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!

Transitions

It has been rather blustery here on HeartSong Farm lately.  The transition between summer and autumn, and then autumn to winter has been unusual everywhere in the United States, and East Texas has been no different.  The dry hot summer lasted a bit longer than what the calendar told us was fall, and then winter got here sooner than December 21.  We had our first hard frost on November 13th preceded by some really good hard rains.  This combination of events seems to have blessed this area with an unusually colorful fall landscape.  Along the highways, byways, and streets of my town there were significantly more reds, oranges and yellows mixed in with the more prevalent evergreens of the Piney Woods area of Texas.

East TX fall foliage

The cold snaps have come one right after another until I have lost count.  Most of those came with rain, lots of it, causing all of us around here to remark, "Oh, why couldn't we have had some of this rain during the summer when we really needed it?!"  I have had to scramble to construct portable greenhouses for my winter vegetable garden, buy winter hay for the llamas, and keep the bird feeders full....all before I was prepared to do so.  This transition was a bit too abrupt for me.  It seems my favorite time of year had been squeezed tightly between summer and winter, wham! bam!, with little time to adjust between hot and cold.  This is not easy on my aging bones and joints!

Oak leaves beginning to turn

Even so, I enjoy watching the transitions from one season into another...just one of the many circles of life and the cosmos.  When it is cold and frosty, I look out the back porch windows to see steam rising from the backs of the llamas as the sun rises.  Their escaping breath, warm and moist, makes me think of dragons breathing smoke.  The flurry of activity at the bird feeders on cold days is nonstop.  There are cardinals, juncos, wrens, goldfinches, purple finches, chickadees, titmice, chipping sparrows, cardinals and pine siskin, all puffed up,coming and going on the feeders and suet basket. Watching the antics outside my dining room window, it occurs to me how similar to humans these feathered creatures can sometimes be:  some play nice, some don't. On the ground below all the commotion are a dozen tiny Inca doves, the kind my Daddy called "chi-chis," politely and methodically pecking at the seeds that have fallen from the feeders.

Bayley staying warm in the sun

Bayley, my very old Pembroke corgi (he is 13 years plus), is spending most of his days and nights curled up in his warm comfy house by the back door, coming out only when the sun is high and the concrete of the back porch has gotten warm. Inside, my three cats (Jessie, Axl, and Godfrey) take turns sitting in or near the dining room windows to observe the busy puffed up birds at the feeders, or else curled up in a favorite spot, most likely dreaming of catching those same birds.  I suspect this because I see them licking their lips and twitching their whiskers in their sleep!

This week my winter garden greens were ready to begin harvesting and enjoying with roasted sweet potatoes and acorn squash from the produce stand.  I have never had a winter garden before, and so there was a transition in my raised beds from summer veggies to those of winter.

End of the summer garden

Mustard, beets, and turnips in my first winter garden

Not only did this promise to supply me with some delicious fresh produce during the colder months, it also gave me a chance to try my hand at building some small, portable hoop houses out of PVC pipes and 6 mil plastic sheeting before diving into the construction of a walk-in sized greenhouse next spring.  I am gradually practicing and preparing, you see, for my retirement in 2016 (31 more months!) when I will be able, at last, to begin living my lifelong dream of being as self sufficient and self reliant as possible within my physical boundaries.  Baby steps, baby steps.....

About a week before that first cold snap in early November, I spent a week in an unusual fog of sorts. I felt very quiet inside and out, slightly sad, and I seemed to be moving and thinking in slow motion in my workplace and at home on the farm. At first I thought it was the impending holiday season since I have a history of being depressed during that time in varying degrees, but I was actually quite calm and rather peaceful.  By Wednesday, I realized that what I felt was akin to being in a walking meditation.  I could think of no better way to describe this strangeness that had come over me.

I had also been sleeping better than I had in recent months, and when I woke up Saturday morning on the sixth day of this phenomenon, the odd feelings were gone, and I "knew" what had taken place.  My gut was telling me that I had gone through some form of Transition, and although I was not sure exactly how, my life had changed and, now 64 years old and heading into my "crone years," everything was going to be alright for me.  I felt comforted and joyful even with the cold and drizzling rain outside my windows, and with this realization the fog was lifted.

Life is good on HeartSong Farm!