-ber season
It has been three months of quite consistent summer. We suspected that, like last year, the consistency would stretch into autumn but it appears that 2024 is the year of the seasons from our youth and summer ended as abruptly as it had started.
We are now at the beginning of September, to be followed by three more months ending in -ber, constituting, except perhaps December, the best time of the year. For some of us. Not for others, namely Cris, who is a heat-loving lifeform. Alas, all things must come to an end, and so did summer. Cat and Irina celebrated the fact by taking a walk in the mountain.
Blackberries had a good season this year. We gave our due appreciation to this fact by eating some off the bush on our way up.
Briars are doing quite well, too, but they do well every year, so that’s not exactly remarkable. We might pick some when they ripen, for cold-prevention purposes.
A few late figs didn’t get the memo that summer is ending on time. They probably won’t get a chance to ripen but top marks for trying.
August grass, dry and tired of all the heat, just like us.
Pinecones on moss. Some things never change.
Nature’s machine gun. The better kind of weapon.
All life strives to survive, including this miniature pine.
Meanwhile, back at the garden, our second-act plants got a whiff of what’s to come in the next couple of months.
The beans are coming along nicely. We hope they get a chance to bear fruit.
Ditto the aubergines, although we’re harbouring a dark suspicion that they won’t make it to full size. Note for next year: more fertilising with everything available.
The courgettes got the short end of the stick this year. After the first batch died from the heat, the second attracted the unwanted attention of late summer lice. Steps were taken and not all plants were affected equally but it was still annoying.
We grew a watermelon. Two of them. They’re the size of a child’s fist and they probably won’t grow much beyond it but it’s our first time, so we’re excited.
All in all, not too shabby a start to -ber season.
Here, I must start the cabbage and clear away the giant mess of tangle squash vines. We got no tomatoes, but it is possible to get a few as cooler days arrive.
Apparently, my tomatoes were a couple of weeks late, causing them to be ripening at the peak of the very hot summer we had, cracking them from extreme heat, then thunderstorms after.. also bug bites, and cutter worm damage.. bummer. Cucumbers and squash burned up. Cherry tomatoes are doing good, so we had some tomatoes. It seemed strange, as we had some late frosts in late spring, but the cherries, grapes, blackberries, raspberries and apples somehow escaped damage. I enjoy two vines of grapes my mom set out when I was a baby that produced very well along with my Black Cherry tree that had the most cherries it has ever produced since it was set.