Waiting For Hops!

The Hops are OUT!  

On the trail,  The first cones appear.
They may still require a little time
to ripen. 

As I watch the Hops on the corner of the building slowly take their time to ripen,  I discovered that the wild ones along the trail are not taking such liberties.   They are beginning to form their cones and, although not quite ready yet,  will possibly be able to be harvested by the end of the week.  (Maybe...)

Always there to state the negative
side...

There certainly are a lot of them.
and there are more plants on the
other side of town!

I'm very excited.  My plant is just beginning to lose their flowers. They have not even begun to form cones, leading Cheryl to doubt that they are even Hops!  (  There is always someone who wants to crush your dreams...)  Even if they are not going to form cones this year,  ( Sometimes they do not their first year out.) I still should be able to find a few along the trail.    There were at least several plants with full canopies of cones on the north side of West Chester.  On the South side,  there are even more plants!   I shall keep an eye out.

In addition to running out of yellow,
I was in constant danger it would
rain!  

Haters are gonna hate. 

I spent the majority of the afternoon creating a butterfly on the park sidewalk.   It appears that my Dragon had been vandalized near the other spot.   That's fine though.   I was not really attached to that mural anyway.  I could look at it as someone was voicing their criticism  rather than destructively vandalizing a work of art.  Maybe people around here think it was some symbol for a satanic cult or something. ( Do "satanists" use dragons as their symbols?)   All I know is they did not vandalize the Lion next to it.  But in my own defense,  I was not finished with it.   It is unfair to judge a half finished work in progress. 

Maybe I should
leave this one out. 

The Root Beet taste test is a some-what success.   I say "some-what" because it has bubbles and is palatable...  But it tastes more like medicine and less like Root beer.  I think I may have added too much Ginger and Dandelion root.   The slight bitterness is slightly Too bitter.   I finally received my Lactose and I found some Spearmint leaves so I may leave out the ginger and dandelion root and add in those items instead.  I also wonder how much the Sarsaparilla root adds.   Since I can not find any locally,  I can only speculate that it may be the missing link.    But for now,  I think I need to leave a few flavor notes off.  We shall see.

Flowers are appearing again, but I still
think they could use some more rain. 

Hope everyone is having a pleasant Monday.   It rained a little here today.  The clouds continue to hold the sun away, but it appears the rain may be finished for now.   Cheryl says there is rain in the forecast for the rest of the week.    We could definitely use more rain than what we received just today.  But I will take the clouds and cooler temps any day.   Thanks for stopping in.