by James Glaser
June 11, 2004

You get a few days that are nice, warm, and sunny and the plant life takes right off. Everything has been in a holding pattern until this week. The greenhouse was doing fine because it is so warm in there, but in the yard everything was cold until about noon and then there was only about five hours of a temperature high enough for growth.

This week everything has had about 12 to 16 hours of growing time a day and what a difference it has made. Of course the grass is ready to mow again and the weeds are growing faster than I can get to them. I thought I might put one of those "personal ads" in the paper. "Looking for women who can weed a garden."

I must admit that it is pretty lonely without Charmaine and there is no doubt now about how much she did around here. I am going to have to find some help or cut back on gardens. I did weed Charmaine's favorite one and wouldn't you know, it looks so fine. All of her perennial plants are mature now and when everything flowers, it will be impressive. I think I will get Ken to post a section of pictures of this place, it is looking good enough to show it off a little bit. Without help though, it is going to head down hill a little ways.

Tonight the wind came up and the lake has white caps on the waves. I stopped down to visit my neighbors, who have a resort down the road. Right at 7 PM the whole place empties out as everyone heads for the lake to go fishing.

With waves that high there is no way you would get me out there, but for the last couple of nights these people had been getting huge blue gills, just before dark, out on the weed bed. Looking out there right now those boats look like bobbers anchored there, all waiting for the fish to start biting.

My choke cherry trees are solid blossoms right now and if there isn't some sort of freak frost this will be a berry year like no other. Just the right amount of moisture, the right amount of cool weather without a frost, and now as you drive down any road up here you see thousands of wild fruit trees in blossom. Sometimes you can even smell those blossoms, they are that thick.

Right outside my window all the lily-of-the-valley are in bloom and I can smell them right here in the house. The start of summer is always a great time of year, but you have to keep on top of everything or it will get out of hand. Maybe that is why God gives us longer days now.

The Computer shop called today and said mine would be done tomorrow and that will be great. When I get it back, this one is out of here. Every so often the screen will turn green and a message will say "Fatal Flaw, press any key to continue" You press a key and it reboots and you lose everything. Sometimes I have to reboot six or more times to get on the Internet as everything freezes up. That is why they can keep selling new computers. Go back to your old one and you will see how great that new one is.