July

Applesauce

Visiting Cousins

While John still here we went to see cousins in Wytheville, Jimmy, Eleanor, and Vicki and Margaret Enid and Bud.
 
Had a few items that I could can already. Early apples make great applesauce. Did a little at a time, during and after John was here, and have eaten much, frozen some, and have about 16 jars of applesauce.  Also have picked rhubarb three times now and it's still growing. Have some in refrigerator to eat and have frozen some.

Some new things in bloom - Hydrangea, Orange Weed and Rose of Sharon are the prettiest.

Orange Weed

Pink/Blue Hydrangea

Rose of Sharon

Yellow Squash

Cooking squash

Squash relish

Pretty obvious from the picture that my yellow squash is too small to have any fruit on it, but my neighbor has a lot and gave me some. Made a casserole last night and today canned some relish - Your fav, Sue H!) Still more of that and zucchini left. Thought I'd make a dessert with the zucchini tomorrow (thanks Kathy for the recipes- still using them year after year).

Have second plantings of green beans and lettuce where the onions were before I harvested them. Just coming up!

2nd planting beans

Peppers

 Had some Swiss Chard from the garden tonight for dinner, was yummy.

 Zucchini, yellow squash, cucumber, potatoes, beans, limas and tomatoes all flowering. Cabbage starting to form, though leaves are larger than they should be and were badly eaten up by bugs before I sprayed them, so not sure how well they will do! Still time for them, I hope. Brussel sprouts just about to form.

Luci's son is here and today was the nicest day we've had in a while. Had a nice visit with his family this afternoon.  Tonight, her daughter and Zoe arrive. We'll see all of them Saturday night for dinner, maybe before.

June Update

Arriving back in Virginia on Monday evening and my brother, John, and his friend, Jimmy, arrived a few hours later. They brought beer and pizza with them - yea! As usual little to eat in the house when I got home.  :)

While gone, Butch had been here and dismantled the end of the porch that had rotten wood and then re-framed the area and put in new floor board. Have never really had a good view of what is under the porch and always concerned something might be living under there. Appears not to be the case.. Just plants and leaves!  Rest of this update will have to wait until mid-July. Luci's kids are coming and Butch has many other projects to work on. In the meantime, if it ever stops raining, I can finish sanding and painting that side of the porch.

Completed half

John put second coat of paint on the other side and helped move the furniture out there so we are now using it again.  Then he and Jimmy went camping. I enjoyed the porch while they were gone.



While I was in Alaska, of course the weeds took advantage of no one bothering them. Could hardly see  some of the plants when I returned! Took a while but finally found the limas, string beans, peppers, and multicolored swiss chard. The cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and butternut squash were easier to find but also needed weeding. The corn and potatoes looked pretty good, so little work needed there. The yellow squash seeds didn't come up nor did the dill so bought a plant of each and replanted. There's been a ton of rain lately, so still more weeding to catch up on!

before weeding

after weeding

Corn and white potatoes

Red Potatoes

Third Rhubarb

Lettuce and Onions

Rhubarb has been cut twice and will have another cutting this summer. Lettuce is ready to eat and onions are growing well. Red potatoes are flowering, though hard to see in picture .

Lots of flowers in bloom - Lilies were in bloom, both white and blue hydrangeas,  orange and yellow day lilies,  magnolia tree, queen of the prairie, flowering yucca, and of course the rambling roses!

Blue Hydrangea

Dayliles

Easter Lilies

Magnolia

Queen of the Prairie

Rambling Roses

Yucca flowers

Me, Mary Jane, Mary Jane

Also attended a few concerts at Chautauqua in Wytheville. Best one was Wayne Henderson which Jimmy just sent me some pictures of! Nelson, John, Jimmy, Mary Jane U, and her friend Mary Jane W all enjoyed this immensely.

Wayne Henderson

Trip to Alaska

Train to Denali

What a beautiful place. My good friend, Sue, and I had a wonderful vacation and got to breathe clean air and see wonderful sights. We started with a train and bus trip to Denali Park. Beautiful views all the way.  We went to the park and heard about its history, history of the people there, and how some of the native Alaskans still live in a sustainable way with little of the comforts we take for granted. A beautiful country in the summer - but it gets to 41 degrees below zero  in our guide's hometown of Fairbanks.  We had beautiful weather all but one day that we were there, when it rained a little off and on.

 We stopped in Talkeetna the day after being in Denali and were able to see the Mt. McKinley in the morning at two locations before we left for the ship. On the way to the ship we stopped at an animal rehab center and saw most of the animals we were looking for but didn't see in Denali. The Muskox was the most unusual - had never heard of it before. It's fur is sought after to make very warm garments. They comb it out of this very mangy looking animal!

View from Denali Hotel

Muskox

Hubbard Glacier

Sue at Glacier

 Ten we boarded the Celebrity Millennium. Cruised to the Hubbard Glacier which was amazing! The colors were spectacular, This picture doesn't do it justice! We watched ice fall from the glacier and it goes into the water all over the rivers in Alaska. It is difficult for the Salmon to live in it, but they manage to traverse it.

Juneau from top of Mt Roberts

We stopped in several ports of call. Juneau was our first stop. This is the smallest capital city  in the US. We took a tramway to top of Mt Rogers and you can see all of Juneau from there. Saw a great movie about the native people of Alaska - very well produced showing the impact of others moving to Alaska but done in a very nice way.

Outside Skagway, we took a ferry to Haines and took a rafting trip on a glacier river and saw beautiful views and many eagles and their nests.  We saw a moose by the river too, best view we had of one, though had seen the "behind" of a mother and two babies in Denali.

One view from raft

Rafting adventure

Bald Eagle Couple

Crab lunch

Icy Strait Totem

 We next stopped in Icy Strait where they had the best stores. If you go, don't assume (like I did) you will find the same items elsewhere. Some you will, but they also had the best native crafts for a reasonable price.  Here we saw a salmon processing plant, walked through a lovely wooded area with many interesting plants and trees, walked along a beach and saw many, many bald eagles flying about, a couple of totem poles, and had the most wonderful lunch of Alaskan King Crab.
         
 In Ketchikan, we took a fast boat ride (not the canoe we had planned- one of two mix ups in tours) to a rain forest area and on the way saw many more eagles and beautiful landscapes. We saw interesting things such as Moose Bread - a fungus that grows in trees that moose like to eat, trees that had been stripped just enough to build a canoe but not enough to kill the tree, and trees such as in the picture below that was clear cut to sell, but is managing to re-grow itself.

Rainforest

We cruised the last day, giving us plenty of time to pack, reflect on our trip and see our last shows. All the entertainment was really good. We enjoyed the therapy pool and gym (a little). And we enjoyed happy hour and all our meals on board too. We ate twice in specialty restaurants and both were wonderful and indulgent!

Wine time on ship

Once we got off the ship, we thought we were spending the day in Vancouver, but tour number 2 mixup occurred and we had a short tour by bus and then spent many hours in the airport with our luggage. What little we saw, it is a beautiful town.  All in all a memorable trip.

Vancouver from park

Then back to Florida for a day and half before returning to VA.