Kathleen's Korner at TheStidhams.com

I wasn’t able to write last night — got some kind of nasty bug in the afternoon and it really laid me out flat.  I am still tired, but wanted to give my report.

The elderberries are almost all eaten. As predicted, the flickers and other birds truly have enjoyed them.  The dahlias began to bloom on the 20th, we have the bright yellow and one purple already!  The peaches all fell off the one tree that wasn’t damaged by curl this year, so no peaches will be in our yard this year; but we should get a good (though small) crop of plums.  The cherries are starting to get ripe, but I am afraid the birds are getting to them just as they are almost sweet…

But the strawberries, raspberries and the trailing blackberries are coming in and they are delicious.

The roses all look so lovely — and sweetwilliams, poppies, and various wildflowers are all over again.

It has been pleasant weather the last couple days, and the forecast is for warm and sunny for the foreseeable future.  We are ready for it now!  🙂

And the children came home for the summer today, the bus dropped them off at the end of the driveway and Lucky waited to meet them.  An excellent start to our garden season.

Well, I have been enjoying painting silk scarves. Think I am getting the hang of it! Hope to be able to sell some at some point. They take longer to make than cards, but are a nice change of pace.

M’s last concert in school is tomorrow night. G will hand out programs, and T and I will help in other ways. He will also play for the 8th grade promotion ceremony next week. We are all looking forward to hearing him play.

G is looking forward to summer vacation, I can tell! He is so full of energy… and he will be taking two classes at the summer music camp in town: violin and trombone…

M will not be going to music camp. He will have oral surgery on the 28th, and braces will also be put on his teeth. We don’t know for sure what it will be like, but are anticipating he will be unable to play the trumpet for a while. He has some new piano music to try, and some books that he will enjoy as well.

Later in July, we will be taking the boys to Vancouver Island for their first international trip. Then they will have Y-CAMP the last week of July, and all of August for excursions closer to home. Hope to see my grandfather and his partner at some point this summer also, but not sure when or how. It is a longer trip than we can easily make now that we have the bigger dog.

I think that’s the big part of the recent news. Life continues, mostly good with a few challenges to make things interesting. May your life be as pleasant.

The red elderberries are almost ripe! they are just gorgeous! already the flickers are beginning to light on the branches… in a few days, the trees will grow wings and take flight. And then the foliage will be visible again!

The ceanothus plant right next to them is just lovely! a lovely grapy-purply-blue. And the dahlias finally have buds on them. The rose from my parents’ house is settling in nicely, though I still need (and want) to weed that bed also.

I did manage to plant the cukes and most of the 18 tomatoes we bought on Sunday, still need to figure out where I want to put the squash and pumpkins! And of course the onions are doing well, though getting a bit crowded by some over-vigorous blackberries and such. I am not sure how much of the garlic has survived… hope most of it did. I really would like fresh for some of our cooking!

The chestnuts are just covered in flowers — never knew what they looked like before, but the are interesting. Not as flashy as some nut trees, but fun. The absence of the one peach tree is noticeable to me, but I don’t think it’s bothering the boys or T. The nectarine appears to be recovering! Keep your fingers crossed!

The invasive groundcover still needs to be pulled and is about to overtake that entire part of the yard. I am so disgusted. Maybe I can get out there later today and knock it back a little.

And the pretty flowers around the yard. We still have a few iris, and some of the other flowers are beginning to bloom. Another few weeks and we’ll have a whole new set of blooms to discuss.

The weather has been more seasonable — a bit more humid than I like, but not overly warm, and somewhat overcast the last few days which is nice. The raspberries and strawberries are starting to ripen — a bit more sunshine would sweeten them up.

And that’s the garden update for the moment! May all your beds be loamy and deep!