Picking and Picking Up

It was a day of driving yesterday. I drove into town. I drove home. I drove into town. I drove home. I drove into town, I drove home. And that was pretty much it. There was no time for sewing. Before starting on all of that though, I was determined to check on the green beans. Would there be enough beans for making Dilled Green Beans today? Well, yes, and then some. As I passed by on my way to the garden, I noticed the plums are beginning to turn purple.

They still have a long way to go. Even after they've turned purple, they stay rock hard for weeks. I expect we'll be safe going on our trip. They'll probably be ripe when we get back. 

As for the garden, it's beginning to look jungle-like. Possibly there are thousands of beans coming. I felt a little panicked as I looked at them.

Also, the first corn silk is appearing. I'm hopeful this will work its way around our trip, but there's really no telling. I've already texted Erik about checking on it while we're gone. We have plenty to share, and so someone will be here to look at it as it progresses.

Although I'd checked the zucchini only a day or two earlier, this one still got away from me. I'd like to say a have teeny-tiny feet, but that isn't the case.

Then I found another one. There was yet another that got tossed into the bee garden. It was hopelessly large...about the size and shape of a football. I'll shred the two largest ones and freeze them in measured portions. They'll be good for breads, muffins, cakes, and fritters. The others will probably get eaten, or I might make some bread and butter pickles from them.

But the real story here was the beans. I only picked the largest ones. I filled my bowl.

And then I filled another bowl. 

On today's agenda, I'll be canning some Dilled Green Beans. I haven't made them in years, and so it will be nice to have some on the pantry shelves again.

The sunflowers are blooming. Another of the giants has opened. As a point of reference, our fence is eight feet tall, and this sunflower is about a foot taller. Yeah...that's what I'm talking about.

And there were other smaller ones. The labeling was lost in the shuffle when I planted these. I believe this next one is called "Floristan," but I'm not sure.

This next one might be the one called "White Night."

Or maybe this one is the one called "Floristan." It hardly matters.

And then, I noticed some more wildflowers in the bee garden. Here's a little pink bachelor's button.

I don't know these next two, but they're pretty.

My helper cat was with me for the harvest. She thought she might harvest a mouse from the bee garden.

So in all that driving, I got my hair cut. I'm feeling so much better about that. We picked up Mike's car. It was late in the day by then, and we worried about getting into rush hour traffic. As it turns out we were just ahead of the crowd and made it home in the usual time. Just as we walked in the door from that trip, the optical shop called to let me know my new glasses were ready. I really wanted to go get them, and so we made that trip too. To soften the blow of yet another trip into town, we stopped at a restaurant with outdoor dining for dinner. Frankly, I wasn't up for cooking by that time.

Thank goodness, today will be a day at home. I'll be making the Dilled Green Beans, doing a little housework, and otherwise settling back into a routine. The past two weeks have been busy with out-of-the-house things, and I'm looking forward to staying home for a stretch of days now. We got a nice rain last night, and the skies are cloudy this morning. It was nice to see everything get a little wet-down, and now the dust has settled. Time for sewing. The chickens await.