Fresh Veggies, Pickling and Pictures

Chickens, Cucumbers, Flowers, garden, garlic, Hibiscus, Nature, Oregano, Peppers, Pickles, Recipe, Reflections, Roses, Summer, Swiss Chard, Tomatoes, Wild Flowers, , , ,

Summer is in full swing and the gardens are producing. We have been including home grown veggies in our meals nearly daily. So far, we have enjoyed beets, Swiss chard, banana peppers, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes, and of course garlic.

Check out this post for my recipe for banana pepper poppers.

This week I have also started making pickles. I have two quarts of refrigerator dill pickles chillin’ in the fridge and Wednesday I canned 7 pints of pickled beets. I’m excited about having pickled beets because it has been several years since we have grown enough beets for me to pickle them. we usually eat them all fresh.

Guarding the Pond

For a couple of weeks we were having ducks visit our pond and a daily basis. Ruby would chase them off, but they kept returning. We generally embrace nature, but we don’t want ducks or geese in our pond or on our beach as they can introduce bacteria and parasites that could be harmful to those of us enjoy swimming in the pond. After a couple of weeks of this repeat behavior my husband decided Ruby needed some support. He brought out our Guard Owl and stationed it on the beach. We have not seen the ducks since the owl had been in place and as a bonus the chickens stay off the beach as well.

Our green heron has returned. (Can you see it off to the right in the above photo?) It doesn’t seem to be bothered by the owl.

Here is a closer but a bit blurry photo of the green heron.

The chickens still like to forage around the edges of the pond.

What’s Blooming?

Rose of Sharon

Anise Hyssop

Oregano

Hibiscus

Roses

Hostas

In the Garden

Corn and Sunflowers

Beets and Swiss chard with Green beans in the background

Tomatoes

Squash and Pumpkins

A volunteer sunflower popped up in the squash bed.

Wild Flowers

Mountain Mint and Echinacea

Echinacea hiding behind Timothy

Rudbeckia Laciniata (a type of cone flower)

Purple Loosestrife and Mountain Mint

Queen Anne’s Lace

Queen Anne’s Lace and Milk Weed (I’m not sure what variety of milkweed.)

Purple Loosestrife

As I stood by the wildflower patch a noticed two swallowtail butterflies dancing by. They were so beautiful. I pointed my camera in their direction and clicked a few pictures. They are barely visible in the above photo.

The beauty in digital photography is that I was able to crop the photo so we can see both butterflies.

Thanks for visiting.

19 thoughts on “Fresh Veggies, Pickling and Pictures”

  3. Everything is doing so well . The pictures are beautiful. Refrigerator pickles sound good, it has been years since I have made them. Boxes of canning tomatoes are available at the markets right now. Since we didn’t garden this year , I picked up three boxes when we went to town on Wednesday. Guess what I am doing this weekend 🍅

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  6. All that heat is sure benefitting your gardens Ruth, whether it’s produce or flowers. Now you’re going to get some help from Mother Nature with all this rain we’re going to be getting over the next week. I’m glad the fake owl keeps the ducks and chickens away – your chickens will find another place to stroll around. I remember your green heron from last year – he likes your pond! The butterflies are beautiful. I have not seen a lot of butterflies this year, but I saw two species I’ve not seen before last week at Lake Erie Metropark. Did you see the stats here in Michigan on the cyclospora outbreak – over 10,000 as of today … no worries for you by growing your own veggies.

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    1. We sure are hoping for some rain but what they keep changing the forecast. They were calling for an inch tomorrow but now a quarter of an inch.
      The owl is doing a great job. It was a great investment. That heron assuming it’s the same one, has been coming every summer since 2017.
      I think we are seeing fewer butterflies than we usually do but we still have some around. Could you tell what they were in the second (cropped) photo?
      I didn’t realize the numbers were that high. Yikes!

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      1. I read/heard that we might get the worst of it, but we have nothing as of now (5:00 p.m.) I would say those butterflies are Eastern Tiger Swallowtails from their markings. Last week I mentioned I saw two, new-to-me butterflies. One was an Eyed Brown (a bit tattered) and one was a Giant Swallowtail. I thought it was a bird as it was so animated dipping in/out of the trees and bushes at Lake Erie Metropark. When it finally settled down, I got a shot of it and it was huge.

        I listen to WWJ AM Radio 950 and every day they give an update … last I heard was 10,200 … very scary and we remain the worst state with the outbreak.

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      2. Well, we did get rain but no flooding so that is good. Yes, I do think they were swallowtails. I just wasn’t sure how clear they were to people in the picture. I know not everyone sees things the same. I’m glad you could make them out. How exciting to see ones you’ve never seen before!

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      3. That’s good with no flooding – you don’t need to lose any of the garden veggies you have spent so much time planting and nurturing, nor your flower gardens. We did not have torrential rain here as they said we would, just a continuous gentle rain until about 3:00 p.m., but there is more rain from Wednesday on, so that will be beneficial to gardens and grass. Yes, I was sure they were Tiger Swallowtails. I will use the two new butterflies in Wordless Wednesday posts later. I have a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly on a Coneflower for this Wednesday. I am six weeks ahead on my posts … it’s a nice feeling, so hopefully I can get out a lot in August, if Mother Nature cooperates.

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