Summer is here. I can tell because it’s 100F/37C. There are other clues of course but none quite so obvious. One of the cottontail rabbits has decided to call the back yard home. I see it out there nearly every evening. It enjoys my daily weed pile, munching happily on any wilted dandelions left from the day’s chores.

The local flock of pigeons has increased in variety. Last year we saw mostly the standard rock pigeons in their greys and blacks. This year we have multiple copper variations, browns and blacks and some white ones that look like Dalmatians.

The lettuce is still up but it’s getting close to bolting (going to seed) and will need to be harvested in the next few days. The spinach is gone for the season there is only so much heat a good spinach can take after all.

The Marionberry vine has 3 berries on it. I consider that a resounding success. It likes cooler & wetter environments since it is a blackberry cultivar that grows in the Pacific Northwest – think for the USA, Portland Oregon, Seattle Washington & for Canada Vancouver, British Columbia.

The morning visits by overflying hot air balloons have stopped. It’s just too hot to get good lift. Physics and the Rio Grande Valley’s air currents that change in the summer heat increase chances of instability and lessen the ability of the burners to be effective. All of that makes ballooning more difficult and increases the hazards of flying. That one balloon that was using its burner just to stay in the air as it skimmed over the roof next door was one of the last hot air balloons I’ve seen this year and quite likely was in that situation because of the weather.

The roadrunners are less visible but are now coming to the birdbath for water. It’s been incredibly dry here the last few years. While they get most of their fluids from their prey, they’re little Velociraptors I swear since they eat just about anything that moves, but they don’t turn down a bowl of fresh cool water. A woodpecker has been raiding the hummingbird feeder in the evenings. The hummingbirds are not amused but stay away until it leaves. All of these things remind me that I should go back to taking pictures. Next garden report will have pictures!

I started my first garden around 1993. I always loved being outside. I used to hunt for fossils, hike the local canyon trails, hang out at the beach and spend most of my summers as far away from my family’s house as possible. My very first job, at 10, was clearing brush and weeding the hillsides behind the neighbor’s houses. My mother had a vegetable garden and fruit trees at our house but I wasn’t invited to participate beyond removing & killing hornworms from her tomatoes and picking up the fallen fruit from under the trees. I had no idea until much later that having a garden really was good for the soul. It wasn’t just something made up in stories about little orphaned girls and secret gardens.

That healing quality of spending time with nature, tending to and nurturing plants and animals, and the lessons of what we can control and what we cannot is leading me towards some new paths. It’s all still inside my head – like planning Spring’s planting in the middle of winter – but it has that same siren song as the first green shoots that peek up out of the snow. Which reminds me, oddly enough, that I need to scarify (scratch/nick/sand) some seeds and soak some others because they need to get in the dirt for fall blooming. It’s an odd post to be sure. I’m still recovering and the garden is a very big part of what helps me heal. Thank you if you made it all the way to the end. I wish you a lovely, safe, and abundant day.