Garden report: the snap dragons, delphiniums, zinnias, morning glory and phlox have bloomed. I harvested a half dozen beans, which I ate along with the first pepper.
The unknown squash plant is a pumpkin.
I planted more radish and lettuce seeds for a later crop.
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Be very careful when you are outside. Linda Aronson, who lives on South East Street, sent me an email, saying that on July 8, “I was watering new plantings in my (very) front yard” when a driver pulled off the road next to her and shouted, “There is a bear right behind you!”
She said after jumping in the good Samaritan’s car, she saw the big black bear run across South East Street in front of the car and up a neighbor’s yard toward Mount Pollux.
“It was the first live bear I had ever seen and (I) was grateful I didn’t turn around and find myself nose to nose with the bear,” she wrote.
She said I could print this to alert people to be alert when going outdoors.
I haven’t seen the Orchard Valley bear and that is fine with me. But I always look both ways when leaving my house.
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Carlton and Nancy Brose of Amherst sent a postcard of the Blue Lagoon, a health spa in Iceland. They were there with the New Amsterdam Singers from New York. Their daughter, Ari, is a member of the group. Son Eric and his wife Jan were on the trip as well. They were that the landscape was inspiring.
Anna and Lad Nagurney of Amherst sent a postcard from Bratislava, Slovakia. It was a new country for them to visit and they wrote that they enjoyed goat cheese priory, crossed the Danube River on foot on the “New Bridge” and climbed to the castle.
The visit was between conferences in Vienna and Kalimantan, Greece.
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It’s now the midpoint of July and I have yet to need the window fan. I have yet to hear anyone say, “Hot enough for you?”
The evenings have been wonderfully cool.
Phyllis Lehrer can be reached at phyllehrer@gmail.com.
