What a beautiful summer we have had. We started off with 11 days in Finland when we reacquainted ourselves with relatives, tried new tastes and learned some new words. My husband's family is from there and we brought our teenagers so they might learn what it means to be Finnish. of course I brought my my weed plant book and kept referring to it while we walked from castle sites to old mils mountain, along hikes and city escapades. I found kindred spirits on both my husband's cousin and his aunt. They showed me their books and what they new of plants and I showed them which weeds I eat back home. When we returned to the island the garden had dried up even though my in laws did their best to water it while we were away. The tomatoes had bud rot and sported a distorted shape. I cleaned up the dry stuff and proceeded to water everything using the 4 wheeler and trailer we bought earlier in the summer. More cousins came and we continued to enjoy happy family times another week or so. I went back to work for august so we started coming up weekend until we decided to go to my sister's wedding in New Zealand. We stayed one week and met fantastic people. What a beautiful family she married into. Now i'm back at the cottage for the week wi my brother and his family. We now have running water which helps tremendously. Every time I turn it on a do a little happy dance. Well that about wraps it up.

nature or nurture

In the end I did not bring up any new plants or soil. I spent my time figuring out wether or not to keep the black caterpillars on both wormwood and my rose bush. Now that I'm trying to build an favorable ecosystem for beneficial insects, esthetics of plants is not my only interest. Some plants serve as hosts to the larvae of Moths and Butterflies. Sometimes that is enough.

I also weeded the garden. It's hard for me to destroy any plants that finds it's way in my domain. I realize now that I have a panoply of Shepherd's Purse, Purslane, Polygonum persicaria and  Chikweed. So I moved some unwanted plants to either the compost pile, under a rock or ate them.

Time to take it easy.

I'm pretty much done bringing plants up north. At least that is what Mr. L says and he has a point. Our gardens are looking full. What is needed though is some posts to hold the tomatoes and grapes vines. I think I will spend some time tidying up and just take it easy for a change. For the last two years we have gone go go go non stop and we are tired of it. Mind you life is a lot easier now that we have the 4 x 4 and trailer that goes with it. All we do now is load the material from the boat to the trailer then drive up through a path we made in the woods. The place is looking stellar.. both in and out. Maybe we'll hook up the water pump this weekend. What a change that would be. No more doing dishes by hand or bringing up buckets to water my plants. Although, I am a lot less stressed out about my gardens now that i've been lending nature a hand for the past 4 years. Plants grow because that is what they do. A dry spell or windy boat ride never kills them. ;) 

Do and be done

I really love working at the office. This week MR. L. left with a friend to go put in windows and I decided to stick around the office cause I had so much to do with implementing the workflow systems but I saw that no one had time to pick up the social media ball so I stepped up and E-handled it. So I've become the go to on  many levels. It's nice  to  do something that I can see tangible results from. Today is the flash mob dance. I did manage to practice it one late night albeit semi-heartedly but this morning it's early we've already scored mucho points, Cary is puting on my high performance summer tires and I'm gonna do some retweeting for our client, fold clothes and do so some stretching... who knows maybe even an MS of sorts.

It's inevitable, my love for free flow has taken over. After weeks of reading on companion planting and intense square planting I've gone for it... Now my goals is to thin out the extras as I've open casted all my seeds. ;)

The little seedlings I brought from town, not wanting to have another green house living room debacle... Have not all mare it. We don't yet have running water so the green house is a no no zone... And planting is hit and miss.

So my goal this year is to keep at it and see what does grow in unreliable conditions. I love random and convoluted ways so I'm hoping this style of gardening is finally effective. Soon I won't have to worry about it anyways. Water galore!!!!!!

Mr L. buit an insulated bunker for the water tank and a place for his tools. Video to follow.

The workers are putting up the siding. I'm for the first time thinking mmmmmmmm I should be at work instead of working here at the cottage.

I have not had the time to do any rehabilitating work on my back. It's sore but I'm working lifting and hauling... It feels good to be alive.