I am realizing as I look out my work window that the Black Walnut Tree is now half way across our back yard. It has grown quite a bit this summer and literally blocks the sun from my window from about 11 o'clock on. Looking down on the garden it suffers an equal fate except in the case of the garden it needs the sun and I can work better without so much sun but I can draw the drapes. The summer has moved quickly for me and now the last day of June.
Yesterday I did accomplish cutting the lawns; my daughter would do it but she is particularly sensitive to grass seed and it is abundant these days. When the heavy growing season is over she will cut the grass again. It is not such a huge task in actual fact. The new battery lawn mower works very well and requires not too much effort even in thick grass. I also managed to vacuum the basement but those two items took up quite a bit of my day. My daughter has started teaching again (all online) so her days will be full.
It looks like rain out there and still we could use more rain. The raspberries are swelling up nicely but more rain would make this a really good crop. The elderberries have quite a few flower heads so should be able to freeze five or six bags so that we can enjoy elderberry squares next winter and into the spring. This year we have had quite a few dishes as last year's crop was huge. The gooseberries are doing well and will produce at least one tray of gooseberry squares and perhaps more. I quite like that flavour. I usually do not make raspberry squares as we tend to eat them quickly but if it is a bumper crop than something else on the menu next winter.
COVID-19 continues at a very fast pace these days. Here in Canada we seem to be managing well but Toronto is about to go into the second phase. That will be the real test. However, they are enacting a bylaw enforcing the wearing of masks which I think is a really good idea. I have been wearing a mask in any public indoor spaces since the 13th of March. We bought a box of 50 dust masks that have served very well. It is a measure of how seldom we went out at first that we still have 25 of those masks. Now we each have half of a dozen cloth masks so the dust masks have not been used for a month and a half.
Globally there are 10,302,867 cases (increase of 147,383 over yesterday), 505,518 deaths (increase of 3,470 over yesterday) and 5,235,908 recovered (increase of 88,472 over yesterday). Since there are nearly double more cases that are new compared to the recovered the world is still in a bad way; the pandemic is running wild it would appear although some countries have been able to stem the tide for the moment and hopefully they will be able to maintain that as they open up more and more. Europe is now permitting 14 different countries to come there and Canada is one of them. That will be good news for travelers. It would be a great time to visit historic sites for sure. Here in Ontario we have 34,900 confirmed cases (increase of 257 over yesterday),m 2,665 deaths (increase of 7 over yesterday) and 30,196 recovered (increase of 89 over yesterday). Windsor-Essex continues to have a problem; the solution is still not yet there. Perhaps the problem could have been resolved by making any payments to students contingent on their going out in the fields and picking the crops. Possibly it wouldn't work well but I really think young adults (which are students are) are up to the task of making sure there is food on their plates and the stores have lots of home grown produce. I was a working summer student myself during my university days. I worked in an office eight hours a day and must admit I might have enjoyed working in the fields instead but of course the pay is so much better in an office especially as I had a lot of bookkeeping skills. plus typing. But if there aren't any jobs then being paid to pick the crops sounds like a good deal to me.
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