FullCircle Florals Gardening

Blueberries! As 6AM rolled around I was excited to hop out of bed this morning! I jumped in my car and drove the 11 miles to the town of Corning, CA, my hometown, to do something totally new to me…pick Blueberries! A few days ago a sign appeared on the corner of Houghton and South Avenue that boldly announced, “u-pick Blueberries”.   I was elated to see such a novel proposition in Corning. When my sister called last night to invite me to go with her this AM I was thrilled! We arrived at the site not having any idea what was in store for us except for a few helpful hints from some relatives who had been going daily to pick there. One, go EARLY! Less people and the berries are firmer as is the case with most harvesting. Two, pick from underneath the plants where the berries are bigger, juicier and firmer. We grabbed ourselves a bucket, which we informed we should fill up for $5. They are easy to pick with no thorns unlike our other summer favorite, Blackberries! My sister and I ...

A friend of mine just submitted a post to her blog http://mealsandsteals.blogspot.com   that made me think. actually, it made me listen and think. So in response to her prose, I write this….LISTEN. It really does go a long way. My husband tells me I don’t listen sometimes and he is SO right. There are so many beautiful sounds in this world that get muffled with the high paced life we live. I many have, from time to time, given the impression that living it the country on this farm is all peaches and cream. Which would be wonderful, but, it is incorrect. However, if I listen to Lindsey, the above mentioned blog author, I could change some of that chaos in to calm if I practiced listening in the moment. In my garden I have found that there is a peace that exists. I get a sense of calm and relaxation from simply visiting it. I find a bed and observe what is happening there whether it be the tips of potato vines just peeking through the soil, or new baby plants and flowers emergin...

Part 3: The Aftermath The bee keeper was very careful to assure the bees were moved safely from their happy home to a new nice white box, their new happy home. He commented that they were the most docile he had ever encountered. This may not have been such a good thing, as during subsequent check ups they weren’t found up to much of anything productive. They had let their brood (baby bees) die, weren’t doing much comb building and he didn’t see sign of the queen at all! In attempts to rectify the situation he brought out another hive to do a combine. He attempted to combine them together so that the bees from the house would have a queen and get to stepping! Another week pasted as we watched and waited to see if the combine took. When he examined them he found that there was in a queen in the box from the house bees after all and separated them again.   They have been sucking down the sugar water that I have been filling up for them every few days and one hive seems to be muc...