Grape Expectations, or the Gestation of the Jam on Outdoor Wednesday!

We are Johnny-come-latelys here at That Old House, having lived here only one year; the grapes at the end of our driveway have lived here for many decades, as long as anyone in the area can remember.


Although there are fewer vines than there used to be, and they are of an impressive age, they pump out a generous crop of grapes.

Apparently there's no such thing as Plant Menopause.


So today, for Outdoor Wednesday, hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer, I stood in the baking sun (after getting home from Dollar Tree) and bravely (if by bravely we mean blindly in the bright sunshine -- seriously, I could not see!) took a few pictures of what we like to call the grape arbor:

If it looks like a big ol' jumble of about 6 different opportunistic vines and pushy shrubs, that's because it is.
Look at this big fountain of forsythia popping up out of the top like something in a Dr. Seuss book:

Howard pulls out and cuts back renegade vines every weekend,

but they just love it snuggled in with the grapevine and pop right back up again.

Knowing nothing about viticulture, we are following the neighbors' advice to cut back non-grape stuff, and thin out the grape vines to give the little grape-babies as much sun as possible. We do try and expose the grape-babies... because they like to hide under the leaves.

Where are the grape-babies?

Peek-a-boo! There they are!

Aren't they cute?

Later this summer, they'll get dark and then darker still, and my father will start eating them right off the vine -- seeds and all -- because they remind him of the grapevines they had when he was a kid, and then they will fulfill their destiny . . . and become the world's most delicious jam.

No, really, I am serious. It is that good. My dad eats this jam like it's Jello.

I give the grapes to our neighbor (who used to live in That Old House) and she makes the jam and we get a couple of jars, and ... hey. Maybe this year I'll have her teach me to make the jam, and then she gets a couple of jars!

While we're still on the driveway, remember last week's daisies, just beginning to bloom?

They are busting their little guts now, blooming away:

And there's an enormous tall hedge along the driveway, and it is blooming! And smells heavenly. It brings me back to childhood summers, so we must have had similar hedges at one of our houses when I was a kid, 'way back when dinosaurs roamed Long Island.

Can you see the white blooms, up high?
I told you I was blinded by the sun -- these are not great pictures, sorry.

If you look closely, below, you can see the small blooms at the ends of branches.

And tomorrow, cuttings from the hedge and the daisies, and some of what I got at Dollar Tree (oh, good stuff... good stuff!), and some very vintage linens, and a few other doo-dads and what-nots are destined to become a Tablescape.

But for more fun in the sun, or shade, or whatever weather, check in for more Outdoor Wednesday posts, by clicking here. Thanks, Susan, for hosting! -- Cass