The blur that was this summer is rapidly receding into life's rearview mirror. Last week, we pulled out the last of our tomatoes, using the final harvest to make a final round of pizza sauce for Estelle's third birthday party. The first shots above are of the fabled Morelle de Balbis (Litchi Tomato), which was still blooming and cranking out strawberry-sweet fruits as it met the steel cutworm of winter. Images that follow include this year's abundant olive crop, heirloom pink popcorn, Doyenné Du Comice pears, and a pomegranate still ripening in anticipation of the Thanksgiving feast. I also noticed today that the leaves on our fuyu persimmons just started their turn to orange.
Following the first two storms of the year (2.82" of rain collectively), our cover crop is germinating everywhere besides our upper garden, where we still need to rip out and process a couple hundred pounds of peppers. We slice, blanch and freeze them for use until summer returns. Last year's grape cuttings put on tremendous growth this year and have yet to show signs of slowing down. The Lavandula x intermedia 'Provence' cuttings that we planted are also filling out nicely and pushing blossoms.
On the animal front, our koi produced quite a few progeny this year. Estelle had us move them to a second pond system, dedicated solely to "baby fish." At night, it comes alive with the sounds of the tree frogs, and soon the adorable coast range newts will arrive to lay their eggs as well. The ducks, cats and dog all seem happy that the heat has transitioned into fresh shoots and wet smells.
Last but not least, we made the trek down to Natural Bridges last weekend to welcome the Monarch butterflies back to Santa Cruz. Their numbers typically peak in December, but there were already quite a few fluttering about. Hopefully their numbers will parallel this year's steelhead numbers in the San Lorenzo.
