Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, a time for us to take a break out of our lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new)! Grab a cup of coffee and share with us! There is regular hot coffee in the French press (very strong,) ice tea and ice coffee. What would you like?
Thank you for having coffee with me this weekend. I always look forward to having coffee with you. This weekend I’ll tell you that this is my fourth week of vacation and its not until now I feel completely relaxed. It took four weeks to settle down! It’s been an unusual year that’s for sure, and a non-stop, never ending list of things to do, even though I’ve tried my best to not plan anything for my evenings and weekends, still, life as a single mom is really busy. Not complaining, just staying real. I am so grateful for this long break. I have three more weeks of staycation to enjoy.
My daughter’s cough is finally better. We’ve enjoyed some walks, but she doesn’t have her usual energy, I bet it’s going to take some time to get back to that. She is much happier though. When she feels up for it we are going to take this thing out for a stroll.
Do you know what this is? I bought two of them this week, one for my daughter and one for me. She’s never used one of these before. I asked the same question in a Facebook group I’m a member of, and learned that it looks like a contraption they use for finding shark teeth in Florida! LOL. That is not what this is..
These little things are for harvesting berries, especially blueberries and lingonberries. That way you don’t have to pick the berries one by one, you make a sweeping motion with your hand on/over the berry bushes and get the ripe berries, that you put into a bucket next to you. When you get home you’ll have to go through your harvest and take the occasional leaf out, but this is still a much faster method than picking the tiny berries one by one. My little sister and I loved to go to the forest and pick berries when we were kids. We did not enjoy sorting them afterwards as much.. something you have to do the same day (preferably. They get very wet if you don’t.) We have tons of blueberries ripe in the forests around us right now, and in a while there will be lingonberries. I love having blueberries on my yoghurt, or warm oats in the morning. Making tea out of dried blueberries is a favourite in the winter as well. Depending on how much we pick (= my daughter’s endurance in the woods) we might make blueberry pie, and jam as well.
Our ‘Sugar Daddy Peas’ just keeps coming. We’ve had a steady harvest for several weeks. Not a huge harvest, but very enjoyable. Most of them are being picked by my daughter before I get a chance. I like that. I want her to eat more fruit and vegetables. I don’t mind if she eats them all.
The nights this week have been in the low 40’s (Fahrenheit) and the days in the low to mid 60’s, cloudy, windy, and rainy, a big difference compared to the temperatures we had in June (90F and sun.)
I don’t know if we’ll get any cucumbers. Do we have enough warm days left?
Same goes for the bell pepper. Their growth have been standing still for a couple weeks. At least that is what it looks like to me. Hopefully some sun next week will kick them into a growth spurt.
My garden is not super happy, but is doing OK. If we get some sun next week we should be good. I believe we are suppose to get very pleasant temperatures in the 70’s. It’s clear to me that a greenhouse is needed, sooner than later, to even out the temperatures.
The wind broke some leaves of my zucchini plants this week, but at least they are still alive, and there is some flowers budding.
Below is a short ‘Bush Cherry Tomato’. They are also showing some flowers, but no tomatoes yet.
Naturally I am hoping for a harvest, since I have put some effort to the garden. However, this is a learning year in this new location, and I will not be super disappointed if I realise that I’ve been over optimistic growing all this without a greenhouse. This is not California, and it takes a little more to succeed here. I have a vision for what I want to do when I get my own place. My vision include a big greenhouse/chicken pen, and a vertical Hügelkultur garden in connection to the greenhouse.
Do you need a refill on that coffee? What have you been up to this week? Are you on vacation? Enjoying summer so far?
During these rainy, cold days I’ve been reading a lot. I told you last week about reading the first book in a series about Julius Caesar, I finished the third book this week, and started to read another series by the same author Conn Iggulden.
These are in Swedish, but you can find the English version by googling the author. I enjoy reading books in both English and Swedish. I’ve come to where it really doesn’t matter, I read as fast in both languages and understand the context in between the lines. I’m very happy to be in this place. Did you know that my New Years resolution 2011/2012 was to improve my (school) English? I was already reading books in English every now and then, but always had to have a dictionary next to me. I started to blog in English to challenge myself, I’m so sad I deleted that blog, I would have loved to go back and read my struggling blog posts from back then. I did not plan to ever move abroad when I made that New Years resolution, but before the end of the year I found myself living on 80 acres in the Sierra Nevada’s, (CA. ) Be careful what you wish for 😉 Are your reading something good at the moment? What’s the weather like in your area? Tell me in a comment!
Love,
Maria
How nice that you read both languages fluidly! I would be in the forest, eating those berries. The weather there is very cold, and a huge change from last month, wow! I had no idea what the device was, never would have guessed it’s for picking berries! A coffee sounds good right now, have a wonderful weekend, both of you! ❤️
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Thank you John. I’ll send an ice coffee your way 🙂 It is a little chilly. I like it, but I wouldn’t mind a few degrees warmer, for the sake of my plants. Have a great weekend!
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Iced coffee sounds good! We’re having hot, sticky weather as Tropical Storm Fay is coming our way, so iced sounds lovely. 🙂
Week 4 already? Time is flying! Your garden is looking good, but I’m sure the tropical-loving plants are struggling with 40 degree nights. A hoop house may a necessary thing for your climate. Or perhaps cold frames made from recycled windows, that you can close at night? Several UK gardeners I follow use a greenhouse to lengthen their season.
Glad H is better, such a worrisome thing. I hope she gets to enjoy more of the summer weather before you must return to school. CV is surging again here, and there is some speculation of whether to open schools or just teach online.
I knew your blueberry picker right away. We used to use wooden ones in Maine and the best thing was when you could run the harvest through a chaff blower to clean them. 🙂
Have a great week ahead!
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Is there usually high humidity where you live? Your ice coffee is coming right up!
Time is flying! I am is grateful for all the time off. I would have been more stressed about H health if I’ve felt that I should have been at work, now we take every day as it comes. We enjoyed a longer walk in the forest yesterday, it was wonderful. I though you would recognise the blueberry picker right away. I used metal ones as a kid.
Have a wonderful rest of your weekend!
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Thank you, Maria. Today is a little less humid. Normally, we only have occasional humidity to deal with. Storm Fay came up from the south and carried lots of rain and hot, humid conditions. We’re happy to see it blow out!
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Thank you for the coffee and iced coffee sounds great since we are pretty darn hot here this week. We will hit 100 degrees this weekend in Norco. We’ve been bumping 100 all week, 97 today. I’ve been picking tomatoes, so DELICIOUS! Only one bell pepper, I chopped it up and froze it for a recipe someday soon. Lol 😀 there’s flowers on the bell peppers but they are slow, not sure if they will produce more in my container.
I’ve never seen your berry picker, that’s awesome there is a way to pick those YUMMY berries easier!! YAY! I can’t believe your on week 4 and am glad you finally feel relaxed! Another YAY! 😄
It’s so FUN catching up, take care my dear friend. (so happy your daughter is feeling better!! Last YAY!) ❤️❤️❤️
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Ice coffee it is! I’ll have one with you. How fun to pick your own tomatoes. Well deserved! Mulch the bell peppers, and water them well. I think you’ll get more. You have the sun that’s for sure 🙂 Do you get any more time off this summer? I know you went to Hawaii earlier, but I do hope you get some time off.
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I’ll get some mulch for my container as the bell peppers are getting a bunch of flowers now and I’m trying to water well. Especially since it’s been so hot. Thanks for the advice!! I’m planning on taking a few days off to see my daughter this month! I could use some time off! 😀❤️
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Well hello again friend, I just replied to your reply on my blog & here I am enjoying my coffee with you, which I just love. Your vegies look great I love how the zucchini chase the flower off as it grows & missing vegies as your treasure gets to them first, awesome parenting, you must be so relieved she is feeling better, I’m so glad. Let us know how the picker of yummy berries scoop goes. I am actually working out how I can make one with left over timber, lol, brain doesn’t stop. Its cold here, well around 10degrees maybe a little less, we’ve had much needed rain, great for our little selection. Have a berry wonderful weekend, thanks for another great coffee share.(:
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I’m so happy you finally got some rain. I’m guessing you are drinking a hot beverage today, consider your cool weather 🙂 Best of luck with your berry picker! We did walk around in the forest checking out good spots yesterday but we haven’t truly tried the berry picker yet. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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Thank you for the iced coffee. We have been having a heatwave here this week. Tonight thunder storms and a break from the heat. Gardening can be such a test of patience and resilience of spirit. I think your plants look healthy and there are enough days left with enough hours of sunshine
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Thank you Anne. I enjoyed having ice coffee with you. Are the thunderstorms big? We’ve had some smaller thunderstorms several afternoons these past couple weeks, yesterday as well. You never know with the weather here, it can be warm, but it can also rain a whole summer. This past winter was usually warm, it is more common with negative temperatures for 5-6 months and lots of snow. We had very little of that last winter. We had the most snow when we just got back to Sweden in December. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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WE dodged the big thunderstorm bullet this time. But south of us in the City of Toronto they got hit with them and torrential rain caused a lot of flooding.
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I haven’t read those books, but in a similar vein I’ve been reading the books about Uhtred of Bebbanburg, set around the time of King Alfred. I enjoy them-but they go on and on! Each time I start the next and think it will be the last, but when I get to the end it’s no-there’s another one coming! My favourites by the author (Bernard Cornwell) though, are The Warlord Trilogy, three books about King Arthur. They start with The Winter King, and I’m due a re-read I think.
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Sounds like you have some great literature there. I love historic novels. My daughter watched some YouTube videos this week about Spain, and now she is super interested in Spains history. If it wasn’t for Corona I would take her there. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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Something to add to the time do’, or rather ‘to go’ list. Traveller that you are!
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Yes!
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I’m glad your daughter is feeling better. I hope your garden continues to thrive despite being a more northern climate. We typically get tomatoes in late August through early October here, so flowers-only now isn’t unusually. I hope you have a good weekend and a wonderful week ahead 🙂
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Thank you so much Trent! It could snow here mid-late October, but August is a harvest month. I still have hopes for the tomatoes 🙂 I hope young re enjoying your weekend!
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Glad to hear that your daughter’s cough is doing better.
Thanks for sharing the beautiful pictures. Hope you have a nice weekend!
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Thank you for your kind words. Have a fabulous rest of your weekend!
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H Maria. You had me on the berry picker. I tried to figure it out before scrolling down to the answer. I decided that it was some outdoors tool to gather seeds or pods of some kind and the teeth were designed to drop out stems, leaves and other stuff of the wrong size for something that may only grow there. Berries, did not occur to me for some reason.
Did you already know or notice how similar zucchini plants are to spaghetti squash plants? The blossoms, leaves and even the small prickly thorns on the leaf stalks are all but the same.
Thanks for the visit. So glad your gal is feeling better.
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It would be very smart to use the berry picker to collect some bigger seed pods etc. Great idea, you might be on to something there 🙂 We had metal berry pickers as kids. I have not used this one enough to know which material I prefer. The plastic ones seem sturdy enough, and are much lighter, which makes it somewhat easier.
Zucchini, squash, eggplant, and pumpkins look very similar (at least to me.) I have a few plants coming up from my compost that I do not know what they are, could be any of above, because they are so similar. I enjoy the surprise moment, and hope for enough sun to discover what it is. 🙂
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and have a fabulous new week!
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Your garden looks lovely, Maria! I wish I could steal some of your cool weather! I LOVE that berry picker and can use that for the end of summer blackberry gathering at the delta! Glad your daughter is feeling better. Thanks for the iced coffee!!
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I bet the berry picker could be used to pick blackberries 🙂 Maybe the steel version would work even better. Thank you for having coffee with me. I’ll send some cooler weather your way 🙂
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Hi Maria, I’m glad your daughter is feeling better. I can’t believe you’re already 4 into 7 of your vacation weeks. Your garden looks great. I hope the weather co-operates to let you have a good harvest. We have a lot of berries over here so I could use a berry picker tool, too. Thank you for the coffee. Have a wonderful staycation week 5!
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Thank you Natalie! Have a great week!
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My first thought was an insect catcher for some kind of science count! Berry picker is quite ingenious. Love the pictures of your garden exploits. I must do better next year, I start off with good intentions and then time takes over. Thanks for the coffee.
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So happy you enjoyed the post!
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Lovely, lovely photography! I so enjoy the nature scenes, so much more varied that within the confines of our yard. I could have used that berry picker as a child. We were sent out to harvest chokecherries for syrup and jelly in season, and it seemed to take over the summer’s daylight time.
So happy to hear that your daughter’s cough has improved! Best wishes for your week!
hugs,
Lizl
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Thank you Lizl! The berry pickers are very useful 🙂
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