In what is typically the driest month of the year, it's been unusually wet in Seattle. There's a chance of rain every day this week. But today (hopefully) only cloudy. We're taking the ferry over to Vashon Island for a trail ride. It's been a month since I rode sweet old Moe. I miss him and summer is flying by.
This weather, of course, is good news, after the catastrophic wildfires in B.C. last summer and the smoke pollution. No one is complaining about the perfect temperatures, with highs in the mid-70's.
I'm bummed. I just opened my last jar of home-canned plums. There are none on the tree this summer. On top of that, the poor thing is so diseased with aphids we might lose it. The grass and plants around it are covered with a nasty black secretion from the aphids. Usually, you can blast aphids off with a hose, but the tree is much too big. Maybe if I have it topped back this winter, we can somehow get the aphids under control and save it.
I can always buy store plums to make chutney, but for plain whole canning, there's no substitute for our big, meaty, sweet homegrown ones. That tree really gave its all over the years. I've canned countless jars and made dozens of plum kuchens. Like so many things, I took it completely for granted at the time.
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