Musings

The pumpkin vine that’s been creeping across our driveway has withdrawn, apparently from various maladies. This leaf is weighed down with many bugs, including what looks like a variety of ladybug and a yellow-green, spiny-looking insect. I think part of the rest of the plant was laid low by some kind of wilt, which I guess could be caused by either a bacteria or a fungi. Sadly, this plant never set any fruit (i.e., pumpkins), and we don’t really know why.

We’re left with the typical farmer response: try again next year.

The Botanist observed that if you are working in your garden, particularly when the plants are still moist in the morning, you can transfer infection from one plant to another down the rows. This was a single plant, however, and how it became infected will remain a mystery.

Posted at 5:31 PM | 1 Comment »

I just discovered, if WikiPee is correct, that Cosmos are native to the New World, but I’ve only ever noticed it in gardens.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Cosmos (the flower)

Sorry for the lousy picture, but this is all the proof there is that today we made a test batch of applesauce from the early trees SW of The Grove. They have good color and very few worms, so were pretty easy to process. And, yes, that brilliant pink is the real color!

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »

There’s been so much rain around here that when we were out berrying yesterday, I was amazed by the tiny fungal specimens that formed a wee understory beneath the blueberries and brackens.

Today has been rainy and windy, and Mom would say raw, so I insert a yesterday-picture for your delectation, lacking any worthwhile fresh ones from today….

Posted at 4:19 PM | 1 Comment »

Attentive readers may remember that I mentioned the fires north of Newberry in 2007. Fires in this area mean the blueberry plants will be extremely productive upon recovery. We picked and picked the bounty produced by those fires two years ago….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Blueberry hill

We saw many sweet-ferns amongst the bracken ferns when we drove around the Seney National Wildlife Refuge, then through the Refuge itself. We also saw trumpeter swans and a muskrat and a snake.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Not-a-fern

On this ever-so-busy Last Prep Day, I stole time for a walk, and managed to catch a bit of two different rain showers. In my raincoat….

Posted at 10:02 PM | Comments Off on Prep day

There’s no north 40 here, but we take a tour of the modest estate nevertheless. Actually, we tour the agriculturally productive plants. Fresh corn silk (doesn’t sound right to call it “maize silk” although that’s what it is), all curly and soft, seems like an improbable plant part….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Bloomin’ corn!

Don’t ask me how to pronounce it, but back in Old English days that’s the word that referred to the color orange, and it meant yellow-red.

Then came the fruit from distant lands to the east, and with it the name that was then, for obvious reasons, also applied to the color.

This specimen’s known as a naked orange around here, since it’s lost its zest….

Posted at 7:24 PM | 3 Comments »

For the second Sunday in a row, since the traffic is highly diminished in the early morning, we walked to the Carter Center. Today we explored more than last week, and saw the upper pond (aka the koi pond).

No herons.

On the grounds there’s a little rose garden with benches for contemplation or quiet conversation, which was freshly watered this morning.

Posted at 11:05 AM | Comments Off on Unreal rosy rose