This summer, no raccoons.. Haven’t seen one, neither here or at SoHo. I would suggest the healthy eagle population is the reason. No doubt the little bandits are out there somewhere but I haven’t seen any.

The garden at SoHo was always at the mercy of the raccoons. We watched them climb hydrangea trellises and patio posts. We watched them leap over the wood shed and skip over the electrified fence. Nothing deterred them. After Papa died, seven years ago we were quite surprised to find a BB gun in his closet. Papa, a confirmed pacifist had been driven to Mr. McGregor levels of frustration in his battle to guard the garden bounty.

This summer, Papa would be pleased. The pear trees have escaped the attention of the raccoons. I don’t remember ever getting a single pear off the Asian tree. This year, it is covered in hundreds of juicy round fruit. We have not only harvested all we could ever use before the raccoons but I have been giving them away to everyone who will take them, including the deer.

Yesterday, I made spiced pear jam, applesauce, pear loaf and an apple pecan cake.(then I had a glass of wine).  I still have bags and bags of fruit on my kitchen table. Not only is the fruit plentiful it is gorgeous and healthy and huge… The fruit on the left is a picture of what I consider normal sized fruit picked off our trees here at the North end. On the right is the apple and Bartlett picked off of Papa’s trees.  Incredible!

It is September 1st and we are preparing our stores for winter. E did a big Costco shop on Monday. Don’t want to be running out of TP when you are fogged in on an island. Tomorrow we go to town to get the fuels topped up.. Diesel, gas and wine!!! Propane is next week when we can make the trip at a high tide. We have lots of medical appointments in the next three weeks to give E his clean bill of health for a winter off grid.

Eileen was over yesterday and she summed up the fruit and vegetable situation on the island very nicely indeed.

one word, abundance