After spending five pleasant days with comfortable outdoor temperatures on the beautiful Virginia Tech campus at Master Gardener College, several Gloucester Extension Master Gardeners and I returned to sweltering Tidewater heat and a welcome-home thunderstorm of epic proportions. Fortunately, Jim and I experienced no damage or power loss, but I understand that many other Middle Peninsula residents did not escape the storm’s wrath so easily. I will write about some of the interesting classes I attended at Tech in the near future.
Last Friday night, June 20, heralded the Summer Solstice for those of us in the Eastern Daylight Time zone. Jim and I celebrated that long evening in the gazebo with our son, Joe, who returned that day from a yearlong Coast Guard assignment overseas.
As I write this column, Tuesday, June 24, known as Midsummer or St. John’s Day, is approaching. The celebration of Midsummer, a fire and fertility festival at the midpoint of the harvest, dates to pre-Christian tim...