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Hello and welcome to my new Adventurous Roads blog. I maxed out my Wordpress Adventurous Roads blog's bandwidth and made the decision to switch to WIX going forward.

Family - Gardens - Hikes - Adventures

Around 5 years ago, I realized that I really like writing. I love the process of taking pictures of our family's adventures, recording activity and beauty in the gardens, and documenting what I see when hiking and traveling. I love looking for a thread or theme running through those images. I love turning that thread into a story with a beginning and an end. It is like putting a puzzle together. Very rewarding. It uses all of my senses and causes me to really ponder what I am seeing. Mindfulness. The icing on the cake of writing each post is to visit Goodreads and find a quote that says what I want to say, only better.

Last week, I spent hours and hours weeding the gardens every day. I channel my mother-in-law's words when approaching weeding: Don't give them a chance. This week, there is already food ready to be preserved. My first task of the morning was to peek under the floating row cover to see how things are going there. I expected to find a matt of grasses and weeds, but it was my lucky morning. Only a few grasses.

Below is what I saw when I lifted up the row cover. Most things look healthy. The cabbages and kale are flourishing. The broccoli - not so much. Very few broccoli plants have even begun to flower. One had bloomed poorly and was rotting.

Every year, what we eat in the winter is dictated by what grows in the summer. I love the sense of connection I get when we live like this. It makes me wonder in amazement how our ancestors fed their families. It also makes me grateful for food growers and grocery stores.

It looks like I will be processing some spinach tomorrow. And, maybe drying oregano.

We started these peppers indoors in March and then transplanted them into the Vegepod in early May. Some of them are flourishing - like this little guy. Others have hardly started to produce fruit.

Our two watermelon plants haven't liked this year's cool spring. For a few weeks, I sheltered them under an acetate cloche that Ted built. They really appreciated that and grew like watermelons should grow. Unfortunately, they got a bit big for the cloches and now are fending for themselves. We are bracing ourselves. Probably won't get watermelons this year.

This post could be subtitled, Tour of the Vine Crops. The Guatemalan Squash have huge leaves, but very few signs of flowers being pollinated yet. It looks like this one may be setting fruit.

We planted two other melon types. They are much happier than the watermelons.

I was circling the plants, lifting leaves as I went and looking for signs of pollination. There were a few small ones like the one above and then..... it's already starting to look like a melon.

It's interesting how each variety is so different. Above was an Athena cantaloupe and the one below is a Diplomat Galia melon. Cross between a honeydew and a cantaloupe. This could get interesting... and tasty... in August.

Note to self: cucumbers really respond to being planted indoors. This is the earliest we've ever had cukes to eat.

In a week, I will be grating yellow zucchini to be used in muffins and soups in the winter.

The tomatoes are very happy this spring. We are getting to the point where we will need to water the vegetable gardens. We do not water flower gardens. The well would not appreciate that. They need to fend for themselves in a drought year.

This post is brought to you by the scent of tomato leaves. I brushed some leaves away to take a picture of the tomato and there it was! What a scent!

In planting season, I ran out of room under the floating row covers for two broccoli plants. Cabbage moths have not found them yet. Maybe there is something to the notion of scattering vegetables throughout the gardens so moths can't find them.

I was under orders to notify Ted when the potatoes bloom. Now he will know when to start digging them. Two to three weeks after they stop flowering. Aren't they beautiful flowers closeup? They look like a kindergarten artist coloured them.

Gardening is never predictable. At least it is not predictable the way we garden. Our Vif d'Etampes pumpkins' leaves are looking huge and healthy. Not so much for the first flower to be pollinated. Looks like it started and then rotted.

I kept looking. Seek and ye shall find. And, it is already taking on the unique shape of that variety.

I think the Delicata Squash win the prize for growth. Ted is not crazy about them. I am hoping to try them in this Iranian Vegetable Stew when they mature.

Some of the grapes are doing better than others. I am assuming that the cool, windy spring didn't help with pollination. These are the best ones.

Well, it's started: preserving season.

“The only way that we can live, is if we grow.

The only way that we can grow is if we change.

The only way that we can change is if we learn.

The only way we can learn is if we are exposed.

And the only way that we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open.

Do it.

Throw yourself.”

C. JoyBell C.