Hot sunny days of July

July has roared in like a lion bringing with it many hot hot days. I’m not complaining though as we can bask in the sunshine and take enjoyment from its warmth. My gardens are thriving with the heat. I have lots of tomatoes on the vines and it looks like it might be a bumper crop this year.

We’ve been eating fresh lettuce with our meals and it is so sweet and just melts in your mouth. With. help from Grace Speelman I know how to pick the outside leaves and allow the lettuce to continue growing.  It's thriving with the heat and seems to be doing really well.

The green onions (2nd batch) are growing well and they seem to grow inches on a daily basis. I have been feeding them  banana tea (homemade fertilizer). It works well.  For the first week only 1 shoot was growing but during the 2nd week additional green shoots have arrived and are getting to be a good size.  I think they will be ready in about 2 weeks to be harvested again.

The onions have been kind of hit or miss.  Some have shot into bloom which will stop the bulb from growing. I have been harvesting them and cutting the tops (like you would green onions) and freezing them for soup. I've also kept the bulb thinking it will still be good for flavour in soup. It can be scooped out when the soup is ready.  I started out with roughly 65 small bulbs and I currently have about 40 still in the garden.  The squirrels got quite a few and some went to flower.  I'll know for next year not to put them in pots.  I think they work best in the ground.

Today I started harvesting the beans. Hmmm they look so good and plump. We’re going to have them for dinner tonight. I picked through 3 plants and took the largest beans off.  I'll have to do more this week as there are quite a few beans that are ready.  It's exciting to see how well tthe plants are growing and starting to produce the vegetables.

We spent a few days with John and Grace and went golfing.  What fun we had. It was hot but we had plenty of water.  At the Bay of Quinte course we saw a hawk with seagull in it's clutches.  There were all sorts of seegulls in the air flying around and they seemed pretty agitated by the hawk.  It looked like it was going to be a "big" meal for this bird.

In the evening Grace and I went outside and looked at the Milky Way.  I was able to capture a few shots although the bugs were so bad that they chased us inside pretty quickly.  It's so nice to be away from the city where you can look up to the skies and think about how majestic our God is.  We certainly don't see that here in the city.

We visited this really nice place that had these beautiful daylillies and hostas.  It is called True North Daylilies.  It was very inspirational to see and now we're thinking about where we could put a few of these beauties.  They would need full sunlight.  I think I might have just the place in the front garden.

While we were wandering through the garden, we saw a bird house made out of a gourd with a pheebee living in it.  Hmmm, I have a gourd as well - maybe I can try that.

I think my gourd might be a little big but who knows maybe a bigger bird is looking for a nesting box lol. 

We also saw a "bee bath" which I didn't take a picture of, but here is my version of if.  It's simply a small bowl with rocks and water where the bee's can settle and get a drink.  In this crazy hot weather, they need water as much as we do.