This year's summer is intense

Dear Family & Friends

It's one crazy summer this year. We had longer spell of heat wave (up to 43C outside under the sun!) which causes a lot of T-storm. Some of my poor pepper plants just start curling up their leaves. I water the garden non-stop and am so grateful that we have two underground water well in the garden and some summer sporadic rainfall to draw water from:)

wind blows fiercely bringing in sudden dark clouds - T-storm.

The garden insects seems to be busy as usual...I don't think they are bothered with the heat...for as long as there's flower nectar to gather. My mint bushes and calendula are keeping them all very happy at this point.

the garden friends seems happier when it's hot

In Bulgaria, tomato plants seem to grow without care. My own tomatoes plants have never been given much attention this year...I meant to tie them up as they grow, pinch the side shoots etc... but with the intense heat, I just couldn't physically afford to stay out there to do all these jobs...so they grow messy but still giving us lots of fruits. If I'm this successful, you can just imagine how our neighbours are doing with theirs. They grow theirs better than we do.

just one of these tomatoes is already an equivalent of two tin canned tomatoes sold in supermarket!

So, we end up with tons of tomatoes coming from everywhere...our garden, our neighbours' garden. I've freeze them for later use, but the freezer is now full. I have to start processing and canning them because I don't know what else I could do with them. So, there will be tomato jam, tomato sauce and I'll probably try tomato ketchup and dehydrating some of my cherry tomatoes for snacks.

another bowl of  raw food - called salad

Sometimes I do get overwhelmed with processing tomatoes, although it is coming out of our ears but I must remain grateful...eating seasonal food is for a reason...God knows why tomato has to be abundant for us during the summer season...but He also gave us extra to have them for later too.

You know what we are having for lunch? A piece of freshly baked bread with slices of juicy tomatoes and basil leaves, plus a drizzle of good olive oil...No heavy meals for us during summer season. We just get too lazy to eat these days ..tis the season for fruits and lots of liquid intake. 

Hope you're making the most out of your season where you are too.

Yours