stormy monday

After three days of cool weather - COOL weather! - there's quite a bit of rain in the forecast. I did barn chores early this morning, so the goats would have access to hay inside shelters, instead of the paddock picnics they've been enjoying recently.

AZALEA and MALLOW

 The sky was overcast so I got right down to the garden to harvest vegetables - beans and kale for myself, and a little chard and okra to share with the goats as I walked back up through the herd. I was back in the house at about the time I usually begin chores, and still dry, which made me feel all smug and efficient.

Another batch of green and yellow beans went into the freezer, and I steamed a bowl of snapped beans to add to the Pyrex cornucopia (a cornucopia is a food container that's never empty, right?) of bean salad in the fridge.

My pole beans began to struggle during recent days of heat, before I noticed and began to water them - something that had not been necessary even once earlier in this Summer of Continuous Deluge. They are still flowering and producing. I should write an entire post about these pole beans. They are wonderful.

While in the garden, I selected a few zinnias to provide color and cheer in the house should there be the predicted series of murky days ahead. 

They are also likely to become models for more of my Daily Markmaking efforts. Zinnias have turned out to be fantastic subjects for sketching. There is a great deal of variation from one flower to another, and they are a lot of fun as well as a challenge to draw and paint. Or maybe the challenge is part of why they are fun?

Here is one of the green zinnias, growing in the second raised bed:

And here, the very next day, is the same zinnia from a slightly different viewpoint.

With a special guest!

According to the Internet of Dragonfly Identification,

this one is a male flame skimmer - Libellula saturata.

My plan for today - after the chores and the garden and the photographing and so on - was to do a lot of housecleaning. Planning, it turns out, is different from doing. The rain started while I was downloading photographs, and both Moxie and Della anchored me solidly in place. So I decided to write this blog post before disturbing the cats in my rigorous pursuit of a tidy kitchen.

I may be doing that housecleaning stuff at about suppertime.

Meanwhile, I hope these zinnias help get your week off to a cheerful start.

If you sketch them, let me know!

~~~~~

a ramble in the gardens

I haven't written much about my gardening endeavors this year,

not because it hasn't been an daily activity for several months...

Remember my seedlings? Much bigger now!

...but because everything has been sooooo slow.

Slow to grow, slow to flower.

Until this past week, the only vegetable I harvested was kale.

Thank you, kale! You have given me hope. And food.

A few days ago, I harvested the first straightneck summer squash

from the new and heavily mulched bed near the goat barn.

At first glance, I thought the camera was over-reacting, but no:

this extreme yellow is the genuine color of the squash:

Like last year, there are little garden beds in multiple places, 

and a slightly larger garden on the edge of the Upper West Side terrace.

The Upper West Side is a goat browse area,

but a small sunny section is fenced off for the garden.

(I have plans to make it bigger next year!)

There are winter squash growing up the 6-foot perimeter fence,

and you can perhaps make out the sweet corn and pole beans in the background:

I tried the corn/beans/squash "companion planting" thing.

So far, not impressed.
It all looks more "naturally competitive" than "companionable" to me:

During Wednesday's daylong deluge, some of the corn took quite a whalloping.
And now we're having very cool weather. Like October-cool.
Will the corn manage to produce ripe ears?
It's a rollercoaster ride, this gardening thing.

And here's a high point:

The very first Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato Acorn Squash,
harvested the day after the storm!
This is one of three Sow True Seed heritage squash varieties I planted
as part of Tipper's Blind Pig and the Acorn "Squash Reporters @ Large" project.
For weeks I have been reading about other gardens and other squash,
and wondering if I would have anything to contribute before Winter.
Waiting, waiting, waiting...
Lots of plants. Lots of leaves. Lots of flowers.
Waiting, waiting, waiting...

Look, Tipper! I got one! 

(And many flowers on all three varieties. Fingers crossed!)
~~~

Meanwhile, there's one other precious harvest taking place

by the daily handful:

My lone surviving highbush blueberry
also had a slow, tough haul into Summer,
but is now doing very well indeed!
This is especially satisfying, because last year the bush was clearly
in trouble, striving to recover after a series of catastrophic events.
I did my best to help, but as you know...
well, I love plants, but I'm more useful with animals.

This blueberry bush is a survivor!

Doesn't it make your mouth water?

Mine, too!

~~~

All day long, I have thought today was Sunday.

Even when I was at the dump - which is only open on Saturday -

I told someone I'd see them "tomorrow," meaning Monday.

I wonder what day I will think it is tomorrow.

Whatever day you think it is, I hope you are having a good one!

~~~~~

wonderful wednesday

Oh my gosh, am I tired!

For two days in a row, I have had hired help for outdoor chores;

a fellow with a brush-cutter and chainsaw for a few hours yesterday,

and the hard-working 16-year-old for a few hours today.

"About time for a Poultry Palace Clean-Out,
wouldn't you say?"

Each day, I did morning chores an hour early,

then spent 3 solid hours doing prep-work.

When a helper arrived, I worked alongside or nearby.

Final step in the Seasonal Scrubdown:
Palace windows now (briefly) gleaming!

Yesterday, when the chainsaw man had gone,

leaving a wake of downed saplings and branches behind him,

I was very ready to call it a day.

Until I noticed the fresh cherry branches left on the ground in one of the paddocks.

I spent another half hour picking them up, one by one,

and heaving them over a 6' fence to get them out of goat-reach.

(Had to be done.)

He's coming back Friday, and I hope to get 

the other half of two tasks finished.

That should be all the chainsawing/brushcutting needed for a while.

Special Effects: chickens through a screen!
The hens are at the screenporch door,
probably saying "Thank you for our spotless Palace!"
Or...
"Come back! You missed a corner!"

Today, by the time the tireless teenager left,

I could barely creep to my chaise with a huge glass of V8 on ice.

More progress on the VRB!
Hundreds fewer branches to trip me in the paddocks!!

It is so lovely to have this young man helping out here.

No complaints, no shirking, no hesitation to ask questions.

Real, visible progress on tasks that have been

nagging at my mind daily for a very long time.

Today I even asked him to do a couple of chores

that I can do myself, but which are very labor-intensive

(for me, these days; but not for him)

while I got on with other tasks.

And I'll tell you what: between us, we got a heck of a lot done!

I'd go take more pictures to prove it,

but that would mean getting out of this chaise.

Would you like to see some squash leaves instead?

I planted a few varieties of winter squash this year,

and although any possible harvest seems a long way off,

the leaves are simply delightful!

The big leaves are huge!

The size of the steering wheels I remember from childhood;
a narrow rim of coated metal, with a horn in the middle.
I wonder if those steering wheels are still made.
I would like to have one.

Squash and kale: my cup of leaf appreciation runneth over.

Speaking of leaf appreciation,
I dragged some oak tops all the way up the driveway yesterday
and distributed them between the goat paddocks.
Today? Just naked, frayed twigs and barkless branches.

So, in conclusion, here's a goat picture for you:

Left to right: Tsuga, Acer, Campion, Azalea, Lily, Betula

The goats have had a rather unsettled time,

due to all the noise and bustle and shifting around.

So this evening, they shared an entire bale of hay at the fence.

It was a lovely picnic!

Fun for all!

(I had to do something. There weren't enough chaises to go around.)

~~~~~