It rained heavily all Monday night and continued lightly through the morning. Then the temperatures plummeted to 24 degrees. When I went out to my car at 11 am it was covered with ice, and all the locks and doors were frozen tight. I wasn't going anywhere. At 3 pm the sun began to shine brilliantly. It turned the trees and shrubs into crystal sculptures. Happily, even though the temperatures were still in the low 20s, the ice…
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Cold moon, cold moonlight Tucking another blanket around the newborn. by CarolPurington from Family Farm: Haiku for a Place of Moons We have no newborn, but this haiku captures the way I feel as the winter night falls. When bedtime arrives I gaze out at our snowy landscape, chill and luminous in the moonlight; I am happy to slip between my flannel sheets, and tuck a warm quilt around me. Then I dream of spring when the snow…
Saturday morning I substituted for our wonderful Assistant Librarian, Lyra, who is on maternity leave and tending lusty young Jupiter. Needless to say the three chickens I had lost to a weasel during the week was a topic of conversation with library patrons. I said we put out a rat trap and a Havahart, but did not think that peanut butter was the kind of bait to attract a weasel. Everyone agreed that peanut butter did not sound…
The snow was falling when I woke. I hope this is the first of the four final snowstorms predicted for this winter. While the snow is beautiful, the view inside the hen house was not as lovely. For the third morning in a row I went out to find a dead chicken, killed by a weasel. I don't know if it is possible to keep a determined and hungry weasel out of a hen house. I will spare…
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In July of 2008 my grandsons and I put 1000 red wigglers into a bin we had prepared. We were worm farmers. I wanted worm castings, considered very fine compost, to use in my garden. The process of making that compost has been a slower process than I expected. Red wigglers are not earthworms. They need to be kept warm - at least warmer than 50 degrees to thrive. I did not want to keep the worm bin…
After Bloom Day, wanting to preserve the tulip blossoms as much as possible in order to use them Sunday at church, I moved the pot of Pieter de Leur into the sitting room which is very cool. This is where my few houseplants live all winter. The jasmine dries up slowly over the season, but when I cut it back it always revives with the arrival of warm weather. I have been fascinated watching these forced bulbs as…
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On this Bloom Day I have slightly more to show than usual. The large tulip blossom in the photo is just about ready to fall apart, but you can see three more blossoms will carry on. These grape hyacinths are sharing a pot with the little hoop daffodil. The revelation for me is how much foliage comes along with the grape hyacinths. I have another tiny pot of muscari on the windowsill by my bed. All the bulbs…