Thursday, September 14, 2006

End of the Summer

The place is still very very green. With the days getting shorter and the dew in the evening creeping more steadily towards light frost, the end of summer is here.
Does anybody else besides me think that the summer was pretty short? We had a few weeks of fine weather and that was it!. I don't remember a summer ever whizzing past so quickly. Come to think of it, 2006 on the whole is moving along at quite a clip.

I went outside to snap a few photos of the place and in the comfrey behind this chicken run, there were bees! Bees out in the drizzle! These must be hardy Scottish bees. They were large, furry looking ginger bees. I tried to get a photo of them, but they wouldn't sit still long enough for this camera to focus. You'd think the bees would be slower in the cool weather. I got the impression that they were in a hurry to fill their stores for winter.
Comfrey makes a brilliant natural fertilizer. Simply fill a bucket with comfrey leaves, add enough water to cover the leaves and let it rot for a couple of weeks. It stinks to high heaven, but it is great for the tomatoes. Dilute the stinking mess so that the diluted solution looks like tea and you're set to go. I usually keep the stinky bucket covered up in a corner of the garden where it won't get tipped over and just pour amounts out as I need it.
This is a photo of the low cloud in the hills behind Whitelees. The picture isn't out of focus, everything here has lost its edges.


This is out the window by the computer and you can HEAR the rain hammering down. It's even coming down the chimney a bit.
It could be that the first fire of the season is lit tonight. . . . but it really isn't that cold, just damp.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love your place. That is my kind of weather. Thanks for the photos.

Summer wasn't short here and it was hotter than...oh, what's that word I am trying to think of? Oh well, nevermind.

One more week until it is officially fall. Can't wait!!!

Anonymous said...

This is the fastest, busiest summer I have ever had and last summer was the second fastest. I think the world is speeding up and my mom agrees so it must be true.

Anonymous said...

Short? It was a blurr. I don't remember a summer flying by so quickly either Peggy. I swear it was just June a couple of weeks ago. The only thing I was glad to see go by quickly was the horrid hot weather we all experienced here in the states. Oh Lord, we couldn't take much more of that....Alan's right...hotter than Hades! (How's that for toning it down, Alan?)

I love these pictures..everything looks so green and beautiful. That foggy/misty look....I actually love it. Thanks Peggy.

Dogbait said...

Please send us some of that beautiful rain.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful photos. It has been so hot here that I'm glad it is finally cooling off. Still not much rain, though.

gawilli said...

Geez it is beautiful where you are.

One time when I was buying bedding plants the vendor gave me a pot of comfrey. I had never heard of it. She said it would make a nice ground cover. Boy was she right - it was VERY prolific. I wish I would have known about this use - I sure had plenty of it.

Summer seemed long here, but fall is my favorite, well I like winter, too. And the spring, on the other hand is always so welcome...

Anonymous said...

I live in Boston, where June was rainy this year. So, our summer was about 8 weeks long. Sigh...

Anonymous said...

Those are beautiful photos. I agree with Alan G. That is my kind of weather there. I love to go out and play in the rain.

Anonymous said...

Peggy, to me summer is ALWAYS too short!
Those photos are wonderful. I like photos taken in the rain or drizzle or mist or whatever is wet. They have a dreamlike quality.
Did I dream or was blogger down for quite a long time this morning?

Peggy said...

alan g - Thanks! I like it here.

saz - I like fog too, as long as I don't have to drive in it!

j-funk - you've been a busy girl this summer but if Linda thinks that time is speeding up and you agree with her, who am I to argue?

joy - You're very welcome. Glad you liked the pictures. I'm also glad that the heat has eased off for you.

dogbait- I'm flattered that you think I can alter the climate.

Betty - Thank you for visiting. Rain will come. It always does.

gawilli - your comfrey is perennial and it'll come back next spring. You can try the smelly leaves in water trick then if you're so inclined.

Rhea - I hate it when summers are short too, but you've got the best autumns in the world where you are. All those beautiful leaves!

Jay - If we didn't play in the rain, we'd never play outside. It does rain here an awful lot.

Claude - Thanks for visiting. I don't know if Blogger was down this morning, our broadband was being wierd and I had to get out to work early today.

Xtreme English said...

all i can think of is how freakin cold it was the first time i visited you in scotland. i have never been soooo cold in my entire life. it was not even close to growing up in ND, which i did. first day, i ast u if they had a goodwill store close by. you drove me to oxfam in lockerbie, and i bought 3 sweaters for a pound apiece. put them all on in the shop and never took em off again except to take a shower until i got home to brooklyn. but i loved it. it's a beautiful, beautiful place.

Kell said...

Your photos are beautiful. I know that technically I'm not from Scotland, but I always feel a little homesick when I see pictures because I loved my visits there so much. And yes, this whole year is speeding by. What's up with that?