The Mountain Thymes

 OMG!  I'm my parents!  I know they can see how I've become them because their energy , their aura is in the garden, in our woodworking, in the kitchen.  More and more I understand why they needed their quiet times when they just sat and read. No talking. No TV. No noise. Just the sound of silence allowing peace and calm..... serenity.  Cliff is working with the fire department right now setting up scaffolding and stairs for tomorrow's funeral for one of their volunteers who died suddenly Monday.  The house is quiet.  At this age, it has a deeper meaning. We still have two hummingbirds coming to the feeders. I think they're both females.  Usually the males arrive first in the spring and leave first in the fall. Also ,this is the first time I've seen red-breasted grosbeaks in the fall coming to our feeders.  Instead of the spring bright red-breast feathers, males in the fall display squash-orange colors.  I wonder if they brighten up whe...

 Whew!  Here's hoping the  humid tropical energy is done and gone after it caused havoc to my body and joints during the six or seven weeks it lingered out in the gulf and ocean.   Recently we moved the fire pit from where it's been setting for years up near the garage down the hill overlooking the garden.  Cliff added so many containers for my kitchen gardens that the the pit didn't work there anymore. He's cleared away debris and leaves and eventually we'll have rock on the hill.  Digging into a mountain is nearly impossible so he leveled the pit as much as he could. It's a start.  He took resting breaks between digging and placing rocks. I couldn't help place rocks because it would have caused hand pain hours later.  Now that cooler weather has arrived, we can work outside more and putter at our projects. It's almost time to plant my fall garlic for a late spring harvest.  It can't believe how quickly time flies.   We added ...

 Evil hummingbirds misbehaving................ Keeping their eyes on each other before settling to drink............. a female (left) and male (right)   We've had some travelers from up northern stop at our feeders on their journey southward.  The travelers cause quite a ruckus.  When Cliff and I are sitting out on the back porch, the birds totally ignore us as they chase each other down through the center of the porch flying by our heads.  We only have about three more weeks of their entertainment before they return to their winter homes.  This  strange spring/summer with the pandemic and the bizarre wet weather with no sunny days was a blur in our memories. I'm already imagining  what I can do differently next March in the gardens. Cliff had a hankering for "cottage pie."  Real shepherd's pie is made with cute little innocent lambies but Cliff scrambled hamburg for his cottage pie.  The internet said using hamburg was cottage pie,...

 No more fuzzy dice! A common sight now is a face mask dangling from one ear a person leaves a building, or over the rear view mirror but today was the best sighting.  Driving through the Walmart parking lot looking for a space was a woman with one face mask swaying from the rear view mirror and three more white and blue masks lined up across her dashboard.  We've trained our brains to a whole different routine when going out to do errands. Face mask.  Check.  Hand sanitizer.  Check.  Ziplock bag with homemade cloth disinfectant wipes.  Check.  Ready to do errands.  Cliff's prize tomato plant rests in peace, cut into portable sections, and placed in the woods.  As the rest of the tomatoes ripened, they were set on the kitchen counter to be made into a nice Italian salsa di pomodoro.   One large juicy tomato took its place  on a BLT!  A delectable taste we haven't enjoyed in many years.   We're always wa...

 I figured I'd sit early to blog since I don't seem to settle long enough at the computer during the summer months.  Every time the computer does a big update, all the familiarity is gone and I have to navigate around looking for new ways to post what used to do easily.  There was another big update last night.  Our days are full and we move slower.  I really dislike moving slower but it's been advised to keep me from bumping elbows when speeding through doorways or bruising a shin when not paying attention to where I'm heading.  Every bump, bruise and slight cut on the arm or leg when working in the yard sets off inflammation.  So I'm mindful of my moves.   Early morning temperatures have been surprisingly pleasant.  This morning is 67 degrees, humid with fog settling in.  We can't remember the last time the sunrise has greeted us.  Every morning is either very foggy or covered with thick rain clouds waiting to empty on us....

Cliff's seven foot tall True Black Brandywine standing proudly in the container garden.  It's full of green tomatoes that are slow to ripen this year.  Finally weeks ago the one on the right started showing a color change.  He said the left one was probably embarrassed and figured it had better follow suit.  Tomorrow he'll pick the ripest one but I'm not sure he'll let me cut into it to make a fresh-tomato sandwich.  I think he's expecting a tomato-picking ceremony.  And......he wants to save the prize seeds for next year's garden.  Also in a container is a Cuor di Bue Albenga that stopped growing at this height.  It's pencil thin and produced only one blossom.  It's planted in the same soil as the Brandywine, gets fed and watered at the some time. I chose Cour di Bue Albenga seeds because it's an Italian heirloom that's great for fresh eating, canning, and making sauce.  It's disease resistant and produces a nice pear-shap...

Over two dozen yellow and green beans were planted in May. This is my harvest.  With every visit to the garden, I found missing bean leaves, chewed down until only a bare naked stem stood.  The garden is wrapped in a wire fence with tent stakes holding it tight to the ground.  There were never deer prints in the clay but we know we have the large bunny residing nearby.  I kept thinking the bunny was too large to fit through wire squares and we checked for openings often.  Mice can squeeze through a nickel-size opening but I never expected this large bunny to be able to get through this fence.  A few evenings ago I stood on the back porch admiring  the garden and the full lushness of the forest from all the rain we've had.  The air was still, not even a slight breeze, but one of the Swiss chard leaves was swaying back and forth.  Then large bunny moved on to the next leave and blew his cover.  Cliff and I stealthy  sneaked down to...