~
Sunday, July 31, 2005 8:00 a.m.
68 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
Pale clouds are edgeless in a milky blue sky. It is still
fairly cool and memories of recent
sweltering days are but a memory. Last night’s low
in the fifties sent us searching for fleece
pullovers, and our late night outdoor activities were
done in comfort. There were a zillion stars
in the sky and a meteorite streaked to earth with an awe-inspiring
flash of brilliance. The Milky
Way was prominent, a pale highway of luminescence that
leads the way to all kinds of mythological
resting places. In some cultures, each star represents
the campfire of a warrior who earned his spot
through bravery and domination of his enemies. I prefer
to think that every good and kind person
on earth, man woman or child, would deserve the warmth
and comfort such an eternal flame
would provide. Just in case this is so, remember to live
your days on earth accordingly.
Peace,
Daisy
~
Saturday, July 30, 2005 8:00 a.m.
70 degrees, calm, mostly sunny
There’s good news, and there’s bad news. The
good news is, we found acres of wild blue-
berries the size of grapes and they were so thick we
filled a gallon pail in twenty minutes. The
bad news (for you anyway) is that I will never divulge
the location of this blueberry patch, although
I may clip a map to a my last will and testament. I have
never seen such berries in all my years on
Tug Hill. They have ripened about ten days earlier than
usual, and the place they grow is rapidly
becoming overgrown with small balsams and blackberry
canes. This year a good deal of it is under
water, making for perfect mosquito breeding conditions.
The berries certainly are plentiful, but not
easy to get to. On the way back out to the road a huge
snake sped away at my approach, and my
friend laughed as I levitated out of the swamp for a
moment. “Yeah, I saw that snake, but I didn’t
tell you about it cuz I thought it might freak you out...”
If only snakes barked, or could be made to
wear bells, so their sudden appearance wouldn’t be
such a doggoned surprise. When someone
sneaks up behind you and pops an air-filled paper bag, it
is startling and you may shriek a bit, but
that doesn’t mean you are scared of paper bags. Same
thing with snakes, I think. Since there are
no poisonous reptiles in our neck of the woods, there is
nothing to fear from our scaly little neigh-
bors. Next time out to pick berries, however, I believe I
will wear boots.
Have a berry good day,
Daisy
~
Friday, July 29, 2005 8:00 a.m.
63 degrees, breezy, sunny
It seems a little chilly out this morning, and I reckon
it is because the dew point is the same
as the temperature, giving us 100% humidity with a strong
breeze shoving the dampness into
all of our nooks and crannies. Although there is a slight
chance of rain later, nothing shows up
on the radar for the whole state of New York. It will be
a beauty of a weekend with a little rain
possible Monday afternoon, right when the garden will
need it again. This is the time of year when
zucchini seems to appear out of nowhere; one day there
are blossoms and only tiny little finger-
sized squash, and the next they are big enough to use as
chocks behind the tractor tires. If you
happen to stop by for a visit, you’d better lock
your car, or the zucchini fairy will fill your back
seat with squash whether you want it or not. We are
starting to see cucumbers as well, and they
are doing the same thing, a reverse of now you see
them, now you don’t. Corn is very close to
ripening, and since there is so little of it left after
the crows thinned it out, we will try to wait until
it is perfectly ripe before bringing it to the table.
Other years, when it is plentiful, we eat the first
ears green, standing between the rows and downing a sweet
raw ear as a snack whenever we
pass the patch. There is plenty else to munch on, snap
peas, crunchy beans, and carrots with
a little dirt on them because even though you think you
can clean it on the hem of your shirt,
it doesn’t really work. Ahhhh, summer !
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
Thursday, July 28, 2005 8:00 a.m.
66 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
Yesterday morning I remarked that we were at the tail end
of a good soaking rain. Rather, we
were in the middle of one, as it continued to rain pretty
steadily all day long. When the sun finally
burst through black clouds that raced in from the west,
the temperature dropped thirty degrees
and recent heat and humidity were soon forgotten. We took
a walk under a starry sky and it was
so chilly that we only saw a couple of fireflies. Even
the crickets were mostly silent. We awoke to
brilliant blue skies and a few lingering billowy white
clouds. The valley was blanketed in early pearly
fog that soon cleared, giving flatlanders the same clear
sunny day that we are currently enjoying on
Tug Hill. It is a great day for anything, and anything
goes on a day like this.
Get out and play while the sun shines,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, July 27, 2005 8:00 a.m.
67 degrees, breezy, overcast, light rain
We are at the tail end of a good soaking rain that will
really wake up the leafy green crops in our
garden. Spinach and lettuce that has been languishing in
the heat has doubled in size since yesterday,
providing us with tasty salads and, in a few more days,
the best lunch of the summer (in my opinion,
anyway) a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich on fresh
homemade bread (not toasted, never toasted!).
There is still time to plant one more seeding of greens,
as long as it is a variety that takes less than 70
days to mature. The current crop is our third planting
this season, with the first seeds going into the
ground April 10th. Some of those first plants
have been left to go to seed, and now they are three feet
tall and in full flower. I urge you to leave some lettuce
in the ground, as it becomes a whole different
thing when blooming. The red-leaf varieties are
particularly beautiful. Older spinach becomes a gigantic
glossy green pyramid of a bush, especially if
there is plenty of space between the plants. If the
ground
is kept cultivated around the plant, soon small volunteer
spinach plants will appear surrounding the
parent. We have never had lettuce reseed itself; I
believe the seeds are so light they blow away in our
constant Tug Hill breeze, rather than falling to earth to
take root. Soon I will dash out between the
raindrops and pull every other lettuce plant to use for a
tender green salad, full of raw baby
zucchini, giant-leaf basil, and snappy crisp peapods.
Oooooh, I can almost taste it !
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, July 26, 2005 8:00 a.m.
74 degrees, windy, sunny
Four hummingbirds are perched on the clothesline outside
my window, staring right in at me,
looking neither right nor left; it is a bit disconcerting
to undergo such unwavering scrutiny. They
landed one at a time, and even though the line is swaying
slightly in the morning breeze, they haven’t
moved one bit in five minutes. Maybe this is their
morning meditation period, or perhaps they are all
tuckered out from trying to visit all of the bee balm (monarda
didyma) that blooms in the bank. This
tall fragrant flower is also known as oswego tea
or bergamot. Dried leaves from the plant were used
in place of English tea after the colonists boycotted
it following the Boston Tea Party, the uprising that
began the American Revolution. Earl Grey tea is made with
bergamot oil, which is derived from a bitter
citrus fruit, not the bee balm plant. The flavor was so
popular among colonists that, even when trade with
England was resumed after the War of Independence was
over, many americans either flavored their black
tea with herbal bergamot or used it as a replacement. I
find its aroma most wonderful on a hot summer day
as I pass by the bank; the heat of the day releases the
pungent smell that is unlike anything else. Our white
cat has made a fort in the bee balm bed, and brings the
perfume indoors with her. I would imagine that cool
shady spot is just perfect for a cat on a hot summer day.
There is just one hummingbird left on the line now,
the male with his ruby throat iridescent in the early sun.
I’ll bet that little group was all one family; the
young
of that species are full-grown when they leave the nest,
and the parents squire them around for a few weeks
to show them the ropes. To view some pictures of a
California hummingbird nest, visit here.
I have never
found a nest in our neck of the woods, but I keep looking
every summer. Now the line is empty. I no
longer use it for laundry, but we keep it up to give
the local birds a place to hang out. This time of
year the bluebirds use it a lot; it is a good place to
sit and watch out for cats and other dangers.
It must be tough being a bird, but how wonderful it would
be to fly !
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Monday, July 25, 2005 8:00 a.m.
67 degrees, breezy, overcast, sprinkles
Light rain has just begun to fall, barely showing
up on the windowpanes as a fine smattering
of tiny droplets. This is a passing sprinkle, with a hot
but breezy afternoon in store for later. We
picked about half our snap beans yesterday, filling
several two gallon pails and one big old five gallon
spackle bucket. We have tried several new varieties this
summer, and Jade seems to be the hands-
down winner so far for taste and texture, both raw and
cooked. The true test will be if they hold that
wonderful beany goodness after being stored in the
freezer for a while. Will they still be our favorite in
February? We prepared romano beans with pesto and
parmesan cheese the other night; now that was
a good idea! There are so many vegetables at their peak
of perfection right now it is hard to decide
what to have as a side dish when mealtime rolls around.
Maybe we will have to start adding veg-
etables to the breakfast menu just so we can enjoy the
bounty; zucchini omelet, anyone? Wait,
that doesn’t sound too bad, does it, a few red
onions, a little cheddar cheese...
Have a delicious day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, July 23, 2005 8:00 a.m.
73 degrees, breezy, sunny
Tug Hill is at its best this morning, all blue sky and
warm sunshine stirred about by
soft cool breezes. I walked last night so as to get a
good view of the waning full moon
as it breached the horizon. I looked hard at the western
sky with no luck at all, and Mister
Moon was way past due when I returned to the house at 10:30.
There were stars overhead
and I thought I must have misremembered the exact time
the moon was scheduled to appear.
I had been in bed for about two minutes when I saw it,
red as a beet rising above a thick line
of black clouds over the Adirondacks. The clouds blended
so well with the inky night sky that
I wasn’t even aware of their presence until they
were bathed in the eerie glow of the crimson
moon. Shortly after this tardy moonrise, hard rain
battered the Hill for about ten minutes before
it moved on. This morning everything seems washed clean,
although I know when it comes time
to pick beans I will find them covered with a thin layer
of dirt that splashed up from last night’s
brief storm. Our daylilies look particularly fresh,
shining red, yellow, and salmon as well as the
more traditional orange. We have lilies in several places
now; this is one perennial that benefits
from frequent disturbance. If they grow too thick, they
have fewer blooms, so every three years
or so we dig up half and put them somewhere new. There
are plenty now for cutting as well
as decoration for the passersby to admire. A big bunch of
daylilies in an old tall metal
pitcher will look different every day as the old flowers
close up and new ones open,
making this one of my favorite cut flowers... they
arrange themselves.
Have a brilliant day,
Daisy
~
Friday, July 22, 2005 7:00 a.m.
67 degrees, breezy, overcast
Everything looks soft this morning; the whole view is a
little blurry due to something that
isn’t quite fog. I think it may be referred to as a low
ceiling, that feeling of being the filling
in an earth/sky sandwich. Last night was clear and warm,
the perfect venue for viewing a
spectacular moonrise. When it started the ascent above
the horizon it was hard to see, as it
was such a deep shade of red it nearly blended with the
night sky. I have never seen it this
color; often it is blood-red, almost red-orange, and of
course it is pure pumpkin orange on
many occasions. But last night’s moon was dark,
almost maroon, like a big old ripe plum.
The orb in its entirety remained that odd shade until it
was well above the horizon, where it
assumed a more familiar tomato-y hue. The light it shed
was not the opalescent gleam of a
cold winter moon, rather it was muted and quiet, and
shadows were cast in velvet.
Tonight the moon will rise a few minutes before 10:00,
don’t miss it !
Time for a moondance,
Daisy
~
Thursday, July 21, 2005 8:00 a.m.
71 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
A few white clouds are smeared across the blue sky like
thinly spread vanilla frosting,
just a glaze drifting slowly by. The sun is strong and it
was almost too hot to sit on the porch
earlier, but thoughts of what is in store for us six
months from now kept me out long enough to
soak up a little extra sunshine for next January. The
breeze feels wonderful and a family of turkeys
kept me entertained as they tried to keep track of all
the little ones. There were five hens and about
twenty chicks, who are trying out their little wings,
making it hard to keep the whole act together. A
large flock of crows flapped noisily from tree to tree in
the hedgerow; they left the turkeys alone. We
went on a long walk yesterday morning to check out the
logging operation up the road. My favorite
giant tree shaped like a crown has not been felled, and
is very easy to see from the road now as much
clutter has been removed from the forest. A muddy pond
fills the logging road, courtesy of last week’s
storms. It looks like it would be lots of fun to ride
that road on a dirt bike, first in line of course. We
are looking forward to exploring the new trails on skis
next winter; there are some awesome stands
of balsam fir back that way, and it is swampy and too
full of mosquitoes to check it out in the summer.
Meanwhile, our garlic seems ready to harvest, so our work
is cut out for us this morning. Add to that
the mountain of beans waiting to go into the freezer and
raspberries to pick and box for market...
hey, what am I still doing at the computer ?
Get to work,
Daisy
~
Make sure to watch the full moon rise tonight at 9:24.
~~~
Wednesday, July 20, 2005 8:00 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy, sunny
The sky is bright blue for the first time in weeks. Gone
is the total atmospheric saturation
and hundred percent humidity that came along for the ride
with all of our recent storms. We
were actually able to sleep with the windows flung wide
open last night, and even reached for
a blanket sometime in the middle of dreaming. This
wonderful change was palpable late in the
afternoon, with a strong north wind literally blowing
away oppressive heat and humidity. The
temperature didn’t drop too much, but hazy sunshine
was replaced by a bluebird sky and bil-
lowy white clouds, a welcome sight after weeks of
nebulous pervasive steam. I was actually a
little chilly on last night’s walk, and really
enjoyed the feeling. I cast a crisply outlined shadow
this morning, instead of a bit of indistinct murky shade
that followed a half-step behind.
Today will be an awesome day for just about any activity
you can conjure up.
Make some time to go out and play,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, July 19, 2005 8:30 a.m.
78 degrees, breezy, hazy sunshine through clouds
It is a hazy morning, more clouds than sun, and when the
sun does shine it leaves very faint
blurry shadows. We had some more hard rain last night,
and I haven’t been out to survey the
damage yet. At the very least the slugs that live under
the raspberry canes will be referring to this
as the best summer EVER. Our beans keep getting
bigger and bigger and I guess I will pick one
row today and risk soil-borne disease setting in; the
alternative is leaving them to use as shell beans,
if they survive the pruning the deer have been doing
every night. Good grief, what a summer! Too
dry, too hot, too wet, too many critters... I haven’t
ever seen a season like this before, and I’ve been
around a mighty long time. This is also the first year we
have had a problem with predators raiding the
bluebird nesting boxes. On Sunday I was happy to see that
all four little blue eggs had hatched into tiny
naked birds. Yesterday when I looked in on them, the nest
was empty, as if they had never been. No
trace of shell, and both parents have fled. I took a good
walk late last night, and was happy to see
that fireflies are still busily doing their thing. They
have been the one constant in an otherwise helter-
skelter summer, flashing a merry greeting to all who pass
their way. Perhaps they have been this
beautiful year after year, and I am only really noticing
them for the first time this year because we
have adopted a late-night walk habit. It is cooler after
sundown, and there are no gnats, black
flies, deerflies or horseflies divebombing my head. We
can usually walk faster than mosquitoes
will fly, but if we dare to stop for even an instant to
listen to the brook or call to the owls,
a whining cloud surrounds us. It almost looks like more
rain is blowing our way;
time to check the berries,
Daisy
~
Monday, July 18, 2005 8:30 a.m.
72 degrees, breezy, overcast
The sun seems to be trying really hard to penetrate high
thin clouds that cover the sky
and blend into dense fog at our property line. When it
finally pops through, the day will
resemble a giant steam bath. Periods of rain came and
went starting late yesterday, a few
hard showers but nothing like the seven inches that fell
south of here. Several local roads are
either under water or washed out and closed. I am
wondering what I will find in Boonville when
I go to work later today. They were already underwater
when I was last there on Thursday night.
The fire department was kept busy through the night
pumping out cellars; home sump pumps could-
n’t keep up with the rush of water that had nowhere
to go. Reports of three inches an hour were on
the radio this morning. We hardly ever have that kind of
flooding on Gomer Hill; it is handy being on
top of things where gravity can do most of the work.
However, one summer, years ago, we had what
the old-timers called a hundred year rain, meaning
that one like that only comes along once every hun-
dred years. Even though we are on top of a hill, several
fields flooded right up to the fencelines, and we
all had a good swim in a neighbor’s meadow that had
three feet of water standing in it. Ditches couldn’t
contain the runoff, and our potato field was washed bare,
with spuds left exposed once the dirt was
scoured from them. Water flowed in sheets down the road,
which wasn’t yet paved, and we had
to travel everywhere in our 4-wheel drive truck for a
week until the mud dried up enough for
graders to repair the damage. I have a feeling that this
is the kind of rain that fell in Boonville
last night. Maybe we will have to coin a new term, a twenty-five
year rain.
Keep your umbrella handy,
Daisy
~
Sunday, July 17, 2005 7:30 a.m.
68 degrees, breezy, overcast, foggy
Rain splashed on the roof off and on all night and now
everything is so saturated with water
that walking the paths feels a bit like being undersea. A
few sprinkles are still coming down but
it is hard to tell where the fog leaves off and rain
begins. We had a hot steamy day yesterday
and managed to pick raspberries, peas, and beans before a
couple of light afternoon showers
cooled us off. Zillions of tiny biting insects (not black
flies, something sneakier and more pestilent)
showed up at midday, impervious to any repellant. I even
resorted to a commercial spray contain-
ing the noxious chemical deet, and the bugs just laughed
and kept biting. I changed into long pants,
shoes and socks, but this morning I notice my feet are so
full of itchy blebs I was clearly too late in
covering up. There are even bites on the bottoms of both
feet; that’ll teach me to pull weeds bare-
foot. These bugs are new to me, kind of a cross between a
gnat, a fruitfly, and a barracuda. You
don’t feel them biting, so there is no warning or
urge to brush them away, just little specks of blood
where they landed, then later the sites start to itch.
They may have been here all along, but yester-
day the wind died down long enough to allow them free
access to our oblivious bods. Thank good-
ness there is almost always a breeze here on Tug Hill.
There is a good chance of rain every day
until Wednesday, giving us a little break from all the
stooped (pronounce this with two syllables,
then it makes comedic sense)garden work of the past few
days.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, July 16, 2005 7:30 a.m.
82 degrees, breezy, hazy sunshine
It is a hot and steamy morning here on Gomer Hill. Just
before I sat down to write I watched
the digital thermometer climb from 78 to 82 in less than
two minutes. I’ll bet if I looked right now,
I would find it is still rising. We didn’t get any
rain yesterday, so we pulled weeds like caffeine infused
automatons. The rain and heat that have been so good for
garden crops have really put the weeds into
overdrive as well. At least they pull easily when the
soil is nice and wet. I thinned our fourth planting of
lettuce, and the second crop of spinach got a similar
treatment. It is also time to pull every other carrot
to allow the rest of them plenty of room to get big. Baby
carrots taste little like the mature vegetable;
they are somehow lighter and more subtle, not as sweet as
one would think, a great crunchy addition
to salads and stir-fry. Beans are ready and will be on
the supper table tonight, lightly steamed and
tossed with copious amounts of fresh basil chiffonade.
I may finally be able to pick enough raspberries
for a pie, as long as I can get to them before today’s
rain whacks them to the ground. There is a veri-
table carpet of rotting raspberries underneath the canes,
courtesy of the two hard drenchings last week.
Deer got into the brussels sprouts and red cabbages and
did a rather severe pruning. They are bolder
than ever; flowers right next to the house have been
nibbled, just tasted and not a total loss. Deer’s
pointy little footprints go right through the driveway,
under the two big yard lights that are supposed
to keep intruders at bay. I don’t understand why,
with all of the tender legumes and sweet tasty
grasses for forage, deer would prefer to munch on garden
fare. Do they imagine we have laid
out a smorgasbord just to indulge a need for
variety in their diet? Ah well, time to hang a few
shiny AOL startup discs around the edges of the garden
and hope for the best.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Friday, July 15, 2005 7:30 a.m.
71 degrees, calm, hazy sunshine
In a classic example of be careful what you
wish for we have had three months’ worth of
rain in three days. At least we can park the watering
apparatus for a while. We received over
four inches of rain during yesterday afternoon’s
storm, causing flooding of the Sugar River on the
flats in Constableville. An old horse barn took a direct
hit of lightning and burned to the ground in
spite of the driving rain that should have acted like a
giant firehose. The storm was at its most fero-
cious when I left work last night; I had to wade through
six inches of water in the parking lot to get
to my car. I confess that I splashed around like a little
kid, enjoying the refreshing cold water after
the intense heat of the day. The air on Gomer Hill is
still and moist this morning; the only movement
in the aspen tree is that of a pair of bluebirds shaking
out their feathers as they preen. We have an-
other family of these beautiful birds started in one of
the nesting boxes; they are due to hatch any day
now. I hate to peek into the box when the wind is
blowing, so today will be my first look for almost
a week. Maybe there will be four little gaping beaks to
greet me. Our flock of wild turkeys has been
shrinking. Yesterday I saw the two hens herding the
youngsters across the road, and there are only
seven little ones left from an original group of about
twenty. They are able to fly pretty well now,
not as easy a catch for coyotes and big cats, so these
seven just might make it into adulthood.
These past few days must have been challenging for all of
the wild critters, not too many
places to take cover when the wind is whipping everything
into a frenzy. Today is
looking good so far, get out and enjoy yourself at
whatever you do.
Have fun,
Daisy
~
Thursday, July 14, 2005 8:30 a.m.
81 degrees, gentle breeze, overcast
There is a fine line between overcast and hazy
sunshine and this morning’s weather aspect
is balanced right on the border. A half hour ago I
optimistically loaded the washing machine full
of sheets and towels, but now I am wondering if they will
just hang damp and limp on the line like
yesterday’s table linens (which are still out there,
rinsed twice by afternoon rain.) I believe there are
some young beans ready for the table, but I hate to root
around in wet foliage lest I spread disease.
A half dozen tomato plants are still unpruned because the
leaves have been constantly wet for the
past week and blight isn’t something I actively seek.
In a perfect world, it would rain for a couple
of hours every night or two (after my evening walk, of
course) and then be perfectly sunny and dry
all day long. However, perfection that predictable would
be boring after a while, lacking the drama
of a sudden storm or the drowsy lassitude that
accompanies a week of heat and humidity, which
may very well be nature’s way of telling us to slow
down a bit. At any rate, we take what we
get vwhen we live in the North Country; that is the price
we pay to be in one of the most
beautiful spots on earth. If our sheets and towels take a
few days to dry out, so be it;
there is plenty of other stuff to do while waiting for
evaporation to occur.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, July 13, 2005 8:00 a.m.
62 degrees, windy, mostly cloudy
What a wild night we had ! I could hear the storm coming
for two hours before it arrived,
and it hit us with so much force I went from room to room
and cracked the windows open a bit.
I grew up in the midwest, and the way the wind was
blowing I feared tornado-like air pressure changes,
and felt the need to vent the house. Rain was driven so
hard against the windows on the north side of the
house I wondered if the glass would shatter as if they
had been hit by a sledgehammer. Lightning strikes
were frequent and frighteningly close, and I had a lapful
of quaking dog and purring kitties for most of
the storm. The weather-watcher from Highmarket reported
nearly an inch and a half of rain fell in his yard,
and I am guessing we had at least that much on Gomer Hill.
I haven’t been around the gardens yet but I can
see from here that some of my flowers are flatter than
new-mown hay. It’s a good thing I picked raspberries
yesterday, or they would now be on the ground, a tasty
surprise for garden slugs. Yesterday started out hot
and breezy, a good day for hanging laundry out to dry.
Just after lunch the wind shifted from west to east,
and there was a little relief from the oppressive heat as
the temperature dropped slightly with the wind
change. There is a chance for rain just about every day
in the coming week except for Friday,
so make your plans accordingly. I guess the drought is
really over, eh ?
Keep your powder dry,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, July 13, 2005 8:00 a.m.
62 degrees, windy, mostly cloudy
What a wild night we had ! I could hear the storm coming
for two hours before it arrived,
and it hit us with so much force I went from room to room
and cracked the windows open a bit.
I grew up in the midwest, and the way the wind was
blowing I feared tornado-like air pressure changes,
and felt the need to vent the house. Rain was driven so
hard against the windows on the north side of the
house I wondered if the glass would shatter as if they
had been hit by a sledgehammer. Lightning strikes
were frequent and frighteningly close, and I had a lapful
of quaking dog and purring kitties for most of
the storm. The weather-watcher from Highmarket reported
nearly an inch and a half of rain fell in his yard,
and I am guessing we had at least that much on Gomer Hill.
I haven’t been around the gardens yet but I can
see from here that some of my flowers are flatter than
new-mown hay. It’s a good thing I picked raspberries
yesterday, or they would now be on the ground, a tasty
surprise for garden slugs. Yesterday started out hot
and breezy, a good day for hanging laundry out to dry.
Just after lunch the wind shifted from west to east,
and there was a little relief from the oppressive heat as
the temperature dropped slightly with the wind
change. There is a chance for rain just about every day
in the coming week except for Friday,
so make your plans accordingly. I guess the drought is
really over, eh ?
Keep your powder dry,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, July 12, 2005 8:30 a.m.
80 degrees, breezy, partly cloudy
It is wonderful to return to Tug Hill after three days
away. Vermont is a lovely state,
and it was good to gaze at a someone else’s view for
a little while. As dry as we have
been here on Gomer Hill, Vermont has had unrelenting rain
for the entire summer, and
the Green Mountain State is greener than ever, lush and
very pretty. However, there is
simply nothing like morning coffee on the porch of our
little house on the Hill; I will never
tire of admiring our gently sloping meadows and beyond.
The Adirondack Mountains are
cloaked in mist this morning, and a steady breeze pushes
around hot air like a giant convec-
tion oven. As soon as the laundry is hung I will finish
tying up the rest of the tomatoes, so
I can work indoors during the hottest part of the day.
Raspberries are calling my name,
not yet a glut but enough for steady grazing. It won’t
take long in this kind of heat
before I am gathering them by the quart for jelly, pie,
and freezer storage.
Have a sweet day,
Daisy
~
Sunday, July 10, 2005
(no stats, I'm out of town)
I am taking a couple of days to visit a
friend out of state. This is a good chance to share one
of my
favorite summer dessert recipes with you all, for fresh
berry pie in a lowfat crust. I hope you like it!
Low fat graham cracker crust:
One packet of low fat graham crackers (they come three
packets per box).
Crush them good with a rolling pin. Mix 1 Tb. melted
butter with 1 Tb. water and 1 tsp. Vanilla.
Pour this over the crumbs and mix well. Add a little more
water if it is needed to make crumbs stick
together. Press the moist crumbs into a 9 or 10-inch deep-dish
pie pan, which has been sprayed
with Pam. Bake at 325 for 12 minutes. Let it cool.
Fruit:
Strawberries or raspberries are my favorite, but
blackberries, black raspberries, or blueberries
can also be used. You will need two generous quarts of
berries. You can even slice up a few peaches
and cover them with raspberry sauce for a peach melba pie.
Yum ! Pile 3 cups of the whole berries in
the cooled pie shell. Put 2 cups of berries in a small
saucepan and crush them. Mix 3 Tbs. of cornstarch
or arrowroot powder with enough water to dissolve it. Add
to the crushed berries, along with sugar, honey,
or maple syrup to taste; about ¼ cup is enough, unless
the berries are really tart. (I have a friend who
uses Splenda and has good results, it's your
choice.) Cook this on low heat, stirring constantly. No
kidding, don’t walk away. In about 10 minutes this
will start to bubble. Let it bubble until it becomes
somewhat transparent (this means the starch is cooked).
Cool it until it is merely lukewarm (I sit the
pan in a sink with some ice water around it if I am
in a hurry; this way it cools in about 15 minutes.)
Pour half of this sauce over the berries in the pie shell.
Put the remaining 3 cups of berries on top of
the first layer, and add the rest of the sauce. Chill for
at least 2 hours, when it will (hopefully) be set.
Serve as is, or with whipped cream. This dessert is the
perfect topper to a salad supper.
Have a berry good day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, July 9, 2005 7:30 a.m.
59 degrees, windy, raining
We finally got a good steady soaking of rain, all night
long. It is cold and damp and dark and
gloomy and absolutely beautiful this morning! All of the
brief storms we have had during the past
few weeks have barely penetrated the earth an inch.
Shallow-rooted crops have done very well
with this amount, but things with deep roots like corn
and all root crops like carrots have still been
struggling. This rain is a real gift; thanks, Mom! I
spent a lot of time yesterday pruning and tying up
tomato plants. I love the fresh unique green smell of the
leaves as I work among them, and it is so
satisfying to start out with a rank unruly mess of vines
and end up with two or three lovely branches
secured to the trellis with twine. We used to tie each
tomato plant to its own individual pole, but now
we run three strands of rubber-coated cable between stout
cedar posts and let the vines climb up
lengths of baling twine attached to the wires. Each plant
is different, and sometimes it is hard to de-
cide what to whack off and what to leave. At this point
it is pretty obvious which is the main stem,
as it has set several hands of little green tomatoes. Old-timers
would discard everything but this one
main leader, but I find that there are usually at least
one or two branches that also look promising,
sturdy and full of blossoms. I used to trim off all of
the suckers (non-productive side shoots) but
now I leave a few to gather in nutrients for the rest of
the plant. I cut the blooms from the suckers,
but leave the foliage. Some tomato plants are
indeterminate (will grow forever) and some are deter-
minate (will only grow to a certain size and then stop).The
indeterminate ones are the ones that will
benefit the most from pruning, so the energy will go into
the fruit and not into making more vines.
Determinate varieties become quite bushy, and seldom need
support. Meanwhile, I pulled up
a hill of yukon gold potatoes in search of a side dish
for dinner; in just four days the tasty
little yellow tubers have grown from golf ball to tennis
ball size... yum !
Guess thar’s gold in them thar hills after all,
Daisy
~
Friday, July 8, 2005 8:30 a.m.
60 degrees, windy, overcast
It is a damp chilly morning, with no real rain in the air
but plenty of lingering moisture from
some downpours last night. As I drove home from Boonville
I saw a big black cloud hanging
over Gomer Hill and the water streaming down from it
looked as solid as a shale cliff wall. I had
what NPR would call a driveway moment but in this
case I waited in the car awhile for the rain
to let up. It didn’t, so a mad dash ensued. (Of
course, as soon as I got indoors, the rain stopped.)
All of the recent rain showers have come at the perfect
time for garden crops. Raspberries are
beginning to ripen; I picked a dozen yesterday, sweet and
fat with juice. Bean blossoms have tiny
little beans sprouting from their colorful ends, and
emerald green pods grow stiff with shelling peas.
Potatoes really love rain at this stage in their growth,
and will soon be part of every dinner instead
of an occasional treat. A new planting of spinach and
lettuce is thriving in the moisture, and will be
table-ready just as the current crop starts to become
bitter and tough. The perennial flower beds
have sprung to colorful life, living bouquets of bee
balm, daisies, bellwort, lilies, and black-eyed
susans reigning over a throng of moneywort, pansies, and
violas. Don’t you just love midsummer ?
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
Thursday, July 7, 2005 8:30 a.m.
63 degrees, calm, cloudy
The sky is full of clouds, some pale as a pearl and
others looming in slate-grey majesty.
We have had such a hot summer this year that I will take
these cooler days with great pleasure.
Remember last summer, when cloudy and 63 was considered a
vast improvement over rainy and 50 ?
Meanwhile, I have noticed that passing between the
zucchini plants is like entering a small jungle. We
watered the hills faithfully during the dry spell, but it
took some good old natural rain to really get
them going. We placed the young plants in old tires that
had been filled with a mixture of year-
old chicken manure, soil, and well-rotted compost; that
did the trick! The tires hold the heat
of the day, the manure is rich in nitrogen, and the
compost fills the soil full of organic
humus-y goodness. Now the real trick will be keeping up
with the zucchini,
as it will double in size daily until they threaten to
take over the world...
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, July 6, 2005 8:45 a.m.
61 degrees, windy, overcast
Everything is in motion this morning; trees are a swaying
mass of greenery with leaves
twisting in all directions at once. I really miss the
tall hay that was carted off the hill yesterday.
On a day such as this it would have been a sea of grass
waves, driven by the wind. When the
hay was mown the goldfinches disappeared completely from
our view. One day there were hun-
dreds of them tweeting happily and swooping around in a
frenzy of lusty mating, and the next they
were simply gone. I wonder where they went? The meadows
are now full of carrion-eating birds,
vultures, crows, ravens, and gulls all cleaning up the
unfortunate multitudes who were not quick
enough to avoid the huge rotary mower. It will take about
a week before the fields are picked
clean, although there will certainly be lots of good
stinky spots left for the dog to roll around in.
It looks like the sun might be getting ready to poke its
head out of the high clouds. It is a cool
morning, and I guess I will keep plugging away at pulling
weeds which have emerged since
the rain returned. Strawberries are all done; a careful
search yielded only about a dozen
small sweet morsels. I did find a few red raspberries
beginning to show some color,
so it won’t be too long before they are ready.
It’s all good,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, July 5, 2005 8:15 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy, overcast
It is foggy everywhere I look except for the top of Gomer
Hill where we live. I can’t see the
neighbor’s silo down the road, and the distant
mountains are just a memory. It was clear enough
last night to see lots of fireworks from our porch; some
of them sounded very close, but they were
all miles away, some as far as Old Forge. There seemed to
be a lot of red ones, more than usual.
Mosquitoes were held at bay by a southwest breeze, which
ushered in several brief rain showers
all through the night. I heard thunder just before dawn,
and heard on the radio that Boonville got
quite a deluge. We replanted corn over the weekend, and
the rain will give it a good start. Birds
had pulled up most of our second planting, so we replaced
it with a short season yellow sweet corn,
buried two inches down and tamped firmly in to discourage
the birds. Someone told me to dip the
seeds in tar or used motor oil, but I imagine that wouldn’t
be too healthy for the birds, and I would
rather have my merry crew of blackbirds greeting me all
winter long, and crows and ravens keeping
me company on hikes, than all the corn in the world. We
had our first new potatoes last night,
ping-pong ball sized redskins that were just as sweet and
creamy as I knew they would be.
There is nothing like it !
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
Monday, July 4, 2005 8:30 a.m.
72 degrees, breezy, hazy sunshine
It is perfect holiday weather, warm and breezy with no
storms in sight until after the fireworks
are over. My grampaw used to tell us the fireworks called
thunder into the area, and it does seem
like it almost always rains on the fifth of July. One
exception I can think of... in the late 1970s
(it might even have been 1980) there were actually snow
flurries in the air the morning after our
local show. Whiteface Mountain picked up several inches
of snow, and Tug Hill had just a few
flurries. People at lower altitudes had scattered frost
but no snow. We watched the works decked
out in down parkas, winter hats, and gloves. You just
never know what to expect here in the North
Country. Last night we could see skyrockets all along the
horizon. I wonder how many towns will
be lighting up the sky tonight; it seems like most major
shows were last night. For the first time all
summer there were too many mosquitoes to remain outside
after dark for too long. Our nightly walk
ended in a mad dash back to the house, arms windmilling
to sweep the swarms of skeeters away.
I caught a fleeting glimpse of stars and lightning bugs,
but it was definitely not the slow sweet ramble
I had been looking forward to. We took a nice walk
earlier to a small pond not too far away. There
were dozens of frogs everywhere, sitting on the banks,
peeking up from the muck around the edges,
and stretched out full length along the bottom next to
big underwater reefs of slime. Some were big
and bright green, and some were mud-colored, either
naturally camouflaged or possibly just covered
with mud. If we got too close, they dove into the pond,
the size of the plop! in proportion to the
size of the frog. We startled a deer who was upwind of
us; all we could see was the tips of
her ears twitching above the tall timothy. She bounded
away with great leaps, her red-
dish coat rippling from the play of underlying muscles,
truly poetry in motion.
Have a festive day,
Daisy
~
Sunday, July 3, 2005 8:30 a.m.
72 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
A few wispy streaks of cloud hover in the western sky in
a non-threatening manner,
pale ripples in a baby blue celestial sea. A haze sits
over the valley but the air on Gomer Hill
is clear as a bell. Yesterday was picture perfect, one of
those rare summer days where it was
cool enough to bake bread and warm enough to keep the
gardens bopping right along. Insects
kept to themselves and the soil wasn’t too wet, or
too dry, it was juuuuuust riiiiiight like Baby
Bear’s porridge. Our new mown hay got wet right
after it was cut, and yesterday it was fluffed up
with a tedder to shake out the moisture and allow air to
circulate. This action also revealed many
unfortunate rodents, snakes, and birds that were in the
mower’s path, and the fields were full of
crows and a few seagulls taking advantage of the tasty
buffet. A pair of ravens stopped by for a
while and there were a few noisy disputes as they
bickered over territory with the crows. As we
walked the fields late in the day our dog had to explore
every five-day old carcass and roll in it, in
an attempt to smell more like a dog and less like Dr.
Bronner’s peppermint soap. (It worked, ugh!)
Today will be hot but low humidity and nice breeze will
make it a perfect summer day, I reckon.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, July 2, 2005 8:00 a.m.
59 degrees, windy, partly cloudy
The temperature dropped to fifty-two degrees last night,
and made for some excellent
sleeping conditions. For some reason I kept dreaming
about slugs, those pesky little slimy
critters that haven’t been too bad until recently,
with the return of rain to the Hill. It was odd
that, after dreaming about them off and on all night long
our local gardening expert talked about
them on her Saturday morning radio show. Years ago we set
out pie tins full of beer; slugs are
attracted to the smell, fall in, and drown. What a way to
go! We also discovered one of our cats
was attracted to the beer, and we didn’t want to
have to send her to kitty AA, so we banished
beer from the garden. A good layer of mulch hay around
plants will keep slugs away for the most
part. They eat their fair share of strawberries, but I
figure there’s enough of those to go around.
Our berries are finally winding down; I know there is at
least one more good picking but they are
on the small side, which nevertheless makes excellent
whole-berry preserves. Here’s a sweet little
lesson for everyone: Jam is made from smashed whole
fruits; some of the seeds may be removed if
a sieve or food mill is used. Preserves are made using
whole fruit or whole fruit pieces, as in peach
preserves, which will be full of peach chunks. Jelly is
made from fruit juice, obtained by heating the
fruit, crushing it, and dripping it through a very fine
mesh jelly bag. All three products are made with
insane amounts of sugar, which puts them at the tippy top
of the food pyramid, in the use sparingly
category. The way I see it, if a little schmeer of
strawberry preserves will make a nonfat high
fiber whole grain cracker go down easier, it then becomes
an integral part of the grain family.
Have a sweet day !
Daisy
~
Friday, July 1, 2005 8:30 a.m.
72 degrees, breezy, hazy sunshine
It was quite pleasant on the back porch earlier, but then
houseflies started to gather on our bare
legs and nipped us now and then, a sure sign that rain is
on the way later today. Strawberries need
picking, so we will have to work around the showers and
process them for the freezer right away,
before they get soggy. We had our first zucchini
yesterday, little babies sliced thin into the salad;
I have always liked raw zucchini better than cucumber for
salad, as it adds crunch without watering
down the dressing. Since fresh tomatoes are still in the
distant future, we have found other ways to
jazz up the daily salads; snap peas, baby onions, garlic
scapes, and young tender carrots add crunch
and color to the sweet buttercrunch and red romaine
leaves. Our endive has bolted to seed and is
too bitter to eat, so that will be pulled up today and
replanted to a more heat tolerant variety, like
Green Ice lettuce. Crazy amounts of fresh basil and
oregano chopped right into the serving bowl
add a depth of flavor to the finished product that no
bottled dressing can ever imitate. Olive oil
and cider vinegar are all it really needs, maybe a little
drizzle of maple syrup and some toasted
almond slivers. Ooooooh, can you say gorgonzola cheese
? Now I can’t wait for dinner !
Have something fresh today,
Daisy
~
~
|