~
Thursday, May 31, 2007 8:30 a.m.
72 degrees, calm, hazy sunshine
The air is heavy with something that isn’t quite
fog; it is haze and dust and the
breath of millions of trees, all lingering close to Earth
in the still air. The Adirondack
Mountains are barely visible, and the shadows we cast
along the path during a short
early walk were soft and blurry. A stiff-legged doe
stands guard over her tiny fawn in
the east meadow, ears turned toward us and ready to make
a dash into the woods at
the least provocation. Her baby is barely taller than the
tender hay it stands amidst; its
ears are also perked up, which is the first clue we had
to its presence. Ah, there they
go, bounding into the safety of the forest. We planted
tomatoes and cucumbers yester-
day, and every plant is standing green and healthy in the
row. A second crop of spinach
and lettuce will be sown today, so we can continue to
enjoy fresh salads all summer long.
We had a busy day in the garden, and at day’s end
took a leisurely drive over back roads
to the Maple Ridge Wind Farm. The crew was working on one
of the towers, and the vanes
were not turning on that one; it resembled a huge praying
mantis, a nightmare beast in a futur-
istic dreamscape. We drove through the dizzying long
shadows of dozens of vanes spinning,
and were not surprised to see so many For Sale
signs on properties in the area. If you travel
to Lewis County, take a trip up the Flat Rock Road and
see what you think. A nice place
to visit, but would you want to live there ? Tonight will
bring a blue moon, which is the
second full moon occurring in the same calendar month. It
will rise just before 9:00,
during the lovely purple hour that follows sunset. Plan
to take an evening walk, or
if you live in the city, drive to the outskirts where you
can watch the moonrise.
Enjoy your day as well as your evening,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, May 30, 2007 8:30 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy, sunny
The beauty of the morning has rendered me temporarily
mute, unable to think
of a single topic when there are literally thousands of
things that spring to mind.
In the middle of the night I heard a raccoon’s
chattering distress call from under-
neath the bedroom window, and yet the trap was empty when
we checked it this
morning. That tells a little tale, all in one convenient
sentence. If I took the time to
list every bird that has crossed our field of vision this
morning, I would still be typing
two hours from now, and miss several more. Aha, I have
narrowed the field down;
a reader from Vermont sent me an email yesterday asking
where all of her pea seeds
could have gone. She thought that maybe ants had been
stealing them, moving them
out of the row for some reason. Hahaha I laughed
to myself. Then I Googled the
possibility of such a thing happening. While ants will
occasionally bore into mature
peas on a hot summer day as the sugary sweetness wafts
out of the pods, it seems
that they may also devour the seeds in the row if
conditions are right. If it has been
a dry spring, and the peas had soaked enough moisture
from the soil to swell before
sprouting, ants are attracted to them as a source of
water. Our own peas had poor
emergence, and on probing the row we could find no intact
or rotted seeds at all.
When we replant them later today, we will sprinkle
cinnamon in the furrow
first to deter ants. Of course, we are probably going to
see some rain
later this week, so the ant colonies should have enough
water that
they would leave our swollen legume seeds alone.
Have a fine day,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, May 29, 2007 8:30 a.m.
60 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
We have another perfect day under way, sunny and
beginning to warm up nicely.
We took advantage of yesterday’s stiff northwest
wind to finish splitting big chunks
of wood in the forest across the road. Dappled sunlight
through the fluttering foliage
created movement all around us even when we ourselves
were motionless. At first
it was slightly disorienting, then it became more
commonplace as the day wore on.
The woods are wonderfully green since recent rain, and
our logging road is framed by
tall ferns, lush meadow rue, and odd alien shaped jack-in-the-pulpits.
There were
virtually no insects to annoy us until near the end of
the afternoon when the breeze
died down; then mosquitoes appeared, biting even through
our canvas work
pants. So far their numbers are few, but on the first
sultry evening we will
have to set out citronella candles so we can enjoy
watching the day
wind down from the back porch in relative pest-free peace.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
Monday, May 28, 2007 8:00 a.m.
60 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
Everything is so shiny this morning ! Dust from weekend
ATV traffic that
had accumulated on every surface was sluiced off in
yesterday’s much-needed
rain. Maple trees are beginning to show the deep emerald
green hues that signal
the end of spring, and pale new-growth tips on the spruce
tree boughs echo the
blue of the clear morning sky. The wind sets it all in
motion; the mesmerizing sway
and flutter right outside my window has distracted me
more than once as I write.
Spinach has doubled in size from the good soak, and we
should be able to pull
every other one to thin the row and enjoy a salad
tonight, full of tender baby
leaves and fresh herbs. Asparagus is loving this weather;
is there anything
better than lightly steamed spears with just a whisper of
butter ?
This looks like a perfect day for just about anything;
perhaps
the best plan is no plan at all on such a day.
Enjoy !
Daisy
~
Sunday, May 27, 2007 noon
70 degrees, windy, cloudy
We have had a few brief showers this morning, enough to
put a shine on the
greenery that surrounds us. The sun seems to be trying to
pop out from behind
a solid mass of clouds, and although there is more rain
forecast for later, it looks
like most of it will pass north of us. We have trapped
two more raccoons, both
adults in their prime, and are releasing them all in the
same area in the boondocks
in case they are a family unit. The number of piles of
scat has diminished somewhat,
but some are still being deposited close to the house. So
far the raccoons have been
pretty easy to trap. They are attracted to the current
bait of apples drizzled with a little
molasses, and so we will keep it up every night until we
catch no more. We took a walk
yesterday to a nearby frog pond, and the dried mud around
the perimeter was riddled with
coon tracks. Frogs chirped a greeting before disappearing
into the water with loud plops
and the muddy bottom was swarming with tadpoles of
all sizes. There are still a lot of
egg masses that haven’t yet hatched. We watched a
muskrat carry cattail shoots to
its lodge tucked in the middle of some willow shrubs, and
saw several grooves worn
in the soft muddy bottom where the traffic was heaviest
from these big critters. The
water level in the little pond is still good, while
creeks and seeps all over the hill
are beginning to dry up. I hope we do get rain later
today; we really need it.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, May 26, 2007 8:30 a.m.
65 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
Yesterday was hot alright, with the thermometer topping
out at eighty five degrees.
Elsewhere there may have been an air stagnation
warning but here on Tug Hill
the breeze fanned us nicely. That’s a new term,
one added to the lexicon of fear
that our current administration seems bent on making part
of our everyday voca-
bulary. Leave it to them to make even Mother Nature into
some kind of terrorist.
I prefer the more old-fashioned terms hot and humid or
the provocative sultry.
Things cooled off by suppertime, and the sunset was
remarkable. The words
of a Donovan tune describe the scene more perfectly than
I ever could:
Colour in sky prussian blue
Scarlet fleece changes hue
Crimson ball sinks from view
Colour sky havana lake
Colour sky rose carmethene
Alizarian crimson
Wear your love like heaven!
(Donovan Leitch)
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
Friday, May 25, 2007 7:00 a.m.
68 degrees, breezy, hazy sunshine
After three nights of trying, we finally caught a raccoon
in our Havahart trap.
It may not be the same one that had been climbing on to
our roof, it seems a
little smaller, so we will set the trap again tonight. We
baited it with an apple tied
securely to the bottom of the cage, and then added a
little blackstrap molasses after
setting the levers. After something stole the apple a
couple of times, this little guy finally
managed to become entrapped. It is recommended to release
it at least ten miles from here,
or we very well catch the same one again tonight. In the
course of finding out more about cap-
turing raccoons, I found out some troubling information
about their droppings. Raccoon feces
contain a parasitic roundworm, and the eggs can cause
horrific disease in humans and other
mammals. It is often misdiagnosed as encephalitis, as the
symptoms are similar. Death can
occur. It is particularly alluring to young children, as
the fecal mound resembles a chocolate
drop cookie; a toddler may take a bite before realizing
his mistake. The disease can also
be contracted through inhaling the eggs, so keep your
pets indoors until you can clean
up the mess. Not all raccoons harbor the parasites, but
most do. For more information
about this, check out this link.
We have discovered several piles of raccoon poo all
over our property; there is even a mound atop one of our
birdhouses. We will clear
it all away this morning, wearing gloves and masks, and
then burying the stuff deep
in a hole in the woods. This is not how we planned to
spend the day, but there is
still fun to be had after completing this odious task.
After all, this weekend signals
the official start to summer, and today’s weather
will certainly be hot and summery.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Thursday, May 24, 2007 7:30 a.m.
71 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
A cool breeze keeps the bugs away and feels wonderful on
this already warm morning.
Asparagus stalks that were too short to cut for last
night’s dinner have grown an additional
two inches overnight. Yesterday’s bike ride was
interesting; there were so many swarms of
insects of all sizes that at times it was like riding n a
hailstorm. I had a bandana tied around my
neck that came in handy to keep the bugs out of my nose
and mouth, but then they tried to bur-
row into my brain through my earholes. At one point I
stopped to squish a buzzing little pest in my
ear and was beset upon by no-see-ums, which I in fact
could see; my arms looked like someone
had sprinkled them with black pepper. My destination was
to be a beaver pond accessible by an
old logging road, but when I dismounted to move a large
branch from the path, I realized what
a stupid idea that was when I was nearly carried off by
black flies. The upside of being in the
deep woods was the amazing sweet aroma of blooming spring
flowers and fragrant spruce
and balsam pitch warmed by the sun. The trailside was
awash with pink, white, and blue
forget-me-nots, velvety red trilliums, and sunny yellow
marsh marigolds. The rewards
of the ride far outweighed the annoying pestilence of
swarming insects, and today
I will add a second bandana over my ears and long sleeves
to my riding attire.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, May 23, 2007 7:30 a.m.
62 degrees, windy, sunny
This is the first yellow-green day , the official
start of summer in my book anyway.
Even late-blooming ash trees have a wreath of tender
greenery, an aura of light and
life that suffuses the very air that surrounds them. Best
of all are the maples, not yet
the deep emerald green of mid-summer, every leaf twisting
on its stem in the wind
declaring that winter is finally gone, and new life
abounds with every flutter and nod
of the amazing foliage that dominates the air. Meadows
echo the lovely colors of
the trees, with touches of gold from dandelions and
mustards that run riot across
the open fields. A walk in the forest later will find us
surrounded by green, leaves
and evergreens on high and ferns, clintonia, rue, and
jack-in-the-pulpits below.
Get out and enjoy this wonderful transition into summer,
this perfect gift of a day.
Carpe diem,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, May 22, 2007 8:00 a.m.
61 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
We didn’t have frost last night but came close with
a low temp of thirty-four
degrees. It was a perfect night for sleeping, windows
wide open and quilts piled
on against the chill. Just before dawn we were awakened
by the low tones of honk-
ing geese as they passed directly over the house, three
of them taking off from the next
meadow over. Sunrise was lovely; pink and coral skies
framed the fiery orange star as it
breached the horizon. It seems to be a perfect day to
finally set out some of our vegetable
seedlings. Our most recent birdhouse inspection was
disappointing; wrens had taken over
one of the unfinished bluebird nests and destroyed the
swallow eggs in the house next to it.
Thank goodness those bluebirds hadn’t laid any eggs
yet. Wrens are undesirable on any bird-
box trail; they will pluck the eggs out of any neighbor’s
nests and dash them to the ground,
pecking them open and leaving a mess. If it were a snake
or raccoon that had invaded the
nest there wouldn’t have been a speck of shell or
yolk left anywhere. The bluebirds in the
nest closest to the house contains four eggs and the
mother has begun to incubate them.
In just about two weeks we will check to see if they have
hatched yet; then it will be an
additional two to three weeks before the young birds are
ready to leave the nest. When
we put up nesting boxes for local birds to use, we have
an obligation to monitor them
frequently to ensure the safest possible environment.
That means being a stern land-
lord and evicting wrens even if it seems unfair to favor
one species over another. If
they weren’t so destructive, they would be welcome
guests. And now, to the garden !
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Monday, May 21, 2007 9:00 a.m.
54 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
I have been planning to set out hardy vegetable seedlings
for the past week, but
the wind is still straight out of the north and would set
back their growth considerably.
Another few days on the porch won’t hurt them, and
the only thing being truly tested is
my patience. We worked in the woods cutting and splitting
wood yesterday, and the steady
breeze swept away the pesky black flies that swarmed
around our heads every time there was
even a few seconds lull in the wind. Gentle rain fell
later in the day, and that quelled the bugs for
good. June bugs have emerged to batter their heavy bodies
against the windows at dusk, and in
the morning we had to scoop up several waterlogged
beetles from the birdbath, some of them only
half-drowned and slogging their way through the lush
greenery of the lawn to spend the day under
sheltering hollyhock plants. The larvae of this large
scarab beetle can be very destructive to lawns;
since ours is largely nothing more elegant than old cow
pasture that we keep mown, any damage
they do around here is not even noticeable. The adult
beetles are said to make excellent bait for
fishing, but really, I can’t imagine putting one on
a hook. Yuck. A frost is in the picture for most
of our area tonight, so don’t jump the gun putting
out your tender seedlings and houseplants.
My geraniums are yearning to be set free for the summer,
but I didn’t nourish them through
decades of long winters to kill them right off on the
last frosty night of spring. I believe
there is time for a short bike ride before the rest of
the day’s work unfolds.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Sunday, May 20, 2007 7:30 a.m.
50 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
We hear turkey hens clucking and toms answering with
hearty gobbling
from several locations this morning. We are not sure if
the hens are real birds,
or hunters imitating the lusty come-hither call to lure
toms close enough to blow
their little heads off. So far we have heard no shots;
judging from the huge flocks
of turkeys we saw earlier this spring, they could use a
little thinning out. We started
out with a lovely sunrise and blue skies, and now the air
is rich with the scent of on-
coming rain. We should have enough time to transplant
some cabbages and broccoli
seedlings before Mother Nature arrives with her watering
can. We started a few lettuce
plants indoors as well, and they can go in any time.
Strong north winds have delayed the
planting by a week or so, but they will catch up in no
time. Memorial Day is traditionally
the time to set out tomatoes and other tender seedlings,
but it comes early this year so
I believe we will wait on those for a while. We had a
couple of frosty nights last week,
and that is unusual for May in this neck of the woods. I
have a feeling this will be
another atypical growing year; we should get used to
expecting the unexpected.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, May 19, 2007 7:30 a.m.
52 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
The north wind has made its way back into the
neighborhood, but the sun is
getting stronger every day and bright warm sunbeams
almost cancel out the icy
breath. We inspected our nesting boxes yesterday, and
have one bluebird egg and
three small white swallow eggs, with one nest started and
possibly abandoned. All of
the other boxes are still empty. We spied a large raccoon
coming down the aluminum
ladder from our roof again early this morning, and all
signs point to a den somewhere up
there, in the chimney or in the eaves. Raccoon kits are
usually born in April and May, so
the liklihood that there are babies is strong. Often a
coon will pry up shingles to look for
grubs and insects, but our roof is all metal. We will
check it out thoroughly later today;
we wouldn’t want to remove the ladder (I don’t
believe there would be any other way
for a raccoon to get on the roof) if there were young
that needed tending. I see all rac-
coons as rabies-carrying cat-biting corn-munching pests,
but still we must show mercy
to an animal that is merely trying to survive the best it
can. Meanwhile, just after sun-
set tonight, look to the east and enjoy the sight of a
thin crescent moon rising with
Venus close by. If the rain holds off, we shall have a
classic view that some call
moon-and-star which (tonight, anyway) is actually moon-and-planet.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Friday, May 18, 2007 7:30 a.m.
44 degrees, calm, mostly cloudy
Although the air is chilly, for once the wind is not
howling down from the north
rattling our bones and stealing our breath away. When the
sun appears for a few
brief moments, we can smell spring in the air, the damp
fecund earth and new green
leaves bursting into view almost as we watch. The lilac
bushes have tiny little flower buds
that will soon add their heady perfume to the yard, and
the next warm day will probably
bring out apple blossoms as well. A pair of brown
thrashers is nesting in the big forsythia
bush at the edge of our garden, and their crazy-quilt
song medleys harmonize beautifully with
the liquid warble of robins and orioles, and the back-beats
laid down by woodpeckers and
partridges drumming. We kept our eyes peeled for the
ladder-climbing raccoon last night, but
he may know we are on to him and will lay low, visiting
us again when we least expect it.
Whatever else living at the top of Tug Hill may be, it is
never dull.
Have an unexpectedly great day,
Daisy
Thursday, May 17, 2007 7:30 a.m.
40 degrees, windy, mostly cloudy
What a revoltin’ development this is ! I fear the
corn and beans that started to
sprout during the warm spell when we planted them are now
beginning to rot in
the ground. On the other hand, spinach and lettuce are
doing quite well in the cold
wet soil, thriving in fact. Since the rain, our lawn is
fairly leaping towards the sky, and
is filled with sunny yellow dandelions and velvety purple
violets. There has been a lot of
wildlife around the place lately. The white skunk is
back, easily confused with our white
cat when trying to get the latter back into the house
after sunset. Care must be taken to
make sure we are herding the right critter into the
kitchen. In the wee hours, we were awak
ened to the pitter patter of not-so-little feet on the
roof, too large to be a bird and too heavy
to be a bat. One of our cats was sitting in the bedroom
window staring at the ladder we keep
by the house to clean the chimneys, and as we watched, a
raccoon climbed down the ladder.
What in the world would send a coon up to the roof in the
middle of the night? Was he fol-
lowing his nose to the source of the delicious aroma
lingering after last night’s potroast ?
Would a raccoon actually climb down a chimney ? Stay
tuned.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, May 16, 2007 8:30 a.m.
56 degrees, breezy, cloudy, rain showers
On a morning like this, it is quite pleasant to sit on
the back porch bundled up in
a blanket and watch the rain slowly sink into the gardens
and overflow the birdbath.
The smell of pheasant-eye narcissus nearly overpowers the
fragrance of wet soil and
earthworms, and we can almost hear the asparagus grow. A
hummingbird swooped in
to check out my red shirt, and tree swallows are soaring
high, hunting for insects that are
hardy enough to withstand the rain. The rain may keep up
all day, most welcome after sev-
eral dry weeks. Last night we walked after dinner in the
beautiful purple hour between dusk
and dark. As we drew closer to the banks of Horsie Creek,
frogsong overtook the sounds of
distant traffic, all kinds of frogs raising their voices
in shrill trills and deep hearty harrumphs. A
barred owl called from deep in the forest, and I answered
back with deep tones from my thumb-
flute* who cooks for you, youuuuu ; we had quite a
nice chat for several minutes until he chose
silence. On our return trip, a vast tribe of coyotes set
up a hue and cry, to which I did not reply,
as they seemed rather close. Their ruckus continued until
I reached the yard, a happy sound yet
fearsome as well. We have never had a scary encounter
with these wild dogs, but still we are
wary of all of those collective teeth; memories of old
Disney documentaries that showed
hyenas ripping apart huge african beasts could be partly
to blame, and tales of the big
bad whatevers that made up our bedtime stories. If you
have not walked at sunset
in a while, this is the perfect time of year to do so;
what do you hear ?
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
*thumb flute: a handy instrument made by cupping both
hands together to make
a hollow space, and blowing across the aperture created
between two bent thumbs.
~
Tuesday, May 15, 2007 7:30 a.m.
55 degrees, windy, cloudy, rain showers
Rain has been falling intermittently since the middle of
the night, brief hard showers
that would amount to something if only they stuck around
for more than two minutes.
We are on the southern edge of a long line of rain, and
as the day progresses we will
probably find ourselves in the thick of the storm.
Yesterday we mowed the walking
paths that will guide us through the meadows as the
grasses and legumes grow tall.
The sweet fragrance of new-mown hay, infinitely more
complex than that of grass
alone, permeated the air all day. We will hold off on
mowing the lawn as long as
possible, and give the deep purple violets that have
overrun the space extra time
to show off their stuff. I walked on all of the paths,
checking the status of our ten
nesting boxes, and found dried grass nests started in
three of them, probably two
swallows and one bluebird. I also had time for a short
bike ride, wishing I had worn
a face mask to keep the bugs out of my mouth on
the long uphill climbs. Ever try to
breathe really hard through your nose alone? Next ride, I
will tie a bandanna around
my neck and pull it up bandit style when necessary. The
bicycle bandito...
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Monday, May 14, 2007 8:00 a.m.
55 degrees, breezy, sunny
Bright sunshine warms the air nicely after last night’s
low temperature of 26 degrees.
We hope that might have been cold enough to freeze
mosquitoes in their larval sacs and
freeze some of the black flies that have been swarming.
The ideal situation would be for
just enough of both to remain viable to feed the trout
that are beginning to rise, keeping
the pesky insects in the vital food chain, but reduce
their numbers so they aren’t omni-
present as we go about our daily outdoor activities.
Bobolinks have returned to Gomer
Hill along with tree swallows, and there is a powerful
amount of swooping going on over
the newly tilled gardens and lush green meadows as they
feed. We hung four new bluebird
houses yesterday, hoping to encourage both bluebirds and
swallows to set up camp on our
property. While bluebirds offer glimpses of color and
rare beauty, it is the tree swallows that
do most of the bug-catching in the neighborhood. A single
household of tree swallows will eat up
to a thousand bugs a day, including the slow-moving
mosquitoes that plague our area. So don’t
be disappointed if you draw more swallows to your nestbox
village than bluebirds; be grateful.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, May 12, 2007 7:00 a.m.
36 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
We nearly had a frost last night, and the morning is
quite chilly.
Gone is the humidity and heavy air of the past few days,
and everything
is brightly lit with sharp-edged shadows being cast,
brilliant ! Tree foliage
is in the early yellow-green stages of first growth, and
the very air shimmers
with reflected heat as living energy throbs through each
leafy vein. One can
almost feel the pulse of Mother Earth herself as buds
swell to bursting and
new plants appear above ground daily. Is it any wonder we
all feel so
energized on such a morning as this, steeped in the vigor
of youth
even though moonbeams shine in our own tresses ?
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
Friday, May 11, 2007 8:30 a.m.
61 degrees, breezy, cloudy
The morning is ripe with humidity, and the whole
neighborhood smells like worms.
We had just enough rain to bring nightcrawlers to the
surface last night, but since I don’t
have my fishing license (yet) I let them have their
moment in the wet grass, watching the yard
light gleam from their long shiny bodies as they fled
from my footfalls. At one point yesterday
it really looked like we would get socked by a good
thunderstorm, with rumbles in the distance
and the air heavy with the promise of rain. The wind
picked up, the thunder retreated and I believe
areas south and east of here were blessed with quite a
bit of rain. It is good news that clouds fill the
sky today, and it won’t be too hot; what rain that
did fall in little fits and starts will nourish the
leaves,
if not the roots of spring sprouts. Yesterday I rode my
bike for the first time this season, around the dirt
roads and into the woods on an old logging trail for a
bit. There was very little mud, or so I thought. Sud-
denly my pedaling effort failed to propel me forward; I
sunk down into a huge run of muck that had dried
out on the surface and looked so harmless. After I pulled
the bike out with a loud sucking sound, I decided
to backtrack out of the woods instead of completing the
loop. I scraped off as much goo as I could, but for
the next couple of miles big splats would work loose from
the tires and fly all over; often I was in their way.
It was, nonetheless, an awesome ride. As I stopped for a
drink, I was surrounded by thousands of frogs
making all kinds of noise: high and low, trills and
chortles, clucks and whistles. I finally found the long-
sought spring beauties, acres of forest floor glowing
pink with their small blooms. Coltsfoot in droves
has turned the roadsides into buttery streams of gold,
massed together so tightly that the brown
duff underneath barely shows. Marsh marigolds have just
begun to open; an old Bennington jug
sits on the porch filled with their green and yellow
glory. Spring has sprung all at once, and
flowers that usually take their time unfolding over weeks
are all blooming simultaneously.
Perhaps the cooler temps of the next few days will slow
down the stampede.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Thursday, May 10, 2007 8:30 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
As delightful as all of these warm sunny mornings have
been, we are really in
need of some rain. Perhaps we will see some later in the
day. Yesterday we planted
a whole mess of potatoes, and the soil was dry right down
to the bottom of the furrows.
Thank goodness there was a stiff breeze for much of the
day, as black flies are omnipresent
and voracious. For you folks who have never seen a spud
growing, it is hard work to bring these
tasty tubers to the table. First, to get potatoes, we
plant potatoes, either small whole ones or larger
ones that have been cut into pieces with an eye in each
chunk. Dig a long furrow four or five inches
deep and place the pieces in, spaced a foot or so apart,
with the eyes facing up. Cover them over
with soil. Take those sprouting cloves of last year’s
garlic and poke them into the rows here and
there to discourage bugs. Are we done yet? Heck no; when
the vines finally emerge, heap more
dirt up over the rows, forming long hills of soil. The
potatoes will grow into these hills, and if the
developing tubers aren’t protected from the sun they
will turn green and toxic. Now we’re done,
right? Nope. Pick off as many Colorado potato beetles as
possible by hand, and when they get
out of control spray with a botanical control such as bacillus
thuringicide to get rid of the off-
spring. Hill them over once more if they need it, and
pray for rain. Potatoes like lots of water.
When the first flowers appear on the beautiful lush
vines, reach into the side of the hills to
steal a few small new potatoes. There is nothing better!
These tender gems are not avail-
able in any store, with skin so thin it washes off under
running water intended to remove
only dirt. The only thing left is the harvest; pull the
vines, sort the spuds according to size,
and haul them up to the barn floor for a few days to cure
in the shade. Finally, bag them
and drag them to the cold cellar for the winter. We are
still eating last summer’s crop,
and will have enough to last until the first sweet
nuggets of early July. Potatoes are
high in potassium, vitamin C, complex carbohydrates,
protein, and fiber. Mashed
with nonfat sour cream and fresh chives, mmmmmmm mmmmmmm
good !
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, May 9, 2007 8:30 a.m.
63 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
It seems like spring was barely here before morphing into
early summer.
Warmer temperatures and strong sunshine have really sped
things along, and
the rate of growth on things like fiddleheads and lawn
grass is astounding. Last
Saturday I had to clear away dried grass and leaves to
see where the ferns even
were, and now they are nearly mature, almost too late to
glean any of the small tight
fiddleheads for some savory treats. Last year’s
spring was so cool and rainy that we
had three weeks of the tasty young ferns; this year, he
who hesitates is lost. Things
are very dry this spring. If you have set out any hardy
plants (like pansies), be sure
to keep them watered, as the constant wind will suck the
life right out of them. The
local news told of several wildfires that had been
started outside accidentally, and
we are currently under a burn ban, no outdoor fires
allowed. Mother Nature has
many surprises in store for us here in the North Country,
most of them delight-
ful. But it is good to remember that carelessness with
fire can be disastrous,
even potentially fatal in an area rife with dry trees and
crispy underbrush.
Take care,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, May 8, 2007 8:30 a.m.
62 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
Whew, now I remember what there is about the long Upstate
winter that is so charming;
there is plenty of time to kick back, put our feet up,
and enjoy a good book or cheesy video.
The fine weather and longer hours of daylight that graced
Tug Hill yesterday had us bent to
various gardening tasks, all of which will pay off in the
long run with fresh fruits, vegetables,
and gorgeous flowers. We planted beans, corn,
onions, spinach, lettuce, carrots and beets,
and I spent a couple of hours trying to regain control of
the wildflower garden in rocky back
bank, which I have ignored for a few years. (Hey, wildflowers,
right?) We moved the straw-
berry bed; the old plot is so weedy we are going to till
it under and restock it later. We got 270
gladiola bulbs in the mail yesterday, and will put them
where we can admire them from the
back porch. I planted a bed of yellow pansies, and
transplanted gloriosa daisies to several
sunny spots all over the property. I have extra bee
balm and sweet william that will have to
be relocated a well, maybe down by the spring. Most of
yesterday’s tasks have spilled
over into today’s agenda, and so it will go for the
next six months right through harvest.
We chose this busy lifestyle, and it keeps us sane and
healthy at little cost.
No sleeping pills required after a day spent in the
garden, that’s for sure !
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
Monday, May 7, 2007 9:00 a.m.
59 degrees, breezy, sunny
The weather is just perfect this morning, springtime all
over the
neighborhood. Birds, bees, flowers, greening trees, just
like a Disney
feature film, only better. I wouldn’t be surprised
to see Bambi and Thumper
appear from the forest, surrounded by singing bluebirds
and dancing
mice. We are extra busy in the gardens, and I must dash
to move
some strawberry plants before the tillerman gets to them.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
Sunday, May 6, 2007 9:30 a.m.
46 degrees, breezy, sunny
Holy moley, is it ever chilly out there this morning !
Fortunately, the sun is warm,
but the wind is right out of the north. On the upside,
the constant wind of the past
week has dried out garden soil, muddy roads, and squishy
meadow turf so that we
now have access to just about anywhere we want to hike,
bike, or drive. There are
still a few trees in the woods that we felled last fall
that need to be skidded out, limbed,
bucked up, split, moved, and stacked. (Wow, that looks
like a lot of work when written
down like that !) The wind will keep down the bugs, the
chill will serve to remind us how
many times firewood really warms us, and if we stay on
task for a few hours we should
have time for a lovely ramble later in the day. Last
night we walked up the road just
before moonrise, and saw a few small meteors and one
fairly large one that lasted
a couple of seconds. It was very cold at that hour, or we
would have stayed out
to enjoy the show. I checked again just before I turned
in at 1:30, but after the
moon came up the sky was too bright to see all but the
biggest shooting stars.
I heard frogs singing in the distance, and the excited
staccato call of coyotes
on the run was a wonderful accompaniment to the end of a
long day.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, May 5, 2007 6:30 a.m.
40 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
The breeze is straight out of the north, turning the cool
morning air into a
downright chilly presence. Our coffee serves two purposes
today, warming
our hands in addition to waking us up. The sky is grey
overhead with some pale
aquamarine to the northwest; this should be headed our
way, given the wind’s current
direction. Our firewood project continued yesterday, and
after the second load was stacked
in a neat row at the edge of the west meadow, we took a
hike in the forest that abuts the field.
I found one trout lily bud, and plenty of leaves with no
flowers attached. A few trilliums are get-
ting ready to open up, and meadow-rue’s succulent
purple stems have thrust through the forest
floor. Tiny ferns are uncurling, and false hellebore
lines the creekbed in a riot of spring green.
There is still quite a bit of snow on the western bank of
Horsey Creek at its source, and far-
ther down the gorge both sides of the steep shale are
enrobed in deep snow. The stonework
dam we fortified last autumn has held fast, with just a
little of the swift flow spilling over the top.
The small wading pond is bigger than ever. I can’t
wait to test it out on the first hot sultry day, the
pool not deep enough for a swim, but just right for
cooling off after a hard day in the gardens. The
first black flies of the season twirled around my head as
we hiked; maybe they will all hatch and
then get hit with a hard frost one of these nights. Bees
were working the willow blossoms, ripe
with nectar and yellow with pollen, a species smaller
than a honeybee but just as buzz-y. Tonight,
our planet is entering a stream of dust from Halley's
Comet, and this will produce a meteor
shower. Viewing will be best early tomorrow morning (3:30-4:30),
even though light from
the waning full moon will interfere with seeing all but
the largest meteors. Look to the east,
and you might catch a few specks of Halley's comet
disintegrating in Earth's atmosphere.
Keep looking up,
Daisy
~
Thursday, May 3, 2007 8:00 a.m.
53 degrees, windy, sunny
We have a week of gorgeous spring days ahead of us, and
things are finally
beginning to dry out a little. Heavy winds the past few
days have helped meltwater
leave the meadows; yesterday we were finally able to
drive in the fields to haul the wood-
splitter around. Last fall we thinned out the hedgerows
and left the biggest pieces of wood
for the mighty jaws of our hydraulic splitter. We took
turns running the machine and wrangling
the wood onto the platform, a good workout alternating
with just the right amount of rest. The
ash and maple split easily, the cherry could be a little
twisty. Hardest of all was the elm, stringy
and tough as nails, giving it up with a loud groan if
indeed it split at all. Some of them stalled out
the engine, and others are still hanging together by a
mass of fibers that will finally yield to repeat-
ed blows from a nine-pound splitting maul. Several chunks
of cherry were rotten in the middle, and
when split a torrent of fine compost fell out, complete
with the fat white grubs that had been living
there. I believe they will eventually develop into stag
beetles, assuming that they can survive out-
side of their previous environment. We had time at the
end of our busy day to walk up an old
lane to the abandoned barn and foundations left from a
family farm of bygone days. The sur-
rounding meadows are filled with fragrant double
daffodils in bloom; they have overrun their
original beds tenfold. it was there that we heard the
first frogs of the season, a few peepers
and several growlers and croakers. We found no eggs in
the small pond, but the frogs
continued their concertuntil they finally sang up a
luminous orange full moon.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, May 2, 2007 7:30 a.m.
48 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
The morning sun felt so good on my face and feet as I sat
on the porch enjoying a second cup of coffee.
Ten or fifteen minutes of early exposure is enough to
absorb the daily dose of vitamin D necessary for good
bone health, and then it’s time to goop on sunscreen
to protect against skin cancer. Vitamin D won’t pass
through sunscreen, and of course, you can take it in
capsule form, but natural sunlight is my first choice.
Our
wonderful sun, source of so much that is good and
nourishing, still we must respect his awesome power to
scorch and destroy as well. Today we turn our attention
to the honeybee. You may be aware that their num-
bers have dwindled at an alarming rate over the past
years. For details, go to here.
However, the problem
may extend far beyond man’s overuse of pesticides
and an increase in parasitic mites and foul brood fungus.
Consider this: bees are an example of one of the most
highly organized and regimented work forces on the
face of this earth. A wild hive of bees is a miracle of
order and precision; one merely has to look at the
perfect
shape and size of honeycomb cells, an architectural
wonder. Specific jobs are designated within the hive, and
communication skills are so advanced that one bee can
accurately tell another where the best nectar supply
can be found, right down to a single flower in a distant
meadow. Enter homo sapiens who mistakenly be-
lieves that bees can be enslaved and controlled for their
honey, which is then boiled and filtered so that it
no longer resembles the bees’ natural product. The
original use for honey was to nourish the hive during
long winter months when there is no nectar available.
Along comes man, and next thing you know, hundreds
of artificially constructed hives were bundled together
to work a common territory, most of the honey remov-
ed, and bees were left to overwinter with only a fraction
of their intended food supply. I believe that if bees
are smart enough to communicate and build such awesome
structures in the wild, they are also wise enough
to try to regain the autonomy that is synonymous with the
term hive mentality. They are withdrawing from
civilization, perhaps gathering far from mankind, perhaps
even going so far as to self-destruct in rebellion
from human’s thoughtless attempt at domination. I
have coincidentally just received an email from a friend
that informs me that today has been designated to be a
day of worldwide appreciation for honey bees.
Take a moment to thank your Higher Power for the gifts
that the honeybees have shared, in spite
of mankind’s ham-handed attempts at controlling the
miraculous little insects. Every bee you see
today, thank it personally for pollinating our crops.
Here is an interesting link to check out if
the spiritual aspects of the bee fascinates you, as it
does me: check this link out.
Have a bee-you-tea-full day,
Daisy
~
Appreciation of Honeybees !
May 2, 2007 (Peg Hamilton)
In whatever manner you are personally able, move your
awareness into that of appreciation.
Perhaps meditate upon someone for whom you have
appreciation and gratitude, an event that
stimulates a sense of deep gratitude. When this is a felt-sense,
a palpable experience within your
body, disengage the object of your appreciation (the
person or event) so that you remain in a non-
attached state of appreciation. Draw into this state the
image of honeybees. Now bring in an assoc-
iation of how they sound, their buzzing about, their
beauty and grace, the wonders of honey as a food
and as a wonderful sweetener of life! Feel that joy
rushing through your body as you contemplate the
honeybee. Hold your awareness of Honeybees in this state
of appreciation. Do so For as long as is
'right' for you. When you are ready to stop, forcefully
blow your breath into the image of the honey-
bee. This breath of life, sent in appreciation carries
with it all your desire for blessing and positive
life empowerment to be carried forth to the honeybee
species.
This is all that is asked, all that is required. No dogma
nor doctrine is involved.
No deities or angels need be called upon (you certainly
may if you choose). Keep
it simple ! No money is being collected, No organizations
derive financial benefit from
participating in this. This is solely about the
honeybees, and our appreciation of them.
~
Tuesday, May 1, 2007 8:30 a.m.
45 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
Ah, May Day ! This is one of my favorite days of the
year, no matter what the weather.
At the first light of day, I went outside to gather some
morning dew to pat onto my face,
confident that this will somehow keep spring in my step
for the coming year and soften the
trails left on my face etched by the passing of time.
Soon I will gather some blossoms and greens
for a May basket, mostly from the bulb garden this year,
as not one spring beauty or trout lily has
even come into bud yet. Shiny waxen periwinkle vines will
provide the greenery, with a few sprigs
of emerging willow leaves for texture. When I was a young
girl, my May basket always was filled
with violets and white clover blossoms from our lawn, as
I was raised in a warmer clime than Tug
Hill. I brought those same violets to our yard here, but
they are weeks away from showing so much
as a single heart shaped leaf. I remember one year past
when I anointed my face with morning snow
and had to fashion my bouquet from houseplants, geranium
blossoms and english ivy. Today is a
perfect May Day, bright with sunshine and a gentle breeze
to dry the laundry that fills the lines.
Enjoy this first day of May !
Daisy
~
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