bird, asparagus, yard

I was looking around my back yard this afternoon after work, and paused in the back corner of the yard, under the tree branches. This is a spot under the boughs of numerous trees: The broken (but still alive) arms of a choke cherry, the scraggly limbs of young and crowded hackberry and ash, and, above them all, a towering tulip tree. Immediately after I stopped, I heard bird calls close over my head, and saw movement. I couldn't tell what I saw at first, but a tufted titmouse fluttered down to branches within 7 or 8 feet of me; then a red bellied woodpecker stopped on a dead cherry limb. Then came a hairy woodpecker to the same spot. Other birds, hidden from view in the foliage, weren't far away. It was weird; I spend lots of time looking from my windows, often with binoculars, trying to get a good look. But out there, in that shadowy spot, I was in their world, and they hardly paid attention to me. They were so close. I wonder how close they would have been had I not been wearing a bright white shirt? I should research how to build a bird blind.

I put quite a bit of effort into weeding the asparagus bed, then hauled several bins full of old composted leaf mould to the bed to use as mulch. To get to the leaves, I yanked up tons of ground ivy, wintercreeper, and Virginia creeper. The leaves seemed wonderfully composted; dry, crumbly, rich. Then I weeded a little more in some other spots, then mowed the front yard.

Now I'm going to eat focaccia with kale and garlic scapes and diced tomato on top.

Fat asparagus

This is a hefty vegetable. I chopped it down and dragged it into the house last night.

Asparagus

The last blog post is a photo of asparagus from my garden. I planted it the year before last, and this is the first year that I’ve felt like it is coming in well enough to harvest. I’ve sautéed a few bunches, and it has been quite good—flavorful and tender.  I have had quite a few gardening flops, but this isn’t one of them.

Kim doesn’t seem to react this way, nor does anyone else I know, but I find asparagus comical.  Every other thing in my garden starts as a seedling or a sprout that I have to wait on to develop, or I have to wait for it to grow fruit to pick, or to grow enough leaves to snip off.  But asparagus gives me the goofy impression that there is a tiny guy hiding under the soil with a bundle of full-grown asparagus spears under his arm, and he keeps reaching up and poking them through the soil for me to pick.

Last tomatoes, and stealing daffodil bulbs

Last night was taco night at home.  In preparation of this meal, I was able to pick a handful of cherry tomatoes from our bushes in the yard.  I am eating the last three of those with my lunch today.  I seems very probable to me that these are the last three until next year, but there are still some green ones and the weather is warm, so maybe I’ll get a few more.

One evening last week, as I was running some errands, I found myself with a few minutes to kill in the Springhurst area.  I remembered that there was a spot nearby where I had seen lots of daffodils in the spring.  This spot is pretty neglected; it is near the base of a telephone pole on the border of a vacant lot and a small strip mall, where a house stood until a few years ago.  I had made a mental note of it in the spring, because I had the idea of slipping over there and swiping a few bulbs.  I don’t know who owns the property, but I find it hard to believe that they cared one tiny bit if some daffodil bulbs were heisted.

So that’s what I did.  I happened to have my metal detecting gear, including my hand spade, in the trunk.

I wasn’t exactly sure where to dig, because the spring vegetation is completely gone after summer sets in.  So I dug one test hole…nothing.  A second hole…nothing.  I thought I’d try one more, and give up if it was still non-productive.  The third hole had a big clump of daffodil bulbs.

I hosed them off when I got home, and now they are in the garage.  I’ll plant them soon, but I still need to figure out where.

Cherokee Cottage, Jekyll Island

 Walnut ink on paper, 11 x 15 inches.  This was a bit of a rush job. I finished it last night around 12:45. I've been staying up late all week.

lawn and garden

 

Our weed-whacker had a heart attack and died a couple of months ago; my attempts to resuscitate it were futile.  I think it's little motor burnt out, but my technical knowledge of what's beneath the hood of a weed-whacker if pretty limited.  I should take it apart and look at it and see what I can learn, but my track record for fixing motorized contraptions is practically non-existent.  Therefore, I'm sure I'll be searching for a new (or used) trimmer to purchase sometime soon.

This one that broke arrived to us second hand; Chris and Helga gave it to us when we got our house.  It worked quite well for me for seven years, and I don't know how old it was when we got it.

I've tried to keep the worst of the yard-edge in check with little hand clippers, but that's a lot of work for one wrist.

There are at least two pumpkins growing on the vines in my garden.  There might be more that I haven't spotted yet.  I don't know what the odds are of them maturing before Halloween, but they are growing quickly, so I have hope.

The fennel has all gone to seed.  I harvested some to use in baking (I've discovered that the immature seeds are a great addition to bread), and I'll keep some to give away, and I'll try to get the rest out of the garden because the self-seeding is excessive and tough to manage.

Over the past couple of years, when the chrysanthemums that we've had in front have died back, I've transplanted them to a back yard sunny spot.  They've flourished there, and are about to bloom again.  I'm always much more excited about my own flowers than about other peoples'.

Jill's birthday party was a fantastic success! Kim did lots of work to get things in order, baked a cake, decorated, and even vacuumed up the seven or eight pounds of Cheerios, bread crumbs, and desiccated mixed vegetables that had been hoisted overboard by Jillian during her many recent meals at the table.

It was so nice to see family, and Jillian received many adorable gifts. I also think she had a lot of fun--she's a little bit of a party girl.

I just ate some Amish friendship bread that Beth gave us -- it was delicious.

When I have little time to post, I feel that everything I say is trite. Maybe everything I say is trite anyway.