<<Featured Image: Today’s featured image is a picture of some of my beautiful tomatoes, lined up on the windowsill above our kitchen sink. These are Black Krims, Early Girls, Big Rainbows, and Sweet 100’s, plus volunteer cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes have decided to start producing all at once!>>
This past week we have had some crazy weather. First, it was hot as blue blazes even though the temperatures were only in the 90’s. Maybe it had something to do with the humidity, which we have very little of but when we do, you can tell. Then after that we had a big wind on Monday that blew in cooler temperatures and the low in the early hours of Tuesday morning was 38 degrees! That’s not very far from freezing, which the garden definitely would NOT like. Then, after that very cool night, yesterday was cold (to me) all day. I sat around covered up with throw blankets. Today, and the upcoming week, is supposed to be warmer so I have my fingers crossed.
SMOKE AND DUST
We’ve had a big fire outside of Yakima city, out in the Yakima Canyon along the river. It burned more than 75,000 acres. We could see, and smell, the smoke from our house.
Everyone was afraid the high winds we had on Monday (with gusts up to 50mph) would spread the fire, but luckily the firefighters had done what they needed to do and kept it contained. It is now no longer a threat. There are lots of smaller fires all around us, though, and it is very easy for a small fire to become a big one. This time of year that is always a concern. As if the smoke from the fire was not bad enough, the winds blew up dust from the desert and visibility was so bad that some of the nearby interstates and highways had to be closed due to huge pile-ups of vehicles. I tell you, this year is definitely one for the books as far as catastrophes go.
I don’t know if all the dust and smoke in the air had anything to do with it, but we had a spectacular sunset the other evening. Linda and I went out to check on the air quality and saw this gorgeous sight below.
A COUPLE OF WALKS
Linda and I got the opportunity to take a couple of walks over the weekend. We just walked around close to the house, but one day we did drive the few blocks away to the Tahoma Cemetery to check things out there. It was pretty much the same as it always is, but we did see this one tree that is a harbinger of the coming change of season. The rest of the trees are still green.
On one of our walks we went down a road that we don’t usually walk on, mainly because coming back up that road is a steep uphill climb. I am glad we did go down that way because we came upon this garden flag that we both just love.
STAR TREK DAY
If you know me well at all, then you know that I am a huge Star Trek fan. I have been a fan from Day One…and Day One was September 08, 1966. So that means that yesterday was the Official 54th Anniversary of Star Trek Day. Linda (who is also a ST fan) and I spent the afternoon glued to the television watching the panel discussions that were presented via video conferencing at the official website for Star Trek (link here). It was fabulous! Also, earlier that morning Linda emailed me this poem (click here for link) that was posted by Your Daily Poem in honor of Star Trek Day. It’s a cute poem and perfect for the day. If you would like to watch any of the panel discussions, click here for a link to the Treknews website where they are all posted. Or you can search for them on YouTube, just type in “Star Trek Day Panels” in the search bar. They are all very interesting, but especially the one for Star Trek: The Original Series which features George Takei. If you love Star Trek at all, you will want to see that one.
STILL STANDING
The tall sunflower plant out in the garden is still standing and still putting out some pretty blooms. It is also attracting bees, which is why I wanted sunflowers in the garden. I had my camera out there the other day trying to get a picture of a sunflower with dew drops on it. I’m not sure if you can see the dew on it, but I’m sure you can see this bee checking it out.
I spotted another sunflower bloom that had a different kind of bee on it, one of those with the reddish band around the torso. I looked this guy up and he is called the Orange-Belted Bumblebee. Check him out in the video below. You can hear the Scrub Jay in the background, and you can see we were still having some wind.
MYSTERY PICTURE
Since we’ve been talking about space, I thought it would be appropriate to post this picture I took of the surface of an alien moon. I’m just kidding, it’s not really an alien moon even though it looks like one. Can anybody guess what it really is?
PARTING SHOT
After that big wind on Monday, the high temperature on Tuesday only got up to 74 degrees. Summer Girl was happy she could find some sun out in the back yard to stretch out in.
Join me every Wednesday (barring any unforeseen circumstances) for more from the Southerner in the Northwest.
Southerner in the Northwest 