Nelson County Rocks

This past Tuesday I did a pretty complete harvest in the garden and took a good-sized basket to Monika, who has been tending the house in Cherry Hill.  I returned yesterday and what you see above is what became harvest-ready in the four days I was away.  It comes to 34 pounds overall and includes Early Girl tomatoes; six varieties of summer squash (Costata Romano, Dark Green, Ambassador, Golden Zucchini, Scallop, Lemon); pole beans (Kentucky Wonder and Emerite); bush beans (Royal Burgundy); four varieties of cucumber (White Wonder, Marketmore 76, Poinset 76 and American slicing); two varieties of snap peas (Cascadia and Super Sugar), and plenty of basil for a batch of pesto.

Now of course the work begins to store much of this away for fall and winter…

Who Could Ask for S’More? A visit from the grandkids and John in the week of July 4th.

Dan rode down with Monika early in the week, and then John drove down with Cally and Sylvia for the 4th of July weekend (Calista had a wedding in Pennsylvania to go to).  Nic and Alison came out several times, so it was our first extended family gathering at our new home.  It was great…and resulted in some new additions to what our friend Barry has called our “resort” (happily without crowds, gift shops, entrance fees, or traffic)–namely a campfire ring and a treehouse.  The campfire ring was Nic’s idea, and after he and Dan constructed it in the afternoon, we tried it out for s’mores in the evening.

The treehouse was Dan’s idea, and in fact he largely built it on his own, with a little help at the beginning from me and later from Nic.  (He’d built one back in New Jersey with friends, so he wasn’t a novice in this.)  This turns out to be a real 21st century treehouse–it comes with wireless internet and Dan spent hours up there instant messaging with friends in Portugal!

Once everyone had arrived, we had dinner on the deck and a second s’more campfire.  On July 4th we went up to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a picnic and some short walks.  More pictures about each of these activities may be seen by clicking here.