Water in the Light, Weather on the Farm

I had built up quite a few nice shots of sunsets on my phone, and thought I'd loop them into this post about a particular night's gardening, on June 18th. I'm not a morning person so you won't see me weeding at 6:30 in the morning. I know it's the coolest part of the day but there is just no way.

I have a helpful hint for viewing the photos on a larger scale. If you single click on any picture, it will load a slideshow of all the pictures and you can see more detail.

The following shots are from June 18th. I had to be in Columbus that day and when I got home I had high hopes for pruning some of the lavender plants I had already cut from.

When I took Tutu outside though it looked like the rain, coming down from the direct North was going to go around us and I could garden all evening.

And to the east it looked positively time for an ark.

I put Tutu on the line and began getting out gardening tools, but the wind picked up, and the pollen started floating in the air and it started to rain ever so slightly, then a little harder so I sighed, looked at the radar that indicated it was all going to go around us, and went inside.

I did a little housework, I tried to take a late nap. A friend called and we talked for about 45 minutes. Then at around 7 I went back outside and realized it hadn't rained that much. So I bundled the dog back out, put her on the line, and got the gardening implements in the lavender. I dug up some clumps of poison oak with a shovel and tossed them into the pasture. Then, it started to rain. Hard enough that I couldn't keep Tutu out.

So I bundled her back in the house. Irritated that I wasn't going to get any gardening done, I decided that I was. I put on my Duluth Trading Company Dry on the Fly pants that are water resistant, and my Frog Togs jacket, and a rain bucket hat and some gloves and I put on my black boots and decided I was going to clean out a section of the lavender that had really gone off the rails.

I wish I had a before picture for you, but it was raining just hard enough that I didn't want to get my phone out. It was not so hard that I couldn't work. I gotta say, it was nice. At first it was overcast, and I just worked with a grim determination. This including cutting away tons of crap weeds and volunteer tree sapling limbs from the miniature lilac that grows at the edge of the lavender. This is just a stop gap for aesthetic as I didn't dig anything up or coat the cut parts with an herbicide. It will all grow back but for now, the lilac doesn't look like it's being consumed by other plants.

I also clipped some volunteer trees in the lavender by the clothesline. Again, a stop gap. I pulled up large weeds that were loosed by the rain softened earth. I weeded around the lavender plants in that area and pruned the Tucker's Early Purple. At 9 years old, they may not grow back. Like my original 12 beloved Marge Clark's I planted these with Dad the day after we lost half of our roof to the tornado on route four.

For more about that time, you can go here


Most lavender farms replace their plants at 5 to7 years. These plants had long given me what they could. Then I turned my attention to the heartbreaking task of ripping up the dead-beyond-recovery Marge Clark plants. The rotted and dried wood came up easily from my tugs. I sighed. I looked at the little bits and bobs of Marge Clark surviving, miraculously on one limb of the plant. I am not sure if there is even enough to take cuttings from.

But I reminded myself that everything has a season, even favorite plants. And there cannot be a new beginning unless there is an accepted ending. So I worked. As I saw my progress, I was inspired to continue work. My body was warmed up and it was cool rather than steamy with the rain. I didn't even notice that my gloves were soaked.

At some point I noticed a change in the light. It wasn't subtle. I had completely missed the transformation around me in my labor and it was breathtaking.

This is the third or fourth time this summer that I have been able to see individual raindrops falling in the sunlight. I marveled at the sight and fished my phone out, trying to take pictures and keep the phone dry. A week later I would be driving through Irwin in a downpour that was lit up by the western sun. I didn't get a picture of that since I was driving, but it's a vision I'm not going to forget. And with sun and rain in the right portions at the right angle, we get rainbows.

Have I seen more rainbows in the last two months because of the weather, or because I am home to see them?

I didn't take an after picture of the area I cleaned but I will take a picture right now from the second story window of the guest room, where I do a lot of blogging. It's the same room Andrew and I moved into when we had the master bedroom re-done when the roof was getting replaced. I'll try to walk you through the picture.

Look to the left hand clothesline post. This is the lilac that was overrun with multiple little volunteer trees, mostly invasive honeysuckle. Underneath the clothesline is where I did the bulk of the cleaning out of the dead Marge Clarks and pruning. Look to the middle right and you will see two blue wash tubs. They are antique and are right in the middle of last year's plants and this years. You can see the weeds encroaching once again but these will be easy to pull up.If you look again to the left, you will find another blue bucket, more weeds and a patch cleared of weeds. This area has much harder vegetation to clear, clumps of grass that need to be garden spaded out. I've gained quite a bit of ground though and once the rest of it is cleared, I'll be planting the lavender seedlings my green thumb gave me. The weeds in the middle, nearer the two large tubs, will take abut 4 hours to pull up.

If you enlarge the picture you will see lavender blooming in the back. These are also older plants and the stems were so short, that I didn't cut them this year and I left them for the bees. After the 4th of July I'll be pruning those too, giving the bees time to get their share but also to coincide with the waning moon as I am studying biodynamic gardening.  Andrew is talking me into experimenting with some organic weed control so we shall see. Speaking of Andrew, in the back of the picture is his central summer project.

The herb garden on the same night. It's gone feral as I've had my attention on the lavender these last three weeks. Soon I'll be bringing some semblance of order here. I planted a lot of seeds this spring and by now, they should be large enough for me to tell apart from the weeds.

Please enjoy this short clip of Maxwell grooming is plush little self. Like watching chickens scratch around, or fish in a tank, watching a cat lick it's fur can be quite meditative.

And for those on email, the link is here

Next post will be about lavender planting and then a day trip.

Sprawling Garden Post Part 2

A Strawberry moon rise for you:

The pictures in this post are pushing two to three weeks old. It's a real moment in time and I'm very excited for the next post that will feature a lot of great weather/sky photography. For now, let's catch up as much as we can with projects indoor and out.

Here is a picture of the second round of plants I received from my generous green thumb friend.

More hostas to block out weeds, and more tomatoes. The lavender was in the first batch but I was still waiting to pot them. They are potted now and will appear in the epic blog post about lavender season.

The 7 year old moon flower seeds showed signs of life within 5 days of planting.

And the morning glories really need thinned. I know I should thin them. But which ones to choose? I'll let them all go and grow up the trellis anyway.

Also on the back deck and already blooming on the trellis is our little climbing rose. His companion died years ago and this is the first year that he has had so many blooms.

And also on the back deck, the little tree I transplanted weeks ago:

He still leans a bit, but he's quite green. 

Check out our beautiful false indigo. It only lasts a little while before going to the seed pod stage. 

In the back forty we have some milkweed growing around the chicken pen for the monarch butterflies.

And here's a shot of Andrew's more established grapes, pruned up nicely. 

And some of the younger grapes:

Andrew working on keeping the weeds at bay.

Tutu enjoys being outside if the weather is nice.

And if the company is good. She loves hanging out on her MawMaw's and PawPaw's front porch. Guarding the property and watching squirrels.

The chickens Dad got in the spring are really growing, enjoying their new roost and ladder:

Here is a fun video of them enjoying the great outdoors, and some bread..

And for those getting the email, you can find the video at this link here


I want to thank my good friend David for all his help with the laptop I use to blog. He helped me pick it out, get it set up and continues to help me keep it updated and manage these video uploads. They are tricky!  Thank you David!



About a week has passed, shall we check on the moon flowers?

There are still some indoor projects going on too, like re-potting spider plants that were in these Terra cotta pots leftover from and old chia herb garden kit.

I actually think these pots are crap and that is one of the reasons they weren't doing very well. So the pots will serve as shards for drainage at the bottom for other pots.

They've settled in quite nicely in their new digs.

I'm enjoying putting little tchotckes



Other projects around the house include enjoying some quiet time to make some new summer jewelry with farmed cultured pearls and rose quartz.

I think these pastel dyed pearls look like butter mints...I can't eat them but I guess I can wear them!

And on an especially warm afternoon, a cool siesta with Maxwell is in order. Man, he does wonders for my complexion.

Until next time when we look at sun, clouds, rain, and color on the farm.

5 Summers, a Sketch

As I continue to do a little more writing beyond journaling and letters to friends, I thought I would try something a little more vignette on the blog. I will always attach the label "sketch" to signal to readers that these posts will be less pictures and more words.

I've been reveling in these clear breezy nights to garden. This includes cutting lavender, and soon pruning lavender. Planting lavender has passed and there will be a post about that later on.

Last night as I was watering the herb garden, well after sunset, my mind kept wandering to 5 summers ago, 2016.  I was convinced as I watered that today June 16th was the 4 year anniversary of the re-opening of Main Library...but the magnet on the fridge told me this morning that it was June 25th. As I write this on June 16th, who knows when I will post this. Time is just a construct when it comes to blogging.

See, I told you. More words and less pictures.

This, I took at 9:49 p.m. last night as I watered the herb garden and vegetable beds.

Never an early riser by choice, I do my best gardening and thinking afternoon and evening. I have always enjoyed watering by twilight or under the moon.  Four years ago, in mid-to late June the lavender had already been cut and I had spent weeks at Main Library wearing a hard hat, safety googles and yellow construction vest to help unpack books to be shelved. My back was hurting so badly at that time that shelving was largely beyond me and I withdrew books that had aged poorly in storage and would not be returning to the shelf for the shiny opening day but to be sold on the Friends of the Library book sale.

The only restroom was accessible by a twisting and ever changing route through the building to avoid back stairs that were being painted and other construction. A round trip to the restroom often took 20 minutes at a time. There wasn't access to a refrigerator so it was packed lunches.  Also, most stressful to me was the sensory overload of the repeated testing of dozens and dozens of smoke/fire alarms. I put my sunglasses on to mute the constant strobe lights flashing  since every time an alarm went off, they all went off that was the whole point. I probably wore ear plugs to to mute the sound of the wailing sirens throughout the building.  I remember that most of these week nights I would come home and do five things; take care of the pets, take care of the chickens, have some sort of dinner, water the garden, and do some restorative yoga poses. And shower. That's six things I guess,

supported child's pose

a variation of this basic legs up on a chair pose


The grand re-opening of Main is a blur to me now. I remember it being hot, and I was in a good amount of zinc sunscreen that made me look ghostly under a straw hat because I wasn't sure how long I would be outside.

I couldn't see anything because I'm so short. I got separated from my youth services colleagues in the hubbub of taking the marble Carnegie stars to the front lawn but managed to find a shady spot under the largest tree in the lawn and was beside a friend from another department.  Important people spoke. A ribbon was cut. It was hot. Cest la vie. (Yes I know there is an accent in there somewhere.)

Andrew was in nursing school, and had one more semester to go. It's a blur now. On nights that he was at the station, watering in the cool of evening was one of my more contemplative chores around the house.

I remember sitting on front porch seat and watching the stars come out and also watching the hummingbird hawk moths float/fly around the evening primroses in the herb garden. They were quite a site and always reminded me of the floppy butterfly Muppets on Sesame Street. 

I'm not going to lie, the intro to this video is bizarre, but you will get the idea of how big these moths are, and just imagine a half a dozen of them swirling around my garden in light just bright enough to see them.  And this picture will give you an idea what evening primroses are.

Just a few weeks before in May, Andrew and I had traveled to Virginia for a vacation where we tent camped for multiple days at Chippokes State Park.  We were only one of three campers on our wing of the campground and the only tent campers. I had the beautiful  cedar paneled bathroom to myself and it had a skylight and didn't smell so I was pleased. There was a beautiful historic farm at the park including an elaborate rabbit hutch housing a buff colored mini-lop named Peter Rabbit.

Everyday we took the ferry across...I think the James river to go to Jamestown, Yorktown, or Williamsburg. We passed an osprey nest on one of the concrete platforms in the water. The only thing I liked about Jamestown was the wetland that a bridge carried is over where we saw dozens of turtles of many sizes and a few species. I liked the tour of the Rockefeller's summer house at Williamsburg.

One of our tour guides was comically flinty and harsh...as if the lack of social skills made her seem more colonial. I bought a straw hat option without the garish shiny ribbon one can find out Wal-Mart but added a 6 dollar mark up to the hat and was shocked those were the only two hat options On our last night of the trip we stayed in a hotel and spent the evening in Charlotte. We went to this lovely independently owned cinema and watched Avengers Civil War.  The theater was so clean and I liked the color scheme of light purple, one could say it was lavender, and gray. As we waited for the previews I realized that I really liked the music the credit flashed quickly and all I could gather was "Heloise and Abelard" but the second song followed me. So much so that when we returned home I emailed the theater and tried to give them as much details as possible. The lyrics, the title, the movie we watched and when.

 A short disclaimer  This song link below is the not entirely appropriate for youngsters.

 I mean it played in front of Avengers movie that I think is PG13 but young readers you have been forewarned.

I didn't imagine anyone would get back to me and felt actually sad that  this moment of music I had barely registered was so important to me to find out. But in a couple weeks I did get a reply.  The artist is Kate Powell and she has done many songs but I still like these two the best, and Calla Lily is on my phone bookmarked, ready to play anytime. I find myself playing it though mostly in the summer, and who knows how many times I listened to it five summers ago. I don't relate to the character's lyrics, but I love her voice in this song and the quirky percussion. At the very end a neighborhood church's bells ring in the background. I listened to it for the first time this summer last night.

So much has happened these past 4 years. Molly my beloved tortoiseshell cat died just 6 months later in December just a couple weeks after Andrew's graduation from his RN program.  The next summer (2017) I would have just started my new job as Youth Services Manager at Bexley Public Library. I didn't yet know it but this is where I would make a lot of friends, meet some amazing new families, and and connect with an incredible yoga teacher practically right next door.

As I write this now, a cool breeze tells me it's nice enough to go out and prune some of my lavender plants...the old ones that I couldn't get to in the spring and on a lavender farm they would have been replaced 5 years ago.   I can hear the drill Andrew is running on the back forty on his latest building project for the property. He starts his Bachelor's in Nursing this fall. Rather than tent camp, we have a TAB trailer that provides more privacy, less ambient noise from partying campers and (angels sing) air conditioning. And we have Tutu, a dog I could not imagine having, who now seems like she has always been here, sunning herself as I type.

I haven't had evening primroses for two summers now. Something that just appeared in the herb garden every since we had an herb garden just slowly died out even when I planted seeds. I'm not sure why. Maybe something changed in the soil and they don't like it anymore. I hope to have them again someday but for now, I'm enjoying what I do have in my garden. The evening work calls, I will publish this now.

Of Birds and Magic

Well, I have a lot of content lined up, but wanted to get this when out next because the garden post is going to be a real sprawl of activity.

Recently I received two magical pieces of mail. Getting real mail from a real friend is still really exciting. I was lucky to get two such marvelous pieces of mail in the same week.

First, I got mail from Kathryn Seyerle, artist, poet and creator.

The robot sticker is especially appropriate as she made the beloved robot at Bexley Public Library that has been featured in several of my videos from home this spring. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWFYeWJo6_8

It was a pretty thick envelope, let's see what's inside shall we?

Now, who doesn't like a gold foil unicorn? And then...

OOOohhhh My own hand painted frame-able art card featuring one of the things I love most in the world!

But wait, there's more!

An adorable Instax mini picture of a flower garden on brick? Neat!

Get your own magical mail here.

Also known as creative care packages sure to make you catch your breath with quiet joy.

I got another lovely letter from a friend living out West and I had no expectation of any thing else but they sent me the item on the right.

A four leaf clover! Now that's friendship. I am pretty sure if I found a four leaf clover, I would keep it for myself, but this gem of a friend thought fit to put it in the mail over 1,000 miles for me. 

And, I got it the same week of another lovely surprise, the Killdeer egg that you see on the left. I have blogged about Killdeer before, as almost every spring I have one nest in the lavender field because they love to nest in gravel. I did not get a good picture of the Killdeer on her nest this year, but I have dug around from a previous blog post to give you an idea of what the eggs, nest, and bird look like. This first picture is the Killdeer actually doing their broken wing act to draw my attention away from the nest. 

I noticed her on Monday May 4 when I was hanging sheets on the line. It takes 21 to 28 days to incubate and the hatched out on Tuesday May 26th. This means I did not weed in the lavender for three weeks. This will be covered in another blog post I assure you.

Anyway, they nest just about every year in the gravel of the lavender. The first spring we were in the house, we actually had a pair nest in the middle of the driveway and I put a traffic cone by it so nobody would run over it when the bird wasn't sitting on it.

Every year I try to collect one of the egg shells and I never manage to. I don't know why I haven't been able to as the eggs are fairly large and you would think heavier and travel less far, especially when I'm monitoring the nest every day or two. 

I was lamenting to Andrew about it Tuesday night as we heard the Killdeer family calling to each other in the yard. Then he mentioned he saw an egg while weedwhacking, large, with brown red speckles by the wooden fence just past the willow tree. 

And it was still there!

The chick literally hatched out of the narrow end of this egg, it's almost completely whole! Then I found what I think is the broken end on the way to taking care of the chickens.This is a real treasure and while I didn't get good photos of the bird this year, I did manage to get on a lark this video of the four babies in the front yard! It's grainy, and my narrative isn't David Attenborough quality, but check it out. If you are getting the email follow the link for the video. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDNUKBe2ADQ&t=29s

But this is not all the bird news. We have at least two robins nesting, I know we have at least one mockingbird nest but I'm not sure where, and we have another nest in the lavender, a ground sparrow! 

Five tiny eggs, less than half the size of a Killdeer egg and a nest that could fit in the palm of my hand with room to spare. I kept spooking the little brown wren walking too close to comfort to her plant to weed. I finally broke down and looked around to see what I could find. This was last week. I'll check in on them when the warm front passes.  Luckily since she is so well covered in the plant, I can work in the lavender (and boy have I since the Killdeer hatched) without disturbing her just as long as I walk in from another angle.

Spring wouldn't be complete with out a Robin's nest. 

And another nest has hatched already.

Just this morning I found another eggshell while walking Tutu. It could have been a ground sparrow egg or maybe a mockingbird's, I need to do more research but I am going to go with ground sparrow because this little guy is smaller than a robin's egg and mockingbirds are bigger than robins, or at least very close to the same size 

And here it is beside the killdeer egg and a Monarch butterfly (found dead) for scale.

And some less happy bird news.

I think one of the bluebirds got nailed by a cooper's or sharp shinned hawk. I think it was the female. 

I have plans for this blue feather, the Killdeer egg, and the four leave clover, I just have to find the right item to pull it all together. 

To learn more about Killdeer, one of my favorite birds, go here.

There is still more bird news not directly on the property but in the neighborhood, like my parents' cottonwood tree by the yard has orioles yet again.

The orioles have been coming around on and off for over 15 years now and they always nest in this giant cottonwood by the pond. 

Down the road there's a rooster pheasant that survived hunting season.

He paid for his life with his tail it would appear to have been shot clean off. Even though he can't regrow his feathers from the close call, it's not stopping him from living his best life and strutting his stuff for the ladies.