This happened

I'm often up in the night wandering around the house. On hot summer nights I will also be wandering around on the deck, looking for jets, satellites, constellations, the international space station, and other things that fly by in the night sky. Last night, I saw this. I wasn't looking for it. Today I'll have to do some research for the details.

The moon and a probably a planet (Venus? Jupiter?) just after 23h00 in the western sky last night.

The next few days will be our hottest in this current heat wave. I'll probably be out on the deck a few times star watching.

Operation Oregano

Our oregano patch is ready for harvesting! I started a couple of days ago. Armed with a pair of scissors, I clipped as much as would fit in a large bowl and rinsed it well. Then I put the clean stalks and leaves into the dehydrator and let it run on low for most of the day. When the stalks got dry, I removed them from the stems and put the leaves in zip-top bags for storage.I'm repeating the process for another batch now, and there could be a third while the weather's good.

Fresh oregano, rinsed and ready for drying.

We're still using last year's harvest, so it will be a while before we start using these. 

The North Forty

This is the section of our yard that I call the North 40. It's due north of the house's northern façade. For scale you can see a standard wheel barrow in the upper right. There's a fence along the far edge of the property. We fight pretty much a losing battle with the weeds, brambles, and the young trees that want to take over the grassy area.

Most of the north forty. A wheel barrow on the upper right, filled with yard cuttings. The lump in the upper left is the stump from the Himalayan cedar we had removed a while back.

This past week has been pretty chilly, feeling more like late winter/early spring. We haven't had to use the central heating in a while, so it's not as bad as all that. The mornings are cold. 

Hydrangea

They're starting to flower now! This one grows on the north side of the house. Two more grow next to the driveway on the east side.

    

Looking down from the deck to the north side hydrangea.

Those two grow from clippings that I took and rooted many years ago. There was a third, but it didn't survive.

A loverly bunch

The grape vines are flowering and grapes are forming.

Baby grapes on the vines.

And it's chilly outside. This morning, a vineyard sprayer is out there plying the rows. I assume they're spraying a treatment against fungus. 

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Summer? Our unprecedented spring heat wave is expected to break today. Cooler air will be welcome, but we don't want it too cool. The hot and dry weather has been good for getting some yard work done. It's always important to take it slow and stay hydrated in the hottest part of the day. I got deck mostly cleaned up and we've been enjoying cooking on the grill and sitting outside in the evenings. I also got some geraniums for the pots and planter boxes. Nice.

The deck.

Our high temperature today is predicted to be in the low 20s Celsius, a full ten degrees Celsius cooler than yesterday. Now, if Mother Nature could find that special spot between too hot and too chilly...

Oops.

We've been busy running errands and dealing with little emergencies (nothing serious) and haven't really focused on the blogs these past few days. Pleas bear with us. Thanks!