Signing Off for a Few

This morning's post is going to be quick. I need to take off fairly early for my hair appointment. When that's all done, I'm making a final trek to the grocery store to pick up a few last minute items. Then I'll head for home to start the process of packing in earnest. There won't be much going on here for the next couple of days, and so I don't expect I'll blog. Of course, if something exciting happens, I reserve the right to tell you about it. You'd want to know, right? But, honestly, how exciting can it be when we're packing...unless someone falls out of the RV or something. It could happen. At the latest, you can expect to hear from me by next Wednesday. If our plans go off as they should, we'll be in Eastern Oregon by then. 

So I'm already running out of things to tell you. It was a rather lackluster day yesterday. I had my pedicure appointment and then was chagrined to realize I'd bumped my left big toe somewhere along the ride home, putting a gouge in my still-wet nail polish. Bummer. Oh well...I'll look for something close in color at the grocery store today. I probably had something a while back, but I ended up tossing out all my dried-up nail polish. Aside from that, I spent most of the afternoon just sitting around vegetating. I did get a start on the first of Grandma's Thimbles.

These will mostly be done in stem stitch with about a zillion French knots thrown in. 

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Matthew's friend Lyndsay came up to pick some plums from our tree. We took a little tour of the garden while we were at it. I chuckled at finding this corn stalk on the ground. Obviously some squirrel had quite a banquet here.

The cantaloupes continue their slow road to ripening. They are a small melon, and the ones you'll see here are a little larger than softballs. They are still green as green can be, although I've noticed their blossom end is softening a little. 

There are a couple of dozen still on the vine. We'll pick the most ripe ones and take them along. I've read they will ripen off the vine. We're told to put them in a paper bag along with an apple or a banana. The apple/banana will emit ethylene gas, and that is supposed to help with ripening.

It'll be an experiment, and it's probably the only way we'll get to enjoy any of the cantaloupes we grew this year. There are lots more smaller ones on the vine too. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we find them still unripe when we return 6 weeks from now. 

It seemed a good time to check in with the bee garden again. Yet more different wildflowers have bloomed. This has been a very gratifying part of the garden this year. I'm hoping it will only get more variety in coming years. Here are yesterday's pictures.

This last one is of the black-eyed Susans growing in a whiskey barrel at the front door. They made a good showing for their first year.

As I made my way back to the house, I noticed Smitty was napping in the little house on his catio. Sounds like the name of a TV show, doesn't it? "Little House on the Catio." It could be the title of Smitty's autobiography.

He seems nearly back to 100% now. I haven't heard him sneezing at all this morning, and that will be the first time I've been able to say that for about two weeks. Also, I want you to notice how the catio door is looking a little ratty at the bottom. You can thank the squirrels for that. They chewed through the fencing on the catio earlier this year and also chewed at the opening of the house. I could more easily live with our many squirrels if they could find it in themselves to be a little less destructive.

Okay, so that's all I have for you today. I'll be back if I have news, but in any case, no later than Wednesday of next week. Enjoy your Labor Day weekend. We'll be celebrating with...what else?...labor.