The Month Is Going By So Fast!

Hi, everybun! It's a very gloomy Saturday here. I hope it's nice and sunny where you are. It's hard to believe how fast this month of poetry has flown by. We are down to the last few days! Today I was sitting here drooling over the Pier 1 flyer that came in the mail, dreaming about nicer days to come this summer. Putting that together with a conversation I had a couple days ago with the Husband about taming our blackberry patch was the inspiration for today's poem.

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Antidote for the Modern Lifestyle


My wicker chair,
          Painted in vibrant parrot colors,
                    Hides deep in the blackberry brambles.

Behind me, a cushion eases my back,
          Convincing me to put my feet up
                     On the gray boulder footstool.

On the iron arbor overhead,
           Long canes cross, and then cross again,
                    Tangling, and softening the glare of the sun.

My book waits in my lap.
           Real paper pages beckon to me,
                    Promising tropical travel adventures.

But, for now I am content
          To listen to a small brown bird
                    Chatter with the local frogs.

 



Garden Dreaming, On This Rainy Day

Hi, everybun.  I have been keeping up with the poetry, although I haven't been posting it. My parents have returned to the North, and I went to visit them, which is more fun than virtual reality. As a bonus, I got to see two of my amazing nieces, and also got to see our lovely shell, on Quilting Arts TV.  I hope your weekend was at least as good!

Rather than doing the full catch-up, I thought I would just post today's poem. It's a very gray, and a very rainy day here today. Instead of actual gardening, I've been looking at garden porn catalogs. Dahlias are kind of a pain, because they need to be lifted from the ground, and stored inside over the winter. But the flowers? Simply amazing. I may actually plant some this year, how about you?

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Sun shines yellow,
Wheel in motion
Turning on its edge.
Winter
        Blends
           Springs
               Into Lilac Time.
Karma illuminates
          Depths of select hearts.
Folly dazzles,
           Appears Abundant.
Spring
       Blends,
           Branches
                Into dinner plate dahlias.
Sunshine yellow,
With a fine
Orange-red edge.
 

Catching Up

Hi, everybun! Did you miss me yesterday? No worries, I was still writing poetry. I was also struggling with my new laptop. It's a big jump from Vista to Windows 8! And it's not helped by the fact that I've been using a tablet lately, and I keep trying to swipe a non-touch screen. Took me 7 years to be completely comfortable with the old laptop, so I guess I can't expect miracles. I like lists of things, so Windows 8 is not easy for me. How about you? Have you tried it? What's easier for you, the old desktop, or the new system?

Now that you know what I've been up to, we can get down to business. First, yesterday's poem. Inspired not only by junk mail, but also by the rainy morning.

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It is an effort to open the shade

Covering the front window.

The layers of white sky

Seem resistant to the sun’s efforts.

There is no blue lagoon to see outside,

Only the slate grey pond,

Embellished with lacy ripples by

The falling teardrops.

Today it will be easier to leave

My shirttail untucked.

 

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Today's poem was inspired by a page from the Seed's of Change catalog. The Golden Bantam is actually a variety of corn!

 

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In the sun, the Golden Bantam’s head shines a true gold.

The feathers across his back and wings are a deep gold,  

And his plump breast fades to a soft, buttery yellow.

He struts across the yard looking satisfied,

Having enjoyed an early spring harvest of succulent seedlings.

Endive, escarole, and dandelion have all been snatched from the earth

Before they could form their ruffled rosettes of crispy leaves.

And this year, the collard greens will never have a chance

To grow sweeter with the frosts of fall.

But, what I will miss most are the round heads of radicchio,

Their red leaves shot through with veins of white.

I like to drizzle them with olive oil and grill them.

The heat transforms their bitter taste into something more.

Perhaps in the radicchio’s place,

I will grill the bantam

To a rich golden brown.

 

 

 

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Now, I need to hurry off to Staples before yoga class. Seems the old laptop is so old, it is giving the youngsters there some trouble as they try to retrieve my most recent pictures. It's always something, isn't it?

What My Garden Will Be Like This Year

I've heard it said that to be a gardener, you must be an optimist. I think that's true, because no matter what happened the year before, you just always know the next year is going to be better. And in three years? It will be stunning. Can't you sort of already see it?

So, here is today's poem, partly from junk mail, and partly from working in the garden this morning.

Ribbons of coral, cherry, pink
Trail extravagantly around the yard.
Pink and purple cascades flow
From tall white planters.
Occasional bold yellow blossoms are
As brilliant as the sun.
The plants are more vigorous
Than in any previous summer,
And the flowers are larger.
A movement brings me back
To the grey and brown
Winter debris in front of me.
My eyes meet the slow blink
Of the Neighborhood Lion,
Who assures me that,
No matter what the flowers do,
He will be there
To brighten my garden.

Still Some Flowers Out There

Fall is my favorite time of year to work in the garden. I love the crisp feel to the air, the smell of the leaves, the special quality of the light in the bright blue sky. it's nice to tidy up the garden, and put it to bed, with a whole winter to dream about how next year's garden is going to be so much better. It takes a lot of optimism to be a gardener!

While working outside today, I got to enjoy the brightly colored mums that the Curly One brought home from Gove Farm. Personally, I love the dark red mums, but the bright orange ones look really nice against our dark brown house.

 

The last perennial to blossom in my garden is this pale peach mum, which is just starting to blossom. The bees have to work a lot harder to find flowers now.

 

These two were sharing (briefly) till one moved on to a neighboring flower.

 

 

This fall,  we've had one of those mini-miracles that gardens can provide. Many years ago I bought an Electric Blue Sage plant. Two years ago it stopped blossoming, and seemed to have died off. When my husband moved a tree this year, this plant sprouted up next to it. I thought it was yet another Butterfly Weed, which is plentiful in my garden, and told him he could just pull it out. Luckily, he never got around to doing that, and look what happened! Definitely NOT an orange Butterfly Weed! A gorgeous Electric Blue Sage.  I love, love, love this color! Keeping my fingers crossed that it will survive the winter.

 

There are also some annuals still blooming their little hearts out, but the frost predicted for the end of the week will probably be the end of them. After that, the garden color will come from some tiny crabapples.

 

For a short while, that is, until the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks eat them all up.  Next they'll eat the hawthorn berries, and finally the viburnum berries. But by then, it will be time to start watching for crocuses, and the new garden season will be starting. I can hardly wait. I have plans, and next year's garden is going to be amazing! Just wait and see.

 

Garden Assistant

Today was a beautiful day, one of the last few we will have as winter sets in. I decided to spend it working in the garden, doing some clean-up.  After I had been working for a while, a helper showed up.

Yes, it was the Neighborhood Lion, on his daily rounds. He claimed my weed bucket, but to be honest, he didn't really help much with the weeding.

 

He also stopped to smell the flowers, before stalking off.

 

He may or may not have been headed for the catnip. I'm not telling.

 

We are supposed to have one more good day before the cold rolls back in. I'll be out in the garden again tomorrow, trying to get the rest of the clean-up work done. And after that, it will be time to pull out the Christmas decorations. There's always too much to do this time of year, isn't there?

Friday In The Garden

The garden is in full bloom now, and it was not too hot to enjoy it. Not much to say today, but I thought I would share some pictures with you, so you can enjoy our garden, too.

I love it when the day lilies are in bloom. Apparently the little guy (girl?) at the center of this one does, too.

I hope you enjoyed the flowers. Have a very happy weekend, everybun!

Catching Up With Everybun

Hi, everybun. Bet you were wondering where we've been. I've been right here, Mom's the one who has been out and about.  Since she's on the couch with her leg up in the air after a rather dim-witted maneuver, she said I could make her long catchup post for her.

First Mom and Dad went to Pittsburgh, because my Oldest Sister was wearing a funny suit at Chatham University.  Mom says she got her Master's in OT, but she isn't really finished till she finishes her field work in a couple of weeks. Not sure what field work means (or OT either, actually), but I'm guessing it has something to do with hay.

While they were there, they were happy to meet Emily Eckel, who makes dolls and buttons, and lots of other things. She is also one of my sister's professors.

Apparently Chatham is a very beautiful campus, so they spent some time looking at the fancy buildings.

The room below was once an indoor swimming pool.

"Oh, Romeo!"

They walked the meditation labyrinth on campus. I prefer to meditate while meat-loafed in the sun.

They spent time watching the wildlife. Mom says it's where Rachel Carson went to school. She wrote "Silent Spring", a book that is very important to us non-human beings.

Mom told me that the Mom and Dad Ducks were nearby, so these guys weren't alone. There was also an Uncle, and then a Stranger Drake that the Duck Mom chased away.

Most importantly, they saw some of my distant relatives.

They also spent some time enjoying the beautiful, busy neighborhoods of Pittsburgh.

 Mom likes to sit at the outdoor tables and people watch. They had fun visiting Pittsburgh. They should take me next time. I'd be a hit at the cafes.

Then, Mom came home the long way, and spent some time at her Mom and Dad's house. Meanwhile, the Curly One and I were at home, emptying out her room. She and Mom spent a couple of days painting it bright yellow when Mom got home. That was smelly.

Next, Mom spent some time working in the garden, planting veggies, and weeding. She says the roses are looking very good this year, especially this bush that died way back last year.

The lupines and roses are nice together, or so she tells me.

And apparently, rhododendron goes well with lupine, too.

Mom says she is especially enjoying the poppies this year.

She should be doing more garden work now, but yesterday she tripped over a step. Her head was probably in outer space, like usual. She almost put her head through a glass door, but all she did was mess up her knee that was finally healing from last fall.

That means the Curly One is still taking care of me. Good thing she's a real sweetie. 

I love my sisters.

Well, that's it. We are all caught up. I'll make sure Mom stays on the ball from now on. Or, I may have to eat a UFO.

The View From The Compost Pile

The compost pile, where I have spent most of the last two days. We use a three bin system, with each bin about three feet on a side.  I needed to empty one bin of finished compost, and transfer what was in the other two to the next bin down the line. This made more room for clearing old stuff out of the various gardens.  I really wanted it done before it (finally) rains this weekend, and gets heavier.

Something I was wondering about while shoveling. How is it possible to get to the bottom of a well-digested pile of compost, and find perfectly preserved carrots? Is it a sign from a Higher Power? Maybe some obscure Bunny God that I am not aware of (but should be) is saying plant more carrots for Weasley? Or maybe bunnies don't bother with a Higher Power (after all, what could be higher?), and it's Ginny sending me a sign to plant more carrots for him? Maybe I should just stop thinking so much, and plant the darn carrots!

Turning the compost is not my favorite garden job, but at least I had a nice view while I was doing this job. The fruit trees and shrubs in the backyard are in blossom.

Way in the back of this picture, behind the patio and fire-pit, but in front of the flowering beach plum shrubs is a rock garden, that is in serious need of renovations. It is watched over by St. Francis.

I'm not overly into the saints, but you've got to love a guy who looks out for the animals. This resin statue was originally in our bunny graveyard, under the lilac. He got moved here when The Husband got a concrete one for the cemetery that he thought was better. I kept this guy, because I like him better. He has bunnies. Enough said, right?

Hoppy weekend, everybun!

Friday In The Garden

When I took a walk around the garden this morning, I saw that the Serviceberries were in bloom.  Their alternate name is June berry. No, it's not June yet.

I also saw plenty of last years arugula flowering, and getting ready to set seed.

 The violets sprinkled throughout the yard are starting to blossom, something that usually happens in May. These pop up in different places around the yard, because we don't believe in lawns that are a monoculture of grass. Much to the dismay of our neighbors.

Although, somebunny is pretty happy with that, because it provides him with lots of these.

With the early warm weather, a lot of things in the garden have had a head start on the growing season this year. Unfortunately, the fact that it has been bone dry has made a lot of these plants stall out. We didn't get much of the rain that came through New England yesterday, and today it is like it never happened. I don't remember ever having to water so early in the season.

The asparagus seems to be one of the plants that is affected by this. Last weekend I cut the first spear, the earliest ever. I thought I would be picking more through the week, but the other spears haven't grown one smidgen since the weekend.

 Someone else was checking out the asparagus bed when I was out there. She (or he, I don't know how to tell with robins), walked along the asparagus row, paralleling me.

Then it hopped up on the fence. At the bottom of the picture are the pea plants that have sprouted, and then, like the asparagus, done nothing.

Still following....

Finally, up onto the nearby trellis to scold me, before taking off.  See her /him on the little box on the post?

OK, I'm going to fly off now, too. There is a big pile of mulch calling to me. Have a great weekend, everybun!

Serious Spring Fever

The weather has been completely amazing here this week. I have done far too much wandering around looking at the new growth, instead of doing anything useful. Plants are sprouting up, budding, and then bursting into bloom so fast you can almost see it happen.

 

The younger daughter is coming home from school for spring break today. Guess I'll have to pull myself out of my spring haze to be Mom again. And some bunny needs a haircut (don't tell him, he might hide)....Should be a fun weekend. Hope you have a great one, too!

Friday In The Garden

Bet you weren't expecting to see that title so soon! Actually, neither was I. I was planning to post more pictures from my Pittsburgh trip. Then, I saw the weather forecast for the next week, and decided to uncover the greens that I had planted in the veggie garden last fall. Thanks to the warm winter, they are quite far ahead of where they were this time last year.

The lettuce, arugula, and  radishes are growing well. The only disappointment was that there is not much spinach. I'm guessing that our October snowstorm came at just the wrong time for the young seedlings. I will plant some more, and hope that I get a decent harvest before the weather warms up too much, and the plants bolt.  Considering how warm it's been all winter, I'm not getting my hopes up! Hmm.... I wonder what else I may be able to plant now. Maybe some kale?

Before And After

We spent a good share of the weekend involved in storm-related clean-up. This was the stuff that I couldn't do on my own earlier in the week. Here's a little bit of what happened.

This is the hedgerow to the north of my house. The neighbor's Bradford pear is on the left, on top of my lilac. The Maple-leafed Viburnums in the middle are flattened. On the right is a Washington Hawthorne that is snapped in half.

Looking down the row today, you can see the stump of the pear tree. The neighbors took the branches off, but left the larger parts for us to deal with. We will keep the wood. By the shadow of my head is the stump of another pear that went down earlier this year, onto the Viburnums.

I expected the Viburnums to stand back up, but they did not. When I tried to encourage them, they started snapping off. They must have been weakened when the tree fell on them earlier in the year. Now they are just the sticks that you see on the left in this picture. I think they will survive the winter, but we won't get to enjoy the sight of their red berries.

On the right, is the remains of the Hawthorne. Getting that down was a two person job, and we both sustained injuries. The husband had it worse, though, as he seems to be having a bad reaction to the puncture wounds.  This tree may survive the winter, but it will probably grow into a very odd shape.

In the center of this picture is Weasley's precious crabapple tree. It was not pretty. Behind it on the right are the old pear and apple. To the center is a large birch that just bent this time. We've lost parts of it before. On the left, a smaller birch, snapped in half.

As you can see, two thirds of the crabapple's branches were broken off. Another large piece may have to come off the back for balance, but I'm going to wait on that. What really has me worried is a large portion on the right that was split, but not to the extent of being removed. It may heal, but if we get another heavy, wet, or icy mess, it may split and take the tree with it.

The old pear and apple tree behind the crabapple didn't do too badly. The old apple did get slightly tipped, so we took a large limb off the back, in hopes that it wouldn't go any farther over. 

This is the birch that snapped. It will survive, but will probably grow strangely from the break. When I first planted this, it was a twig, 12 inches tall.

The front garden, completely buried. The lump in the center is a very flat Rose-of-Sharon.

The Rose-of-Sharon stood back up, sort of. It had already been tipping downhill after the hard rains of the early fall. Its tipping more now. I'll probably take some branches off the back, so that another storm won't bring it over for good.

This is out back, where the trees from the neighbor's woodlot have bent over, or broken off, into our yard. We chopped up the broken ones. The cherry leaning all the way to the left actually stood back up. Unfortunately, it broke as it stood up, and is dangling like a guillotine over the path here. We'll be doing something about this, soon.

And just for fun, the willow out front. Its a weird little tree, but it looks terrific in the snow. Like some fairytale hideout. And as a bonus, nothing really seems to bother it. It always pops back up!

Now that most of the chopping down and chopping up is done, things should be getting back to normal here. I did have some e-mail issues during the snow adventure, so if I have missed responding to some of you, I apologize. And, as if in repayment for last week, its warm and sunny here this week. Perfect New England fall weather. I hope it is fine where you are, too. Don't you just love Mother Nature?