Musings

Preternatural plant parts

Strange flash shot of the fern bed by the back door, with the fronds mostly removed (my late afternoon chore), and the not-fronds mostly left to stand tall. I didn’t snip them because I think they are interesting and rather otherworldly.

Glowing maple

Uncle Dave’s maple is getting plenty of compliments, and deservedly so! I call it Uncle Dave’s maple because it’s a maple and he planted it.

Autumn shift

Maple.

Barberry.

Autumn commodities

Apples

All grass day…. Cut it (using The Beast). Raked it (using an old wooden rake that works much better than the current fan-shaped version). Stacked it. So much grass. Also apples.

Late-blooming tales

The too-hot is gone and the rain is gone. This is the early morning sunlight on the cardboard-walled ringfort. In the foreground are miscellaneous escapee plants, and probably weeds. In the center are many basil plants, and I’ll harvest one or two tomorrow for the appetizer I’m taking to a potluck that evening. In the background are some “wild”flowers; blooms so far are white (three types) and pink (one species). Outside to the right are rhubarb leaves.

Here are exploded lupine pods, still furry. I also found some blooming lupines in the field where I had cut the grass—and lupines—earlier.

Sunny rising

Buds rock. I could stare at this far longer than any Dutch Renaissance painting.

Natural progression

Apple rain

A week or so ago, the orchard smelled like apple juice. Now it smells like hard cider, although hours of rain and lower temps blunted the scent today.

Scattered chipmunks

I stepped outside this evening to try to figure out odd vehicle noises out on the road, and by my feet heard stampeding chipmunks…two, running like I broke up a party.

Meanwhile, here’s a tiny cucumber. The species is native to Asia, and now very widely planted and consumed.

An autumn bloom

It was windy all last evening, then the rain came in at something like 2am, still with the wind. I did not sleep well, but I did sleep. Sometime late morning the rain quit, and the sun even came out once or twice. We sure did need the rain, and I guess the wind assured that the rain got everywhere, including under the trees and on the were-wilty lilacs. Now it’s quiet again, but it wasn’t much of a work-day or a fun-day.

By the way, this is deer-trimmed mint…in bloom.

Minty fresh

I have a new service provider. I’m trying out Mint. Goodbye ATT. So far, I can see that through the day, under what seem to me to be the same conditions hanging around the house, my Minty-fresh phone uses 10% more battery doing…hey, you there? pings to its parental-wellspring.