Got a new zoom for the camera. Now, to be fair to the lens, you should know that I accidentally set the camera to a film speed of ISO1600 all day. I told you I didn’t know what all the buttons did. That’s why the pictures look a little like they were printed on sandpaper.
Ethel has lost her top spot again to Dotty. Will it ever be settled?
The climbing roses on the Asian pear espalier.
Incidentally, yes, I know this blog’s supposed to mostly be about food. The problem is that I can only take so many pictures of sprouting potatoes before even I get sick of them. Do I hate Monsanto? Yes. Can you kill slugs by dropping them into a jar of soapy water? Certainly. So, in the meantime, flower pictures. Oh, fine. Here:
Broccoli. We’ve got loads of it, and it’s absolutely perfect. I have no idea why that is. I can only assume that it has to do with improving soil conditions. I’ve also taken to watering fairly regularly with worm tinkle from the bin. And:
We made strawberry-rhubarb pie from fresh both. Dang, that was good pie. My pie tricks both come from Cook’s Illustrated. One, use tapioca to thicken the juices, and two, use vodka to make the dough more workable without making it tough and glutinous.
The horizontally trained Venus grapes have given me much more trouble than the…
vertically trained Van Burens. They want to grow vertically. The horizontal training requires an awful lot of convincing and re-routing. The vertical training has only required light tying and nipping off the growing tips at the top.
Back to flowers! Gaillardia from the front. Not one for hybridy looking flowers, these are about as fancy as I get.
Feverfew’s supposed to be medicinal. All I know is that it’s a vigorous and kind of pretty weed.
The oakleaf hydrangea. It’s actually native to the US– though not to Oregon.
The Moon has lousy soil.
Funny, vodka has exactly the same effect on me.