A Visit to Jello Mold Farm in Summer

Harvesting sunflowers in the morning before it gets too hot

Zinnias, Jello Mold Farm

Jello Mold Farm is a busy place in mid-summer.  The sun was already bright when we arrived at 9:00 a.m.  It’s best to pick flowers early in the day before it gets too hot.  We stayed out of the way of the workers as we walked the flower beds looking for photo opportunities.

Picking sunflowers

Walking the fields

Cut flowers were loaded into the back of a pickup truck parked in the field

Tall artichokes

Scabiosa beds in one of the green houses

Scabiosa silhouettes

Wasp nest in the corner of the green house

Getting ready to harvest some dahlias

Dahlias in the green house

Baptisia alba

Glowing pods of Baptisia alba

Zinnia

Plant starts

Flower ties in the workroom

Straw hat in the workroom

Diane Szukovathy, proprietor, with an order

Diane, Jello Mold Farm

Driveway, Jello Mold Farm

Walking the Color Wheel: Seattle’s Summer Greens

“Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.”
— Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Spanish poet

A line of towering trees at Green Lake

Striped leaf

Unfurled poppy

Adorned poppy seed cases

Gladioli stalks

Leaves of a dogwood tree

More poppy seed cases

Little green apple

 

The yellow-green of a new sunflower waiting to bloom

Fluorescent yellow-green escalator in Seattle’s downtown library

Seattle green is the dark green of the trim on the Washington State Ferries.

And it’s also the green of Starbucks, our local Seattle coffee company, now a worldly giant

Walking the Color Wheel: Seattle’s Summer Yellows

“How wonderful yellow is.  It stands for the sun.”
— Vincent Van Gogh

The sunflower’s sunny face

Sunflower silhouette

Garden art: a sunflower plate on a garden gate

Orange-yellow squash blossom

Bed of yellow yarrow

Yarrow crowned with yellow

Yellow and orange blanket flowers

Yellow lily

Garden loosestrife

St. John’s wart, a popular ground cover in Seattle

Our yellow weed, the dandelion

Yellow chairs bolted to the pier overlooking Elliott Bay in downtown Seattle

Yellow chairs with ferry, Elliott Bay

Yellow chairs with ferris wheel, Seattle waterfront

Summer sweet corn on the cob

Lemons in a blue bowl

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Skyrocket Trajectory of Sunflowers

Sunflower petals in a blaze like a ring of fire

Seed-paved eye with pot hole

Sunflower in the summer garden

Posterized image of sunflower

In the Community Garden
by Mark Doty

It’s almost over now,
late summer’s accomplishment,
and I can stand face to face

with this music,
eye to seed-paved eye
with the sunflower’s architecture:

such muscular leaves,
the thick stems surge.
Though some are still

shining confident,
others can barely
hold their heads up;

their great leaves wrap the stalks
like lowered shields.  This one
shrugs its shoulders;

this one’s in a rush
to be nothing but form.
Even at their zenith,

you could see beneath the gold
the end they’d come to.
So what’s the use of elegy?

If their work
is this skyrocket passage
through the world,

is it mine to lament them?
Do you think they’d want
to bloom forever?

It’s the trajectory they desire —
believe me, they do
desire, you could say they are

one intent, finally,
to be this leaping
green, this bronze haze

bending down.  How could they stand
apart from themselves
and regret their passing,

when they are a field
of lifting and bowing faces,
faces ringed in flames?

Jello Mold Farm in Winter

Fuchsia-colored snowberries with a dusting of frost

The winter flower beds at Jello Mold Farm were a full palette of browns.  These fuchsia-colored snowberries were an exception.  Here are some other gems from my stroll through the flower beds:

Snowberries

Bowed seed head of sunflower

Shriveled rose hips

Spiky artichoke

These artichoke leaves fall in a lovely cascade.

Desiccated Chinese lanterns

Frosty ornamental cabbages under netting

Chestnut in hand

Chestnut cluster on tree

Decomposing squash

These broken gourds look like broken dinosaur eggs!

 

Flower Market Revisited

Purchases ready for pickup, Seattle Wholesale Growers Market

It has been some time since I last visited the flower growers at the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market in Georgetown.  I made a trip down on Wednesday to see what’s blooming now in the late summer.  As always, I was captivated by the gorgeous flowers and new varieties offered for sale at this thriving market.  I so appreciate the invitation to photograph extended to me by Diane of Jello Mold Farm.  Thank you!

Buckets of colorful hydrangeas brighten this corner of the old warehouse

Red Queen Lime Zinnias -- I loved the zing of the lime color!

Red Queen Lime Zinnia

Zinnia from Jello Mold Farm

Dinnerplate Dahlias, Jello Mold Farm

More dahlias (salad plate size)

Green Trick Dianthus, North Fork Growers

These won my vote for the most unusual flower of the day.

Artichokes, Jello Mold Farm

Sunflower

Scabiosa pods

Scabiosa pods (another new-to-me flower)

These growers offer enough beauty to sustain you for days.

 

Fall Color in Seattle

Seattle street in autumn

Fall, Leaves, Fall
by Emily Bronte

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.

I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.

Fallen leaf caught in pine needles

Fall colors

Fall colors reflected in a rain puddle

 

Bicycle, Seattle University campus

Late sunflower

Lavender Harvest

It is a month past the peak of the lavender season, but they were still harvesting at the Lavender Wind Farm on Whidbey Island.

Lavender field with red poppies

Lavender bundles hanging up to dry

Driftwood sculpture: Love in the lavender field

Lavender field with sunflower

Driftwood sculpture: Joy in the lavender field

Harvesting lavender, Lavender Wind Farm on Whidbey Island

August Flowers

Late August bloom

Rudbeckia

I'm seeing a lot of orange- and yellow-colored flowers

Dark sunflower

Orange and yellow gaillardia

I’m noticing a lot of yellows and oranges in the flowers of late summer.  It’s as if they are casting a sunset glow on the passing of summer.

Late August
by John Bohrn

Let me enjoy
this late-summer day of my heart
while the leaves are still green
and I won’t look so close
as to see that first tint
of pale yellow slowly creep in.
I will cease endless running
and then look to the sky
ask the sun to embrace me
and then hope she won’t tell
of tomorrows less long than today.
Let me spend just this time
in the slow-cooling glow
of warm afternoon light
and I’d think
I will still have the strength
for just one more
last fling of my heart.

Farmers’ Markets

Vendor at the University Farmers' Market

We are fortunate to have the opportunity to buy fresh, local produce at our neighborhood farmers’ markets.  The farmers appear in the various Seattle neighborhoods on a rotating schedule, so we have access to a market nearly every day of the week. 

Blueberries and raspberries for sale

Bouquet in a backpack

Buyer selects a yellow pepper

Loading up on fresh produce

Selecting a red pepper