Beefalo! In Pennsylvania?

Yesterday was a fantastic fall day in PA - an excellent day for a road trip.  I have been wanting to go to Little Buffalo State Park for a while, so I decided to make the trek up there.  Lots of beautiful foliage to to see in PA at this time of the year.  Some of the rain last week beat up the trees so they're already looking pretty bare, but still lots of fall colors.  My GPS was not really thrilled about the address I punched in for the park so I went with whatever it wanted to do.  Bad plan.  When I turned right onto Dix Hill Rd I sort of thought to myself it didn't seem right but eh, let's see what happens.  Turns out that sort of attitude will take you onto a gravel road with various NO TRESPASSING signs and at least one BEWARE OF OWNER sign.  So, I went ahead and turned around.  But not before snapping some pictures and searching for the park on the GPS.  Thank you, kind folks at Garmin, for making my trip a bit more eventful.

Can you hear the banjos?

Dix Hill Rd: sorta creepy but very scenic.

Once I got my route figured out - I was on my merry way once again.  When I was a few minutes from my destination, I spotted an old cemetery on a hillside.  In the interest of old timey stuff (and Halloween) I pulled over to check it out.  1864 was the oldest I could read and the newest was 1941.  Lots of tiny markers were too worn to read but for the age most were remarkably clear. 

I

A quiet hillside resting spot.

Once I finished my tour, I resumed my trek to Little Buffalo.  I was less than impressed with finding the place, and not just because of my GPS.  I did not see 85% of the signs until I was exiting the park.  I say that as a traveler who was looking for signs, so, not good.  On the upside, it's very pretty.

Entrance to "pavilion area" that leads you to a port-a-potty in a small parking lot.
Pavilions are tucked into the woods a bit.

There is a swimming pool behind the lake - no swimming in the lake - that is currently closed.  The road leading to it is closed as well so I was unable to investigate what the PA DCNR site describes as, "A state-of-the art swimming pool which is nearly half an acre in size."  Sounds cool but I'll have to return in the summer to verify the accuracy of that particular statement.  I stopped at the visitors center and used a map I got there to find the "meat & potatoes" of the park.  It was OK - some picnic tables along a little stream, restrooms, amphitheater, little learning center.  I went back a short path to see the bridge & mill.

 

Across from the parking lot, there's a butterfly garden halfway up the hill.  Some benches, many flowers, not really spectacular at this time of year.  I saw no butterflies there, but I did at the top of the hill where the big SCENIC VIEW is.  OooOoOo.  Be warned I stitched the panoramic together on my camera so there is a bit of a flaw in the banks.

Holman Lake

* Click on any image to see it larger *

tempus fugit: garden style

It's amazing to think that over two months have passed since the last post!  I'm afraid the summer just slipped right through my fingers - you'll have that from time to time. 

I am quite pleased with the way the garden turned out.  We harvested literally hundreds of peppers. We picked quite a few, still have several quarts in the cupboard.  There's also several bags of frozen slices in the freezer - and we can't forget the stuffed peppers we've had for dinner and the mounds we've given to friends. Believe it or not, there's more growing out there now! Should be harvesting some this weekend. 

Pepperoncini grow like crazy!

Ahh, if only you could smell these pictures.

Bit of everything in this harvest:
Sweet banana, multi-colored bell, and of course
PEPPERONCINI.

The green/yellow/purple beans did very well, the second crop much better than the first.  Lower yield of beans but beefier.  We had many large radishes, the carrots are still growing, rabbits ate all the cabbage (oh well they have to eat, too) and we ate a fair amount of cucumbers.  The last radish I pulled was the largest - it would have looked at home being used in a baseball game!

Tomatoes were, eh not too impressive.  I'm afraid we screwed them up the way we watered them....  Got weird spots and whatnot.  Also the squirrels carted off a great deal of the salsa tomatoes.  They were kind enough to leave the remnants scattered through the yard.  I did get a large Supersteak Hybrid that I made a tasty BLT out of  - Shawn topped his bacon cheeseburger off with a slice.

Mmm, bacon cheeseburger.

Now that's a tomato!

BLT = Bacon-Licious & Tasty

I do have to blame some of the tomato casualties to hurricane Irene.  It seems a little silly that I live in central PA and blame a hurricane for my gardening woes, but it is what it is.  We had some pretty mean rain & wind thanks to Irene.  My garden troubles are certainly nothing compared to what thousands of others have had to deal with that's for sure.

Tomato cages ripped out of the ground.Thanks, Irene.

Peppers have been growing at an angle ever since Irene.

The flowers sort of fizzled out as they will once it cools off.  The daisies that I grew in the tub earlier this year really flourished.  They're quite large and a few of them did bloom so they should be really fantastic next year. My ornamental grass took off as well - most of it is taller than me - and Shawn got me a nice pot of chrysanthemums to spruce up the yard a bit for the fall.

oOoooOoo

I just noticed I never shared this lovely lily in front of the shed that bloomed while we were on vacation.

psssst

Well, hello again, wide wide world of web.  It is a BEAUTIFUL last day of August here in Central Pennsylvanie and I am going out to enjoy it!  I know the official start of fall is not for a few weeks, but tomorrow starts September which to me is most certainly fall.  ANYWAY, I am taking a long overdue micro-road trip to Kings Gap so I can squeeze one last drop out of summer.  I have not forgotten about this small space of the web, and this evening I intend to post a great deal of updates :-)

Update: in 5 photos.

We are literally going to have 100s of peppers.
I counted the largest ones and came up with 80.
That's not including the blooms & mini-peps.

Shawn and I measured the longest vine...  15' long!

One of the many pumpkins on the biiig vine.

I still can't believe I grew these things from a seed.

The last of the lilies to bloom.