Outdoors

The Party’s Over, but the Sheep Don’t Seem to Notice

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131027 SheepMy neighbor has four sheep.  They are curious creatures, staring at me the entire time I am outdoors within earshot (they always move into viewing range when they hear any of us outside).

The glorious colors of this autumn are a distant memory. There are a few trees with some leaves hanging on, the blackberry bushes still are beautiful.

The leaves this fall were spectacular, better than I’ve seen in years.  The traffic on Route 2 was worse than I can recall in recent memory.  I take a certain satisfaction is knowing that I can avoid driving that route by taking back roads with the bonus being better views of the foliage.  I have always looked at the “leaf peepers” with a small measure of disdain.  How dare they cause these crazy traffic problems on an otherwise lightly travelled road?  What are they thinking driving 20 mph and stopping suddenly to take a photograph of particularly colorful maple.  These are my trees.  I have watched their entire cycle and October is the reward.

I then realize how blessed I am to be living in such beauty.  How wonderful it is to have family and friends locally that take advantage of all of it with their cameras and how amazing it is that we can all share our imagery so readily via the internet.  With all of the complaints an old film photographer can have this is one time when I think digital is amazing.

 

Slow and Steady

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131016 Moonrise

I arrived late to Rowe on Wednesday to see that the shed was being worked on.  Most of the paint was removed and there was a window in the west wall.  The opening has always been there – there was a screen in that spot in need of repair.  A hinged shutter, a door of sorts, covered the hole year round and has been there as long as I can remember.  It’s always interesting to walk into an interior space where there is light that has never been there before, you feel like you’ve been missing something.

It was still light out as I unloaded my car but fairly clouded over.  I started cooking a little supper on the stove and walked into the living room where the light coming into the east windows was this amazing color, and bright for sunset.  I looked out, grabbed a camera and this is what I saw.  The light reflecting off of the clouds from the west with the moon rising in the east.  It was stunning and there for less that 10 minutes.  Of course Mr. Photobomb was in every shot.

I woke up out of a half sleep Thursday morning to Chester growling – softly (he’s kind of chicken).  I got up to see Mike , my brother-in-law and Jim, his work partner working on the shed wall.  The dogs went out to happily greet them and we took a walk to the back forty.  When I returned Mike and I talked about the condition of the clapboards and where we were going to go with this.  He also told me Jim had found the window at the dump.  Jim works at the dump part-time which gives him access to the good stuff.  He’s always thinking ahead to where he might recycle something.  A bonus for both of us.  I left them to their work and assume that it will look wonderful in the next week or so.  They do really good work.

131017 Paint

Exterior painting is not something Bill and I are interested in doing.  We have done it at the house in Enfield but the house in Rowe is just too tall.  Mike has been painting for years.  When he paints you know he will do whatever he can to get the paint to stay on for years to come.  He repairs, replaces and caulks where needed then primes and paints.  He is meticulous.

We haven’t been able to do more than a side a year because of the size of the job and the expense.  It will be another two years probably before the house it completely painted so for the time being I just photograph the good sides.  They finished the front a few weeks ago and I have to say the house is looking quite beautiful. I am hoping to build a new storm door before winter.  The strap hinges and thumb latch were made at Williamsburg Blacksmith quite some time ago and that aluminum door really needs to go.

131013 Front of House

Of course when you look at the photographs there are more things to add to the to do list.  Antennas and dishes have to be removed, lightning rods reattached.  Every once in a while I look at a photograph like this and in my head just pretend it’s all done.

Dragonflies in My Garden

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dragonfly

From Vikusik on Flickr

Sunday was a sunny, beautiful day.  I sat in a chair at the edge of my garden husking my popcorn when a huge dragonfly landed on the front of my t-shirt.  It’s rather startling when an insect of this size lands on you – especially when you hear it coming in for a landing.  It was stunningly beautiful.  It sat in a spot that allowed me close inspection.  At first I was wondering why it had little red legs under it’s chin then realized (due to the crunching) that it was eating another insect recently caught.

The property has a lot of wetlands and I look forward to seeing dragonflies every year.  There is usually a yearly swarm which is a sight to behold.  We have flying ants that take off from nests in the stone patio and it seems like the dragonflies are ready and waiting for this event.  A few years ago it looked like a dragonfly cyclone over the patio as hundreds of dragonflies swarmed over the emerging ants for dinner.  They must have been tasty.

Last spring the New York Times did an article with a few videos about dragonflies, thought I would share – Nature’s Drone, Pretty and Deadly.

I’m just glad I’m not a flying ant or mosquito.

End of Year Garden Assessment

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130915 (1)I took this photograph yesterday morning overlooking the best garden of weeds I have ever had.  I have had a vegetable garden for a good ten years now and this has to be the worst one yet. Fortunately the rest of the view is pretty nice.

For some reason in my mind it is the first week of October (I even tore off the September page of the calendar on Saturday and didn’t realize it until Sunday).  It may be the weeds or my confused state but I decided to dismantle most of the garden this past weekend.  I had Cherry Belle radishes the size of beets – over 5 feet tall and gone to seed (which was interesting since I had never done that).  I had a total of two beets the size of radishes.

130915 (2)I really began by pulling up all of my popcorn.  It had been raining the past week a good deal and I thought I should probably get it out of the ground.  I laid all of the stalks in my garden wagon thinking I would keep the ears on the stalks to dry further.  This was Tom Thumb popcorn, an heirloom variety developed in New Hampshire.  It was bred to do well in a short season.  It only grows 3 feet tall and is quite cute.  It did well.  Sunday I decided to pull all of the ears off of the stocks, peel back the husks and let them dry further.  They are supposed to dry to a 14% moisture content.  I’m not sure how you’re supposed to figure that out but most people just try popping a few kernels every so often during the drying period to see when they pop.  Works for me.  Did I mention that none of these ears is more than 4 inches long?  Most are in the 3 inch category – hence the name Tom Thumb. 

130915 (3)I then pulled what carrots I had.  I had planted two varieties – the old standby Danvers and Atomic Red.  Another rather disappointing harvest.  This is all I had – a total of 6 pints when it was all said and done.  When I saw them scrubbed up in the bowl I was glad I had planted both, they look great together.  I canned them with a brown sugar glaze.  I had heard a review from my sister that this was the only way to go.  Well, when you only have 6 pints you have to make a choice,  I went with sweet.

The rest of the potatoes were dug on Saturday and left out in the sun until yesterday afternoon.  Not a particularly good year for them either.  We had a lot of rain and the earth really compacted around them.  The potatoes are delicious, the yield was just not there (that and the fact that we ate fully half of them as new potatoes).

130915 (4)Then there is the matter of tomatoes.  The vines in the garden have been brown without leaves for a couple of weeks.  The yellow cherries just kept coming – we are at a loss to understand why.  This tomato is extremely prolific.  The bonus is it takes them a long, long time to rot.  Another interesting thing is they drop off of the vine as soon as they begin to turn yellow so rather than pick them off of the plant you end up picking them off of the ground.  I was pulling the stakes up that were holding the plants and these tomatoes were everywhere.  Not being one to let good food go to waste I picked them up and canned them with 4 red tomatoes that were the only ones left.  I ended the tomato season with an additional 6 pints of beautiful golden sauce.

I planted a total of seven eggplants – they produced 4 fruit.  They were delicious but I’m not sure if it was this particular year’s weather or my growing season is just too short.  The plants are blossoming like crazy right now but I know there won’t be enough time before we have a frost.  I feel a little bad pulling them up but I’m not going to weed around them.

The asparagus looks great. The bed will be cleaned out, mulched and  some edging will be put in this fall.  The rutabagas are just okay this year, they will stay in the ground until a couple of frosts hit, then I will pull them.  They are smaller than usual.  The rest of the garden will be tilled in the next week or so (because I can’t look at the crabgrass any more).

We have scoped out a new area for the garden.  This will involve outside help for excavation and some fill but it holds the promise of being a better location long term.  We have some mature maples along the south end of where the garden presently is and that is the one tree we are loathe to cut down.  I figure the way the crabgrass grew in this year it would take about a month to turn the present garden into lawn since most of the lawn is crabgrass anyway.

 

 

 

 

In Between Seasons

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130912 Morning Storm Clouds (1)The past two days have been hot and humid, the cicadas buzzing away.  I brought the dogs out at 6:30 this morning and this is what the sky looked like.  Something you normally see as the clouds build on a humid summer afternoon as the thunderstorms roll in.  It feels like July.

130912 Morning Storm Clouds ()

This kind of weather does something to my brain – I can’t quite comprehend the garden being done (yes, other than digging potatoes and rutabagas it’s done). My mind has moved onto Fall jobs.  Bringing in and stacking wood, that’s what I should be doing but not it this heat.

Then I look out over my newest garden, still ablaze with color,  everything taking on the ochre colors of autumn and my mind knows that winter is coming.

130912 Colors of Fall

 

Heath Fair

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120817 Heath Fair Banner

The Fair started for me Thursday evening when I dropped off my blanket and rug at the exhibition hall.  There were helpers everywhere and you could feel the excitement building.  They have this fair down to a science.  I was given labels that were already printed with my name and category, I attached the labels to the corner of my goods with the name hidden and handed them off to one of the many workers with the checkered aprons walking around the hall.  Then the waiting began.

For me part of the anticipation is not knowing what your competition is.  How many people weave and put their work in a small country fair? I know many people hook rugs but are there any around here that do?  Are they willing to haul them to a fair for a ribbon and maximum premium of $3.00?

Sister Sue and I made our way over about 10 AM Saturday.  The fairgrounds were bustling with activity.  We toured the sheep barn and the poultry/rabbit building.

130817 Heath Fair (4)

We ran into our friend Russell who told me he only won second place on the rocking horse he had made for his grandson. (The only category it fit into was Craft Other – I’m glad I wasn’t judging that one). After catching up with them for a bit we went to the Exhibition Hall to see how I did.  It took me a minute to figure out where the textiles were.  I was also amazed at how many people brought things to the fair.

130817 Heath Fair (5)

Blue Ribbon for my rug but the only other competition on this was a really beautiful woven rag rug.  Again, another difficult judging situation.

130817 Heath Fair (6)Then a blue ribbon for the blanket – woohoo!  There was a lot of weaving in the fair this year which actually surprised me.  Who knew I was surrounded by weavers and didn’t know it?  There’s another reason to compete at the fair – you get to know the competition and they are just like you.

Once we left the exhibition hall we made our way down the food lane and picked up some fried dough with Maple Cream from Hager’s Farm for breakfast (it’s sort of like a pancake right?).  With food in hand we watched the herding exhibition – with ducks.

130817 Heath Fair (8)

Then it was on to the main reason I was at the fair so early – Horse Draw.  I always plan my fair visits around this event.  The animals are stunningly beautiful and you can watch them doing what they are trained to do.

130817 Heath Fair (7)You also get to see the teamsters in action.

130817 Heath Fair (3)

These horses are very similar to dogs (except in size).  They are bred to pull, they have a job.  It’s the trainers job to teach them how to do it.  There are a lot of differences in how these horse’s people work with them and that’s the difference in how well they pull.  Early on in the draw you have a sense of who will win just by how they are handled by their drivers.

The competition was light in the 3,000 pound category.  There were 5 teams competing, 3 of the teams were from the same farm. There were 2 other fairs this weekend with horse draw competitions.

Honestly, one of the best parts of this event is sitting in the stand with all of the other interested parties.  This is redneck farmers at its best.  Horse people are an interesting lot (and sometimes a little scary to look at).  They joked about small wagers on a particular team.  Arguments ensued over who knows what and people were generous in their knowledge of the sport.  One explained in detail how the draw was measured and how the timing of each pull was handled.

130817 Heath Fair (2)Then there were also teamsters helping out teamsters if someone was short for a particular pull (competitors, helping competitors).  It’s all about the horses you see (at least to them).  They apparently don’t know that we’ve figured out that it’s their work, their temperament that is really what makes their team perform at their best.

When the pull was over we went home.  I returned later with the family – they wanted fair food for supper.  We watched a little of the truck pull before calling it a day.  The crowd was enormous – a sea of camouflage and dirty ball caps.  For a people watcher this was gold.

For me the fair concluded last evening when I picked up my entries and winnings.  I’ve concluded that the only way to see the fair is to compete in it.  You have skin in the game and every one around you knows it.  Now to start working on next years entries.

130818 Entries

 

Starry, Starry Night

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130811 PerseidsFor the past week or so I had been thinking about the Perseids Meteor Shower set to peak last night between 2 and 4 a.m.  The weather forecast was for clear skies and Saturday night the visibility of the stars was amazing.  Instead of the usual beach chair I inflated an air mattress and set it in a spot in the yard with the clearest view of as much of the sky as I could.  (Truth be told I could have dragged that mattress out to the back forty and had a bigger view).  I got my camera ready but wasn’t expecting much – it’s a fully automatic SLR that really causes me more aggravation than anything else.

I knew there was no way I was going to stay awake until 2:00 so we went out to our gazing spot with our quilt in hand.  It was around 50 degrees and quite damp but the visibility was amazing.

I would say we didn’t see more than 5 or 6 shooting stars in an hour – they were good ones though.  The real treat was seeing the night sky on such a clear night.  Typically the sky is clouded over – it’s been a few years since I’ve actually watched this shower because of that.

For me the biggest treat of all was the Barred Owls that were all around us for a good part of the time we were there.  It started with just one in the distance calling.  It then landed in a tree in the back forty and kept talking, then to one of the maples near us.  We then heard another calling back in the distance and soon it had joined the one that was closest to us.  When they got together there was such a cacophony I wondered if it was a territorial dispute. There was some very loud squawking.  After a few minutes of silence we could hear one of them calling in the distance again.

It really was such a gift of nature.  The owls were really the only sound while we were out there – other than a few crickets.  I love listening to them talk to each other.  I’m sure all birds talk to each other but nothing is as obvious as this – they are the only ones you hear at that time of night.  There is normally a lot of owl action around the house but this year it’s been quiet.  I was worried about where they might have gone.  It was nice of them to pay me a visit and let me know they hadn’t really gone anywhere.

130811 Perseids (2)Next time I will use a different camera and maybe a tripod, although there isn’t a photograph that would ever capture the expanse of the night sky in a way that it feels when you are gazing up at it.

 

 

Day Off

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130805 The LakeThere are days you have to leave everything behind and relax.  No canning, no splitting wood, no lawn mowing or weed whacking.

It was a perfect day.  When I loaded this photograph my first reaction was wow, is that blue.  You know, it really WAS that blue.

And there is nothing the dogs love more than us spending the entire day throwing a tennis ball.

 

 

Little Gifts

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130715 Bee Balm Moth

 

Every day I am given little gifts, natures way of showing me how wonderful the world around me is if I stay still long enough to see it.  I plant a lot of flowers (and vegetables) for the birds and bees, both perennials and annuals. Right now my bee balm is in full bloom along with a sea of Echinacea.  These are amazing, vibrant flowers well loved by birds and bees alike – and hummingbird moths.  These moths are something I wait for every summer, they are so much fun to watch going about their nectar collecting business.  There is a bright pink garden phlox planted around the patio in Rowe that these insects just love.  When it blossoms in mid July you can expect to see two or three of them hovering around in the early evening making their way from blossom to blossom.   The Mass Audubon site has an nice description of these furry little wonders.  It’s always difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that they are a moth – they are so fuzzy and bird like.

The Hummingbird moth is something you have to be aware of in order to see them.  I think that’s why I always consider them a little gift.  The first time I noticed them I asked my sister what they were.  She went to a flower and with a gentle hand grabbed one mid flight.  We examined it, she opened her fingers and it buzzed away, truly one of those memorable moments.

Take the time to observe what’s going on the next time you are near a flower garden or a potted flowering plant for that matter.  This time of year there are all kinds of creatures gathering nectar.  If you are still and quiet they very likely will come to you.

Another Photobomb

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130519 Photobomb 2Chester spent the entire time getting into my photographs on Sunday – I kid you not.  It was raining and he was just thrilled that someone was outside to follow around.  This is one of the side gardens at the house.  In the background is the stump of a large pine tree that came down a few years ago.  Changed the whole makeup of that garden, what was once completely shaded came into the sun.  Right now it’s full of weeds.  That’s on the list for this week, fortunately it’s fairly well established and I can get it done in a couple of hours.  I’m thinking this may be a good spot for the gas plant.

I had to leave Chester at work yesterday with Bill.  On the way home I thought “I hope he remembers he’s there”.  Sure enough Bill drove in the yard and walked into the house without Chester.  He’d turned off the lights and locked up the shop with Chester sleeping in his crate.  Bill turned around and went back to get him, he said he was calm and cool, like nothing had happened.  Guess we’ve turned a corner on the separation anxiety thing.