Monday

Well it was foggy this morning when I rolled out of bed just a little before 7. This was our first real foggy morning this summer whereas usually we have several days when you can't see off the mountain. It sure made for some wet grass which helped as we only got about 3/10 of an inch of rain over the week-end. After my few quiet moments and a cup of hot green tea Nancy made buckwheat cakes with a banana and blue berries in the batter, wow is that ever good eatin'. After a check of the garden I saddled up the golf cart and headed to the top of the mountain to pick blueberries.

The fog didn't last long enough as the sun quickly burned through the haze waking the mosquitoes, gnats and deer fly and boy where they ever hungry. I managed to pick about a quart giving them to Ms. Helen and noticed in a couple days there should be more to pick plus I will have to bring my clippers along next time as the creepers and briar's once again were making an appearance in the berry bushes. After the pickings I headed back to the cabin for some garden work. I picked about a half dozen tomato's that were stating to turn but some bird has been in the patch the last couple days pecking holes and actually eating green as well as almost ripe tomato's. I put a couple of my black roots which resemble black snakes in the tomato plants hoping they will be a deterrent.

Nancy was ready for our hike to the top so we headed out around 10:30 and it was really starting to heat up on top. We stopped an visited with Joe and Jetta for awhile before heading on back to the cabin. We got back around noon and Nancy put together a fresh salad of our garden lettuce, cukes, Nasturtium leaves and flowers plus beet greens, kale and basil from the garden. We had to use a store bought tomato as ours aren't quite ripe enough to eat. After the delicious lunch I started on the back porch with the stain then painted the spacer boards black. I finished up a little after 5 and wow was the sunshine beating down on that corner next to the deck. It wasn't as hot as last week but it was in the middle 80's which still is above the norm for here.

I had picked 3 nice yellow squash from my garden and we decided to fry them for supper. I picked thyme, basil, cilantro and a green jalapeno to garnish them with; my oh my was that ever good eatin' so we made that our supper. After supper I dusted my kale and collards as little green worms were starting to attack them and eat holes in the leaves. Nancy did the cleanup while I worked in the garden then we took off on the golf cart for the mailbox. We saw George and Gail on their mule(Kawasaki) so we stopped and visited with them for awhile before getting back just before dark. Wow the crickets, tree frogs and katydids are extremely loud tonight so much so you can barely hear the T.V.

An update on Paw Paw(dad) he has left the D.C. hospital and is on his way to Woodstock, Va to stay at youngest daughter Dee's house. We aren't sure how long he will be there but we are delighted to hear he is back in the local area as he rehabilitates. LATER