Another umbel

Here we are on the last day of July. Already. The Tour de France is done. The European tennis season is over. This coming weekend will see the famous chassé-croisé, the travel weekend when the juilletistes (the people who take their vacation in July) and the aoûtiens (the people who take their vacation in August) trade places. In other words, traffic is bad in both directions.

This is not wild carrot, but something else. Its flowers were yellow.

We normally stay put this time of year. The vegetable garden needs looking after and the tomatoes will start ripening now. Yesterday, in fact, I spent a good part of the morning weeding, removing lower leaves, and banging in new stakes. The tomato plants get a little top-heavy as the fruit grows and their metal stakes start to lean, so I tie them to new stakes to keep them upright.

I need to find a different way of supporting tomato plants. The internet, of course, is a source for many ideas, a few of which I'm considering for next year. I'll keep you "posted."

More lace

Here's another view of a wild carrot flower (Queen Anne's Lace) in its seed-setting stage. The grape growers have been mowing around the edges of the vineyard parcels and between rows of vines over the past week or so. As a consequence, many of the big patches of wildflowers have been cut. There are still plenty out there, though.

When the seeds form, the flower head curls in on itself.

We spent a very nice afternoon at our neighbors' on Sunday. We saw a friend we haven't seen in a while. She's elderly and not doing great, but it was good to see her out and socializing. Lunch was sliced cold meats (roast beef and pork) and salads, including grated carrots, rice salad, tabbouleh, and heirloom tomatoes. Our neighbors' daughters and granddaughters seemed to be in charge of putting it all together.

We left Tasha home alone (we were only across the street) and she did very well. Ken volunteered to drive our elderly friend home when she was ready. We got back to the house in time to watch a tennis match and the final leg of the Tour de France, both of which we had recorded while we were out.

Whompyjawed web

I spied this spider's web glinting in the morning sun the other day. It was built between a couple of grape vine tendrils out in the vineyard. Most webs are temporary structures, but this one seems particularly vulnerable to wind and weather.

Those spiders are crafty little critters.

I got outside early on Saturday morning and cut most of the grass. Not long after I finished, it started to rain. More like a heavy mist, actually. I measured zero accumulation in the rain gauge this morning.

Eclipsed

The full lunar eclipse started here last night around 21h30. I was just going to bed then. But I got up around eleven and noticed how dark it was outside. I thought, oh, it clouded over, but then I remembered the eclipse and went outside on the deck. There was the moon, mostly covered by the Earth's shadow.

They come in all sizes and many variations in shape and color. This one has nice pink shades at the edges.

I watched a while, then went back to bed. I was too sleepy to deal with getting the camera out to take photos. So you get a wild carrot flower instead.

Live long, and prosper

I saw this ad poster in town a few days ago and it made me chuckle, so I just had to get the camera and go back for a photo. I wonder if this ad is all over the world, given the burger joint's coverage of the planet and the nearly universal (pun intended) recognition of Star Trek's Mr. Spock.

As Mr. Spock would say, "Fascinating!"

If you've seen this advertisement where you live, I'd appreciate knowing. I'm sure that those of you living on Vulcan have seen it already.

Wilt thou?

It's hot. The kind of hot we're not really used to. Those of you who know desert climates or hot and humid coastal areas would laugh and maybe call us "snowflakes." You would love this weather we're having.  We may be getting close to 90ºF today.

Our daisies are wilting in the summer heat.

We don't have air conditioning, so what we do when it's hot is open all the windows very early in the morning to let the cool morning air flow into the house. In the afternoon, we close the west-facing shutters and windows to keep the heat out. When it's time for Tasha's afternoon walk, we start out with the best of intentions, but normally cut the walk short. It's too hot for a Shetland covered in thick fur. After all, Shetlands and collies were bred up in the northern reaches of England and Scotland where a heat wave is anything above 70ºF. And, apparently, they're having one now.

So we hunker down and stay hydrated. I water the vegetables and herb plants, but not much else. We may miss these "dog days" when they're gone. But September and October can be very pleasant and our hot summer will be but a memory.

Nutz

These are walnuts on the lone tree that grows along the vineyard road. The familiar wrinkled brown shell is inside this green casing which needs to be peeled off when the nuts mature in the fall. This tree doesn't produce an awful lot, and the walnuts it does make are often too small to be interesting. Still, that doesn't stop some of our neighbors from gathering a few from year to year.

Walnuts on the tree.

Although we don't have our own walnut tree, some friends of ours up river have one that produces so many nuts that they can give a lot of them away. We've benefited from their generosity over the years. In fact, I still have a whole basket full of their walnuts left from last year.