Berry Excited

Maybe we're a little simple, but around our house, we get very excited when we plant produce and it actually yields fruits or vegetables.  We LOVE picking stuff out of the garden. 

A year and a half ago, we planted some blackberry, raspberry and blueberry bushes.  They were too young to do anything but grow a few branches last year, but this year they are outdoing themselves.  The blueberries are a little thin, and it's too early to know how many raspberries we'll have, but y'all, we are going to have a ton of blackberries.

Cobbler, here we come!

I Call Her Charlotte

Tucked in the middle of our garden is the most beautiful spider. She’s a big one, too. Now, I realize not everyone finds beauty in spiders. Many folks are downright scared of them, and I understand critter fears. You’re talkin’ to the girl who can run a sub 5 minute mile when a snake is around. While I am terrified of snakes, I have never been bothered by spiders, bugs or mice. In fact, I find spiders quite intriguing. And I knew when Teen Angel casually mentioned that by the way there’s a spider in the garden and you’re probably gonna want to get your camera out, that this one was probably special.

Warning: I'm getting ready to post several spidey pics. At this point, those of you who are creeped out by spider pictures should click over to something like The Pioneer Woman’s recipe for prune cake (although personally, I find prunes a little scary). The rest of you, follow me.

I call her Charlotte. Ever since I read Charlotte’s Web, I’ve had the habit of assuming all spiders are female, are named Charlotte and lay eggs and die, leaving their offspring to be raised by geese and a humble pig. I may be wrong, but there are some romantic childhood notions I like to hang onto, so Charlotte she is. Her large web stretches between the cucumbers and the back row of tomato plants. She sits right in the middle of the web, sunning her yellow backside and waiting for prey.

Notice how she reinforced her web. The neighbor boy who loves critters, believes she’s a common garden spider. Whatever she is, I find her to be quite elegant. I especially like the way she balances on her web, ever so gently, with the precision of an acrobat.

It’s amazing how precise her web is, a job that would require several tools for a human. She has the patience of Job, seemingly staying in one place for hours. I check on her often and usually find her wrapping something suitable for dinner.

This particular meal was a big honey bee. I’ve also found her wrapping moths. The macro lens allows me to watch her at microscopic level without disturbing her, and I find her body to be fascinating. I love the tiny little hairs on her legs, and just look at that belly.

Would she be amused to know how much she’s been photographed, I wonder? I figure Miss Charlotte will move on one of these days, but until then I’ll continue to enjoy her display of God’s handiwork. I just think she’s terrific. And radiant. And humble.

How does Your Garden Grow?

I haven't written about the garden this summer because I've been so consumed by the remodeling nonsense. We've still been gardening, though. In fact, our 40-something tomato plants are working hard to produce all kinds of fruit. In fact, we're in the middle of our peak picking. It usually happens a little earlier in the season, but the weather has been strange this year, and the glut happened about a month later than normal. Better late than never, I say. Goodness knows it didn't hurt the crop. This was one day's worth of picking last week.

Yeah, I know. It hasn't slowed down, either. We pick about that many tomatoes two or three times a week. We have beautiful grape tomatoes.

So many we pick them and snack on them like potato chips. Which is okay until they reach the lower part of your colon.

And we have the bigger tomatoes.

They're everywhere.

They make fabulous BLT's, of which we've had many this summer.

Why do we have some many plants? Because we enjoy trying different varieties, and we are tomato nuts. We sit around in the winter and wax nostalgically for a good juicy summer tomato. What do we do with all of them? I can some for soups and chili in the winter months. Mama cans some, too. In fact, she took all of the sixteen gallons of tomatoes in that first photo, canned some of them and shared the rest with six other families. Six! That's awesome. We give them away to neighbors, friends, family, the ladies who work at the drug store. Basically, anyone who wants them, needs them or allows their arm to be twisted when we're begging people to take them. We just enjoy growing them and sharing them. Oh, and eating them.

This is the last year we will grow tomatoes in this backyard. Hubby has a new garden spot picked out at the new house, which has a huge backyard. We'll have a whole new big space to practice our farming skills. Ha! And a whole new bunch of neighbors to pawn those maters off on.