Friday, August 17, 2018

Reviewing The Week With Photos



Mornings have dawned grey, wet, overcast this week, although there have been sporadic hours of sunshine most days.
Rain was drumming on the roof, lightning zipping above the ridge,  as I attempted to fall asleep in the earliest hours of Friday morning.  At 5 a.m. the landscape was wrapped in green darkness and the sound of rain was dominant.
I've been only briefly at the new property this week, although Jim has worked there and made good progress in excavating for the foundation.  Thursday's rain put paid to that project, but a run up the ridge before breakfast today proved that the ground is draining well.


The nearest neighbor at Turkey Flatt keeps a jack at stud. The jack's pasture and that of this boarded mare is on our route in and out of our property.
The foal was about 9 days old when we stopped to admire him and take photos.


Who would have thought a baby mule could be this cute?



I spent some time tidying the straggling nasturtiums in my porch planters.
Nasturtiums get messy quickly--yellowing limp leaves, long trailing stems, but they are a favorite since childhood.
I leave some of the blooms to go to seed and poke the dried seeds back into the soil.
With pruning I should have fresh bloom until the first frost.


The dreadful scourge of Japanese beetles seems to be over for another season.
The rugosa that leans over the side steps to the landing is opening fresh, fragrant clusters of blossoms.


Double Red Knockout is a cliche in this region--a true landscape stalwart. The fragrance is very light.
The beauty of these is their habit of repeat bloom and the ability to bounce back after the beetles leave.  I clip the freshest blooms nearly every day, line them up on the kitchen windowsill in a variety of small jugs and vases. 


A praying mantis has domiciled in a clump of Joe Pye weed below the cement landing.
I brought this plant in from the upper meadow last summer--part of the effort [not entirely successful] to use native plants to choke out weeds in that gravelly area.


The blooms of okra are exotic--similar to a hibiscus.  The process from bloom to a grotesquely overgrown pod of okra is very rapid.  We enjoy a side dish of fried okra but can't keep up with the quantity.  I snip off over-grown pods and let them fall to the ground.  The stems and leaves of the okra plant are irritating to the skin. Sometimes I remember to pull on a long-sleeved shirt prior to harvesting the pods.


Another view of the rugosa as the mid-morning sun burned away fog and mist.



I spent a morning grubbing along the side porch. Spent poppy stalks, the gone-to-seed clary sage, clumps of shallow-rooted grass--all removed.  Strange to think this likely won't be my garden when another spring rolls around. I wonder if the new owners will like the clary, the poppies and the cockscomb which self-seed in that area.


Jim has done more excavating since this photo was taken. 

I've done some sewing this week at odd moments--found some really nice denim skirts at Goodwill earlier in the summer--I like them as an alternative sometimes to jeans or pedal pushers --but they were ankle length, which tends to trip me up. Three of them nicely shortened and patch pockets made using the cut off material for the one that had no pockets. Navy blue skirt [new!] in a suede-like fabric shortened and ready for fall wearing.
Sleeves shortened and new cuffs made for a lovely soft 'jean jacket' made of a rayon/tencel fabric--I'm planning to wear it to church over a flowing crinkled silk skirt.

For many years I made my own clothes--as well as for my daughter and my nieces--now I put my energies in other directions and happily repurpose my finds from consignment or charity shops--often 'new with tags.' 
My 'everyday' clothing takes a beating: garden soil, paint, the cooking smudges that evade my apron. 

Three books read on rainy evenings--Ann Cleeves' final book in the Shetland/Jimmy Perez series will be out in a few weeks, so I'm speed-reading the earlier books to put myself back in the picture.

This evening I was inspired to rummage out packages of frozen fruit--blackberries, peaches, blueberries--made a crumble for a church dinner, and another with dropped buttermilk biscuit topping for Jim.
We each had a helping served warm from the oven and lavished with whipped cream.
A pleasant ending to a long day!


14 comments:

  1. Gosh, I haven't had any time this summer to read blogs, so I didn't know. You are moving??! I thought you loved where you were. Same area???

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    1. Nan; We do love it here, but two large houses with their outbuildings and land will increasingly become a burden to keep up. Our friends who rent the lower property will be retiring in June 2019--so, we're looking to downsize. The new property is less than 5 miles up the ridge, and the house we're building there will be smaller, more efficient.

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    2. How wonderful! Aren't you lucky to be able to build and so close! I love the term "up the ridge" and can't even imagine what it means.

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    3. Nan; 'Ridges' and 'hollers' are the local landscape--lots of creeks and winding roads that follow them, then lurch up over steep hills--the 'ridges.' The land we've purchased is a few miles up the ridge road from our farm on a dead-end spur road.

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  2. What a wonderful newsy post! Great photos too. Will your new house be built by next spring? You mentioned the new owners enjoying your self-seeding plants then, so I just wondered.

    Have a very nice weekend ~ FlowerLady

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    1. Rainey; We expect to be in temporary quarters at the new property before the end of the year--if the sale of our present home goes as planned. Not sure when the house will be 'finished' but we have a history of moving into a half-finished house and continuing to build.

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  3. Gosh, you'll be in quick then. Obviously the prettyfying of it (e.g. wall plaster??) will take a bit longer.

    I've been looking at that gravelly yellow soil and wondering what will grow well in it?

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    1. Jennie; The time line is very flexible at this point. Soil with a red [iron?] color is quite common in the south. Jim has removed a deep layer of topsoil and piled it aside to be brought back around the house when it is finished. He hoped that he wouldn't encounter ledge in his excavation and that didn't happen. Much of what you see in the photo is a shaley subsoil which has yielded easily to the backhoe.
      Not sure how large a garden plot we will establish, but will likely be looking for good composted 'manure' to work in as humus.

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  4. I do hope your new build goes well and you are moved, in record time. Baby mules are always cute! lol

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  5. Michelle; I don't want to think about delays--but they could happen!
    This is the first baby mule I've ever met--we happened to drive by yesterday just as he flopped down in the mud--and quickly got up shaking himself and kicking.

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  6. Wow everything happening at a rush, but you are so lucky to be able to build at a moment's notice, it would take years in England for permission. Good luck with everything, what an adventure!

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  7. Thelma; Being in a rural area and having a larger [20 acres] property scales back the applications and permits that need to be approved.
    The field engineer from the power company had to view the site and give preliminary approval and is required to make a final inspection of wiring and issue a certificate of occupancy when the house is completed. The codes for septic system are more lenient with a larger property also. Building on a city or suburban lot would be more complicated.

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  8. I'm already missing your place, but I'm sure the new one will be an adventure too. Yes, the okra looks like an hibiscus.

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  9. Phil; I will miss the big 'farmhouse' kitchen and the view down the lane from the side porch. Our new property is about 3 1/2 miles up the ridge road, so we're not leaving the neighborhood we've grown to like.

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