Good morning or afternoon and welcome. Coffee? Tea? I am craving something cold right now, maybe something to pair with the bountiful harvest of raspberries this week. Any suggestions?

They are beautiful, aren’t they? I have been in my current home since 2017 and I don’t think I have ever seen the raspberries bushes produce such large berries. They are always so tiny. Perhaps I’ve done something right if I can only remember what I’ve done, let see…

• I pruned a lot of the branches and leaves in June
• I fertilized with Dr. Earth’s fruit tree fertilizer in June
• I set up drip irrigation in June

Was that all? Hmm…

Oh, and I removed and/or pruned away a lot of the old and/or dead canes (that’s what raspberry branches are called) last weekend. Now, I have to do an average of 2 harvests per day – once early morning and once in the afternoon – and each time the wind blows, I can feel my raspberry bush nodding approvingly at me, telling me they are happy.

Is that strange? I bet a lot of gardeners talk to plants and that’s why their plants do well.

In another part of my garden, my snow peas are already over 2-feet tall. You can tell because these are 4-feet poles and I did measure them yesterday and came in at 26-inches (24 inches is 2 feet). It’s incredible to see how much they’ve grown in a little over a month since seeding (seeded August 7)

Snow peas are a cool weather vegetables and will have trouble growing if the temperature is over 80-degrees-Fahrenheit (26-degrees-Celsius). So far, the daily temperature has been around 85 (29-degrees-Celsius) and sometimes 90 (32-degree-Celsius). Fortunately, I got the peas in a shady spot that gets plenty of morning sun.

Meanwhile, you can see the black shade cloth in the background. I have Bibb (butter) lettuces, spinach, and baby bok choy planted in that raised bed and for two days, I couldn’t figure out why those veggies are wilting in the afternoon sun. Then it hit me, these are cool weather vegetables, they don’t like the heat. So under the shade cloth they went and are doing so much better since.

If we were having coffee and you ask me about work, I would tell you I don’t want to talk about it. There’s been so much negativity this week (detailed in my Monday thoughts and Friday Thoughts posts) that I wish to use this weekend to focus on the positive like finally removing my lawn this weekend (detail later).

Now, let’s see, what else happened this week?

Oh yeah, I went to a baseball game. It was part of my department’s quarterly event. The goal is to have fun and get to know each other outside of work. Everybody brought somebody except me. I had no one.

The last time I went to see a baseball game live was in 2004 when I lived in California. My step-father was a fan of the LA Dodgers and we went to a few games there but I’ve always gotten bored by the 6th inning and by the 9th inning, I was snoring my head off.

It must have something to do with the seating because at Dodgers Stadium, we were always so high that binoculars were needed to see what was happening on the field. I didn’t need any binoculars on Monday and I actually enjoyed watching the match. It was exciting and I understood what was happening.

I could see everything that was happening on the field like the bases kept getting loaded, the opposing team kept scoring, and the lousy pitcher kept injuring the batters. By the 7th inning stretch and a score of 6-2, I had lost hope of the home team winning especially when they continued to pop high flying balls that seem to miraculously land in one of the opposing team’s mitts. So I said “goodnight” to my co-workers and headed home.

If given the opportunity, I would go to another live game. It’s so much better than watching it on TV.

I would thank you for joining me in this edition of #weekendcoffeeshare and hope we’ll both return next week.