Now this is more like it

Light rain and overcast, no view at all

This morning I woke to the sound of rain on the roof. I knew the entire weekend would be unsuitable for skydiving, so I decided to go on the morning outing with the Fairhaven walking group. Since it was raining, I figured only a few of us would show up. But no, 24 women gathered to head up the Galbraith trails together. We walked around five miles or so, with a light rain at times, and otherwise it was just dark and rather gloomy.

The conversation, however, was anything but. By the time we finished, we were all in a pretty good mood and started our weekends on a very nice note. We were all glad we went, despite the weather. It was a first for this particular trail; we will be going back and maybe seeing a view of Bellingham from that vantage point someday. This weather is way more normal that the weeks of constant sunshine we've been having.

From bottom: arugula, kohlrabi, gourmet salad mix, beets, nasturtiums, borage

Not that I'm complaining. It's just that our summer typically doesn't even begin until July 5th, and there were 17 days in a row at SeaTac without any measurable rain. The sunshine has caused my garden to burst forth in a way that has surprised me. I just took these pictures, showing the abundance of my plants. Those kohlrabi starts were just put in a couple of days ago and I do hope they "take." I took out four of my six red cabbage plants because of an infestation of aphids. When I went to Joe's Garden, he told me how to deal with them, and I realized I didn't have to take them out after all: I could use a natural fungicide made of water, olive oil, and dish soap. He suggested going online and learning what proportions to use. Now I have a spray bottle filled with it and I watch my plants carefully.

My first broccoli

And look! I've got broccoli florets beginning to form, making me so very happy. No aphids or mealy worms on them so far, but I'm watching! I gathered the ripe strawberries for the day while I took these pictures just a few minutes ago. The berries are such a nice treat; yesterday I sliced them and mixed them into some plain greek yogurt. Incredibly good and hardly any calories.

Volunteer squash

We've got this squash plant that nobody is sure about, since it's a volunteer and is going crazy out there in our community garden. The yellow zucchini (which is flowering already) is in the lower right foreground. Comparing the leaves, we've decided it most likely is a pumpkin, but nobody is sure. We didn't have any of those in our community garden last year. Who knows?

Anyway, the rain should help my just-planted kohlrabi and beet seeds to do well. Oh, and I also planted some leeks, from starts, so they are taking over the area where the red cabbage used to be. I don't want to waste even a little bit of space in my tiny garden.

Well, that's it from my little corner of the world. I'll watch another episode or two of "Orange is the New Black" on Netflix and read one of the books I picked up at the library yesterday. As I mentioned happens occasionally, I had several on hold and three became available at the same time. I never remember where I first heard of the books, because I sometimes wait for weeks before I get a message about availability, and that's the story with these: The Dinner, and Time and Chance. Hope they are good!
:-)