I hope everyone is enjoying these long hazy summer days.  August is passing by far too quickly.  In between entertaining family and out-of-town guests and keeping up on the garden and produce, I cherish the early or late afternoon walks through Fintry Provincial Park capturing the different light. The fields are covered in a large crop of alfalfa.  The blooms vary from lilac, purple to maroon.   Depending on the time of day the light captures the many different hues and textures of the abundant grasses.

  Sunlight through the trees and glistening on the creek.

Meanwhile I have tried to keep up with harvesting both the peaches and the tomatoes.  We have had such a bumper crop this year.  As of writing this post,  I am pleased to have completed canning the peaches, making peach and tomato salsa as well as plum jam with fruit contributed kindly from my neighbour.

There are plenty of herbs to pick and it’s great to just nip into the garden and pick fresh tomato and lettuce for a quick summer salad.  Sadly my cucumber is very slow this year. and still waiting for the beets and carrots to fully ripen. 

There is still plenty of colour in the late summer garden provided by the perennial rudbeckia, perovskia, sunflowers, gallardia, phlox and of course the annuals in the baskets and containers including osteospermum, impatients, nasturtium to name a few.  The garden also benefits from a second blooming of roses; some bushes though have less flowers than earlier in the year.  

Make the most of these summer days, fall will be here before you know it.