A Drink of Cool Cool Rain

Greetings wild indigo readers! How be ye? Well we at the Celtic Gardens are thrilled with the recent rains Mother Nature has poured down upon us ~ to the tune of 2.5" in the last 48 hours! To celebrate here's a little Who's Who of thanks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDbAtWpoA6k

So now that the Celtic Gardens have drunk their fill I'd also like to include a link to LITFM blog which details the in's -n- out's regarding Mother Natures load of NITRO energies our neighborhoods with prized copious lavish greenery! Yes, beginning Wednesday night around 10:30 pm on and off through even this morning, all told our locality has received over 2" of rain.  I was so happy to hear the droplets that I even shot a picture as they began filling up the water collection chambers!

Although I'm still tweaking the daisy chain for both rain barrels at this moment they are at full capacity and ready for the next span between storms which I hope won't be too long seeing that we're still in store for another week of heat advisory double digit temps! Drink plenty of liquids and avoid the heat of the day as much as possible peeps! Now on to more pics.

Have I ever made mention that I love the smell of rain? It reminds me of when I was a little girl.  During late night summer rainstorms you could find me kneeling at my bedroom window cuddling my pillow with my nose pressed to the window screen smelling the air and relishing the sound of thunder and streaks of electricity from the storm clouds. There's just something about that combination of rain, thunder and lightning that thrills me.  Maybe its the rawness of nature and her ability to astound through our senses that fuels my tribal rain worship!

So now that the rains have come, look what's bloomed! Now before the unveiling, everyone say *FAIL!* That's because I have a new phone and the picture of the descriptive card is no more BUT I can tell you that this is a rudbeckia that I purchased at - you guessed it - Big Bloomers.

Notice the petal color which is a golden yellow with lighter tips and green eye!

So with a quick dash of the keys and a Google search, it appears this is a Rudbeckia Hirta Green Eye variety. As you can see it grows in containers quite well.  I also have a few strewn in the bird bath bed which are coming along nicely.

This next flower made its grand entrance just shy of this week's rains and certainly is a one of a kind. 
She is a white balloon flower but her more common violet-blue variety gets more fanfare. They've gained popularity as container and rock garden staples. She stands solo but made it through the harsh winter so she's a keeper!

 

You've heard me ramble on about selling items at our local Fayetteville City Market. Well last week I had plucked these beauties from the ground and they were sold at the market lickity split to good homes (and stomachs!)

These guys were direct seeded into the "root bed" back in March whose soil is very loose and well mulched.  Now it took well over 65 days to mature. I attribute their lengthy growing time to the warmer spring temps resulting in warmer soil temps. As we now carrots prefer cooler growing temps so they weren't grown in their preferred environment but still rock! They were about four inches in length at harvest. Thankfully there's still a few left in the field for personal crunching! I haven't grown such lovely carrots in years and they'll definitely be a yearly garden addition.

So I was at our local Target store recently pursuing the aisles when I came across this little number. I was happy to see this brand being offered commercially since "Mortgage Lifter" is an heirloom tomato which I had considered growing way back in February! How cool it is to see this kind of product being made available! Being the diabetes educator and food label reader that I am, I love the "no added sugar" boasting.

As curiosity would have it, research into the saucy mysteries surrounding this savory sampling was clearly in order! Their website is chunk full of neat vignettes and juicy tidbits to include mention of "The Beekman Boys" reality show and their competing in CBS's  The Amazing Race in 2012 of which they won the grand prize. Now according to their website 25% of the profits are donated to help support struggling small American farmers. If their pasta sauce earnings come anywhere close to their revenues from their tv series then I'd say they've made substantial contributions to some lucky small farmers. Although there aren't any details documenting how and whom has received support let's hope their word stands. Their dreams have been materialized and we applaud their efforts as we slurp down our zoodles drenched in their original recipe!

Finally I'm giving homage to the beautiful sunset Saturday June 13th. Summer's official arrival is this Saturday, a most welcomed visitation.  We may complain about the excessive heat but remembering the long winter we had I'll embrace the heat in exchange for gazing upon the Celtic Garden's pleasantries. In case you're living locally I'll be offering soap and sundries Saturday at the market. I've got sunbalm 30 as well as organic bug spray added to the Sonshine Soaps arsenal. In case you're looking for hot peppers or aloes to cool the burn check out my friend Tom's offerings at our Sustainable Neighbor booth.

And as always may happiness be a ray of sunshine to your mind, body and soul!

Peace out!