177E - Dog Days and tomatoes

 We have reached the dog days of this weird up-and-down Summer.

Gorgeous wildflower verge in Oostvoorne 

 My lovely grannie, who sadly left me when I was 16 in 1974, was a Rotterdam fountain of folklore. She warned me that I should never ever handle raw meat when I was menstruating (...quite the message to a then 7 yr old) and that I should be very careful with food in general during the dog days of Summer. I followed up especially the last bit of advice. Street food, such fun, but you will not catch me eating it during the dog days.
But first for those of you (probably born after 1990) that have no idea what dog days are (no, it has nothing to do with Corgies): the dog days are the period between July 20th and August 20th. The name stems from the Canis major constellation and it should be the hottest period of Summer in the Netherlands. And, here it is, during the dog days food spoils faster than during other periods - fact.

Malva, poppies

What made me talk about this? Well, I have harvested many mystery tomatoes by now, and suddenly thought about gran, also triggered by that gorgeous verge I cycled past on my way to Oostvoorne. Gran loved poppies and tomatoes.

Lidl sold me a mixed tray of 6, nameless, tomato plants in spring, so I can do a tomato taste test. Despite the wet, chilly weather they have grown well, but the 3 in the left planter are colouring much faster than the 3 in the right planter. Why oh Why? I suspect it is the orbit of the sun, left catches more sun than right.

Plant 2. Aren't they cute?

The first tomato of plant 3, round, size mandarin, looked great, but tasted meally. That plant has the most tomatoes, so they are destined to become pasta sauce.

   The two on the left, eggsize, and with a cute little point, taste good, firm.

Plant 3, the sauce tomatoes

By now I have had a few of plant 4, which are meat tomatoes and taste fine, and plant 1 which are eggshaped and are juicy. Plant 5 and 6 have unripe tomatoes.

It has suddenly turned hot this week (finally) so I watered my balcony garden at 07.00 and Hunky Dory at 08.00 this morning. It is so lush now, and scented by figs, blackberries and roses. Real Summer!

Lysostegia

   I had promised you a photo of my Lysostegia, here it is. It is a patch of 30cm. And look at that blue sky! You could be gasping in a Bordeaux city park suffering 40°... On days like today, with 28° and that sky, I am utterly satisfied with my Dutch Delta.

   My balcony garden has suddenly morphed from very colourful to mostly green overnight, because all Pelargoniums have gone crisp. An entire garbage bag full of brown flowerheads. But the plants will delight me with a 3rd round of blooms, I can see the new buds already. Good girls!

   But because it was too green to my taste, I submitted to my colour passion and bought a Portulaca Oleracea 'Pazzaz', a Pleroma heteromallum, a Lavender, a cupressus and a Helicrysum in the sale (see 177 Extra Photos).

My balcony

A pink Pandorea as well, a to me unknown climber still in bud (hopefully it will flower for me, but...sale, hm?) Six plants for less than €15.00 total: boom!

Okay, I wish you a lovely summery weekend. 😎

Renée 

The bumblebee hammock