Fremont Solstice, a hike, and some garden pests
Friday, July 10th, 2009Recently we have been going on several mini adventures. We decided to check out the Fremont Solstice parade this year, I have never been before and it has a reputation. Our timing was perfect and we got there just as the parade was arriving, and there was quite an assortment of costumes, dancers and themes.
There were several people in these costumes made of paper and cardboard boxes.
There were a lot of homemade floats with environmental ish themes, though some were just silly for the heck of it. For example this Scorpion bicycle and the green monster below:
The parade was an interesting diversion for the afternoon!
The next day we went on a day hike to Lake Annette. It was a great day hike, quite close to Seattle. Unfortunately it started to rain as we drove to the trail head but we kept going anyway. As we started the tree cover protected us enough and it was pretty nice. We got a little cold if we stopped too long but we made it to the lake in good time, and we had a nice lunch by the lake. We huddled under some pine trees and enjoyed the view.
I had brought my fishing pole, as I’ve been recently fascinated with trying to learn to fish. Not that I want to catch any, I just want to learn how. Unfortunately it was too cold and rainy to really hang around waiting to not catch anything. A few hundred meters after we started hiking back, it got sunny and nice! There was a particularly beautiful section of river right at the start of the trail, I could have been content to sit and watch the river for hours.
All in all it was an enjoyable afternoon.
Lastly, I figured out what has been attacking my rainbow chard in the garden! I thought it was something to do with too much sun or too little water since parts of the leaves were turning brown and shriveling. It turns out I have leave miners! They lay their eggs on the back of the leaf and the critters emerge into the middle of the leaf and eat out the middle leaving the top and bottom.
They spread through the whole leaf and kill it entirely. Eventually the turn into a worm that drops into the soil for next year! I have a few pictures below. Apparently all you can do is cut off any leaves as soon as you spot the damage and next year they suggest planting in a different section of the garden, since they only attack the greens of spinach, chard and beets.
Here are a few pictures of the other plants, Most excitingly is my artichoke, and the tomatoes I grew from seed from last year’s crop! The tomatoes are a heirloom purple tomato that are soo delicious! I’m looking forward to this year’s harvest!