A weekend walkabout

Japanese magnolia blossoms outside my dining room window.

This morning, I woke up to the pattering of rain on my metal roof and it was so beautiful that I lay still and listened to it for way too long.  Godfrey kept tapping my nose with his paw ...  his signal that I needed to get out of bed and give him and Axl their morning snacks.  Finally, I rolled out of bed and made it into the kitchen to start the coffee and deliver those snacks only to find a sticky note from my son, Ben, that read:  "Spring forward!" accompanied by a smiley face.  Oh, no!  Now, not only had I stayed in bed being lazy, enjoying the sound of the rain, but I was automatically going to be behind the rest of the day!  Bummer!

Two weekends ago, I took photos of the Japanese magnolia in the back yard sporting lovely blossoms.  It had been nice and mild for a week or so. 

The weather has been the main news around here the last couple of weeks.  Twice snow has missed HeartSong Farm by about 30 miles to the north, but we were treated to sleet and snow mixed with rain for a couple of hours last week.  We did not get to enjoy the 6 inches of snow that fell on the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Wednesday of this week, however, the temperature dropped 20 degrees between 4 pm and 5 pm, going from 75 to 54, as the sky turned ominous with dark storm clouds roiling up from the southwest.  Temps continued to drop throughout the night, and I woke up to a cold but dry 30 degrees that had already risen to 37 by the time I left for work.  

Friday morning, cedar waxwings and myrtle warblers, who usually migrate together through here in late January/early February, came through, enjoying the flower buds on the Bradford pears. Unfortunately, it has not been sunny enough for my little greenhouse on the back porch to heat up the dirt in the pots on the inside. I planted pomegranate seeds the first week of February, and there are still no sprouts.  I have been trying to "hatch" an avocado in there, too.  

My little greenhouse and the plastic tub with the tadpoles on the back porch

The tadpoles have made it through all the cold weather, slowly growing, but still no sign of legs!

Yesterday was quite sunny and mild, and since it was the first non-rainy Saturday in awhile, I decided to take a bit of a walkabout on the farm to see what was happening in various areas.  

This is what the poor Japanese magnolia blossoms looked like this weekend.  They got zapped!

The poor Lady Banks roses at the driveway entrance to the house needed cutting back to fix an issue on the roof a month ago. This past week, the weight of the remaining branches caused them to flip over and pull the arbor away from the fascia on the house. So we are going to do some VERY DRASTIC surgery.  Ben is not sure they will recover, but I told him they were two very strong Ladies.  He must have faith!  I guess I need to name them since they are such strong Ladies.  Hmmm .... I think Bess, on the right, and Kate, on the left facing the house.  Yes indeed, that will certainly do!

The toppled over arbor with the Lady Banks roses.  Fortunately, my car was with me at work when

the arbor lost its grip on the house!

I started my walkabout in the front yard and over to the fence to the east where the front pasture is located.

The first thing that caught my eye were these lovely and adorable hyacinths in the yard.

I wandered over to the fence and caught this photo of Sir Prize grazing on some new spring grass.

Honey bees were already enjoying the early pollen treats they found in the blossoms of the Bradford pear tree near the front pasture fence.  They seemed to be ready for Spring to get busy and get here! Let's hear it for those bees!!!  We need them for pollination of all our fruits and vegetables.  They need protecting from insecticides, folks!

Bees and Bradford pear blossoms!

Bees!!!

And bees!  Bees everywhere on the Bradford pear blossoms!

And then, I took a look at my poor old barn ....  The wind storm we had about six weeks ago had blown off part of the tin roof.  It had made a huge thundering noise at it hit the ground.  I actually thought there had been a wreck out on the highway at the time!  It remains to be seen how long the rest of the main roof will last, since it was improperly constructed.  I am just glad it lasted as long as it has.

Poor old barn!  We have had some good times ....

Next, I turned my attention to the west side of the front yard, and there was my lovely red oak, standing strong and tall!  This tree reminds me so much of my Daddy.  Oaks were always his favorite.

This oak's leaves turn rusty red in Autumn, but it does not shed them until 

the winds of March come visiting.

You can see in the photo that I still have a large pile of dirt leftover from last Spring, as well as two stacks of cement blocks for re-doing my raised beds this Spring and Summer.  Fingers are crossed that I will get around to it!

Before I made it to the driveway, I found a jonquil blossom all by itself.  Actually, I am not sure if it is a jonquil or a daffodil!  I have never been able to tell the difference.  Maybe in retirement I will try to figure that one out, once and for all?!  Nearby was a nice patch of irises that are left over from the previous owner.  They bloom lovely in purples and blues.  I will take a photo when the time comes!

Is this a jonquil or a daffodil?

Irises

By now, I am at the driveway, and, as usual, the neighbors' pit bull starts barking and growling at me.

This is what I have to deal with whenever I am out along my own driveway!  A reminder of what

happened to me and my young llama ....  It still hurts.

This is how the neighbors' have "fixed the fence."  They piled junk up against 72 feet of the fence.  

So far the junk includes a trampoline, numerous old bikes, a toilet, two doors, two stacks of old car tires, numerous window screens, several chairs, and an old water heater.  Quite a lovely sight from my side, I must say!  Last week, they started adding trash bags which the dogs got into, of course.  Duh!

Ben and I have a project in mind to hide this unsightly attempt to keep the dogs in the backyard.  Stay tuned!  It involves some lattice panels and posts, but we have to wait until the weekend weather is warm and dry for digging the post holes.  It will turn out quite lovely as well as utilitarian.  

Out front by the highway are my two fig trees.  I took several cuttings from

this one during my walkabout.

I walked back up the driveway towards the house to have a look-see at the garden.

The mustard plants were blooming and going to seed.  There were bees all over them, too,  as well as the little purple flowers growing alongside them.

Nearby the ruby red Swiss Chard was beginning to put on some growth for a Spring harvest!

And the 50 garlic plants just continued growing beneath the ground, awaiting a May harvest.

Outside barn cat, Max, followed me, as is his usual habit, around on my walkabout.

The walkabout over, I went into the kitchen with my fig twigs and readied them for rooting.  I had cut 8 twigs about the diameter of my pinkie finger from what I estimated to be 3 year old growth.  I cut the top ends at an angle, and the base ends flat.  I lined two pots with some newspaper, then filled them with potting soil.  I sealed the tops of the twigs to prevent disease by dipping them in liquid dish soap.  Then I moistened the bottom ends and dipped them in a rooting powder, and stuck them into the potting soil mixture in the pots.

Fig twig cuttings and pots ready for potting soil and planting.

I put the two pots inside my small greenhouse on the back porch, next to my avocado seed.

Max, as I said, is never far away when I am outside.  I guess he thinks my greenhouse is a sauna?!

Back in the house, I took some photos of the inside felines:

Old Jessy was sleeping on her pillow in the sunny dining room window.  She has not been feeling

very well lately.  We are unsure as to her exact age because she was a shelter kitty.

As usual, Axl was hopefully waiting in his usual spot under one of the

bar stools for a snack.

And, Godfrey was pretending to be a Box Troll ....

So far today, it has been a constant and cold rain outside all day.  I am glad I decided to take my walkabout yesterday, for who knows when the next dry sunny weekend will occur!  Carpe diem!

Thanks to Netflix, I think we are going to catch up on the "Outlander" series with some hot tea the rest of this cold, rainy afternoon here at HeartSong Farm!

Vacation, Birthday and Gardening, oh my!

This month, I turned 65 while visiting in the New Orleans area with my dear friend, Debbie, whom I have known since 1977 when her husband, Richard, was a young architect who came to work at the same firm where I was working.  In the last few years, we had both gotten caught up in our own daily dilemmas and lost touch, yet kept thoughts of each other in our hearts and minds.  Recently, we "found" each other again, and it was wonderful!

Things seem have calmed down a bit for the most part in both our lives, and it was decided that I would make a road trip to her home for a much-needed visit of catching up with each other, and of revisiting a part of the country that I had been away from for far too long. The drive over the Atchafalaya Swamp just south of Lafayette brought back so many good memories of fishing, crawfishing, and camping, as well as collecting snakes and frogs for my husband's college herpetology class at Southwestern Louisiana in the first half of the 1970's.  

I didn't take photos on my visit because we were just way too busy talking and sharing the entire time for me to remember to pick up my camera.  But, we did have a typical Fourth of July barbecue, N'Awlins style, with her family and friends down in the Garden District, and we drove down into the Lower Ninth Ward one day so that I could see for myself the aftermath of the destruction left by Katrina, and the rebuilding that is now going on there through private organizations like the Make It Right Foundation.  There are still so many empty lots with concrete pads overgrown with grass, indicating places where families used to live and work and play, but there is also a large measure of Hope there, too.

Having spent the '70's and part of the '80's as an architectural drafts person, I was very interested in seeing for myself the innovative designs of the houses being constructed there.  Most were modern takes on the old shotgun style of houses that had dominated the area prior to Katrina, but not all. And there was a riot of paint color everywhere!  Bright yellows, oranges, pinks and blues. New Orleans is known for its colorful homes, and the new construction in the Lower Ninth Ward did not disappoint! 

There were lots of porches on houses built up off the ground, with parking underneath.  Solar panels and geothermal HVAC units to save energy, porous concrete to allow rainwater to soak into the ground instead of building up and causing flooding, and water collection systems for cooling and landscaping, as well as many unseen "green" building innovations within in the homes themselves.  Most of the houses were single units of about 1400 square feet, built so that former residents could safely and affordably return to where most had spent the majority of their lives before Katrina.

Debbie and Richard got me this book as a souvenir.  Cool, huh?!

If you are interested in learning more about what is happening in the Lower Ninth Ward, and about the great work of the Make It Right Foundation, I highly recommend this book, which available on Amazon, both new and used.

I took off 6 days plus one holiday plus two weekends from work, all in a row.  I spent part of the time at Debbie's home and the rest pretending I was already retired!  One day I went to my friend Judy's home and we had a Sewing Day, which we do every now and again.  This time, she worked on getting two quilts ready to go to the quilter, and I used my new sewing machine for the first time to make little aromatic cedar bags out of some discarded quilt blocks to put in closets, drawers and in my ever-expanding fiber and yarn stashes in hopes of keeping pesky moths away.  After sandwiches for lunch, we finished up our sewing projects, played with her puppies, and then went shopping at a local quilt shop and Tuesday Morning where I found a jar of Thai Green Curry and a wire colander for my kitchen.  Judy is lots of fun to go shopping with and I don't do it often enough. 

I bought myself a new sewing machine last year for Christmas, but am just now using it for the first time.  I love it!

While I was down in South Louisiana, the East Texas Heat finally turned on Big Time, and although Ben had watered as instructed, I came home to some devastation in the garden ....  mainly the summer squashes. It seems that Spring and the entire month of June 2014 were too cool and wet to set much fruit, and then suddenly the rain stopped and the temps soared into high gear.  I think I may need to replant and hope for a nice fall crop.  I was so looking forward to yellow squash roasted in my oven with some spices and olive oil drizzled over the top.

The poor squashes!  I moved them into an area where they got full sun for only half the day from now on.

They seem to be doing better.

The eggplants continue to drop their blooms without setting fruit, too, but the tomatoes are doing very well. The peppers are growing and are almost ready to turn color, and I picked the first handful of okra on Sunday morning.  The cotton, too, is blooming and starting to make some bolls.

I decided to move the pots of eggplant onto the back porch where they had about 6 hours of sun each day.  This is where, two years ago, I had great success with them.  They are feeling much better now!

As you can see, the regular cukes, on the left, have won the challenge to get to 

the top of the arch first!

Bees LOVE the cucumber flowers!

My idea that the cukes would hang down from the arch for easy picking seems

to have worked!  They are easier to see grown this way, too.

Look closely and you will see three of the lemon cucumbers hiding in the leaves.

The regular cucumbers are doing well enough, but these new types are really impressing me ... the lemon cucumbers! The instructions said to pick them when they were yellow and about the size of a tennis ball. Well, none have turned yellow so far, but I have picked several that were the size indicated or larger, and I am here to tell you that they are delicious! They are crisp with tiny seeds, and the flavor has more depth with just a hint of sweetness.  I am really thinking of planting only these in my future gardens.

Okra and lemon cucumbers

The inside of the lemon cucumber is very similar to the inside of a honeydew or cantaloupe!

A recent harvest

These little beauties are "Matt's Wild Cherry" tomatoes, but they are really only as big as small grapes.

They are very sweet and prolific! Easy to just wash and toss into a salad.

They grow in clusters just like grapes.

 

They are a bit delicate.  You have to be careful when picking them as they tend to

split open easily.  Usually, when that happens, I just pop them in my mouth right 

then and there.  It is okay because I have grown them chemical free.

Four of the five types of tomatoes I have in my garden this year.  Left to right:  Marglobe VF, Ozark Pink VF, and Celebrity, with Matt's Wild Cherry in the front.

Recently, I caught Max Steed, "Security Cat", keeping watch over my garden. This may explain why I have had no damage from any of the cottontails that live in the brier patches out front and in the woods beyond the back pasture.  I have seen the wild bunnies out and about, but so far they have not dined on any of my precious veggies.  I must remember to put a bit of something extra in Max's food bowl for a job well done!

Good boy, Max!  You are a good Watch Kitty!

There have been three definite failures in my garden this year:  the Moon & Stars watermelon (of which only one sprouted but it never made it's second set of leaves even after hanging on for a month after emergence), the Malabar Spinach (which never, ever sprouted though I replanted a second time, but the seeds had come from a friend who wasn't real confident about them in the first place), and the icicle radishes (which was totally my fault because I planted them too late and did not direct sow as directed!).  I don't count the yellow squash as a failure, just a huge disappointment.

Did you know that watermelons have both male and female flowers?!  That was news to me, too, until I read a short book on growing fruit recently.  The book also said you really can grow full size pineapples from planting the tops of those you buy in the produce aisle of the grocery store.  It may take 24 months to accomplish, but it can be done!  May give it a go when I get my greenhouse.

One of several cicada shells I have found this summer.

Have you noticed how loud the cicadas are this summer?  What's up with that?  Did more than one batch hatch?  Do you love to discover the empty cicada shells on tree trunks and such?  I do!  Along with catching fireflies and walking barefoot in thick St. Augustine grass, cicadas were an integral part of my childhood, and will always reside in a special corner of my heart!  What brings back memories of summertime's past to you?

Last but not least, the pit bulls were seen in the neighbor's backyard late Sunday morning as I went out to do some yard work along my driveway.  As usual, they barked and growled at me the entire time, but I was prepared with my pepper spray just in case they got out from under their fence!  It reminded me, however, that a month has gone by and I still have my medical bills, my scars, and my dead llama, and the neighbor's still have their dogs.  There has been no response to the demand letter from my attorney. "The System" says that it is really my fault because I did not shoot them the second time they got into my yard in April.  No one ever said Life was fair, but a bit of Justice now and then would be nice, I think.

Right now, it is very hot and dry here on HeartSong Farm!