The Rose Garden

This has been a terribly hot summer with the temps hovering around 100 degrees and the heat index even hotter. It has given the afternoon pictures that "beginning of Fall" look. A dryer, more faded coloration has settled in. We need rain so badly but I still haven't watered as much as usual. It just seems that nothing revives like a good drenching of cool water from the sky! My vegetable garden started off slow and really didn't grow so well but is producing it's head off! I've had an amazing number of cucumbers and it's been a challenge! I don't consider myself a fantastic "pickle maker" but the refrigerator pickles have been wonderful and I finally broke down and purchased more jars and Mrs. Wages! I'll let you know the outcome of those later on. I'm making pepper jelly for the November CARE bake sale and fig and raspberry jam. It's funny how I dread getting out the canning equipment but once I get started I want to do it every day! My okra needs picking constantly and there's nothing much more miserable that sticking your arms into those prickly, scratchy stalks while dripping with sweat and wilting under the merciless sun. Still I do it. Why do I even grow a garden? Mother did to save money, I'm sure. It used to cost nearly nothing to plant a garden. Now it's like everything else, it's a luxury. It's time consuming [which I have None of], it's hot and hard and demanding. Still I do it. It's memories I think. It's tradition. It's just in me to do it. I bend over to slide the ripest tomatoes out from under the vines and think of Mother and being in the garden with her. Always barefoot and playing in the soft cool earth and trying to help but being more of a hindrance, I'm sure. Plus growing your own produce and preserving it gives you a sense of gratification and accomplishment. You feel so green and organic! But enough talking about it--there's okra to pickle and figs to jam and tomatoes to salsa! So later tater!