~
Tuesday, July 31, 2007 8:00 a.m.
68 degrees, breezy, sunny
Ravens are going nuts again, as they did yesterday
morning. I can’t see
what they are hollering at; if crows, they would be all
over the place, and
there is not a crow to be seen.There must be some threat
on the ground, a
fisher or bobcat perhaps. The hen turkeys became agitated
later in the day,
frantically clucking at their chicks and hustling them
into the forest. Could be
the burly white and black feral cat that prowls our
property has been checking
out the poultry section of the big buffet in the east
twenty. The huge bales of hay
have been picked up from the fields, and now our view is
unobstructed, revealing
many deer browsing the second growth greens and flocks of
young turkeys accom-
panied by their moms as they scratch through the weeds.
There is always something
to see; the birds and beasts of Gomer Hill are only shy
during hunting season. Lately
there has been plenty of human foot-traffic on our road,
folks out taking advantage
of the beautiful weather to admire the views from atop
Tug Hill. Walking is a won-
derful way to shake off the stress of a hard day; the
steady pace creates a calming
rhythm of footfalls to even out our scrambled alpha waves.
We enjoy a walk after
dinner, when the clouds are multicolored and the luminous
sky slowly morphs
into a deep purple dome. It is usually very quiet up here
on weeknights;
soon the crickets will accompany our pensive strides with
harmonious
trilled notes. The full moon has been lovely the past few
nights, rising
orange through layers of dark clouds just as the twilight
hour is at
its best. We are indeed fortunate to live in such a
beautiful
place. Make the most of wherever you are; what is
wonder-full in your neck of the woods ?
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Monday, July 30, 2007 8:30 a.m.
73 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
Three big ravens have been calling from separate vantage
points in the
tall trees surrounding our east meadow, keeping it up for
a couple of hours
this morning. My best guess is that this is the mated
pair from the forest across
the road and one of their last year’s brood, keeping
track of this year’s fledglings.
I’ll bet they moved out of the deep woods to take
advantage of all the little critters
that got axed by the giant rotary mower that sheared off
our hay a couple of weeks
ago. Yum, all that fieldkill must be just about perfectly
ripe by now. Thank goodness
our dog isn’t interested in eating any of those
yucky bits; he mostly just rolls in them,
easy enough to hose him down at the end of the day with a
little peppermint soap
rubbed into the worst spots. We are only a few days away
from having a whole
bunch of beans ready to pick and process for the freezer.
The past two weeks
have been a teaser, with enough beans in the early short
rows for meals and
a bag or two given to friends. Red cabbages are maturing
all at the same
time, much earlier than expected. Last night we had
stirfried cabbage,
whole beans, sliced onions, and a little bacon, not
terribly good-
looking on the plate but mighty tasty. Once we made
sauerkraut
from red cabbage, which seemed like a good idea at the
time;
however, the fermentation process changed it from ruby
red to a horrible purply-grey, a real appetite-killer. I
could make some old-fashioned chow-chow relish,
but that only calls for two heads of cabbage and we
have thirty. Here’s how to make the best slaw ever:
One shredded head of red cabbage,
half a thin sliced sweet onion,
a handful of cranberry raisins;
sprinkle a little salt over this while you make the
dressing,
1/4 cup raw sugar, 2 tablespoons cider vinegar, 1/4 tsp
celery seed.
Pour this on the veggies and let it sit for at least an
hour, then stir
and serve. No more creamy slaws heavy with mayo for me;
this sweet light salad goes with just about anything.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Sunday, July 29, 2007 9:00 a.m.
66 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
Dense fog has rolled down the hill and settled in the
valley. Mornings like
this we can pretend to be perched at the edge of some
vast pearly sea, so
completely covered is the entire view with rolling banks
of thick mist. The fog
was so heavy that our window screens are still beaded
with drops of dew. The
breeze has picked up and things should dry out rapidly;
the air will heat up well
before noon and may even become sultry if the breeze dies
down. The pavement
is already dry, and leaves have sloughed off their watery
burdens as the wind gives
them a gentle shake. Two deer were standing between the
forsythia hedge and the
garden at dawn; fortunately they were startled by our
presence and took off in the
opposite direction from the buffet. We have also been
keeping an eye out for rac-
coons as our corn is only days away from ripeness, and
have seen neither hide
nor hair (yet). At the first sign of trouble we will put
up an electric fence; no
messing about this year. After last year’s corn crop
failure we are ready
to fill the freezer with sweet kernels for the coming
winter. I can almost
taste the first fresh ear, eaten raw right in the row as
I pick a few more
to steam up for dinner. Now that’s what
summer tastes like !
Have a beautiful day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, July 28, 2007 8:30 a.m.
63 degrees, calm, overcast, foggy
Fog is beginning to disperse here on Gomer Hill but the
valley is
still invisible to us. Leaves on the trees are heavy with
moisture and
there isn’t even a little bit of breeze to shake it
off. Huge drops gather
at the pointy ends of aspen leaves and then fall heavily
to the ground to
add more squish to the sopping wet lawn. The greens of
summer are even
more so when seen through this watery lens. There are
birds galore pulling
fat worms from the soft earth, and several swallows
snatching bugs out of the
air as they swoop and soar. Robins and bluebirds have
been a big help in the
raspberry patch; they pick off the over-ripe ones,
leaving the rest for us. Four
hen turkeys herd their growing chicks along the meadow
path nearest the hedge-
row, pausing frequently to grab a nosh. The chicks are
growing taller everytime
I see them; soon they will be hard to distinguish from
the hens. Thank goodness
they keep to the edges of the meadows and haven‘t
wandered into the gardens;
they could do some serious damage. Deer continue to
nibble on our beet greens,
but have been leaving everything else alone. I’ll be
pulling the first crop of beets
soon anyway; they continue to grow well even in their
topless condition but
I would like to pickle a few before they get too big. The
sky is growing
brighter, almost as if the sun will break through any
moment. What is
currently a cool misty morn may soon turn into a
steambath of a day.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Friday, July 27, 2007 7:30 a.m.
70 degrees, calm, hazy sunshine
I was out in the berry patch at the crack of dawn but
mosquitoes drove me in as I barely finished picking the
first pint. I thought it would be a good idea to pick
before
the heat of mid day or the advent of rain, whichever
comes
first. I will try again in a couple of hours, when the
skeeters
will have all been chased away by wasps and deerflies. We
really have to keep a keen eye while picking, as the
occasional
fermenting overripe berry that was overlooked will almost
always
have a wasp attached to it, and a drunken wasp is nothing
to mess
with. We are in for a couple of potentially rainy days,
clearing up by
the end of the weekend, so get on top of the outdoor work
before
the change blows through. I believe I will hop on my bike
and
see what is going on in the forest, via some logging
roads.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Thursday, July 26, 2007 8:30 a.m.
78 degrees, breezy, sunny
Yikes, almost eighty degrees already ! Thank goodness it
cooled off
last night after a steamy day of mowing lawns and picking
beans. The
first planting of beans is doing very well; these are
short rows, planted
in early May in the hope that we could have tasty fresh
beans by mid-July,
and it paid off with just enough beans for our dinners
and several bags for the
freezer as well. The main crops of beans have been
planted in two week inter-
vals since mid-May, and we will be kept busy for many
days right up until first
frost preparing them for the freezer and the jars of
pickled garlic dilly beans that go
so well with any meal. I have been freezing zucchini as
well, blanching them whole,
then laying out individual slices on waxed paper covered
cookie sheets; the frozen
rounds go into bags, the home version of IQF (Individually
Quick Frozen) prep.
Soon the smallest beets will be transformed into spicy
sweet pickles, a nice
treat at a mid-winter picnic or as a side to a cold
Sunday night supper. Red
cabbages are starting to form nice tight heads, time to
make slaw and soup
and sell the rest. It is hard to decide what to eat this
time of year, the
choices are vast. Sweet indecision, to choose from so
much bounty...
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, July 25, 2007 8:30 a.m.
71 degrees, breezy, sunny
Rain stopped falling just before supper last night; the
skies cleared
and the bluest of blue skies prevailed until sunset,
which was sort of
ordinary without clouds for the colors to paint. This
time of year the
sun goes down in the space in our neighbor’s
hedgerow that was cut
for a snowmobile trail several years ago. Tall balsams
and maple trees
on either side of the path make a perfect frame for the
disappearing orb,
and it will be this way for a couple more weeks until the
Earth rotates and
the site shifts. A three-quarters full moon was high in
the sky as dusk fell,
and that was every bit as pretty as the setting sun.
Heavy dew gathered
overnight, and the lawn looks like it has been strewn
with diamonds,
sparkling with adamantine brilliance wherever the sun
strikes. Shadowy
places shimmer with the deep greens of newly watered
grass and robins
are diligently pulling worms from the damp ground, flying
up into the hedges
to dine. The breeze will dry things off quickly, and
there is much to do; lawn
to mow, beans and berries to pick, and the fourth
planting of spinach and
lettuce must be sown. Weeding will be ongoing from now
until frost. Al-
though this is a busy time of year for a gardener, the
payoffs are great,
and the winter table that is laid with homegrown food
nourishes not
only the body but the spirit as we recall the gifts of
Mother Earth.
Enjoy this summer day,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, July 24, 2007 6:30 a.m.
61 degrees, calm, overcast, fog, drizzle
Raindrops are so fine that they are nearly invisible; the
best indicator that
it is falling at all is the constant trickle of water
streaming from the roof. I must
have sensed that rain was on the way as I closed all the
windows and shut the
barn doors before leaving for work yesterday; good thing,
too. A downpour late
in the day may have put a damper on the Oneida County
Fair parade, an unfortu-
nate turn of weather for the grand opening of this
festive week of farm animals,
carnival rides, music, and down-home displays. County
fairs are pretty much
the same all over the country; if you have a chance to
visit one this summer,
take some time to check it out. There is plenty of bird
activity in our yard this
morning; must be the worms have come to the surface.
There are almost as many
robins on the lawn as in early springtime, except many of
these still bear the speck-
led breast of youth. Our young bluebirds are nearly in
full adult plumage, and have
been enjoying the raspberries as much as I have. So far
they have been sticking
close to home, but it won’t be long before they fade
from view until autumn
brings them back for one last visit. A pair of downy
woodpeckers is checking
out the natural cavity atop the aspen tree, they haven’t
been here since last sum-
mer. Hummingbirds have been mating up a storm, in the
peculiar dive-bombing
amorous assault common to the species. We have two pairs
that I am aware of,
buzzing around the beebalm and hollyhocks that are
scattered about the yard.
The sky is beginning to brighten a bit, perhaps the sun
will prevail later.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Monday, July 23, 2007 7:30 a.m.
63 degrees, calm, partly sunny
There were very few clouds in the sky at sunrise, and now
the sky is
awash with milky streaks and larger puffs against the
pale blue ceiling.
We are experiencing a spell of dead calm, a true rarity
on Tug Hill where
the wind blows almost constantly. Yesterday was a jewel
of a summer day,
sunny and not too hot with a north breeze that kept the
bugs away for most of
the time I worked in the garden. Near dinnertime I was
finishing up the weeding
and mosquitoes started to appear, the first real wave of
the season. One positive
result of our long dry spell was the lack of breeding
grounds for these pesky little
hummers. The screen door was filled with them seeking
entrance last night, and I
suppose we need to be quick with our comings and goings
from now on. We made
the rounds of our nesting boxes yesterday, and the
dwelling nearest the garden has
four little bluebird eggs in a tidy new nest. This is the
same site they used to raise a
brood last month; no wonder they have been hanging out
close to the house lately.
This is late for bluebirds to be nesting, but they
started late with the first batch as well,
and they usually will have at least two broods a season.
Everything seems out of kilter
this summer. Yesterday I noticed ragweed is beginning to
bloom; that nasty little allergy-
inducing plant that usually doesn’t show up until
mid-August. Goldenrod is shining yel-
low from the roadside ditches as well, and queen anne’s
lace is nearly done blooming.
Our garlic matured almost a month before we expected, and
potatoes are quickly
reaching a good size. I guess I should trek on up to the
wild blueberries and see if
they are ripening early as well; I can usually count on a
pie in early August, but
if those tasty little gems are following the trend they
too may be ripe now.
There is such a richness to this time of year, it is hard
to decide what to
delve into first before the official workplace draws me
away later.
Have a great day.
Daisy
~
Sunday, July 22, 2007 8:30 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy, sunny
What a beautiful morning ! I slept well past dawn, but it
was worth it
as I stayed up later than usual to admire the stars and
chilly stillness that
settled over Gomer Hill after a busy noisy day. There
must have been some
local ATV event, as the quad traffic was neverending, and
they traveled in
large groups. Thank goodness for Friday’s rain, or
the resulting dust would
have been daunting. We had tractors mowing hay on both
sides of our property,
and that constant drone became part of the background
soundtrack for the long
day’s work. Somewhere nearby someone was shooting
rifles, probably muzzle-
loaded black powder guns; it went on for hours.
Thank goodness we have been
able to desensitize our dog to such loud sounds; he was
very gun-shy when he
first showed up at our house. He trotted after me all day
as I completed the tasks
I had laid out, and for once I was able to cross off
everything (except spraying the
spuds for bugs... too windy). I picked nearly two gallons
of raspberries and started
a batch of wine, weeded the corn, pulled the rest of the
garlic, and picked a mess
of beans. There was plenty of time left over to gather
armloads of flowers, and
there are masses of sunflowers, beebalm, daisies,
bellflower, and lilies all over
the house. We strolled the property at day’s end and
found dozens of mush-
room circles, evidence of faerie gatherings, the little
brown caps marking their
light-as-air footsteps as they danced for joy hand-in-hand.
We have seen these
circles many times, filled with little flat beige
champignon mushrooms. This is a
new variety, purply-brown and domed; I have a feeling
these were left by visit-
ing little folk who were just passing through. I stayed
up late to see what I could
see, but if any fey friends stopped by they stayed in the
shadows. It was a lovely
night to sit on the porch for whatever reason, bundled up
in a fleecy throw enjoy-
ing the silent fireflies and distant stars, the view
sparkling above as well as below.
Have an excellent day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, July 21, 2007 8:00 a.m.
61 degrees, breezy, sunny
After a glorious colorful dawn the sun has stayed
brilliant, and the
night’s chill is being slowly replaced by radiant
warmth. I can finally
hang out yesterday’s laundry, it should dry in no
time at all. Yesterday
I drove to Little Falls and must have passed through
fifty (or more) rain
showers. Some of them were so brief that one swipe of the
wipers took
care of the whole business. At other times, the high
speed setting could barely
keep up with the buckets of water that sluiced across the
windshield. When the
sun came out for brief spells, steam rose from the road
in long vaporous veils, only
to be pressed back down by another shower. When I arrived
back on Gomer hill,
the wind was fierce and the sky was a wonder of big dark
clouds, brilliant blue
patches, and near-constant rainbows. An old friend came
to dinner, and we
had a delightful walk around the property in the cool
evening breeze. As she
admired the gardens, I saw many beans to pick, red
raspberries hanging in dead-
ripe gangs, and more weeds than have been here all summer.
It would seem that
my work is cut out for me on this fine day, and the
weather could not be more
perfect for such repetitive tasks. At the end of the day
I will have earned a fine
supper of fresh beans, new potatoes, and a libation of
last year’s raspberry wine.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
Friday, July 20, 2007 8:00 a.m.
62 degrees, windy, partly sunny, sprinkles
It seems that every kind of weather is happening all at
the same time this
morning, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few
random snowflakes from
a chilly high cloud falling to earth as well. Impossible
perhaps, but where does
hail come from ? After an absolutely stunning dawn the
sun has spent a couple
of hours trying to prevail, but huge cloudbanks
continually sweep across the area
and occasionally drop brief spatterings of rain. A very
strong west wind seems to
be ushering in clear skies, although the forecast is for
more rain throughout the day.
Little raindrops are hitting the west windows right now,
even as the sun shines brightly
over the area; I cannot see a rainbow, although
conditions are right. Earlier I optimis-
tically laundered a few loads of stuff, sheets, towels,
and tablecloths, thinking it would
be a good day to hang it all out; I am re-thinking that,
as much of it would billow right
off the lines and head down into town, coming to rest
atop someone’s roof or tangle up
in a red maple tree’s branches. Wind is steady at 15
mph with gusts of 35, not terribly
user-friendly for outdoor drying. I also need to pick
raspberries, assuming yesterday’s
hard rain didn’t dash the ripe ones to the ground.
The first beans are ready to pick as
well, but that must be done when the leaves are dry. Last
night’s supper included fresh
broccoli, steamed lightly with a little excellent stinky
cheese melted on top. For some
reason most of the early broccoli was quite deformed,
with only two regularly shaped
heads out of the whole row. I hope the side shoots prove
worthy of harvest. I have
put out thirty young plants of the same variety, to be
ready in September; I trust
the malformations are weather related and not an
intrinsic feature of the variety,
which is new for us this year. I am guessing that perhaps
the long hot dry spell
followed by lots of rainfall may have fostered uneven
growth; I believe I will
mulch the new plants with sawdust to help promote even
soil moisture. It
works for tomatoes, and in this year of exceedingly goofy
weather we
must do whatever necessary to help bring our crops to the
table.
Have a fine day,
Daisy
~
Thursday, July 19, 2007 8:30 a.m.
64 degrees, breezy, fog
It is a little foggy this morning, nothing like the pea
soup of yesterday but still,
I cannot see the valley. A small fire in the kitchen
range has chased the chill from
our corners, but I will soon let it burn itself out.
Yesterday afternoon the sun came
out with a full blast of heat, and I sure didn’t
need any auxiliary heat source then !
It turned into a lovely day, and we took a turn around
our new-mown meadows
to peer into the hedgerows and woodpiles looking for
mushrooms, which are all
over the place. I’ll bet we found fifteen different
varieties, little orange, red and
yellow fly agarics, parasols, some slimes, and tiny
purple thin-stalked clusters on
old logs that looked like faerie feasts laid out. We
checked our nest boxes as well,
and found a new swallow’s nest down by the spring,
and a bluebird nest by the
garden. The mother bluebird has lost much of her bright
hue, sucked right out of
her by the rigors of chick-rearing, and she could almost
be mistaken for another
species these days. She hasn’t started to lay eggs
yet, but she and the male have
been cavorting and pitching woo for the past few days.
The last brood is just be-
ginning to lose its speckles, and appear almost as blue
as the male at this point in
their young lives. All six birds seem to have taken a
shine to our one remaining
apple tree between the raspberry patch and the near
garden; that could explain
where many of our red raspberries have gone. There is
plenty for all, and
a small price to pay for having these pretty birds in our
neighborhood.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, July 18, 2007 8:30 a.m.
63 degrees, breezy, foggy, drizzle
It is hard to tell whether we are experiencing fine misty
rain or really fat
fog here on Gomer Hill, as the breeze pushes all the
moisture to and fro
and it is hard to determine the source. There were a few
fairly hard rain
showers during the night, but not enough water to fill
the birdbath to over-
flowing. I really should get a rain gauge. I started a
small fire in the kitchen
range to take the dampness out of the house; if the sun
appears later I may
regret it, but for now it feels darned good. Aspen leaves
are all a-tremble in
the quickening wind, and the maples along the road sway
with stately grace.
I can’t really see much beyond that, the hedgerow is
barely visible through
the fog. Little white button mushrooms have emerged all
across our lawn,
looking exactly like those from the produce department of
our local grocery
store. However, young destroying angel shrooms look just
like these as well,
so I won’t even touch them. For more about the toxic
and fatal Amanita verna
check out this site . If you want really
fresh button mushrooms, there are kits avail-
able for growing them in your basement, complete with
dirt and spores; although
the cost is about the same as buying them from the store,
there is no comparison
between a just-picked firm mushroom and one that has been
packed in plastic
for a week. We shall probably see a lot of varieties of
wild fungus during the
coming weeks, especially if the weather stays on the damp
side. There are
some colorful and bizarre things that pop up out of
nowhere this time of
year, and they are fun to identify; use gloves to handle
them, and trust
few for consumption, although the giant puffball is one
that stands
alone, nothing even comes close to those soccer-ball
sized goodies.
Have an interesting day,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 9:30 a.m.
65 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
This morning is all about aromas, the sweet smell of the
hay that was
baled late yesterday, the roses, forest mushrooms, and
the pine and spruce
blowdowns that are stacked in long piles up the road from
here, ready for the
sawmill and the chipper. We have already been for a nice
long walk, gobbled
some woodberries along the way, the late fraises du
bois that are bright red
on the outside with creamy white interiors. The regular
wild strawberries were
small and dry from lack of rain, and they all done
bearing fruit. Woodberries
appear the same time as red raspberries, often growing in
the same area.
Add that fragrance to the list of morning delights, the
fine cotton-candy
whiff that floats up from our pink-stained fingers every
time we shoo
away a deerfly. And now, off to grab the weeds out of the
corn rows,
they have sprung up in legions since the rainfall. There
are little corncobs
forming, and the flowers atop the spikes are laden with
fine yellow
pollen to cover the tassels and form each sweet kernel.
Yum !
Have a sweet day,
Daisy
~
Monday, July 16, 2007 8:30 a.m.
60 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
A scarlet tanager is sitting on the old clothesline
outside the office window,
shockingly vermilion against the dark green hedgerow that
is the backdrop for
his pose. A young robin sits a few feet away; both birds
are gazing towards the
valley, with the wind at their backs creating a slight
ruffling of feathers. We seldom
see tanagers up here; although their songs are frequently
heard in the early morning
hours they are secretive and remain in the cover of thick
foliage high in the trees.
Perhaps there are young birds about, and this male is
keeping an eye on them. Our
weather took a turn for the gorgeous late yesterday
morning, with deep blue skies
and high white clouds, the kind that resemble animals,
whipped cream, or hovering
angels. We had an afternoon gathering at a friend’s
tipi and couldn’t have asked
for a better day; the wind was steady and sang to us
through the smoke hole at
the top of the structure, and an updraft cleared the
space of insects nicely. When
I arrived back on Gomer Hill at suppertime, the air had
cooled quite a bit and we
needed fleece jackets for a walk around the gardens. Red
raspberries are coming
on strong, and we will pick a few gallons today for the
wine crock. There has been
just the right combination of rain and warm sunshine to
produce some of the biggest
sweetest berries we have ever had, so thick that the
picking is easy. The tanager has
left my field of vision, and a pair of bluebirds has
landed on the line; the male is still
strikingly blue, but the female has lost her hue and is
rather ordinary looking; were
it not for her orange and white breast, I would not know
what species she was. Al-
though the clothesline is old and grey with mildew, and
has grown higher along with
the trees so that I could no longer reach it to hang
garments on it, birds love it and
we will leave it strung between the trees just for them.
just because something
does not serve its original purpose does not render it
entirely useless,
something to ponder in these days of disposable single-use
items.
Have a lovely day,
Daisy
~
Sunday, July 15, 2007 8:00 a.m.
62 degrees, breezy, overcast
Hard rain fell overnight, but it seems as if that storm
front has
moved out of our area for a couple of days anyway. We
spent
much of yesterday pulling weeds that have become epidemic
since
rain started to fall last week, a pleasant chore on a
beautiful day such
as we had. We also harvested our garlic, and today we
will spread the
beautiful bulbs topped with long straight stems on
screens to dry for a few
weeks in the breezy part of our barn. Last night’s
supper featured snap peas,
sliced zucchini, sweet onions and pungent diced garlic
stir-fried for just long
enough so nothing got soggy, a little hoisin and hot
pepper sauce for garnish,
what a great mix of textures and tastes all in one pan.
Green beans are slowly
gaining size, and early broccoli is nearly ready to
sample. It is approaching
that time of year when vegetables will take center stage
at mealtimes,
embellishing even the plainest cuts of meat.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, July 14, 2007 9:00 a.m.
67 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
Heavy dew dripped from the house roof onto the tin of the
sunporch for most of the night; I thought it must be
raining to
produce such steady din, but the sky was starry and not a
drop
was falling. Just before daybreak I heard several loud
snorts from
the direction of our garden, so I stuck my head out the
window to
frighten away what I thought must be a deer. To my
surprise, a big
white cat with black spots was making the sound as it
strolled around
the hedges and trees that border the garden. If it was
trying to sneak
up on prey, it was doing a lousy job. I haven’t seen
this cat before,
sleek , short-haired, with a little bullet head perched
atop a thick
neck. Since I was awake anyway, I enjoyed watching the
sun
come up through brilliant orange clouds, still early
enough that I
miss this gorgeous sight more often then not this time of
year.
Sunsets, ah, there is a daily delight, especially this
summer.
Lately the glow had spread across the entire sky, from
its
origin above the balsam forest to the west all through
the
Black River Valley and on to the Adirondack Mountains
far to the east, with a multitude of clouds of every
shape
and size carrying the rich hues well into the purple
hours
of twilight. A couple of times there have been rainbows
preceding the sunset, stretching in a glorious arc and
often
carrying a second fainter rainbow within its curve. Tug
Hill is
a wonderful place to watch all phases of weather, day and
night;
who needs cable tv with such a great never-ending live
show ?
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
Friday, July 13, 2007 8:30 a.m.
60 degrees, windy, partly cloudy
Clouds are rolling in from the west, and they look to be
heavy with moisture.
We had a good loud thunderstorm in the wee hours that
dropped a lot of rain in
a short time. It moved through our neighborhood quickly,
and thoroughly soaked
the hay that had been mown yesterday afternoon. When I
stepped out of the car
after work in the early evening, the sweet miasma of
fresh-cut clover and alfalfa
hung over our little farm like a narcotic. Crows and
gulls were having a field day
scarfing up the birds and little rodents that had been in
the mower’s path. When
we walked after dark I noticed the fireflies were thicker
than ever, flying low to
the ground in mobs of twinkling spark. It seemed
impossible, but the hay became
even more fragrant after the sun went down. Since it got
saturated, the next trans-
formation will be from sweetness to slightly sharp
fermentation as the sugars in the
clover begin to convert into alcohol; hopefully our
friends will be able to bale it up
before the musty whiff of mold sets in. This morning we
were able to see two deer
in the far meadow, and two turkey hens leading a bunch of
little long-legged chicks
between the windrows. Now that the camouflaging tall
grasses are gone, it will be
more difficult for wildlife to sneak into our gardens to
sample our tasty crops. The
second growth of new hay will provide tender juicy shoots
that should satisfy all the
local herbivores. A few drops of rain are falling now,
and the wind has picked up.
After six weeks of drought, is it possible that the scale
has tipped the other way ?
Enjoy the changes,
Daisy
~
Thursday, July 12, 2007 8:30 a.m.
60 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
What a spectacular morning ! Rain fell for most of
yesterday
(I guess, we were in the city all day) and the rich deep
greens
of mid-summer are in their full glory at last. Droplets
still shimmer
on the whole landscape, intensifying the hues; I imagine
they will dry
quickly in this wind. I pulled some potatoes for supper
last night and
the soil was wet as far as my hook would dig. One plant
yielded nine
medium-sized spuds, so far so good. Cucumbers doubled in
size in just
twenty-four hours, and we will be able to enjoy some
tender young zuc-
chini tonight, the first of the season. As soon as the
foliage dries off, we
will prune and tie our tomato plants to the trellis, so
the fruit that has al-
ready set will be able to ripen faster. A thick mulch of
hay on the row
keeps moisture in the ground, and prevents the tomatoes
from splitting
as a result of unevenwatering. We kept the vines well-watered
even
during the driest spells, and they are looking very
robust at this point.
No doubt about it, the rain we have been blessed with
these past
couple of days has turned the crops around, thank
goodness !
Have a fine day,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, July 11, 2007 8:30 a.m.
72 degrees, windy, cloudy, raining
Rain has just begun to fall; it was obviously on the way
as indicated by
the maple leaves showing their pale underbellies in the
rising south wind.
The hedgerows swayed like sports fans doing the wave
at a Big Ten foot-
ball game in the ‘80s. Our new back porch roof is
tight and shiny-new, and
water is rolling right off the edge into pails lined up
beneath. There were rumbles
of thunder all around us yesterday, but hardly any
precipitation for all the bluster.
If this nice steady rain falls for a few hours, our
garden crops will definitely get
the midsummer growth spurt that has been slow in coming.
Little bitty beans
hang from the bushy plants, which have bounced back even
stronger after
the deer pruned them a month ago. Broccoli is forming the
first central heads,
and tomato vines are laden with hard green globes. We
have been enjoying
little tender cucumbers in our supper salads, and it won’t
be long before the
kitchen is filled with the sweet vinegary fumes of bread-and-butter
pickles.
Raspberries are ripening early this year, so far just
enough for grazing. It
won’t be long until the wine crocks are filled with
ruby red juice slowly
transforming into slightly fizzy summer wine, just a
little sweet with the
whiff of fresh berries filling one’s nose as an
afterthought. And oh !
Fresh berry pie! The perfect summer meal: Grilled
chicken, new
potatoes, fresh green beans, sweet corn, sliced heirloom
tomatoes,
and a hunk of fresh raspberry pie with a dollop of
whipped cream.
It won’t be long now...
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 7:30 a.m.
72 degrees, calm, hazy sunshine
Not yet sultry, the morning is warm and steamy, with no
breeze to
stir the leaves or cool the brow. Atmospheric haze
obscures our view
of the Adirondack Mountains and the Black River Valley is
a faint shadowy
line of trees in the near distance. The lawn has perked
right up after yesterday’s
early rainfall, and will need to be mown soon. It has
been so long since a blade
has been around the yard that scads of poplar trees have
cropped up all over
the place, some as tall as a foot. Little white clover
blossoms perfume the air
and wild strawberries run rampant, with little sweet
dried fruits that never really
had a chance in the drought. There is a chance of a late
day storm, and tomor-
row looks like the rainiest of the week; we had better
wrap up this roofing
project quickly. All that’s left is to put on the
tin; now there’s a great job
for a hot summer day ! not... still, the view is
spectacular from atop
the house, and the task will be over before we know it.
Enjoy whatever today has in store for you,
Daisy
Monday, July 9, 2007 9:00 a.m.
72 degrees, breezy, hazy sunshine
Yippee ! We finally received a significant amount of rain
in an early morning
thunderstorm that moved slowly through our area. I was
awakened by flashes of
lightning so bright I could see them through my closed
eyelids. Thunder soon follow-
ed, moving in at a snail’s pace, and soon the first
sweet drops of rain fell against the
tin roof with a loud clatter. The heart of the storm
brought a brief deluge but for the
most part it rained steadily for the better part of an
hour, delivering about an inch
of much-needed water to our neck of the woods. There is a
chance of rain every
day this week, bad news for those trying to make hay but
good news for the other
crops. I pulled up two potato plants yesterday and was
amazed to see that the tasty
little tubers had tripled in size in just four days, so
now we can begin to enjoy these
tender little nuggets regularly. The rain will help them
mature faster. It is hard to keep
ahead of the bugs, which have just started to hatch
during the past week. Meanwhile,
we have been spoiled by the dry spell as far as weeds are
concerned; most of them
have been springing up only in the rows that have been
watered. Now there
will be a virtual epidemic of invasive plant life on
every tilled inch of soil;
time to get out the rotary cultivators and put them to
work.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Sunday, July 8, 2007 9:00 a.m.
72 degrees, windy, partly cloudy
Yesterday was mostly cloudy and not terribly hot, a
perfect day for
working on the roof. It’s always nice when the
weather cooperates with
whatever jobs need doing. Today we will be weeding and
thinning out some
second plantings, so it will be perfect if the breeze
keeps up and clouds hang
around to give sweet relief from July’s hot sunshine.
The thirtieth annual Boiler-
maker 15K footrace is taking place right now in Utica,
and conditions are pretty
perfect for running; the early finishers reported that
the last mile along an unshaded
stretch of macadam was pretty uncomfortable, but with the
finish line in sight the
bright sunlight was bearable. Our local fire department’s
festival went off yester-
day without any rainfall at all until just before the
fireworks were due to go off,
then a brief cloudburst sent the crowd scurrying to the
pavilions until it passed.
It made for a perfect pyrotechnic display, with little
chance of brushfires from
an errant falling spark. When fireworks are set off at
the base of the Tug Hill
plateau, the result is not only a dazzling spectacle of
light, color, and pande-
monium overhead, but the resounding clamor of them
reverberating back
into the field with thunderous echoes is indescribable.
Sometimes a good
fireworks display will invoke some precipitation in the
manner of the old-
time traveling rainmaking shows, but not last night. We
probably should
add watering the garden rows to our list of tasks for
today,
slow work but the view is gorgeous.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, July 7, 2007 8:00 a.m.
62 degrees, breezy, partly cloudy
Hazy sunshine and damp shadowy clouds switch off and on,
and a
sultry summer breeze evens out the extremes either way.
We had only
a little rain yesterday, while areas to the east and
south got hammered by
heavy thunderstorms. I was buying roofing paper in a
nearby town and it
looked like Kansas before the house fell on the witch
down there. I hurried
back up the Hill to help close in the roof before we got
hit by rain, and it was
anti-climactic indeed, a brief little shower that barely
made ripples in the bird-
bath. I mean, what other magic can we work here? The cars
were clean, laun-
dry festooned the lines, windows had been recently
washed, and the roof was
off the porch... if those things in combo don’t call
down the rain, nothing will.
Today is the Turin Field Days, an outdoor fundraising
event including a truck/
tractor pull, chicken barbecue and clambake, live music,
and fireworks.
And the roof is still incomplete. What more can we do?
Just one good
soaking would be a godsend. There is a 50% chance of rain
today;
want to bet we are in the 50% that doesn’t get any ?
Have a great day,
no matter what,
Daisy
~
Friday, July 6, 2007 8:00 a.m.
62 degrees, calm, partly cloudy
Bright sunshine greeted the day but high thin clouds have
moved in,
fuzzing up the view a bit by removing the hard edges from
shadows cast.
We had a little rain yesterday, and heavy dew formed
overnight, which
now drips slowly from every surface; every little bit
helps our parched
crops, nourishing the leaves if not the roots. The first
raspberries are
showing a little color, with wild ones ripening earlier
than our domestic
fruits. There are a bazillion little hard drupelets just
waiting to burst
into sweet plump juicy berries; I can almost taste them !
Have a sweeeeet day,
Daisy
~
Thursday, July 5, 2007 7:30 a.m.
60 degrees, calm, foggy
Yesterday’s rain is hanging around, literally,
filling the air with thick fog
and forming round beads on every leaf and flower. Peering
closely at the
roses is like looking at hundreds of little clear gazing
balls; if the sun were
shining the scene would be too dazzling to bear. We
received steady gentle
rain for a couple of hours late yesterday, with the bulk
of the storms hitting
north and south of us. The Nexrad map showed heavy
activity all over our
area with a big area of clear right over Turin;
that is so not fair! Whether we
got enough moisture to do any good will be measured by
how fast the weeds
spring up between the garden rows. We had the first
potatoes of the season
last night, little golf-ball sized gems robbed from
several hills, steamed briefly
and dotted with butter, salt and pepper. There is nothing
better than this,
and it will take all the self-discipline I can muster to
keep from yanking
up plant after plant just to get at a few tiny spuds. Now
that we have
had some rain (with more on the way) they will grow
quickly, and
in a week we can begin to harvest plum-sized new potatoes
for
our suppers. Until then, pasta and rice will fill in
nicely.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, July 4, 2007 8:00 a.m.
66 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
A turkey hen has been filling the air with frantic
clucks, indicating that
all of her chicks are doing what little gobblers do best,
which is run amok
along the meadow paths. It sounds like they are down by
the potato field,
but we can’t see them from the porch because the hay
has not yet been mown;
it is turning golden brown, and won’t take too long
to dry once it is cut. A friend
mows it and uses it for bedding for his dairy herd. I
love the thought that cows
will snuggle down into this fragrant blend of grasses and
wildflowers on cold
winter’s nights, perhaps nibbling on some dried
clover blossoms or resting
their big drooly chins on a cluster of daisies. Knee-high
by the fourth of
July is the old saw for measuring corn growth; ours
is waist-high, and I’m
fairly tall. Bloom spikes are emerging from the centers
of the earliest-planted
stalks, and it won’t be long before we are enjoying
sweet corn at its best. Tiny
beans spring from dried blossoms of deer-pruned plants,
and snap peas are
ready to be added to our fresh green salads. Tomato vines
bear hard green
globes, and it is time to prune them and tie them up. A
good rain will speed
things along, but so far so good in the gardens. Clouds
are quickly moving
in, so it may be best to get the outdoor tasks done early.
Happy Independence Day !
Daisy
~
Tuesday, July 3, 2007 8:30 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy. mostly sunny
A fine summer day is in the works, not too cold, not too
hot,
just right as Baby Bear would say. Speaking of
bears, a mound
of scat was discovered on an old farm road not far from
where the
bear was spotted last week, but it isn’t very fresh.
Hopefully that bear
was just passing through and kept on going. Summer
flowers are begin-
ning to show their bold faces, black-eyed susans and
hollyhocks, beebalm
and lilies, the first tentative blossoms soon giving way
to blocks of brilliant
color set against the impossible blue of a July sky.
Night sounds have quieted
into summer’s lull as well; the interval between
frogs and crickets is fleeting.
We walked under a rising full moon last night in silence,
nothing heard but
the crunch of gravel and the brittle lawn’s sighs of
collapse underfoot. Coons
no longer chatter to herd their pups, coyotes have moved
into the deep woods
away from new-mown fields, and even the big barred owl in
the woodlot has
been mute these past few nights. The cat that had been
howling her lust in
the barnyard for the past several weeks must have finally
found a mate;
I just hope she doesn’t decide that we are in the
market for more kitties;
three is plenty. Summer is moving right along; tomorrow’s
daylight will
be nearly a minute shorter than today’s. Get out and
grab all you can !
Enjoy the day,
Daisy
~
Monday, July 2, 2007 8:30 a.m.
55 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
We are having a lovely autumn morning; too bad it’s
early July. We kept a
small fire going in the kitchen range yesterday; every
time we came indoors we
breathed a sigh of appreciation, mmmmmmm, that feels
so good ! Watering the
raspberries on a cool, cloudy, windy day: good for the
berries, darned low on
the creature comfort scale. Our lettuce and beets love
the cooler temps, but the
tomatoes, cukes, and peppers are looking a little stunned
by this turn of events. I
have sprayed our bean plants with a combination of rotten
eggs, hot pepper, and a
drop of soap, and deer have been leaving them alone. We
had a little rain yester-
day, so I’d better mix up another batch and re-spray.
I heard a tale that one gal
left the bowl of eggs on the porch to get a little
stinky, and raccoons got into it,
spread it all over her porch and P-U ! So I guess I will
age my noxious brew
in the kitchen; as unpleasant as it smells, we sure don’t
want to attract rac-
coons back onto the property. Today will remain cool, but
the sun should
shine and warm us nicely. We will soon see highs in the
seventies along with
the promise of rain midweek, possibly spoiling some
fireworks plans...
but I’m willing to forgo them this year in favor of
a good drenching.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Sunday, July 1, 2007 8:30 a.m.
53 degrees, breezy, partly cloudy
We are buttoned up for another chilly start to a gorgeous
day, so cool in fact
that there is a small fire ablaze in the kitchen range.
As long as the stove is hot,
might as well make some blueberry pancakes, fluffy
wholegrain gems rich with
last August’s wild fruit and locally produced maple
syrup; yum! Clouds started to
loom at lunchtime yesterday, moving slowly in from the
northwest where a big front
picked up steam as it crossed Lake Ontario. The southern
edge of the storm blessed
us with a few brief showers late in the day, settling the
dust and half-filling the buckets
parked under the porch eaves. Parched greenery looks
slightly improved from the
scant amount of water absorbed through its foliage. Not
much soaked into the
earth, but the cooler temps today should help preserve
even the small amount
that did. At least we haven’t had to mow the lawn
much this summer. There
was a full moon last night, and as the dog and I took one
last turn around
the gardens during the wee hours, I watched it play tag
with the clouds,
snuggled in the warmth of my winter coat and wishing
for a hat as well.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
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