Thursday, July 31, 2008

Rainy and Cloudy Days

Finally!

After all those funny dances in my backyard.... And the neighbors looking at me like I'm a crazy woman... (No, not really. But isn't that a funny image?)

The clouds have been angry, the sky cried, and the thunder rumbled. The earth was blessed by the wet rain drops, and my plants drank it all up.

IT RAINED!

(And of course, I have to take a zillion photos! Hehe!)





I have not been so excited for rain in such a long time. I did rain once last week (and I think it rained when I was on vacation), but for two days in a row, the rain has come and I've noticed! This means, no watering on my part. No need to get out and facing the nasty bugs that love to bite on my legs and crawl all over my arms and take my sweet blood. (Mosquitoes are getting quite a problem in my neck of the woods...)

My plants don't have a problem with all the rain. They are loving it up! Especially the melons. I'm still waiting for the day when I can pick those sweet watermelons and Freddie....

And by the way, Freddie has a new sister. More on her, next week. I shall call her Betty. I hope she survives her childhood diseases and grows up big and strong!

Now to show you what one of the cucumbers looks like, once you cut it open:

The seeds are a little larger, but not any larger than the ones I tend to buy at the grocery store. And you can taste the freshness of it. So yummy and delicious. And remember those five, long cucumbers I had last week? ALL GONE! I never had a chance to pickle it. My family eats those like they are candy.

My father says that the plants are not producing enough for us, and we have about eight cucumber plants, and all are producing pretty regularly. Isn't that crazy? Maybe next year, we'll plant two beds full of cucumber plants... So you think 14 will be enough to satisfy the cucumber-crazed family?

12 comments:

Eve said...

YOU got rain!!..I am so happy for you. But watch those veggies, they will literally explode after a rain. My peppers and southern peas went nuts after our last rain. I don't think I will grow peas next year. They just take over.

Thats the way my cukes look too. I think it might be the variety we grew,,it just has big seeds.
We eat a lot of cucumbers. I don't pickle any because we like them right out of the garden. I like them with just sour cream, Billy likes his with sweet onions, tomatoes, vinegar and sugar, mixed, and left overnight.

Nice rainy photos.

tina said...

Yahoo the rain! We got a mere 1/2 inch at my place. Hope you got more but it was nice all the same.

MSM said...

Those cucumbers look delicious!

We got rain this afternoon and I was unreasonably happy about it - I don't even have a garden, I'm just so happy for the grass and flowers and trees.

Susie said...

Hey DP-I'm glad you got rain. I loved your rain pictures. They look so refreshing! We actually got about 5 minutes of rain today. But since we haven't had any in over 2 weeks I'll take it.

In regards to the chameleon plant. It is variegated with tones of red/pink and green/white.

Cindy said...

I'm so happy for you that you have had rain. Watering is such a chore. We haven't had any of significance for a while and a couple of my husbands plants in small, small pots died :( We're very sad now. I think they were little lemons.

Dave said...

I've enjoyed the rain also! Did you notice how the sky turned everything green this evening?

Dan said...

We have had a huge amount of rain over the last couple weeks. I left a weeding bucket out for a week and it has 14 inches of water in it. It has been crazy, usually this time of year everything is turning brown. I defiantly don't complain about it though, I like the rain and like you said no watering!

Skeeter said...

I truly feel your excitement over the rain! Being in a 3 year drought, I value every rain drop we can get! I took it a step further though with our rain fall this past week. You will see on Monday. hee hee...

Your cucumbers are soooo big and juicy looking. I notice you peel the skin off the cukes. I use to but now leave the skin in place. I have a slicer that will cut them paper thin and you dont notice the skin now....

Rain rain, I love the rain and have missed it since spring!

DP Nguyen said...

Hi Eve- Wow, that's wonderful about your veggies. I hope the rain makes my vegetables grow just as quickly as yours did. I wanted to grow peas, but sadly, they all died because I tried to grow them in the hot summer. I guess they are a fall crop. I want to try to grow peas. I don't mind the evasiveness. I just want to eat peas. LoL. I don't mind the big seeds that much, but I'm glad to know that it is the variety that we grow. I hear that if you leave cucumbers on the vine for too long, they get a bitter taste. I'm so glad I've been picking them at the right time!

Hi Tina- I think we got more than 1/2 inch, but none the less, it was soo exciting and great!

Hi MSM-Thanks for visiting and welcome to my garden blog. I hope you got enough rain for all those beautiful flowers and trees!

Hi Susie, It rains here randomly too. Some summer days, it'll drizzle for about five minutes, or less, and then the sun will come back out. Thanks for the info about the chameleon plant. That is interesting there are different colors out there.

Hi Cindy, I'm sorry to hear about your hubby's lemons. That is sad when a plant dies. Our stevia plant died, and that was quite a sad day for us as well. Watering can be a big pain sometimes, and all the bugs that bite. Not fun at all!

Hi Dave, I know, isn't it wonderful how rain can make the world beautiful again?

Hi Dan, WOW! THAT IS A LOT OF RAIN. At least you can use the rain water to water your plants and save on watering costs! Yep, no watering is always a good thing.

Hi Skeeter- I just thinking the other day, how sad the world would be if we were always in a drought. I'm glad for the rain. I used to eat cucumbers with the skin on, but for the variety that I planted, the skin has little bumps on it, so I just peel it all off, to save the hassle. I wish I had a slicer like yours. It does sound delicious!

Anonymous said...

When desperate for rain, do like us "country farmers" do. Use a water solution mixed with H2O2. Read on the internet about it. You can get the proportions and lots of ideas on how to use it. It is good for LOTS of things. Use the food grade.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone live in a subdivision where there are several people who ignore the subdivision rules?
I do. No one is supposed to have those ugly fences on the top of their pools, and it seems that everyone in the sub with a pool has one of those. My neighbor has one, and I have to look at that hideous thing every time I look out my window. Then there is my other neighbor who has three dogs. The maximum number of dogs is supposed to be two. I wouldn't mind the three, but two of them are pit bulls who viciously snarl and growl and act like they are going to eat my dog when they are outside. Even the owners scream at them to stop. It is very unnerving. Then one of the board members is delinquent by 3 years on the dues because she has decided she doesn't need to pay since she is on the board. I can't take the neighbors around here. I was looking for a forum to vent about the jerks around here and I came across this site called http://urajerk.com and I sent all of those idiots on the board and all my lovely neighbors with the ugly pools an anonymous card. LOL I loved it. I know it sounds stupid but I feel better. He he he.

Anonymous said...

My neighbor came over to my house and yelled at me over my dog!

I have a dog that I can't keep in my yard. I have tried everything and she always finds a way out. Anyway, this lady comes to my home, knocks on my door and when i open the door she points her finger at me and yells obscenities at me. Apparently my dog was in HER neighbors garbage and then pooped on HER NEIGHBORS LAWN! Why didn't she come and talk to me like a civil human being? Why was she a vicious monster attacking me at my door? I calmly went over to HER NEIGHBORS house where the garbage was and picked up every piece, and the dog poop. I agree that I have that responsibility to clean up after my dog. The one thing I don't agree upon is someone coming to my house and screaming in my face about something I didn't know about. Is anyone out there been blessed with a psyco-neighbor?
I don't think anyone remembers the golden rule...Do unto others as you would want done unto you!
I sent them a lovely card from this site I found...www.URAJerk.com