Blog Archives
Web crawlers
She guards the tomatoes. Every evening she labors. She weaves, waits, and weaves some more. It is miles of silk to her. Impressive to us. Five feet across and tall, and begins three feet above the ground. A perfect circle. In the morning, it’s gone. She never leaves a strand of silk to warn others of her lair.
She’s one of many who live in the garden. One of many different species who weave their webs each day or night. She’s the largest.
We have water spiders who weave their webs over the pond. Their oddly shaped webs are as strange as the spiders who weave them. They are delicate and difficult to photograph.
Spiders, if they stay in the gardens, I’m fine with them, but come into my house and well…
Garden gossip
I should have waited another week to pick the watermelon. It wasn’t ripe. I do have another one growing. Maybe this time I’ll know better. I don’t know if I’ll try growing them again next year or go for a small seedless variety.
The tomatoes are turning red now that we’ve had a few cool nights. In another day, at least two will be ready for picking. Next week I can harvest the two eggplants in the back garden. Yum, fried eggplant is one of my favorites. The first one I’ll fry and the next one I’ll grill. Yeah, sometimes I need to cook healthy stuff. DH will only eat them fried so I’ll share the grilled ones with G. There will be many more to pick after that because the potted eggplant plant is loaded with them. (Next year all the eggplants will go into pots.) G and I can enjoy some moussakka and other dishes with the others since DH quickly tires of eggplant. He can have hamburgers or something.
Even after giving a lot away, I have so many sweet Hungarian and banana peppers I’ve begun to put them in almost everything I cook. They are so mild in flavor you hardly can tell they are there. Now the cherry peppers, Anchos, poblanos, and pimento peppers are starting to ripen. It’s a good thing I love peppers.
I have one good-sized cucumber in the fridge and a gazillion tiny ones on the vines. Last night I cut one cucumber into strips and munched them down, they made a lovely fresh, light snack.
A rare treat
I wandered out to the garden this afternoon to take a break from writing and I was glad I did. I got one heck of a photo op. There, directly behind my yard, up on a telephone wire, sat a red-tailed hawk. I dashed inside for my camera praying that no one scared him off while I was inside.
I snapped a few shots from the yard. Several people walked under him never seeing this magnificent bird. Many city people are not observant of nature. Since he hadn’t moved, I unlocked my gate and walked down to where I was almost directly beneath him. He practically posed for the pictures.
When I got the shots I wanted, I ran to G’s house and told her husband to grab his camera there was a fantastic hawk photo op if he hurried. He did and he got some great shots too.
Every year for at least the last twenty years we’ve had a pair of red-tail hawks nesting in the ancient and very tall horse chestnut trees in the cemetery. Getting pictures of them is a rare treat since they usually stay hidden because the crows tend to mob them.
It’s little old me the klutz again
Only a true klutz can whack the same knee in the same place four times in less than an hour. Yep, me again. When I managed to do this, I was out in the melon patch picking cucumber bugs off the leaves and vines. I was stepping back behind my rather large gargoyle to reach them and then stepping back out to drop the bugs in a jar of soapy water. Each time I did it, I managed to hit my knee on the gargoyle.
This isn’t a knee height gargoyle like the one pictured with the watermelon, this one is almost as tall as I am. Don’t ask how I kept hitting my knee because I haven’t figured it out yet. I guess I should slow down or something when I’m chasing those bugs. I have managed to put a dent in their population along with the dent in my knee.
At least I didn’t sprain my ankles again. No, I look like I frequently did as a child. I have a skinned knee. I know when I go out to lunch with G later today she’ll have a good laugh.
Photo ops with the digital camera
I enjoy taking the Kodak Z612 outside and snapping pictures of the dogs, flowers, and the veggie garden. It’s not a new camera nor is it as reliable as I’d like. However, it’s either that or the even older and fewer bells and whistles hp photosmart. These days I only use the hp to download pictures from the card I use in the Kodak.
Why do I do that? Because Kodak is proprietary and the program for that camera takes over all my other pictures. I hate that. In addition, the hp program to download, crop, and adjust the pictures is more reliable.
Maybe one day I’ll buy a better camera, but for now, this one will do even with its quirks. I’m only a hobbyist when it comes to taking pictures.
I have three folders of wedding pictures from my three cousins’ weddings and I have them saved on a thumb drive. I had a great time taking those pictures until the danged Kodak decided to sulk. As I said, it has its quirks.
I will pick the watermelon soon
The sugar baby watermelon is almost ready to pick. Yes, so far we have just the one on the vines. The little yellow baby watermelon, which I’d hoped would compete with the sugar baby, died on the vine. With only one melon from two vines, it hardly seems worth the planting. We do have several cantaloupes growing nicely. I’ve had success with them before.
We will have no lack of eggplants, cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes since all the plants are producing well so far. Right now, I’m eagerly waiting for the peppers that are supposed to turn red to do so, and for the tomatoes to ripen. The eggplants are growing like crazy. One plant has four little ones and the other two have three each. Soon G and I will both be serving fried eggplant. She was over here today drooling over the prospects.
I had almost forgotten the rosemary I’d planted near the pond last year. I will have plenty to dry since the plant is doing very well even after the freeze damage from the winter. The English lavender I picked and hung last month is dried and ready for use in whatever I want. The variegated lavender plant is starting to bloom. The scent is milder than the English lavender.
Doggonedmysteries 