August is a hard month for me. I can almost feel the end of summer approaching and I dread it. To me, summer is the way the world should really be. Spring is the lovely approach to summer. Fall is the gorgeous retreat from summer. And winter, well I don’t even want to think about it. Summer just does not last long enough. And August is when it starts to say good-bye. By the end of the month signs of the approaching end will be very evident. Many things in the garden and orchard are ripening, which is nice, but it marks the end of the cycle. After that all that lies ahead is death (for the annuals) or dormancy (for the perennials). The grasses in the meadows and fields are already brown. Some things, like the mid-summer flowers, are giving up the ghost entirely and will soon disappear and nothing will come along to take their place except goldenrod and asters. Goldenrod and asters are beautiful, but sad. They’re the last thing blooming when frost comes. I’d better stop now.
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| One of several good sunsets last week. |
We had some great weather during the week -- some nice rain, a few warm, foggy mornings, a few dramatic sunsets, and even a rainbow. Most days were hot. I never complain about the heat. I remember the many, many cold days too well. I love hot weather.
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| The beaver pond on a warm, foggy morning. |
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| Rainbow over Gold. |
On Tuesday evening we went blueberry picking. Although I have blueberry bushes in my yard, they are still small and only produce a few berries. Happily, there is a pick-your-own place just up the road that has hundreds of 25 year old blueberry bushes. Despite the dry summer, they have a good crop this year. We picked a couple of pounds of berries and on Thursday I made some blueberry jam and then we froze the rest of them.
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| Blueberry bushes. |
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| Blueberries. |
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| Happy pickers. |
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| Blueberry jam. |
The first sunflower opened last week. It might be the only one this year. I planted dozens of sunflower seeds all over the garden, but the voles ate most of them when they were just tender sprouts. Only two have survived and the other one is very puny. The one that is blooming is, therefore, much adored.
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| My only sunflower (so far). |
On Wednesday we went to the county fair. We go every year. It’s a small fair compared to some of the other fairs in counties around us, but we like it. In years past we’ve entered various items, vegetables, quilts, photographs, and such, and we’ve won quite a few ribbons. I once won a Best In Show ribbon for a purple cauliflower I entered. But we haven’t done that sort of thing for several years now. On Wednesday we walked the route we always take through the fair grounds, visiting the display buildings and the animals. We avoided the fairway with its cheesy game booths, unhealthy food stands, and dangerous rides, as we always do. And we ended, as we always do, by stopping at the taffy stand for some taffy.
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| Quilts at the Fair. |
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| Goats. |
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| Cows. |
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| Avoiding the Fairway. |
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| Fresh taffy. |
On Saturday Stacey and I attended the annual Frosty Hollow Herb Fair over in Sweden Valley. This is the third year we’ve attended and set up our barn quilt display. Frosty Hollow is a farm and bed and breakfast owned by the Ayers family. The Herb Fair is a nice event and we usually get several orders from it. While I’m there I always check out their gardens. They have some great vegetable gardens and flower beds.
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| Our display at the Herb Fair. |
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| Frosty Hollow Herb Fair. |
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| Zinnias at Frosty Hollow. |
Saturday afternoon our friend Rhoda Lent and her son Ross delivered a load of straw to us. I ordered 50 bales from them – some for next year’s garden, some for use in the barn during the winter. It’s good clean wheat straw. We stacked it in the upper part of the barn. Certain things always make me feel rich. Jars of honey in the pantry is one. A barn full of straw bales is another. I don’t know why.
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| Unloading straw. |
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| Bales in the barn. |
We have some more visitors on the way. Daniel and Seth are driving Miriam from Utah to Missouri. Miriam and my nephew Elijah will then be driving my parents back to Utah to attend BYU Education Week. After Education Week they will return to Missouri. Miriam will eventually end up in Detroit where she will be living with Sarah and Tosh. Daniel and Seth, in the meantime, will drive here from Missouri and spend some time with us. We don’t know when exactly they will get here, but we’re really looking forward to having them here. I’ve made a list of the projects I want them to help me with. And it will be nice for them to spend time with Josiah before he leaves on his mission.
We are not a sports-watching family, but we do like to watch the Olympics. We endured as much of the opening ceremony as we could on Friday night and watched several events yesterday. We watch it through live streaming on the internet, which is nice because we don’t have to see the endless commercials and idiotic commentary on the regular network coverage.
It sounds like dinner is ready now. It’s Fast Sunday and the food smells good and I’m very hungry, so I’m heading for the table.
