Fences, rocks, snakes and some spring onions

A short update, as one is overdue but I'm too tired to do a proper update just now.

Among recent events, no doubt you've heard about our flooding up in Massachusetts; lucky me, I had some of it in my apt, although compared to many I got out alright: no evacuation, just a couple weeks of inconvenience while I stayed elsewhere during the repairs. Whew. Counts self lucky and moves along thankyouverymuch.

After weeks of rain, the sun abruptly came out this weekend and gave us 70 degree days (80 on Saturday where I was). I cranked through some much needed work in the garden. I put up the fence posts for some places that really needed it in the garden plot; enjoyed the birds (they were carrying on a wild spring symphony themselves); and was pleasantly surprised to find two cute little grass snakes in my overgrown garden. I guess they might have been hunting field mice? Not sure, will have to look it up later. At any rate, here is one of them: you'll have to look closely, but he's stripey, and his head is next to a green leaf - nature is pretty good at camouflage.




The daffodils are coming up, so i grabbed a couple to bring home and enjoy. Last but not least I found some very randomly sprung up scalions. Tiny, but I'm okay with that. The back aches now, and I'm ready to hit the shower. So here, unsightly but practical, is how part of the new fence looks. Notice I've made the fence part of a future coldframe. Yeah. That's why it looks soooo fabulous (sarcasm alert!!)
That's all the news for now. I still haven't re-hooked up the computer at home, but when I do I'll get back to my regular posting once more. Yay. Spring. Finally.



- Posted from my iPhone...

Thinking healing thoughts

Simply stunned and reeling that my friend Katie (GardenPunk blogger, flickr photographer, avid Twitter user, and all-around healthy soul and cheerful person) could ever be so abruptly and unfairly felled and hospital-ridden by what has turned out to be bacterial meningitis.

Judging by the hundreds of signatures and lengthy thoughts left on her caringbridge.com site created by her sister, I know that I'm among many many people who were touched by her generous friendship over the years.

Katie, by now I know you've been read all our messages, and we are all sleepless and thinking all kinds of healing thoughts your way. I know you're getting good care in the hospital. Get well soon. We (and it's such a very numerous 'we') all miss you !!!

I know most of you reading this alreaady know Katie through her writings on the blog and so on, but for the few who don't, suffice to say that a great number of us on the world feel that Katie is Good People, and we care about her and our thoughts are with her family.


- Posted from my iPhone...

Winter distractions

Miscellanea:

Sometimes I stop into the la-dee -dah store that has an attached greenhouse so that while I'm picking up a jar of spaghetti sauce, I can get a dose of tropical foliage. It's actually not very busy in winter, but it's nice to be able to wander in and enjoy the hanging plants and flowers, even though it's 8:30pm on a bitter cold Tuesday.




Along my morning commute I get treated to a strange vision each morning. I have to say that this nativity scene has been bothering me all season. It's the three kings, particularly that one on the right; the posture, the expression, the look on the face all contribute to the impression that that he's just tripped over something behind him. Or caught some bubblegum on his shoe, I don't know.





Finally, some more of my seedlings have come up. The colder and more grey it gets, the more I look forward to seeing the little green shoots.



Pumpkin




carrots, if you can believe it- even if at this stage they look more like oat grass...



And of course beans :)

Myopia dog sled races

Meet... Snow Dog!!!




We attended the sled dog race eventvat the Myopia Hunt club up in Hamilton, MA, and between racers going by, my friend K decided snow sculpture was in order. Bring your own fun - especially if you didn't think ahead to bring your own tailgate party:



-
This division was all young racers and they did a great job.



Posted from my iPhone...

Carrot seedlings!

Okay. It's official- I'm now excited. The carrot seedlings are up. Last time I planted some, they simply failed. Hopefully these will do better.




- Posted from my iPhone...

More seedlings!

I can't help it. The more winter sets in, the more my little seedlings cheer me up. Here are a few more- hopefully future carrots. The second photo is of the progress of the 'zeolights' variety I planted.







Posted from my iPhone...

Post-snow sunshine

And cold. So say the rhododendron leaves outside my window.


- Posted from my iPhone...

Seedlings!

The first two tentative little seedlings showed this morning. Yay!


- Posted from my iPhone...

Happy New Year!

Resting indoors and pondering the early seed catalogs (thank you Lee Valley and Johnny's) after having surveyed the damage the wind and snow wrought on my little plot.


I'm glad to see all the various posts from gardeners talking about their spring plans. It's encouraging at least, even though I realize that with the soil newly frozen in my neck of the woods I can expect at least two to three more months of indoor activities and container plant tending before I can dig outdoors. 2009 really threw some monkeywrenches into the works for me, but I hope this coming year may go a little more gently on me and everyone around me.

Here's wishing you all the best for the new year. See you in the garden!


- Posted from my iPhone...

Mountain lions, mold, and snow storms

At last, an update. It's been far too long, I know, but this summer's monsoon and plague of mold on our tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants - along with everything else - was just too discouraging. Then, I had a lengthy business trip that took me out of state during a critical period at the garden when I would otherwise have tried planting for an optimistic fall crop. Such is life.

I'm working on setting up some window boxes for a potential winter crop, using the little white fairy lights - if, that is, my feline buddy allows it. As always - we'll see. Speaking of whom, we had an adventure last week that thoroughly messed up my holiday-card writing, among other things. As my cousin put it, it was a mountain lion attack. Sort of.

the story...
Yes, that's him. Drugged to the gills in that photo, by the way. But I'm getting ahead of myself. See the windowsill behind him? He was up there, with a (now moved to the floor) strawberry pot. He got into a hissing, poofy-tailed snit about a neighbor cat wandering by outdoors, and did the usual feline flip-out. I ignored him. A few minutes pass while I'm still sitting below the window, reading & knitting. Given that I had my back against that wall there, I didn't see what set off the next chain of events, but I think he was still hopping around, hissing at the leaves twitching in the gusty wind.

Normally, I ignore him when he gets twitchy.

He must have bumped into that clay pot, thought it was something attacking him, and whipped around to "attack" it - at any rate both of them tumbled out of the window, and onto me. In the process, he sunk his teeth & claws into my right hand & arm, probably trying to stop his fall, but clearly he had no idea what he was doing. He then retreated under the computer desk, hissing and yowling as if I had bitten him. In the mean time, I had to head to the ER: the punctures from his teeth were pretty deep (they hit tendons). Happily, I am fine, and after a week of antibiotics and a splint on my arm to protect further injury to my tendons/give them a chance to rest, I am newly appreciative of being able to use both hands. I don't do well as an obligate lefty, or so I learned.

George, on the other hand, is still healing from his part of the adventure: apparently he managed to break/twist one of his claws and part of another on the way down. At first, I thought the blood was mine, and he wouldn't let me near him for the rest of the day, and I was in no position to argue. Later, it was clear that it wasn't only my blood on his paw. To the vet we went, and what a pair we were. It shows how injured he was that he was even willing to walk into his pet-carrier without a fight. Surgery and drugs for him, a splint for me. Good times! We're both on the mend now, and I'm looking forward to planting and digging in the spring. I hope everyone's having a wonderful holiday season, and staying warm in spite of the snow. Just remember, the old farmer's almanack always used to call snow "poor man's fertilizer" - so hopefully our gardens will be a little less stressed out this spring. Expect some photo-posts once I get the little seedlings started in my windowboxes.

Now, I'm going to go listen to some carols ~