Indecision here I am

Indecision may or may not be my problem.
Jimmy Buffett 

I laughed when I read this. Wasting away again in Margaritaville. Which is not my problem. I just have a lot of unfinished projects.

Usually there is something that happens during the week, or sometime over the weekend that sticks with me and I write. Or the garden does something amazing and I write. This time I could not choose. My thoughts were like a ping-pong ball bouncing in a dodecahedron. So I am a day late. 

I found another dead animal, stripped of  most of it's flesh, with one small orange, black and white patch of fur that was untouched. Why that one patch? The patch was about the size of a dollar coin, except it was oval. I looked for the skull, I love animal skulls, I don't see it yet. 

The little cherrie tomatoes that are on the twenty volunteers are the most incredible little packages of concentrated flavor. I have never tasted anything like them. For us tomato lovers they are amazing. 

I took a couple of days off, which gave me a four day weekend. The luxurious feeling of free time was quite nice, I tackled a lampshade I needed to do, I still have to stitch it to the frame, but the start is made. I created a curtain for a small closet from a sheet. 

I tried unsuccessfully to cut some wine bottles. Talk about a crap shoot. I watched a couple of videos and went with the technique of scoring the bottle and pouring hot water on the score line. It looked so simple in the utube vid. There are now eight bottle tops in the recycling. What I really want are the bottoms, but no sense in wasting the tops. I have an idea for planters. My thought is that glass in the garden probably won't break when it falls on the ground. Maybe.

It was a gorgeous weekend, lots of boats on the river, hawks in the sky, When it gets still and hot the dragon flies swarm, which is quite cool. Occasionally the big green and white striped beetles go nuts when there is a light on. Beetles are my favorite insect and they are everywhere. I have not seen one praying mantis. 

I hope you had a focused weekend.

A Small Death

Wild animals are just as confused as people are now. You've got toxins in the water, oil, sewage, all sorts of things.
Jack Hannah 

I made the rounds with the dog this morning, We have a regular route, he has things he likes to sniff and see if there are any messages there for him. It gives me a chance to check out the yard and I make mental notes about what I need to do. I listen to the birds. Sometimes I find an owl feather, occasionally a pile of feathers. Hardly ever a dead body. This morning after we had circled the house and were walking out from under our huge fig tree. I found a dead possum. About five feet from a faucet, near a huge saucer I leave out for water and only twenty five feet from the house. The flies were buzzing around but it didn't smell. It wasn't a huge old possum, but more like a young adult possum. It;s eyes were open. The dog didn't seem in the least bit interested, which I found odd, but I took the dog into the house anyway. I grabbed  a shovel, dug a hole and buried it. I put some logs over the grave. Poor thing. It had a small hole on its underside, so something probably got it, but I also thought maybe it ate some poison. I said a little prayer for it's soul. Yes, I think animals have souls. 

Possums are interesting creatures. From a distance they look like a big rat. As I was carrying it to it's final resting place I had time to study it. Assembled by committee. Their little hands ( paws or claws ) are brown and leathery, with padded bottoms and formidable claws. Nasty sharp little teeth. The tail is very much like its smaller cousin but it has bands of dark and light. But what really struck me as odd were its ears. They reminded me of those little leather ears they stick on stuffed animals. For such a large animal, they were small: an inch and a half at most. The same dark brown as the feet and hands. The body is covered by course light and dark fur. But the ears look like they were put on last - the committee ran out of money for the ears and that was all they could afford. 

I see them dead on the road often. Sometimes waddling across the road.  I drive slowly at night for exactly that reason: small animals. They probably are confused. Why in the world would they understand a car? As a rule I don't think a lot of people give a hoot about how what they do affects the animals around them. I live on a very pesticide and herbacide free piece of property. The Sacramento River is just outside my back door. My Landlord had the well water tested, there is the average stuff, and an increasing number of not so great things. I leave water out for the animals, but it is only filtered by the rock and soil of the land surrounding the well. If they drink straight from the river who knows how much oil, and gasoline, and sewage they get. 

So today, no pictures, just a few words for one of the small creatures that I share my space with. May this one possum rest in peace. 

Harvest

Onions and beets

Yellow onions in the ground

Black berries ripening

Care less for your harvest than for how it is shared and your life will have meaning and your heart will have peace.
Kent Nerburn 

I like this quote a lot. I try to share what I grow. Whereas my red onions were a dismal failure, the yellow ones have been a great success. Good size, all healthy, not too hot. They fell over about two weeks ago, and I have just now had time to pull them . The beets are an ongoing harvest but some were getting a little bit big. The smaller tender ones went to my landlords', while the larger ones were steamed and put into a batch of pickled Eggs and Beets for a friend. I have been picking and freezing black berries for a month now. I freeze them on a cookie sheet, which keeps the berries separate, and easier to work with. The black berry bushes are a nuisance, they grow everywhere, and require constant pruning, but the taste of a warm black berry is divine. They have more antioxidants than blue berries. The dog likes them too. 

The Sunflowers are easily 12 feet tall, and the corn has ears. Remember the beans and squash I planted with the corn? Well for all my earnest efforts, they are struggling for sunshine. So "Three Sisters" has not worked well for me. My peppers are starting to produce. The basil is trying to flower, Ha! I am too quick. I have found I like it chopped in salad. I have been enjoying the collard greens now for a couple of weeks. I am going to have a lot of fennel seed. The lettuce did well despite the extremely hot weather. That was nice. 

I love having a garden. It is everything that is good about life. 

Happy Summer!

Summer 2013, Resilience

Echinacea species

Echinacea species with bee

Sunflowers and Corn Tassels

Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before.

Elizabeth Edwards 

Everything is a month early. The fields of Sunflowers on San Juan Rd. here in Sacramento, have responded to the early heat by being only three feet tall with full heads. They are now bent over and dry. Too much heat, too soon. But they still did their job and did what they planned on doing. They grew, they made flowers, they made seed and now they are dying. Not what the farmer had planned, but the best the Sunflowers could do.

Plants and flowers are resilient. They have to be. They are survivors. And it really takes a lot to kill a plant. The Echinacea aka Cone Flower, is actually a wildflower that has been bred to be pretty too, in all sorts of colors it never dreamed it could be. You can see why it is called cone flower if you look at the different flowers in the left photo. As they mature the center turns into a bristly cone on seeds. This is a wonderful plant, beautiful, medicinal, and the bees love it. They have been hovering around this clump for two weeks, gleaning every bit of pollen. I am hoping this year, because of the bees, I will get some really viable seed. I save seeds for everything. I wait to cut these back until they are way dead and dry. For this plant the survival mechanism is two fold: they produce seed, and they have a clump of roots that just takes a long snooze when the flowers are through. This clump as been through a flood that put 3 feet of water around the lower portion of my house for two weeks. While I was getting my second degree, I didn't always water as much as I needed to. Did they care? NO! Wildflowers love harsh conditions. They are the ones telling God  "Bring it on, I can take it." The 110 degree weather, even though I watered very well, that is still very hot. I could hear the Echinacea laughing. 

The Sunflowers and Corn have a little bit different story. I am sure this is some sort of "Monsanto" Monster Corn  variety. The Sunflowers are a hybrid grown mostly for the flowers. ( Yes, I will save the seed ) I grew Corn once when I was a kid, and once here. I am doing something wrong because it never does very well for me. Dug in a whole bag of manure. This is a four foot long by 2 foot wide bed. They are very tall - this picture is showing flowers and tassels a good three feet or more over my head. The Sunflowers seem happy. The Corn not so much. I did a Three Sisters planting this year. "Plant the Beans and squash when the Corn is a foot tall. Plant sunflowers to provide extra support. Too late. The corn and sunflowers took off like a shot, shaded the beans and squash. Then the corn stared falling over. This is one of those disasters I would rather not share, but who are we if not our failures too? But this brings us back to resiliency. The corn are all producing tassels, and I may get a few ears of corn, with maybe a kernel or two. I will take photos and share them when it happens. I am not expecting Farmers Market corn here. 

When I have days of self doubt, feel like the long bout of under employment is taking it's toll, I walk in my yard, I look at the river. I remember I am very fortunate to live here, I am very talented, and that I am also very resilient as well. I always do my best, anything less is an insult to my garden.