Solstice 2020 Garden Check-in

The beans are climbing, the sunflowers are stretching toward the heavens, the morning glories are whipping their tendril-arms about, and we enjoyed our first tomato of the year on the longest day of the year... The legendary "Atomic Grape" tomato!
Oooooo!  Aaaaaahhhh....

I am excited for the flatpod "Helda" beans to begin to rain down on us from this year's trellis.
Meowgic is seen here straddling the line that divides 'in' and 'out' as she so often does.

Here is our melon A-frame with a dozen "Ha'Ogen" Middle-Eastern green-fleshed melons front left and a dozen "Charentais" French muskmelons on the far side.

I'm not sure if these cabbages (bottom of photo) we grew from seed will make good heads or not, as it has been such hot weather, but they seem fairly healthy, so hopefully they do!  Upper right half of photo are a few tomato plants skirted by various basils which I have learned appreciate the semi-shaded canopy of a neighbor tomato rather than full sun exposure here in our climate.  Over on the left are a few "Snake of Mugla" eggplants and a few peppers.  Along the back fence is more of the same: a tomato, 3 different sweet peppers, a couple more basils.

I've also been collecting chamomile flowers from 2 plants on a weekly basis.  They're piling up!

Well, thanks for tuning in, see ya next time!

River Rats

We had a fun afternoon one Sunday testing out Jake's customized "scanoe", a skiff-canoe with an electric motor (and stereo system) attached.  Melina also joined us from Santa Rosa.  After overcoming initial wariness about buoyancy with a 4-person crew, we declared the vessel river-worthy and set out from Napa's Kennedy Park boat launch.

Being on the water can seem to dissolve away the worries of the land...

As we cruised south, we passed some serious tent encampments along the riverbank.  I am always awe-struck by the reminder that there are vast communities of people living without stable homes, many more than I recall as a kid here in Napa.

We rounded a bend and, though we didn't know what it was at the time, came upon the Kaiser Industrial pipe factory, which has been closed down for about 16 years now.

This crane has a large nest perched in the middle of the cables, I would guess belonging to osprey.

Surprisingly, we noticed "I can't breathe" spray painted on one of the structures, a reference to the police killing of George Floyd that occurred within the previous week.  [Edit: Apparently this phrase actually dates back to the 2014 killing of Eric Garner when it became a rallying cry for Black Lives Matter]  The public outcry over the incident is another awe-inspiring phenomenon.  I appreciated the statement in this most unlikely of places.

The "Napa Pipe" property, as it's known, used to produce ships, natural gas pipelines, and deep-water oil-drilling platforms.  Now it houses many mud swallows, sitting as a testament to the industrial revolution that we have outgrown.  Soon it will be developed into 1,000 or so homes, a Costco, and retail and business spaces, supposedly with 34 acres of park and recreational space (Sidenote: The city has recently been proposing cut-backs for our Parks & Rec Department, possibly even "dissolving" it into 2 other departments...)

The vote a couple years back to pass this development plan seemed mostly swayed by residents' lust for a Costco store closer in proximity to us than Vallejo or Vacaville.

"I can't wait to get my Costco hotdogs and my Costco chickens" said Napa Planning Commissioner, Paul Kelley.

The former mayor stated the Napa Pipe development "could be a cathedral for the valley, if we do it right."

I think it will definitely be a cathedral for money and the investors that worship it.  We'll see... maybe in 50 years it will be the new Downtown?

Trailcam!

Just a quick post of some trailcam videos from the last month.
Here one of the 2 fawns is suckling from its mother.

And here we have a cute opossum sauntering by on the "animal highway"

Much to our surprise, 2 foxes also travelling somewhere

And making a pit stop.