Short and Scary!

January 29, 201934 Comments

There is an old joke that goes like this:

Q: What is worse than finding a worm in your apple?

A: Finding half a worm.

So this is no joke…

Q: What is worse than finding a half or whole worm in your apple?

A: Finding a dead Brown Recluse in the bottom of your apple bowl!

I filled the bowl before Christmas with Granny Smith apples and have slowly been rooting and whittling away at them; using them up.

What a shock to empty the bowl and find one of these! Dead thankfully.

Brown recluse (Loxosceles) spider legspan size

Image found here: https://www.verywellhealth.com/how-to-tell-its-not-a-brown-recluse-1298236

I assume it died because it couldn’t crawl out of the bowl. However, questions remain:

Was it there and dead when the apples went in? The bowl had been stored awhile.
Did it come in with the apples from the grocers?
Did it just find its way up to the table top and then into the bowl?

I am guessing the first. The butler’s cupboard as we call it is dark and the items on the top shelves are rarely used.

Still it is creepy to contemplate

Hard to see in this very dark bowl.

But there she is!

What dangerous creatures have you unwittingly stumbled upon on?

A Wild and Wet Wednesday

January 23, 20198 Comments

This morning is wet and blustery as I sit at the computer reading email and cleaning out my inbox. Stuck inside I dream of spring and what I want to accomplish when it arrives.

A gust of wind smashes the large bush that grows in front of my window and I suddenly notice the birds that have taken refuge in its branches. Hanging on tightly they are blown this way and that, yet seem unconcerned by the wild ride. Instead, between gusts, they manage to move from branch to branch to consume the red berries there.

Closest to the window is a female cardinal

Do you see her? Can you make out the other visitor in this scene?

The other visitor is more clearly defined here

A bit easier to catch after she moved from behind the wettest part of the screen.

Which gives me two reasons to finally clean this window and remove the screen. I never open this window anyway so why not?

IF YOU NOTICED YOU MIGHT ASK: Why is there white tissue paper hanging in front of this window? Well, I haven’t exactly made the shades planed to be installed under the cornice and valance I made last year. Ergo, the tissue keeps the morning sun from blinding me while I work!

Perhaps instead of dreaming of spring I should use this down time to make those shades? 😉

Ultra short!

October 10, 2018October 10, 201821 Comments

Good Morning!

It is the crack of dawn as I sit here in front of the computer in my studio. Outside my window grows a very large viburnum (Cardinal Candy by name). It is always busy with birds during the daylight hours, but this morning it has one visitor.

A lovely Mockingbird who is singing a serenade, and seemingly, just for me.

Beautiful!

Playing Catch-up: notes on life here and on the mountain

July 11, 201425 Comments

Spring came to the Mountain Farmlet and left.

Summer brought tall grass,

: You can’t tell it, but the grass is almost 4 feet tall in some places

: Trees along the back: gone (this is where you can now see straight through the length of the property.

: I mowed all around the house and the outbuildings

: And lastly I mowed a wide path to the woodland trail.

Insects,

: A Button bush plays host to butterflies…

: Carpenter bees and…

: A blueberry colored Damselfly with jewel green eyes!!

Assorted vining summer flowers,

: Raindrops on wild grapes

: two inch orange tubes of Trumpet creeper (aka: Campsis radicans)

: that open to herald in the nectar lovers

: Bignona: gone

*It may be a Crossvine (aka: Cross-Vine, Trumpet Flower (Bignonia capreolata)) LOOK HERE

mushrooms,

: A chewed red mushroom,

: another golden variety, also chewed,

: and a trail of whites growing under the oaks in the leaves and moss

and too much heat.

While I mowed the day away, Bob kept busy with string trimming, and push mowering the areas I can’t get into with the riding mower. When he was done, he took a rest, ate lunch, and then continued work on our new compost station!

NOTE TO SELF: build a wire cover for the beginning bin if we intend to continue to using if for kitchen scraps! The skunks paid it a visit after the last dump. Or, maybe we should start a wormery?

~*~*~*~

Our collective health has taken a blow, and consequently so has our bank account. Not to whine, well OK, I am going to whine: $800.00 for Bob to take an ambulance ride? And of course our new insurance did not cover it! RIDICULOUS! (I want to tell you more about this, but not now.)

All this has us just keeping up with weed abatement and clearing the trail into the woods. Mowing, and by that I mean just around the house, pond and outbuildings, and the paths through to the tall grass to the trail, etc. takes me *6 to 7 hours.

It is hard work and the pastures would be better tended by a flock of goats and my geese, but we are in a holding pattern while we catch up from medical bills.

Fall and Winter will find us back at work on the inside of the little farmhouse. In the meantime we continue to peel away the layers of wallpaper and paneling to prepare for new joists, plumbing , electrical, closing up the walls, and painting.

All things in good time, eh?

*RE: Hours of lawn mowing – Follow this link to a humorous but serious treatise shared on Ruth’s Chickens which contemplates the state of lawns and nature: HERE!