Good-bye 2015

Tom-Cat

2000 - July 31, 2015

Solomon

May 30 2001 - November 13, 2015

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East to West.

From North and from South comes the pilgrim and guest;

When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board

The old broken links of affection restored,

What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?

When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more, 

And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before,

What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?

What calls back the past like rich Pumpkin pie?

John Greenleaf Whittier

Monday Harvest Recap- It's Pumpkin Time!

Our crazy, warm sunny days continue here in Oregon. Today I took advantage of the lovely weather and harvested all of my squash and pumpkins. The Winter Squash this year was pretty much a bust simply because I got the plants in the ground too late. But the pumpkins, which I grew from seed, did really well. While I was a bit disappointed in only getting 2 pumpkins from two plants, I was really happy with the size of the two pumpkins that did set.

• Pumpkin "Howden" - 22.8 lbs & 29.4 lbs
• Winter Squash- "Delicata" - 2 lbs. 1.6 oz.
• Watermelon- "Blacktail Mountain" - 12.2 lbs.

Now that the show season is over, I get to relax and share my dahlias with family and friends. Because I didn't get my dahlias completely planted until the middle of July, my dahlia garden is now if full bloom in mid-October. With sunny, dry, warm weather in the long term forecast, these bouquets won't be the last that we enjoy this year.

Dahlia "Eclipse"

Sunday I noticed that my first two blooms of "Eclipse" had opened. I really love this single form dahlia. The dark purple eye set against the soft white petals is so striking. If you look closely, you will see that each petal is outlined with the dark purple as well. My two plants are loaded with blooms, so I am cautiously optimistic that I might have a bloom to take to the show this weekend.

Monday Harvest Recap - Watermelon Edition

The exciting harvest news this week was that I harvested the first watermelon from my little watermelon patch. My 3 "Blacktail Mountain" plants set four melon this Summer. Two melons set in July and another two set in August. This melon is from the first flush and I think I might have waited a little too long to harvest it. I will have to see what my taste testers think. But nonetheless, I am happy to have grown a watermelon to full maturity in Oregon. This guy weighted in at 6 lbs. 15.2 oz.

I continue to see a steady ripening of fruit on the tomato plants. I did have some splitting damage this week, I am sure due to the rain we finally received. The damage was minor but you can see it on the two "Esterina" cherry tomatoes pictured on the truss, above. This week's harvest:

• "Galina" - (63) 11.9 oz
• "Mountain Magic" - (27) 1 lbs. 2.4 oz
• "Matthew" - (27) 9.3 oz
• "Esterina" - (63) 10.3 oz
• "Matina" - (22) 10.1 oz

"Mountain Magic"

I also harvested my second round of "Mystery" peppers. These are the peppers that were suppose to be "Padron" but clearly are not. They are a hot pepper and the plant is very healthy and vigorous. This week's harvest was (11) more peppers weighing in at 3.8 oz. They are headed off to become some fiery salsa.

Fall Foliage

Bit by little bit, the outdoor world is transitioning from Summer to Fall. No where is it more noticeable than on the leaves of the various trees and shrubs. Walking around today, I found a few examples of some early Fall color. First off, there was a small smattering of leaves on the "Royal Raindrops" crab-apple that had switched from their Summer purple to their Fall scarlet red. The tree will be a knock-out when all of the leaves have changed.

In the west-end flower bed, I found the first leaf on the current bush turning a lovely orange. And pictured below, one crimson leaf hanging one of the three Sweet Gum trees. It will be late October before the full Fall color display peaks but until then it is fun to catch some early glimpses.

Hawthorne Berries

We have a number of "wild" Hawthorne trees on our property. In our part of the world, Hawthorns are considered an invasive species. None of our "wild" Hawthorns were purposely planted by us. Instead, birds most likely deposited their berries across our acres. Sadly, every Hawthorne that I have found on our land has yet to bloom in the Spring. Why is this important? Because it must bloom in the Spring to set berries in the Fall. Luckily, right on the other side of our fence, is a sweet little Hawthorne that is just covered in red berries.

Tonight after work I walked down with my camera to take a few pictures.

Its branches are just dripping with clusters of glowing red berries.

 They must not be quite ripe yet, as the birds are leaving the berries alone at this point. I am guessing that sometime in the next month, the birds will arrive en mass and strip the branches clean. Until then I can enjoy this pretty Fall display.

Color in the Pumpkin Patch

The excitement in the Kitchen Garden this week is the first glimpse of orange in the pumpkin patch! While one pumpkin is still a solid, glossy, deep green, this pumpkin has suddenly started to turn orange. It will be interesting to see how long it takes it to completely transform.