Seeing red...

...but in a good way.

Yep -- we're finally getting some ripe fruit out there. It's taking a long time...Our previous Late Start Record was July 13. We may set a new one this year. The Farmer is predicting that we start on the 14th or the 15th. He's also predicting that the season will be short...probably on the fast and furious order.

Rufus, our favorite weather forecaster (ovs.com, click on Weather Cafe) didn't have such good news for us on the long-term forecast. It looks like Summer's high pressure ridge is setting up just a little too far west. That will allow weather systems to slip right over the top of it, and slide down the east side trough and give us cool, cloudy -- sometimes showery weather.

We're mentally preparing ourselves.

We've had our crew wearing shorts and tank tops, and cooking out there...A couple days later, they're breaking out the stocking caps and sweatshirts...The best weather requires a wardrobe somewhere between these 2 extremes. We'll keep hoping that ridge will shift east...

Other things are growing too...The last couple of years I've planted a wee garden...just enough to take care of during busy season, and we enjoy eating the beets, bean, radishes, carrots, and zucchini. Well, we enjoy the zucchini for a while, and then we begin to feel guilty that they are growing as big as a man's leg, and we don't want to eat them anymore.

Anyway, I took a picture for you to see my little patch...

And then I thought: "I can't let them see it looking like that -- surrounded by weeds in mossy hard ground!! How embarrassing!!! How faithless to my Dutch heritage!! It may look like that a lot of the time, but you certainly don't let people see it that way!!"

So I fixed it.

And there is my lovely wee garden...

Now, please excuse me. I need to go sit in the jacuzzi because my back and a plethora of other under-used muscles are very sore...

At least my ego was saved from being bruised.