Battening down the hatches

We're waiting for our first windstorm of the season--expecting winds 20-30 mph with gusts up to 40. That's half of what we got last year during the December 14th "Hanukkah Eve" storm. Nevertheless, 20-30 mph winds can make inanimate objects come to life! During a bit of a let up in the rain I ran out and put in the garage anything that would be likely to fly away--patio furniture, empty pots, etc. I found the dahlia tubers drowning in one of the empty containers. I also picked the remaining peppers--another 3 dozen! The first batch I picked did ripen to red sitting on the kitchen counter. Hopefully this batch will too!

I took this picture under our newly installed track lighting! Now we can read at the kitchen table--and see what we're eating too. We've been thinking about installing some kind of light over the table ever since we moved in. However, track lighting involving hardwiring sounded too overwhelming. But this weekend Wing Nut decided this was one project she wanted to cross off her list. WiNu rocks!

Around 2 the rain stopped completely and the sun came out. Yippy! A sun break! I dropped everything and headed out with Diva Dog for our walk. The sun only stayed with us for a couple of blocks. The leaves were whirling and whooshing and whizzing by! But we managed to catch a few pretty ones. We made it back just in time to see the neighbor's patio furniture start to fly away, oh my! And while listening to the radio just in the past 20 minutes we've gone from 4,000 homes without power to 10,000.

Foggy morning

We haven't seen fog this thick since our first year here. Very spooky to look down the hill and not be able to see downtown or the mountains beyond.

Step into my parlor said the spider to the fly.

Wow! Have we got peppers!

Italian relleno

Tiburon

Astry

The plants are just bending over with the weight of all those peppers!

Today is a very gray and rainy day. We've been having a rather wet and cool summer--the coolest and wettest since we moved here. Usually we get almost no rain all summer long. This August we've had 1 or 2 rainy days a week and the temps have been hovering in the 70s. Already the days are markedly shorter and the nights are getting cooler. In an attempt to get as many peppers to full size and to turn red, I've started pinching off any new flowers that I see. I'm hoping we get a mini heat wave in the next week or so.

I hope the peppers enjoy this heat!

I hope the peppers are enjoying this heat because I'm certainly not!! Ugh. 90+ degrees in Seattle?? The East Coast had hot summers. The blast furnace prairie plains had very hot summers. Seattle is not supposed to have hot summers! So today I'm very grateful that I'm not a plant! Okay, there are many days when I'm happy I'm not a plant, but that's another story...

The peppers seem to be growing and there are more buds and some flowers now on the Italian Sweet Peppers. Ivette said she waters the box daily as the six little plants are really soaking up the water. Here are some new pictures of them. The plants are now between 8 and 9 inches tall. We should have measured them previously, but didn't. Oh well. Trust me - they're growing!

It's amazing what the right tools for the job will do. Last summer we purchased a 50 ft hose to replace the one the previous tenants left behind. Well, apparently, 50 feet is just not long enough to reach the end of the garden bed or the top of the hillside garden. Curmudgeon complained that the bronze fennel and rhubarb in the garden patch and the various plants on the hillside were not getting enough water. We recently bought a 75 foot hose and she is able to not only reach the top of the hillside garden, but also the spot where I park the car! I wonder if she'd hose down the car if I sprinkled a few flower petals on it? It could really use a bath! But I digress. One of the plants on the hillside is something we planted 2 or 3 years ago. We no longer remember what it is and cannot find the tag for it. But it is blooming more beautifully this year than any previous year! I think the longer hose and better watering is really making a difference. Here's a picture of the mystery plant. If anyone can identify it - please let us know!