Sunday.

More heavy rain yesterday in the late afternoon and maybe some in the dark of last night.  Areas got an inch to an inch-and-a-half in less than an hour.  The wind came up and had all the trees and some of my plants rocking and reeling.  It is still dark at the moment (though it won't be when I finally post this) so I can't see if any of the gardens or plants have damage.  Dawn is still a while off.  (Update: it is light now and things are drying out but the sky is overcast.  It might clear off.  It might also dump on us.)

I did get a bit of work in the gardens in between our downpours.  Took out a strawberry plant that simply wasn't going to revive along with the yellow squash and sunflowers.  Both were pretty well spent.  I had left the squash so the one remaining fruit could mature but the previous rain squall (see my last post) knocked that off the plant.  The sunflowers were looking spent with no new blossoms.  Time to clear both.  I also harvested a half cup of wonderberries. We are eating them with our cereal.

Monday.

Dry yesterday--finally.  Cut back the spearmint.  Dried seven trays and filled a quart jar with the rest and some vodka.  Drained the peppermint put up a month ago.  It is still dark outside.  I woke up just before 3am and again at 3:30  and yet again just before 4.  At that point I said to hell with it and got up for good.  I crocheted a bit on a scarf/shawl, fixed coffee and thought about what I want to do in the gardens when it is light outside.  I am going to take out the melon plants.  They aren't producing and are looking poorly.  I should know better by now--melons and squash don't do well in my gardens.  But I am a stubborn sort, or maybe insanely hopeful, or maybe stubbornly, insanely hopefully.  Every couple of years I seem to try them again.  The roma tomato is also looking spent and has no new flowers so I will take it out.  I hope I can get the peppermint cut back and processed as well before the heat is too much.  The weather people expect heat indices in the low 100s today.  Not conducive for outdoor work.  The borage has finished blooming and I have collected enough seed for next year.  Time for it to come out also.  This year feels discombobulated.  I just checked my posts for last year and the borage and cypress vines were producing still flowering into late September.  They also bloomed earlier than this year.  Everything seems out of sync which does nothing positive for my moods.

Update:  It is now almost 10am.  The roma, the melons, and the borage are gone.  Decided to take out the wonderberries also.  We got a nice couple of cups of berries from them but there aren't many left on the plants and we don't like them well enough to mix them with the blueberries.  I won't plant them again.  I wouldn't even if I had space.  I would rather put in blackberries and raspberries.  But the heat is already building so I am done for the day.  The peppermint can wait.