It’s Harvest Time

I can’t believe that 8 days are gone by without me doing any new posting on my blog. But the calendar is showing August 26. What has happened? Well, I guess I have been preoccupied with business matters which usually does not leave many other thoughts in my head. August has been the best month for us, even the boat traffic from St.Andrews has picked up. Had the pleasure of driving 3 couples from Maine who had arrived with big motor yachts on the island. We all had a great time. Visitors have been coming from all over. Lately even some folks from San Francisco have appeared wanting a tour around. When ever I stop the van at Raccoon Beach and show a few of those ball-shaped rocks I have up in the front, people are getting excited wanting to go down the 70ft steep stairway to find a few beach treasures themselves. Of course I have to watch that they don’t stay too long or else…. And over the past 8 days we have seen the ripening of millions of blackberries (not the phone dude…) which triggered me to seek into a bramble wilderness within the Roosevelt Park. Honestly, I have NEVER seen so many blackberries in my life. They are like grapes and most of them have a nice size. Within 90 minutes I had gathered 1 gal of berries. That’s gonna be made into a delicious jelly. This time I was armed with Dr. Watkin’s repellent which really is the only stuff having any effect. Yet the suckers discovered that they could penetrate my shirt and started happily drilling holes in my back. But I’m getting over it. The thought of enjoying blackberry jelly makes it all worth it.    The weather has been a contributing fact to a huge berry harvest. We had hardly any rain over the past 3 weeks. A small shower now and then, but the sun was never far away. And while the weather was so nice Bea has been in the garden mostly every day. Some days I feared she would outdo herself and she didn’t seem to know when it was enough. But we are enjoying nice flowers all around and ….most importantly terrific vegetables which are either cooked or ending up in the most delicious salads. I really feel blessed about Bea having such a great interest and stamina to do the garden. Nights are cooling off now and that is soo nice as we can sleep a lot better. By the end of this week we will have another boondocker from “Boondockers Welcome”  visiting with us. It will be the third this summer, and we can’t praise this organization high enough. One of these days I clambered up a ladder and sanded off another area of wooden shingles, thus preparing for new paint. But the sun was shining right on me and after a while I felt I was melting, so I better got off the ladder, before too late. Thanks for stopping by again!