Happy Saturday!

In this conversation, I would like ask you, “Do you ever feel like the world is constantly working against you when you’re doing something you love?”

I ask this because this is what I’m feeling right now and it’s making me jittery, anxious, and irritable. This gardening season has been one challenge after another and I know I said this last year but I feel like this year has pushed me to a whole new level.

First, it was the heat and the late freezes. Then came the winds, the ultra-low humidity (less than 20%), and no rain. The last time any rain fell was late May. In the midst of the weather, aphids were wreaking havoc to my vegetable patch. After the aphids population finally under control, came the earwigs and so far, none of my old methods have worked and I’m very sure that in a month or so, the grasshoppers will come and devour all of the beans. Oh, and did I mention, I saw a mouse in the garden? After two years? And I’m completely out of bait.

I spent last weekend replacing more than half of the drip irrigation tubing and last night, I found out I may need to replace one of the spigots on one of the rain barrels.

So, yeah, too many problems and I would love to have just one piece of good news.

The garden feels like it’s currently in transition. Most of the spring vegetables have been removed. The only vegetable still remaining are 3 heads of cabbage, sprouting broccoli, carrots, kale, swiss chard, and the heat-tolerant lettuce I planted in May. One of the cabbage heads is almost ready while I’m not optimistic about the other two developing heads. I kept the sprouting broccolis, kale, swiss chard because they’re biennial and I’m hopeful that they will produce again in the fall when it cools. Though the swiss chard is producing new leaves, it’s getting fried by the sun even under shade cloth. That’s how strong the UV is around here.

Meanwhile, after losing a cucumber plant to the wind, cucumbers are slowly coming in. I’m glad I planted mostly parthenocarpic varieties this year, meaning I don’t need pollinators to have cucumbers. The tomatoes are also ripening, especially the cherry tomatoes. I tasted my first Suncherry tomato of 2026, yum.

I feel I haven’t been as involved in the garden as I have in prior years. The dry heat has been more unbearable than the years before. If I’m out there for over 5 minutes, I would get a headache and I would feel a case of vertigo come on. So I’ve been mostly staying indoors during the hottest part of the day.

Lastly, I went to see the new endocrinologist this week. The doctor I was seeing retired. After some lab work, I learned something new about my thyroid condition. It’s autoimmune-related. According to the doctor, my body has been attacking my thyroid and she thinks that’s been happening for most of my life. I wonder why the other doctor couldn’t tell me that’s what was causing my thyroid to malfunction for all these years?

Anyway, the doctor wrote to me in an email, telling me there’s nothing anyone can do other than keeping the situation under control with pills and routine lab work. Story of my life – living with incurable ailments.

I appreciate you stopping by and I appreciate Natalie for hosting WeekendCoffeeShare each week. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.