Sweet Peas at the End of June

The sweet pea tower in the Sunset Flower Bed is really looking nice right now. The plants have completely covered the lower 1/2 of the tower and are quickly climbing upward. I planted two trays of sweet peas here. One was maroon "Royal Family" and the other was a mixed color tray of "Mammoth Choice". But I also have quite a few volunteer plants, from last year's varieties, climbing up this tower too. So I am not able to differentiate which blooms are what varieties. But truly it really doesn't matter. The whole tower is looking and smelling heavenly when the wind blows And that's all I was attempting with this planting.

Harvest Festival

Today, the Farmer's Market at our local grange held a Harvest Festival. We arrived pretty early in the day and they already had a nice sized crowd. As always, farmers and families in the area had booths with bounty from their gardens for sale.

Of coarse, you know me. I was immediately drawn to all the interesting Winter Squash that were there.

I was also excited to meet the friendly alpacas. There were two adults and a baby present. They contentedly hummed and let all the visitors pet them. Such wonderful faces and personalities.

There was also an excellent variety of alpaca wool products for sale, from dyed yarns to finished gloves and scarves.

One unique twist was the opportunity to bring your own harvest of apples to the festival.

They had a professional cider press on hand and would press your apples for free. Lots of folks were taking them up on this offer. If you look careful at the picture below, you can see the fresh cider pouring off the wooden collection ramp into the white 5-gallon pail.

And here is some of the finished product.

Happy October Everyone!