So the spinach has been pantyhosed and is on its way to the big spinach garden in the sky. It didn’t die of embarrassment from the ill-fitting and baggy hosiery. It successfully fulfilled its spinach bearing duties, flowered and is slowly and peacefully becoming compost. The pantyhose is to catch the seeds which will hopefully bring forth new spinach. Ah, the circle of life.
I’m a little concerned about leaving the sunflowers. The gardens and slowly growing orchard are irrigated and on timers. The sunflowers are not in an irrigated area so I manually water them every other day.  You’d think from the name “sun” flower, they’d be able to handle the heat, but no. Several of them are simply drying seed at this point, so that’s in their favor. But many of them haven’t even flowered yet. I’ll be sad if I come home to find that tiny charred stems are all that’s remaining. I’m not expecting much rain up here although I expect lots of typical summer afternoon showers where we’re heading.
One watermelon (hoping its ripe – still can’t figure out the whole thump thing), zucchini, squash, sage, thyme, oregano, basil, parsley, beets, suitcases — all packed and ready to go.  I’ve packed extra sunscreen so I can hopefully correct the affects of my farmer’s tan. I’ve got a bit of the original farmer’s tan going, plus the more recent modern-farmer-girl’s tan. It comes from wearing low-rise pants and skirts with short-cropped shirts. I’ve ended up with this mouth shaped sunburn/tan on my lower back from when I lean over to work in the gardens…well, I guess it’s similar, to plumber’s butt, but hopefully more attractive. Just another way I’m pushing forward the boundaries of traditional farming.
Looking forward to vacation time!