Summertime
G'day all!
Long time no post. I have the nasty feeling I didn't post because I'm a bit stupid and got too hot.
Yes, it got hot in Seattle. I seem to remember saying last time that there are two things I never thought I'd say in Seattle:
1) It's too hot, and
2) We need rain.
Well I have a third thing to say:
3) Too much sun.
The tomato and the eggplant at the ends of two raised beds are going great guns, as is the tomato by the house. They are setting fruit like crazy. I've got hopes of even getting one ripe eggplant, which will equal the record of anything I've grown in Melbourne.
But the rest? I had to go and get shade cloth for the vegie patch to get things growing. I know that sounds absurd but they were in full sun from about 8am to 7pm and apparently between that, the northerly wind and the complete lack of rain (artificial rain is supplied to them, from the tap), none of the seedlings were growing. None of them. Three weeks of sun. 15 days in a row over 80F (26.666' C), the first five days of July were 90F (32C) or more and everything got too hot. A bit of shade and suddenly they got their grow on.
I couldn't blame the plants because I could not credit how hot I got. I guess it isn't properly dry heat here - it's a maritime climate and tends to have a bit of humidity to it generally. Am I not from a warmer climate than this one? How will I cope when we go back home?
I suspect air conditioning will be my friend. My bestest buddy.
There's not been too much sun though for most of this week - big bushfires up in British Columbia smoked us out between Saturday and Thursday, when a cool change blew through and blew the smoke back to BC. It's been cloudy and cooler for two days and it will be cloudy and cooler for another couple of days at least.
Never thought I'd say it being cloudy is nice. The only problem is that it is wrecking our long days - sunset is back to just after 9pm again now. I want to be able to appreciate the light that lasts in the sky until nearly 10:30pm.
The other good thing about it being cooler and now not smoky is that I can get things done. I was getting very sluggish on the warm days and not doing much more than pottering in the yard. Then when the smoke kicked in, I could barely manage that - smoke and me don't get along.
But in the last couple of days I've pretty much fixed up the wardrobe/closet - we decided to fix up the plastering cos it was a bit of a rush job and of course it ended up being me doing the finishing cos DH works and is busy on an important project. I only need to wipe the dust off it and prime it and then the insides can be populated with the closet system. I have to paint the outside, which means trying to replicate my fancy paint job but I have the paint and the technology (brushes and rollers) so I reckon it will happen.
The garden is puttering along. I've had to put in drip (well leaky hose) irrigation. I fear the water bill when it comes along... but dripping water into it is a lot more efficient than me standing and watering it. Less spray, less loss, and I can do other things apart from holding the hose. I'm having a lovely time collecting Flanders poppy seeds from various of the plants that I've marked as being non-standard, along with seed from the normal plants. Now that I've grown some poppies, I have the feeling I will be growing them for years to come - they do naturalise rather well. I would show off some current pictures but it turns out I don't have any current pics - they are all more than a week old or are of single flowers. Better remedy that tomorrow.
I've also been quilting, knitting and spinning! Suddenly I'm going through my spinning stash and turning it into yarn. Dunno what is up with that, possibly something to do with having about 8 fleeces to process and avoiding them by spinning up my pretty pretty already dyed stash.
I also discovered a number of quilts in a box, all basted and ready for quilting. Sigh. I get bogged down on the quilting because my sewing machine is difficult to quilt with as it is a standard size machine and doesn't have a big harp/wide throat. Doing sorta straight lines is okay (they are never perfectly straight cos I always screw something up) and doing fancy patterns is okay if the quilt is a lap quilt or throw but anything bigger is a challenge and a half. This will change though soon :-)
anon!
Long time no post. I have the nasty feeling I didn't post because I'm a bit stupid and got too hot.
Yes, it got hot in Seattle. I seem to remember saying last time that there are two things I never thought I'd say in Seattle:
1) It's too hot, and
2) We need rain.
Well I have a third thing to say:
3) Too much sun.
The tomato and the eggplant at the ends of two raised beds are going great guns, as is the tomato by the house. They are setting fruit like crazy. I've got hopes of even getting one ripe eggplant, which will equal the record of anything I've grown in Melbourne.
 |
| This isn't meant to be a shot of my bust but it does show how tall my huge tomato is. BTW, that is not a euphemism. |
But the rest? I had to go and get shade cloth for the vegie patch to get things growing. I know that sounds absurd but they were in full sun from about 8am to 7pm and apparently between that, the northerly wind and the complete lack of rain (artificial rain is supplied to them, from the tap), none of the seedlings were growing. None of them. Three weeks of sun. 15 days in a row over 80F (26.666' C), the first five days of July were 90F (32C) or more and everything got too hot. A bit of shade and suddenly they got their grow on.
 |
| Charming, eh? We have bamboo thinnings and umm, yeah, very Robinson Crusoe... |
I couldn't blame the plants because I could not credit how hot I got. I guess it isn't properly dry heat here - it's a maritime climate and tends to have a bit of humidity to it generally. Am I not from a warmer climate than this one? How will I cope when we go back home?
I suspect air conditioning will be my friend. My bestest buddy.
 |
| Smoky skies freak me out because they mean big bad bushfires. |
There's not been too much sun though for most of this week - big bushfires up in British Columbia smoked us out between Saturday and Thursday, when a cool change blew through and blew the smoke back to BC. It's been cloudy and cooler for two days and it will be cloudy and cooler for another couple of days at least.
 |
| Smoky sunrise - they do look pretty. |
Never thought I'd say it being cloudy is nice. The only problem is that it is wrecking our long days - sunset is back to just after 9pm again now. I want to be able to appreciate the light that lasts in the sky until nearly 10:30pm.
The other good thing about it being cooler and now not smoky is that I can get things done. I was getting very sluggish on the warm days and not doing much more than pottering in the yard. Then when the smoke kicked in, I could barely manage that - smoke and me don't get along.
 |
| Tomatoes! Yay! Lots more than these too. |
But in the last couple of days I've pretty much fixed up the wardrobe/closet - we decided to fix up the plastering cos it was a bit of a rush job and of course it ended up being me doing the finishing cos DH works and is busy on an important project. I only need to wipe the dust off it and prime it and then the insides can be populated with the closet system. I have to paint the outside, which means trying to replicate my fancy paint job but I have the paint and the technology (brushes and rollers) so I reckon it will happen.
 |
| One of the shorter sunflowers. Didn't expect the many flowers on one stem! |
The garden is puttering along. I've had to put in drip (well leaky hose) irrigation. I fear the water bill when it comes along... but dripping water into it is a lot more efficient than me standing and watering it. Less spray, less loss, and I can do other things apart from holding the hose. I'm having a lovely time collecting Flanders poppy seeds from various of the plants that I've marked as being non-standard, along with seed from the normal plants. Now that I've grown some poppies, I have the feeling I will be growing them for years to come - they do naturalise rather well. I would show off some current pictures but it turns out I don't have any current pics - they are all more than a week old or are of single flowers. Better remedy that tomorrow.
I've also been quilting, knitting and spinning! Suddenly I'm going through my spinning stash and turning it into yarn. Dunno what is up with that, possibly something to do with having about 8 fleeces to process and avoiding them by spinning up my pretty pretty already dyed stash.
 |
| Current project all ready for quilting. |
anon!
Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! Also, I dunno, wear a hat, perhaps one with ice in it somehow, particularly when outside working in the garden. It's really easy to get dehydrated and over heated driving around or especially riding public transportation (even if the ride is air-conditioned). Remember, you even gave your seedlings shade, so you need it too when outside.
ReplyDeleteEverybody gets very stupid down here when we have a long hot spell--erratic driving etc. I'm too lazy to be much effected. :-) I recommend that as a tactic too. One year I over did it trying to dig out all the shag carpeting someone buried in the yard; argh; now I mostly only garden in the early morning during the hot months, spend the rest of a gardening day sitting or snoozing.