How Does My Garden Grow?

Just fine so far, thanks for asking.  I went out to snap a picture of the yellow iris that's blooming on the west side of the house and found all kinds of things to take pictures of (including my right foot down there in the corner of the frame).  I'm happy to see that the biggest blueberry bush has retained or opened up a few more flowers so that I might (mightmightmight, fingers crossed) get a berry or two this year.  I need to reread my blueberry lore from Vijay (the county horticulturist, I took a class, you remember) to make sure I'm taking the best care of them a casual gardener like me can.  I spied some baby tomatoes on one of the plants which reminds me I need to get out there with a scrap of paper to mark down which tomato plant's where so we can keep a record of what works and what doesn't.  The herbs are looking good and growy too and all but one of the shallots are now sprouting like champs.  14 out of 15's pretty good, I think, especially with the chipmunks' "cultivating" help.  I don't think they're eating the shallots I think they're trying to dig new dens, the dopes.  I was enchanted at the rising sun shining through the fuzzy poppy buds so I bent around trying to get them in focus and still have them look the way I was seeing them.  I think I did okay.

I have to work again today or more likely keep the world safe from SCUBA diving.  Yesterday I had 1 entire customer, a couple from Minnesota came in for airfills.  They're vacationing in Door Co. so I shared dive site maps and told them where to stop for goodies like Renard's cheese curds, Swedish pancakes with warm cherry sauce and real whipped cream at Al Johnson's where there are goats on the roof (there's a goat cam!), and that they need to stop at Nueske's in Wittenberg for bacon on their way home.  When they were in on Monday I sent them to Hyline Orchard's Market for cherry salsa; she said she bought an armload of jars.  In the morning the FedEx guy brought a big box of wetsuit hangers that had a bunch of bubblewrap in it.  We don't need any more so I got to stomp it.  I'm not bored at work, no, I'm not, no, sirree.  Even without many customers I wasn't totally alone, my knitting pal MW stopped in 3 times.  Yes, I said 3 times--the first time he drove in just ahead of the MN couple so he left, came back in about half an hour to show me some yarn he'd bought and his project progress, then he left to knit at an area retirement home for an hour or so, then he came back to try on a sleeveless, hooded shortie he thinks would be good for kayaking.  I had to shoo him out so I could close.  He's a nice guy, I think he's lonely.  At least with no customers I get a lot of knitting and audiobook listening done.  I'm listening to a book about an astrologer/private eye; it's not as fascinating as I'd hoped but I have the second of the series on my iPod too so maybe it improves.  I also figured out how to borrow Overdrive books in mp3 format and put them on my Kindle Fire this morning.  I'm always so self-satisfied when I figure out things that other people know already but, hey, I'm oldish, give me a break.

June 13--Honore Daumier, A Man Reading in a Garden.  Lilou watched from the cover of the honeysuckle.  Uncle Frank sat in the yellow chair in the shade every afternoon when the rest of the family lay down during the hottest part of the day.  Shades would be pulled and shoes kicked off.  Mama would stretch out on the daybed on the screen porch with her book.  Grandma sat in the rocker in her darkened bedroom praying her rosary.  Gramps went to the barn where he said he could think.  Pops when to the cool cellar to snooze leaning his chair back against the old sink.  The rest of the kids lay on the braided rugs with a library or comic book.  Only Lilou went outside in the still heat of midday.  She followed Uncle Frank down the lane to the orchard where he kept a book wrapped in an old oilskin cloth with the stub of a pencil holding it shut.  He spent his rest time writing and she lay in the cool grass and watched.  Even though she knew where he hid his journal she never read it.  Some secrets need to be kept.

I hear the Cheerios calling me, or maybe it's the granola and Fage yogurt; whichever one it turns out to be involves blueberries, you can be sure.  Enjoy your day.  Stay cool.
--Barbara