some florals and fruit pictures -- I am so gosh-darned-happy that the rain and fog have gone away (even if just for a few hours!) ... I want to enjoy the sun and the green growth!

Knitting progress will come later in the weekend (I mean really, how many mesh bags can you be expected to look at, without switching your reading to another blog, eh? LOL!). The knitting is STIll mesh bags ... got one almost finished, and another one ready to go on the needles! I know, you can hardly wait to see it. When I am stressed and life is too busy, repetition is soothing -- I have been making these bags since mid June - I am finishing number 6 - in a period of just 21 days ... yeah, repetition is good :)