Before fall sweeps us away with its merriment of baking and bobbing for apples, I wanted to take a moment, and bid farewell to summer 2010...
You see, this past summer is a big blur to me.
It was a beautiful bittersweet summer...
What with broken hearts, and my garden needing me 3 times a day (with water) to survive, it's no wonder it's all a fog. I lived in an 110' oven all summer (give or take a few degrees). My best friend was my gardening hat.
The Arizona heat can not be described. You have to experience it to believe it. You almost can't go outside all summer. Unless it is 4-5 a.m., because at midnight it is still hot.
Monsoon season is funny, because monsoon rain happens in patches. So, I only got rain about 4 times this summer. Not much at all. I saw it rain on the mountain a ton, but only a little for me. I am desperate for rain. Do you have any you can send me? :)
For Southern Arizonans, the seasons to frolic and play and indulge outside, are fall and winter.
We pray for snow in January and February (at least I do), but almost never get it. It does get cold enough for scarves and sweaters for a short period. And, it even freezes at night a few times in Winter. But the sun is always warm. Even on a really cold day, the sun can warm you.
Still, this summer, through all my watering (I thank my water-well daily), the garden flourished and kept me ever so busy.
It was good. It was really good. And yet, it is rapidly escaping my mind.
So, I decided to chronicle a little bit more of it, so as to keep the memories alive...
Some of the biggest gifts of this summer where the sunflowers. They were all different, each with their own distinct faces and smiles. I felt like they shared secrets with me, garden secrets...
I planted hundreds of sunflowers. They were everywhere, and many of them got so tall and soooooo big, that I am still totally gobsmacked.
These were Mister's favorites. The feathery sunflower....
There were all different colors of sunflowers, all glowing and strong. Some stems gifted 60+ flowers throughout the course of the summer.
Yellows, oranges and reds, and combinations of all three...
They grew here, and there, and everywhere...
Bright and happy, those yellow petals. Growing friends, reminders of our golden furry gal...
While the sunflowers grew, the pumpkin king sprinkled fairy dust or something magical, because there were 4 pumpkin patches, all thriving. I think I got about 50 or more pumpkins total, all different varieties...
Yummy healthy pumpkin leaves...
Remember when I first planted the pumpkin seeds, and I told you how so many people told me that I would be lucky to get even 1 pumpkin?
:)
I am smiling, as I type.......
As I have said, I firmly believe that every time someone says something negative, 100 good things happen.
Oh oh, and sooooo many squash blossoms. It was interesting too, the way you learn so much about babies and life, from your pumpkin vines. I won't go into details on that. But I will tell anyone who wants to know privately, all the things I learned about the creation of life, through my pumpkin vines...
All growing things are a miracle of life.
But to see the scale of it, with pumpkins, really puts things into perspective (for me at least)...
I am going to use what I learned this past spring, next year. The vines below, that grew kobacha pumpkins were incredibly strong. In fact, there are still a couple of pumpkins growing out there.
In fall of 2009 I purchased a bunch of pumpkins, not knowing their names or anything of that sort, but loving the shapes. Most of those pumpkins survived until early summer of 2010 (early June).
When the store-bought pumpkins from 2009 started to get soft, I broke them up by the gypsy wagon, and I pushed a bunch of the seeds into the soil. The seeds were really ripe. I thought it was too late to be planting them, since I had planted all the packet pumpkin seeds in early spring.
In 3 days, those seeds straight out of the pumpkin, sprouted. Their vines, above and below, grew like mad, gifting me baskets of kabocha pumpkins.
So, this year, if I see some interesting pumpkins at the store, I will buy some, and plant their seeds in late spring or early summer, when they will hopefully barely be going soft. (But, I will still plant the store bought packets of seeds in early spring.)
Pumpkin vines everywhere.
Did that really happen??
Did all of this really grow in my garden, plus more???
It sure did. But it's still really surreal to me.
I wanted pumpkins for soooo many years. I am surprised to have all this on my first pumpkin planting try.
I still think it was the pumpkin king's doing.
I am certain that I saw him once or twice ;)
I am so grateful.
I think the universe is saying "A person can do anything that they set their mind to..."
Hard work + Believe = Dreams Come True
Oh and, my freezer is bursting at the seams with peaches. I think a lot of folks had a good peach year. I heard that often. I am so glad I took the time to freeze about 40 bags of clean sliced peaches. Now I can bake with them all winter.
Mmmm, I feel a peach cobbler in the near future....
Yummmmm...........
There are still a handful of gourds growing out there...
I can't wait for them to dry so I can paint one or two.
But, I veered madly.
I wanted to tell you about what the sunflowers did.
You see, the sunflowers kept my garden full of bees and butterflies. Fluttering beauties to keep me company...
Fragile winged creatures...
Intricate and breathtaking...
Everyday, everywhere, there were (and still are) bees and butterflies.
(Thank you sunflowers.)
It is amazing, how happy sunflowers are. They wear a perpetual smile. There were a dozen of the huge "bonnet girls" as I call them, happily growing along...
Big faces, with huge green hats and petals peeking out.
It's amazing, the variety of sunflowers too. I would plant one kind of seed in an area, but they all looked different. I even had a couple of conjoined sunflowers. I will have to search for the photos.
Everywhere you turned... Sunflowers.
Although, next year, there will have to be a method for my planting madness.
This summer was very challenging, with 8 different growing spaces, and one watering girl.
But, it truly was worth it.
To walk through corridors of sunflowers, that you yourself planted, is sort of other worldly, and beyond gratifying...
And the size of some of these sunflower heads....
Incredible.
14 feet tall, with 12" diameter heads. I mean, they really become beings...
Oh oh, and did I tell you that some of the sunflowers were funny?? Some of them grew out sideways, at a perfect 90' angle.
There were so many odd sunflowers in the mix. Not centered centers, growing sideways, or facing backwards. It was quite curious to say the least.
Sunflower love, is good love, no matter how they grow.
They are such kind flowers. Yes that's it. They have a kind aura...
Happy...
Strong...
And kind.
What a summer...
I cried a lot in my sunflowers, over the loss of our girl.
I hope they didn't mind?
Something tells me, that's why they came...
What do you think?
Something else also tells me, that, that's why everyone joined in the garden this summer, and grew...
Late in summer, I plunked some sunflower seeds outside of the gyspy wagon. They grew larger than any others. With stems like trees...
I saved the seeds of some of them, and let the birds have the rest...
Standing behind the sunflowers growing outside of the gyspy wagon, it was like, summer stood still.
Everything that the summer of 2010 held, and every memory created in those warm months, lived in this quiet sunflower moment...
And, just like that, Summer Moved On...
♥,V
ps: Thank you for the ankle LOVE!! My ankle is healing quickly. Everyone who saw it, is floored it didn't break. All the black and blue is nearly gone, as is the swelling.
You see....
I have this theory...
I have been wearing some form of platform, heel or wedge shoes, every day of my life, for 18 years (sans the moments I am in flip flops in the garden, or tennis shoes on a walk). So, I think that, that much "platformage" means you better have strong ankles. I could be wrong, but then again, I could be right ;) (you can't imagine the places I have gone in heels)
Which is why I think my ankle didn't break, because it should have, in the way my foot fell into a gopher hole, and I fell in the opposite direction. Thank goodness it didn't. Yay. I have to confess, I have not been a good patient, as I had too much energy to sit around. I tried, but it didn't last long. However, I have been icing it a lot, and massaging it with arnica salve, and belladonna with arnica salve, 3 times a day.
pss: After a rigorous search, I found the arnica salve I get in Mexico, online. It is called Abuela arnica, see here, it is the first one on the list, in the little green tin... I have never ordered from that shop, so I can't share any feedback. But, I will place an order of a few things this week, and I will report back to you ;)
See you sooooon!
