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Thursday, June 30, 2011, 8:00 a.m.
58 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
What a beautiful morning! It hardly seems possible that
July is just around the corner,
especially after such a cold and damp yesterday. We had
the kitchen range fire going all
day long, as the temperature hovered in the low fifties
all day. Today’s warm sun is just what
the strawberries need to bring them to perfect ripe
sweetness, and a friend is on her way up to
help me pick when the dew is gone. Earlier there was a
fracas in the ravens’ territory, and both
adults kept up a furious croaking for about fifteen
minutes. They must have young’uns out and
about, and some larger predatory bird, such as a hawk or
an owl was threatening them. We
could hear them, but they remained in the forest behind
the woodlot, so we never saw the whole
story. They sure sounded like they were freaking out. We
have heard plenty of turkey clucking during
the past week, mother hens herding their poults, trying
to keep the flock together as they grow more in-
dependent. We nearly trod on a tiny spotted fawn on the
meadow path the other day, so brand-new it
was still wet behind the ears, motionless and trying to
be invisible. We heard a snort from the nearby
woods, and figured it was the doe calling, as it sprang
to its feet and wobbled towards the sound.
I found a luna moth in repose on the lawn, only the
second one I have ever seen in my lifetime.
At first glance, I thought it was a leaf, then I saw it
move a bit. There are so many miraculous
things to see, but first one needs to get outside to find
them. Even if you live in the city, there
are spots of wildness nearby where you can touch nature,
and have nature touch you.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Wednesday, June 29, 2011, 9:00 a.m.
56 degrees, windy, mostly cloudy, sprinkles
It is nearly the end of June, and the kitchen range has a
much-needed blaze roaring in the firebox, making
the kitchen cozy on this cold damp morn. We had some
pretty spectacular thunderstorms late in the day, with
every kind of cloud imaginable in the sky all at the same
time. As I drove home from Boonville in the early even-
ing, I could see bright blue sky to the north, with some
of the darkest dense storm clouds I have ever witnessed
roiling across the horizon from two directions, trapping
a tall flume of purest white squished in-between the
black
and the blue. Tug Hill looked like the set for an end-of-days
epic film, and I was just a little concerned as to what
such dramatic clouds had in store for us. The worst of
the storms were over, however, and the skies cleared e-
nough for a good view of a rising thin crescent moon in
the wee hours. I was awake at that early time to close
the bedroom windows and seek another fleecy blanket, as
the breeze was quite chilly and damp. As soon as
the strawberries dry off, we can pick more of those, and
there are alwaysmore weeds to pull. For any out-
door work we undertake today, we can be sure the insects
won’t be too bothersome in this wind.
For now, there are plenty of indoor jobs to keep us busy
on this misty moisty morn.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Tuesday, June 28, 2011, 7:30 a.m.
65 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
Although rain isn’t predicted until lunchtime, it
certainly seems likely we shall see it sooner than that.
We are headed down to the spud patch to hill the vines
for the second and final time. They have grown
huge and look as healthy as any we have ever had. There
is no sign of any blossoms yet, not even one bud.
The Adirondack Blue variety has a bluish tint to
the leaves, very pretty indeed. We got most of the garden
crops weeded yesterday afternoon after a fine morning
spent on bikes with friends. We rode to the Moore
Road beaver pond to see if we could catch a glimpse of
the occupants, and while the beavers didn’t show
themselves we were entertained by a few frogs and several
large fleets of tadpoles. We had a wonderful
ride, although there were a few stretches where deerflies
tried to carry us away. It was sunny and breezy,
and if we chose our locations carefully for water breaks,
we found both a nice breeze and a lovely view all
in one convenient place. After we returned, we picked
strawberries for a while, harvesting about six quarts,
not bad considering the small size of this year’s
berry patch. We also cut the scapes from about half of
the
garlic crop; I will lop the rest off today and put most
of them into the freezer. And now, to the spuds !
Have a great day,
Daisy
Monday, June 27, 2011, 8:15 a.m.
65 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
Thick fog has just lifted from Gomer Hill and I think
that is the main source of our cloud cover for now.
When the sun does poke through, it shines with the
clarity that comes with a high pressure front, sweet
and pure. It looks like the clouds are dissolving a bit,
and soon we should have a perfect summer day
spread out all around us, a gift to reward our patience
with the weather gods and goddesses. They cer-
tainly have been capricious so far this year. It will be
too wet to get much done in the gardens, so we will
be going for a long bike ride this morning and then plan
to transplant some perennials after lunch. I believe
our first strawberries will be ripe later in the day as
well; we stole a few yesterday in between rain showers.
I spent most of the day at a gathering in Lee Center, and
all I missed here on the Hill was a good deal of
lawn-mowing, which, if you have the right kind of mower,
can be done even in the rain. Ever since the
last patch of snow melted away, conditions have been
perfect for growing lush, thick grass, which has
been beautiful to gaze upon and a treat to walk barefoot
through, but needs mowing at least once a
week. As soon as the soil dries out a bit we will attack
the new weeds that have appeared along with
the rain, and hill the potatoes for a second time. I also
need to plant more spinach and lettuce some-
time soon, and thin out the second sowing that came up
two weeks ago. For now, I guess I’ll get
my bike and helmet ready to go, and prepare to enjoy the
morning view from two wheels.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Saturday, June 25, 2011, 8:15 a.m.
62 degrees, windy, mostly cloudy
Clouds are moving in layers, sliding over each other like
billows of snow scudding
across the ground on a midwinter day. We may see a little
more rain before the weather
finally settles down into something more summery by
midweek. Our leafy greens are loving
this cool rainy weather, as are the spuds, onions, and
garlic. Tomatoes, beans, cukes, zukes,
and peppers look a bit confused, but I am sure they will
perk up once warmth returns to their
venue. The sky has brightened several times this morning
with the promise of a sunny break-
through, which would be most welcome. Yesterday was full
of sporadic showers, some quite
hard. Many times the rain was pounding down in the west
meadow, while the east meadow was
drenched in sunlight. We took a lot of small wet walks
with the dog, but didn’t stray too far from
home as thunder and lightning often accompanied the
rainfall, and the storms moved through so
quickly we couldn’t really predict what the next
half hour would bring. I cleared out all of our
nesting boxes, which were empty of all but four unhatched
swallow eggs. This is a bit unsettling,
as there may be one intact egg each nesting season, but
this year saw a total of five. I wonder if
there is something going on that has affected the
fertility of tree swallows and bluebirds? Gold-
finches have been mating up a storm, providing us with
entertainment as we sit on the back
porch each morning. They always arrive when the meadows
are filled with buttercups
and yellow goatsbeard, and when the males take off for
some of their aerobatic
shenanigans it looks as if the very flowers themselves
have taken wing !
Have an interesting day,
Daisy
Friday, June 24, 2011, 9:00 a.m.
68 degrees, breezy, cloudy
Several thunderstorms swept across Tug Hill overnight,
dumping a couple of inches of rain
and illuminating the sky with many spectacular lightning
flashes. Our new grass seeding held fast,
and all of the work we had done to improve the drainage
around the house was effective, but that
didn’t stop me from going to the window twice, when
the rain was particularly torrential, to see if a
wall of mud and water was sweeping down upon us from the
Smith Road. The culverts have not yet
been replaced, and until they are, every hard rain will
probably create some anxiety for me. I think
our road crews have been working pretty much nonstop
since the end of April, but the Smith Road
is probably a low-priority repair, as most of the homes
along it are seasonal camps. They have deli-
vered some huge culverts for the big washout over the
gorge, but there are also two smaller culverts
that need to be replaced to handle the runoff from any
more significant heavy rainfall events. We walk-
ed through the biggest culvert yesterday, and had some
fun creating echoes within. I have to say, if you
are ever near a six-foot culvert lying by the side of the
road, stroll on in and see what cool sound effects
you can create using the magic of your own voice, not to
mention whistles, thumb fluting, and hand claps.
Have an interesting day,
Daisy
Thursday, June 23, 2011, 8:00 a.m.
65 degrees, breezy, overcast, fog
Fog is thinning out enough so that I can now see
the neighbor’s silo, but beyond that a pale sea
of clouds hides the entire rest of the view. The lawn is
filled with grackles of all ages this morning;
the rain must have brought many wriggling tidbits out of
hiding. This is the only species of bird on the
ground, where there are usually robins, starlings, and
crows. Maybe the grackles have formed some kind
of exclusive breakfast club. Goldfinches, which have been
bouncing in and out of the meadows by the hun-
dreds for a week or so, are absent on this damp morn as
well, but I expect they will return once the sun
comes back out. The rain has made such a huge difference
in our gardens in only one day; the newest
sowing of corn has sprouted, lettuce has bulked up and is
forming tight little heads, and new carrots
and beans are also showing greenery above ground. The
dahlia bulbs we poked into rows two weeks
ago have emerged with great vigor, and will form some
lovely flowering hedges by summer’s end. All of
the zinnias and gloriosa daisies I planted from seed are
ready to be thinned and redistributed, so that we can
have spots of color in every vegetable garden. Wherever a
broccoli or cabbage plant has failed, I will tuck in
a few flowers. There is always room for flowers in our
garden, even those that aren’t edible will provide
us
with endless summer bouquets for our home and to share
with friends. Right now our fuchsia peonies, pink
painted daisies, valerian, and yellow iris are in full
flower and lend not only brilliant color to out kitchen,
but also their sweet aroma. My grandfather raised peonies,
and that is a fragrance I always associate
with that cool old man. He had a true love of gardening;
must be those genes flow in my blood as well.
Thanks, grandpa!
Have a great day,
Daisy
Wednesday, June 22, 2011, 8:00 a.m.
62 degrees, overcast, windy, rain
I will dash this off quickly in between thunderstorms.
Rain arrived along with the sun,
which was out just long enough to turn the eastern sky
blazing crimson, then poof ! it was
gone. We are very happy to see rain, as we have been
watering the garden rows daily for the
past week. The new seeding is green with oats, and the
tiny grass seeds are starting to echo the larger
spears with tiny threadlike sprouts. A couple of days of
steady rain is just the ticket for all things that went
into the ground last week. You can hand-water the heck
out of everything, but nothing gets things growing
like natural rainfall. Of course, along with the corn and
beans, weeds are going to benefit from the long
drink as well, so our work will be cut out for us when
the clouds finally part. We have appointments
in the valley today; it will be nice to get off of the
Hill for a day, just for a change of view.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Tuesday, June 21, 2011, 9:00 a.m.
74 degrees, breezy, sunny
Summer is just around the corner, in fact, it will arrive
here in Turin at 1:16 this afternoon.
We will no doubt be finished with lunch and can spare a
bit of time to turn our faces to the sun
and express gratitude for the energy it shares with all
of us here on Earth. The sun is ultimately respon-
sible for every living thing, as we all depend on plants
as the basis of the food chain. On this, the longest
day of the year, reflect how fortunate we are, and count
the blessings while letting go of the disappointments.
Last night I walked before bedtime at about 10:00, before
the purple hour had quite left the Hill. I enjoyed
the best of both day and night, the lingering balmy heat
of a warm day with a cool evening breeze, and twi-
light to show where my feet were treading but still dark
enough over the meadows for the fireflies to shine
in dazzling brilliance. It was quiet, no traffic on the
roads or in the air, no barking neighborhood dogs, not
even the late rustle of blackbirds settling in their
roosts. Bats swooped just above the treeline near Horsie
Creek, silent in their flight as they gobbled up bugs and
moths. The only thing I could hear was the ripple
of the stream and the crunch of my shoes on the gravel
road as I trod home. The waning gibbous moon
rose as I lay in bed looking out the window, orange and
bulbous like a big old mango. Today is very
summery, with a fine breeze to temper the heat of the sun.
The first of the strawberries is showing
some color, so we will cover the bed with netting to keep
the birds from stealing them all.
The few they can snatch from the edges will have to keep
them happy until we
remove the nets at the end of July, when they can have
all the late gleanings.
Happy Solstice !
Daisy
Monday, June 20, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
66 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
The sun has been hiding for most of the morning, and it
is a bit chilly in the breeze,
fitting weather for the last day of spring. Today I will
begin to harvest some scapes,
the long curly flower stalks that pop up from the center
of stiff-neck garlic varieties this
time of year. They are just getting started, and will be
available fresh for about three weeks.
They also freeze nicely, and we use them in soups, stews
and casseroles all year long. Tonight
we will enjoy them sautéed with spinach and mushrooms,
and tossed with some basmati rice and
black beans. If the deer hadn’t eaten every bit of
our swiss chard, we could add that to the dish as
well. I grated some Irish Spring soap and scattered it
thinly between the rows of greens, which usually
repels deer effectively. I also will cut the stinky
perfume ads from magazines (discards from our village
library) and place them under rocks at the ends of the
rows. Sometimes I staple them to beanpoles too.
Another good source of obnoxious odor is the cologne that
our kids wore in the 90s, sprinkled on stra-
tegically placed rocks. I haven’t tried menthol as a
deer repellant, although it works just fine for mos-
quitoes and black flies. I read that dried blood is
effective too; once we bought some from the farm
store, and while it may have repelled deer and rabbits
like the label said, it drew skunks like we
had set out a feast for them. A friend of mine got some
lion poo from the zoo, but it stunk so
bad that she had to put a smear of Vicks Vapo-rub under
her nose every time she worked
in the garden. When the wind was just right, you could
even smell it from the deck. Ugh.
It is a perfect day for outdoor work or play, and I hope
to have time for both.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Sunday, June 19, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
58 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
A strong east wind played havoc with household goods
during the night,
as we had left windows open on both the east and west
sides of the house.
A vase of flowers tipped over, and stacks of clean
laundry were blown asunder
and strewn about on the floor. It was a chilly night, but
we were sound asleep under
our flannel comforters and didn’t have a clue that
the wind was rearranging the kitchen
for us. Of course, if I had put the laundry away where it
belonged, I wouldn’t have had
to refold it; lesson learned. We had a busy day of hoeing,
weeding, thinning, watering,
and transplanting, and some tasks (like putting linens
away) just got ignored in favor
of relaxing around the backyard fire with a frosty
beverage, roasting chunks of mar-
inated beef and vegetables on skewers, immersed in the
long purple twilight and
winding down. It has been a long time since I heard
coyotes singing, but as I
strolled along the Smith Road after dinner admiring the
fireflies, I heard a few
far-off yips and one long howl, not nearly the ruckus of
a full-sized pack. I fear
the beautiful wild dogs have been hunted right off the
Hill. I hope they have moved
further into the wilderness and are getting better at
hiding from those who wish them
harm, and I will once again hear them singing to the moon
on a cool summer’s eve.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Saturday, June 18, 2011, 7:30 a.m.
72 degrees, breezy, sunny
A fresh breeze feels wonderful and has the added benefit
of sweeping smaller insects out
of the picture for a while. Deerflies seem to be
unaffected by wind; they have been my nemesis
for the past week. My legs are covered with welts from
their toxic bites, and one ankle is grotesquely
swollen because of a bee sting that I never saw coming.
When the wind dies down in the evenings, mos-
quitoes and black flies move in for the feast; it seems
like there have never been this many aggressively
biting insects on Gomer Hill before. I think the
overabundance of water we received in early spring led
to perfect breeding conditions for all manner of bugs,
both beneficial and pestilent. We could use some
more rain now, especially for the berry crops, which have
moved from blossom to fruit in the blink of an
eye. Highmarket received a half inch of rain yesterday
afternoon, and while I could hear distant thunder,
we never saw a drop. We harvested the last of our early
spinach and cooked it with bacon and leftover
chicken, tossing it with pasta and garlicky parmesan
cheese sauce for a hearty supper. We used some
of the garlic that had been soaked in the cellar flood of
early April; rather than throwing those water-
logged bulbs into the compost, we planted a couple of
hundred cloves just to see what would hap-
pen. They have grown much larger, and while they might
not produce full bulbs in the same way
the fall-planted cloves will, they cooked up just like
any other garlic clove, a pungent and juicy
addition to our pasta dish. We have been enjoying lettuce
every day, and have moved from
eating the thinnings to plucking small heads of bibb
buttercrunch and sweet green ice. The
iceberg will take a bit longer to form tight crisp heads,
but has a great start. The fresh
greens I craved all winter long are now a reality; what
more can I say but yum !
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
Friday, June 17, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
62 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
The radar map shows rain both north and south of us, and
the way the wind ruffles
the maple leaves upside-down indicates that we shall soon
see some rain as well. This
would be a boon to our garden crops, but not such a good
deal for farmers that have hay
mown and raked up into long windrows. I hope they can get
it baled before the drops start
to fall. This year’s hay crop is thick and tall, and
if we get a good stretch of weather for a week
we can expect the air on Gomer Hill to be sweet with the
scent of new-mown grass and clover.
Late last night I strolled under a waning full moon and
watched fireflies dart around in the tall
grass, moving swiftly from stem to stem. Some nights they
seem to hover in place, as still as
the stars above, as if reflecting their brilliance here
on the ground. Last night they were zip-
ping around at a good rate of speed, with hardly any bugs
hanging around motionless. I
guess it was either a feeding frenzy or a mating dance;
at any rate, it was beautiful! Gold-
finches have recently returned to the neighborhood, and
have just begun their spectacular
air show, their bright yellow and shiny black bodies
swooping and soaring helter-skelter,
dozens of birds playing tag. The females sit atop the
grape fence, or line the edge of the
birdbath, seemingly ignoring the show-offs, but secretly
marking those males with the
best moves as suitable mates. There is always something
interesting going on up
here, day or night; how lucky we are to live in such a
beautiful spot !
Have a great day,
Daisy
Thursday, June 16, 2011, 9:00 a.m.
75 degrees, breezy, sunny
We heard some crazy bird calls this morning, familiar
from a long-past memory of another time and place.
We finally put a name to the rumpus; our neighbors have a
flock of pheasants, and it was their cries that we
heard. Pheasants were common in Massachusetts, and would
line up on the barnyard fence every morning to
greet the day. I don’t believe they overwinter here
in the North Country, but they domesticate well enough to
adapt to life in an enclosure. We have another friend who
breeds peacocks and hens; when he offered to give
us a pair to raise here on Gomer Hill, he took it back
when we asked if they tasted like chicken. Meanwhile,
I checked on our own little flocks of tree swallows
yesterday; all are doing well, and one group looks big
enough to leave the nest today or tomorrow. We worked in
the garden across the road and momma bird
came out to swoop around our heads every time we got near
her nest. We have placed a couple of bean-
poles near the box, so that the young will have something
to perch upon when they finally emerge. Most of
our nesting boxes are located near trees or shrubs, which
afford plenty of cover for fledglings. We planted
our second crop of corn, more carrots, and black beans
for shelling when they are mature. I finished mov-
ing perennials around; almost all of our gloriosa daisies
had been winterkilled. Fortunately, I had shared
my abundance of perennials with a friend, and was able to
fetch a dozen plants from her garden. I have
also started some from seed, so that I will have more
than enough by then end of summer. I am nearly
done weeding the long bank which has had an invasion of
wild asters and fragrant bedstraw. Fortun-
ately, those weeds pull fairly easily. I never finished
weeding the bank last season, and where the
lilies stopped and the asters started, it became our
wildflower garden. Sometimes you just
need to change the terminology to have things turn out
okay. Who among us has not tried
to make fudge candy, only to have it become fudge sauce
for ice cream instead ?
Have a great day,
Daisy
Wednesday, June 15, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
69 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
Fog hung around until noon yesterday, then clouds were
the order of the day,
thinning around dinnertime and revealing a brilliant
nearly-full moon just before sunset.
I watched that big moon travel across the dome of sky for
a long time, now that there is
no big tree for it to hide behind. We should have a grand
view of tonight’s full moon rising
a couple of minutes after sunset, at 8:50 DST. If there
were going to be a late spring frost,
it would likely occur tonight, but the forecast is for a
low in the fifties, so all should be well.
It looks like excellent weather is on the way for
gardeners and sportsmen alike, with sunny
warm days, comfy cool nights, and a little rain Friday to
water the crops and bring fresh
food into the streams for the fish. Today we will be
planting more sweet corn, and if the
soil is dry enough, hilling the potatoes with our big
tractor. In spite of the fact that we
planted them later than usual, the spuds have grown
beautifully; I highly doubt that
there will be any new potatoes ready by Independence Day
this year, but it shouldn’t
be too long after that. Soon I will sow the main crop of
carrots in a long row, and put
out the more broccoli plants for a fall harvest. I
imagine that strawberries will soon be
ripening, especially as the days heat up. Spring is
nearly over, and summer looms large,
arriving next Tuesday at 1:15 p.m. . It is hard to
believe that the days will begin to grow
shorter after that, but it is part of the Great Circle.
Enjoy these long beautiful days;
reflect for a moment how fortunate we are to live in a
place with such a variety of
features. Life in the North Country is many things, but
it is never, ever boring !
Have an interesting day,
Daisy
Tuesday, June 14, 2011, 8:00 a.m.
56 degrees, windy, fog
Yesterday’s big clouds continued to astound us with
their bright beauty until late afternoon,
when they finally released a gentle steady sprinkle of
rain, just perfect for watering in the grass
seed we had spent much of the afternoon planting. We
reseeded the area over our new drains,
as well as the long stretch of berm that had been washed
away in April’s flood. We had hauled
many loads of topsoil from a big pile across the road,
left there by a friend who had done some
excavating years ago. When we had the drain dug, we also
had the topsoil spread out, first put-
ting down a layer of landscaping fabric to help prevent
erosion. Yesterday’s work was tedious,
but not terribly difficult; rake the dirt smooth, put
down grass seed and oats for a nurse crop,
rake them in with a light touch, go over it all with a
heavy steel roller, and sprinkle straw thinly
atop it all. We worked in sections to keep ahead of the
rain that threatened all day, and show-
ed up at just the right time. For once, the wind
didn’t howl and the showers weren’t epic in
volume, just a pleasant gentle soak that lasted for
several hours. Now we are shrouded in
very thick fog, with sun possibly returning later in the
day. The Lyons Falls Farmers Mark-
et opens today for the season, so I hope the weather
breaks before noon for their sake.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Monday, June 13, 2011, 9:00 a.m.
57 degrees, windy, mostly cloudy
Big fleets of clouds sailed into the sky last evening,
pink and purple and positively gleaming
against the deep azure twilight. The clouds have remained,
and are the big news in the deep
blue morning sky, big pillows of white fading to dark
slate, with every subtle smoky nuance in
between. When the sun shines, the quality of light is
astonishing in its purity; every leaf, every
blade of grass, each golden buttercup and ruby red clover
blossom is polished like a fine jewel.
Birds started to sing at about four o’clock this
morning, mostly robins continuing the lessons with
their young, who have been improving with practice. This
morning the long mating warble was broken
up into shorter one-note segments, much the same way a
piano player learns a particularly difficult run
in a solo piece; play the notes, then the phrase, then
the movement, over and over until it is committed
to memory. It appears that is the same way that robins
instruct their offspring. I also heard the brown
thrashers and several redwing blackbirds at that early
hour. After the sunrise songs, the only birds that
really carry on as the solstice draws near are the crows,
who seem to be very vocal all twelve months
of the year. We can sometimes hear the soft cluck of
mother hen turkeys herding their poults in the
tall grass. We probably won’t see many turkeys until
the hay has been removed from our mea-
dows, which could be any time during the next six weeks.
Sometimes we will surprise a flock
as we walk on our mown paths, but they are quick to
disappear into cover. In the short time
it has taken to write these few words, the sky has filled
in with clouds, and the wind has
shifted; is it possible that we may see some rain before
this day is over? Just in case,
I will tuck my rain jacket into my pack before setting
out on a morning hike. It
seems unlikely that we will be bothered by biting insects
in this cool breeze.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Sunday, June 12, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
59 degrees, breezy, fog
Dense fog has been with us since yesterday afternoon, not
the most festive of weather
ut it does provide moisture to all growing things, almost
as good as a slow soaking rain.
We had a few hard downpours with a little thunder and
lightning late in the day, messing
up the grading that we did in the ditch last week; we
need to get some grass seed down
with a thin mulch of straw as soon as the weather clears
enough to work the soil, to halt
erosion. A foggy morn such as this is good for watching
birds; only the ones that dash
out of the mist are in our field of vision, so we can
focus our attention on the two adult
robins feeding the three young that have finally come out
of hiding. Now and then a
fledgling will poke its bill into the turf but it is not
always a successful mission. It takes
a little more experience to come up with a worm every
time, like the adults do. Last night
the newly mown lawn was a seething mass of nightcrawlers
coming up for air. It is amusing
to turn the yard light on and watch them all disappear
back into the earth, shunning the circle
of light. I remember gathering worms for fishing years
ago, shining a flashlight on the ground
and working at the edges of the beam, slowly pulling the
giant worms out of their snug bur-
rows and plopping them into a bin of leaves and coffee
grounds. I haven’t fished for a few
years, but maybe when I am old enough to qualify for a
free license I will take it up again.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Saturday, June 11, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
58 degrees, windy, overcast, rain
This is disappointing weather for the three towns that
are holding their annual yard sale days
this weekend. There is a village festival in Boonville as
well, so I hope the rain stays light and offers
some occasional pauses. We do need the rain for the berry
crops, so this is a mixed blessing. I can al-
ready see that our new drain is working well, with a
steady trickle of water emerging from the pipe below
where the lilacs used to be. We kept a keen eye as the
backhoe dug a trench next to the house yesterday,
looking for artifacts from days gone by,but all we turned
up was dirt and a few stones. The bank behind
the house had yielded many household items when I first
planted myrtle and bulbs back there, jars, broken
dishes, even an entire old housedress, mostly rotted away
but with some very pretty celluloid buttons. I just
hope the dress wasn’t occupied when it was buried in
the bank. We have a small fire burning in the kitchen
range, and it looks like a good day to make soup. As it
happens, I have just one bag of swiss chard left in
the freezer, just as the new crop is nearly ready to pick.
The dried bean supply has been dwindling, but
I believe there are enough to last until September, when
we will start to harvest those. One of our
favorite soups is ham, bean, and greens, with onions,
celery, carrots and potatoes all tossed in,
a hearty blend that will warm us from the inside on a
damp chilly day such as this. We enjoy
soup all year long, but it seems much tastier when cooked
slowly over the wood fire.
Have a fine day,
Daisy
Friday, June 10, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
58 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
The sun is supposed to come out in a while to stay for
the day, and there is a fine breeze blowing,
so it looks like an excellent time to clear out the
laundry hamper and get that big job done. We certainly
do know how to mess up our clothes here on top of the
world, what with the gardening, tree-removal, ditch
digging, and riding bikes through the puddles. We got
that broken tree cut up and hauled away all of the brush
yesterday. Whenever we would cut a poplar in the woodlot,
we just left the tops where they fell, trusting mother
nature to take care of them in her own sweet time.
However, we needed to get yesterday’s mess out of
the yard,
which proved to be harder than cutting up the tree. We
never realized that poplar branches turn at right angles
every couple of feet, so there were no long straight
boughs to simply gather and toss onto the truck. They
were all tangled together like christmas ornament hooks
in a box (you know exactly what I mean); we
had to break them into smaller units with long-handled
loppers just to get them off the ground. We also
hauled away all of the lilacs that we cleared to make
room for our new expanded drainage ditch. Some-
time during the next week we will go into our woodlot and
mark out two or three young poplar trees for
moving next spring. If a tree has a trunk diameter of two
inches, you take a spade and dig into the dirt in
a two foot circle around the base to break off the main
roots. If it’s a three inch trunk it would be a
three
inch circle, although that would be pretty big for a
poplar. We have moved maple trees with three inch
trunks. Then new smaller roots will form over the summer,
making a stronger support system for when
the tree is moved to its new location, sometime between
six months and a year from the root-pruning.
The maples that we moved twenty-five years ago are now
fine healthy big trees, worth every bit
of the effort it took to relocate them. The sun is still
hiding behind the clouds for now, and it is
almost a little chilly outside. What a nice change from
yesterday’s heat and humidity !
Have a great day,
Daisy
Thursday, June 9, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
75 degrees, windy, sunny
The view outside my window is very different this morning.
Yesterday, during a spell of intense gusty wind, the big
aspen tree
in the side yard broke off just below the lowest branches
and fell over,
landing smack dab into the middle of the forsythia hedge.
When we first moved
to Gomer Hill in the mid-seventies, there had been three
of these trees in a row,
but within a couple of years we had cut down two of them
which were dying from
rot. This remaining tree has been one of my main weather
sentinels, indicating both
wind speed and direction by the way the heart-shaped
leaves spun on their slender
stems. We had been working in that area yesterday,
cutting through the lilac stand
next to the tree to get ready for some backhoe work, to
expand the drainage system
around the house. It was a miracle that we weren’t
under the tree when it fell; not only
that, if the wind had been blowing from the southeast, it
would probably have landed on
the sunporch, crushing it entirely. We found the orioles
nest intact, with five eggs snug inside.
While the female watched from the top of a maple tree, we
tied the branch containing the nest
to a stout branch of the white birch that stands close to
the aspen stump. We have seen both
the male and female orioles flying around this morning,
but it is unclear whether they have found
the nest in its new location. At least the eggs had not
yet hatched. It is not too late for the couple
to build another nest and start anew, if necessary. For
me, the loss of that beautiful tree is very
sad. We could plant another; perhaps we will dig one from
the grove across the road when
the weather cools off a bit. As for the forsythia hedge,
you can’t kill that stuff. It might take
a year or two for the broken plants to heal, but in our
experience, it only grows back thick-
er and more dense than ever, even after (for example)
accidentally backing over
it with a pickup truck. For now, we have some wood to cut.
It will be ready
to burn this winter; members of the poplar family
don’t take long to dry.
Have an interesting day,
Daisy
Wednesday, June 8, 2011, 10:00 a.m.
78 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
Whatever kind of heat and humidity the day has yet to
offer, I will never forget the
cool breeze blowing across me as I rode my bike on the
Smith Road early this morning.
We sped along the hardpacked dirt, occasionally rising
out of the saddle so that our legs
could absorb the staccato shocks of the corduroy portions
of the road, admiring the lush
greenery of ferny glens and deep purple blooms of wild
columbine as we rolled along. We
made the mistake of stopping briefly for a water break,
and were immediately surrounded
by mosquitoes that clung to every exposed patch of skin.
I thought we had outridden them,
but when I looked down, there were still at least a dozen
of them clinging to my bare legs. It
is hard to ride and swat at the same time, but not
impossible. The roadway was covered in spots
with big dragonflies spreading their wings in the sun;
they scattered as we rode through their midst,
moving only slightly aside to find another sunny spot.
The road is still closed due to late April’s cul-
vert collapse, but the new pipe was delivered to the site
yesterday, and many piles of dirt stand ready
for the task. Now that will be an event worth watching; I
can’t imagine how they will get the old pipe out,
as it is still partially buried under tons of dirt. The
smaller culverts on this end of the Smith road are also
slated to be replaced; hopefully this will eliminate the
chance of another flood here at the top of the world.
Have a great day,
and stay cool,
Daisy
Tuesday, June 7, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
73 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
As I strolled around the garden paths earlier this
morning, it seemed that every tree, hedge,
and bit of shrubbery I passed held a wild rustle of birds
within. Fledglings of every variety have
left their too-small nests but are not yet bold enough to
leave the safe cover of tangled branches.
Adult robins, thrashers, grackles, and starlings have
been tirelessly foraging on the mown pathways
and lawn to keep their offspring well-fed, and tree
swallows have been on the wing nonstop, as their
eggs have finally hatched as well. The air has been full
of birdsong, not the melodious mating ballads of
spring, but the call-and-response banter between the
family groups, keeping track of each other as the
youngsters learn about the big new world they are
exploring. One of the most enchanting sounds of early
summer happens well before dawn; the robins teach their
young all of their songs, each trill and warble
repeated over and over by the uncertain new little
throats, gradually becoming more sure and perfect
with practice. This morning I heard exactly that, which
was a welcome sound after the constant whine
of household mosquitoes all night long. The little
bloodsuckers have come out in full force, easy enough
to deal with outdoors with long sleeves, hats, and
natural repellants. But indoors, as soon as the lights go
off, they come out of hiding with their high-pitched one-note
samba, disappearing again when the lights are
turned back on. I don’t know how they get in, but
for the next few weeks I will make it a point to vacuum
all
of the nooks and crannies of our sleeping quarters every
day, and check out the ceilings where they like to bide
their time, waiting for the feast to begin after lights-out.
This morning I swatted six of them, hanging out on inside
of the screens. Deerflies are also making the outdoor
work a bit unpleasant; it seems that for every one I swat,
two more appear. I haven’t yet found any natural
repellant for these persistent biting flies, although it
does help
to keep one’s head covered. I believe they are drawn
to the heat that rises from our crowns as we work out-
doors. I have had deerflies keep up with me on a bike
ride, even as I speed down hills; now that is some scary
fast pestilence! The long wet spring has made for not
only a thick crop of hay and weeds, but also a huge hatch
of biting insects. It is a small enough price to pay for
such lush greenery that is nearly tropical in its
intensity.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
Monday, June 6, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
71 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
The valley sits in fog so thick that I can see no
landmarks, no barns or silos,
not even the faraway Adirondack Mountains that should be
sitting even higher
above the mist than Gomer Hill. We have a sparkling clear
morning with brilliant
hot sun, so intense that we couldn’t sit on the back
porch for more than a few minutes
earlier. We watered our gardens yesterday; the corn
should fairly leap out of the ground
now that warmer days have arrived. I found a crow feather
on the Smith Road, and poked
it into the center of the corn patch, a totem to show the
big black birds my respect, but I also
attached a little wish that they leave the emerging
seedlings alone. There will be plenty of mature
full ears to share.... I told that feather that each
tasty plump kernel will transform into hundreds of
tasty morsels, if only the birds will allow the seeds to
take root. The practical magic of asking such
a thing of the flock is not nearly as miraculous as how a
single small seed can transform into a bounty
of fresh corn in just a few months time. We planted
pepper plants yesterday, and will complete our
garden inventory with today’s sowing of cucumber and
zucchini seeds, which need warm soil to ger-
minate. Tomato plants have doubled in size during the
last week, and several of them are forming
blossoms along the main stem. We enjoyed our first
spinach salad last night, perfect baby greens
mixed with sweet vidalia onion slivers, chunks of juicy
naval orange, cranberry raisins, candied
pecans, and danish bleu cheese, in a light vinaigrette;
perfection! Today we will begin to thin out
the lettuce and will be enjoying salads daily from now
until the first autumn frost. As soon as one
row plays out, another seeding goes into the ground; it
is by thinning and continually replanting
that the home gardener can keep green and other short-lived
crops on the table for five months
or more. Same with green beans; we plant a row every
three weeks until the middle of August
to insure not only enough beans for eating fresh, but for
the freezer and pickle jars as well.
This will be the first year we will do succession
plantings of cucumbers, since they seem
to play out after two or three weeks... fewer plants,
more plantings will be this year’s
motto. And now, out to play in the dirt before the sun
gets any warmer.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Sunday, June 5, 2011, 9:30 a.m.
60 degrees, calm, mostly cloudy
It a cool and cloudy morning, as calm as it ever gets
here on Gomer Hill.
I have been keeping an eye on the trees outside the
window, and not one single
leaf has twitched except for when a bird perches on the
branch. I’ll bet the bugs are
fierce out there. We were able to plant flowers yesterday
in relative comfort, as the breeze
was nice and it wasn’t too hot or too chilly. It was
just right, as the little blonde would say.
We put in a long row of dahlias, and I started a new
colony of gloriosa daisies, as our old
bed has been taken over by weeds. I put in zinnias and
marigolds, bachelors buttons and
calendula, and white sage for its scent. We planted
colorful annual flowers in our window-
boxes, a term that always makes me smile a little, as
only one of them is actually located any-
where near a window. We grow fruits and vegetables to
nourish our bodies, but flowers feed
the spirit. We have many perennials that bloom year after
year with very little upkeep, but it is
the annuals that we can play with, looking for new
varieties and placing them where we will be
able to see them as we sit on the porch, look out of a
window, or drive up the road on the way
back from somewhere that has no flowers. We can arrange
bouquets to spread around indoors,
or share with friends. Even if we lived in a place with
no room for a garden, I would still plant
windowboxes and have houseplants a-bloom on every sunny
windowsill, to brighten the
rooms and gladden my heart. It is amazing that the small
seeds we sowed yester-
day will become a dazzling array of beautiful flowers, a
real feat of magic !
Have a great day,
Daisy
Saturday, June 4, 2011, 9:30 a.m.
65 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
We have a winner of a late spring morn, sunny and
just breezy enough to blow the black flies
away while we work outdoors. Yesterday we seeded last
year’s potato field to clover, and it will
stay in clover for three more summers until we are ready
to use it for spuds again. We keep four dif-
ferent plots just for potatoes, and by rotating the crop
year by year we manage to keep the potato bugs
down to a minimal amount. They overwinter in old potato
fields, and if we plant the next crop several hun-
dred yards distant, the beetles take a while to travel
that far, and are all tuckered out when they arrive. I
start-
ed to check all of our nesting boxes late in the
afternoon, and found that the entire clutch of new
bluebirds had
died only days old, probably from the extremely cold and
damp weather we experienced shortly after they
hatched. They didn’t live long enough to form any
real feathers, and while the adults were out foraging for
food during the day, they likely became chilled by the
strong southeast winds that blew earlier in the week.
We place all of our nesting boxes with their entry holes
towards that direction, as our prevailing winds are
mainly from the west and northwest. I need to check the
other boxes today; since those eggs were all laid
almost a week later than the bluebirds, I hope to find
tiny little swallows all safe and snug. Meanwhile, yes-
terday we picked up the smoked meat from a big duroc hog
that a friend raised for us, and so far the big-
gest challenge of the day was this: bacon, sausage, or
ham for breakfast? You guessed it, a little of each...
Have a delicious day,
Daisy
Friday, June 3, 2011, 7:30 a.m.
48 degrees, windy, sunny
Gomer Hill sits under a beautiful deep blue sky
with not a cloud in sight. The sun feels wonderful,
and although there is a stiff north wind, the back porch
is protected and we sipped our morning brew
in comfort. The new-mown lawn sported a half dozen
robins pulling worms from the soil, hauling them
into trees and hedges to feed their young. One little
group of speckle-breasted fledglings has left the nest;
they kept under the cover of the rose bushes, where an
adult dashed over every time it found some tasty
morsel. I haven’t checked on the nesting boxes for a
couple of days, as it has been too windy to peek
inside, but I imagine at least one, if not all, of the
tree swallows have hatched. Yesterday was cloudy,
cold, and blustery, and I kept a fire burning in the
kitchen range all day long. My intuition was good
when I decided to delay planting the sweet pepper
seedlings; they are very tender and would have
been set back by the cold and high winds of the past few
days. I just might wait until tomorrow, as
tonight is supposed to be very chilly. There is no point
in planting cucumber seeds yet, as they re-
quire warm soil to germinate. Our greens are finally
gaining in size, and we should be able to enjoy
a salad of lettuce and spinach thinnings this weekend.
Garlic is nearly two feet tall, and I may pull
a bulb to use green and juicy, so young that the
individual cloves have not yet begun to separate.
This is a rare treat available only to those who grow
their own garlic; I have never seen green
garlic for sale in any market. Thank goodness we have
plenty, as our winter stored garlic
supply has dwindled to just a couple of shriveled bulbs
with green sprouts starting to
appear. How about some fresh baby greens with a garlic
vinaigrette, topped with
some pungent chopped basil, toasted walnuts, and bleu
cheese; yum! For
the next few weeks, salads will be the stars of the show
for sure.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Thursday, June 2, 2011, 8:00 a.m.
55 degrees, windy, partly sunny
As hot as the last two mornings have been, it is that
chilly on this one.
I came in from the back porch to put on a fleece, for
when the sun is behind
a cloud that lovely solar heat disappears in a flash, and
all that remains is the bite
of a northwest wind. The front that brought this cooler
air came through in the after-
noon with some amazing gusts, and it was a perfect night
for sleeping, snug in our flannel
comforters. Late in the day a young robin got lost in our
garage, and it was running around
chirping quite loudly in distress. I guided it out the
door with a big push-broom, and when
it go outside it made an unsuccessful attempt at flying,
flapping its downy wings to beat
the band but not gaining any altitude. I chased it into
the big forsythia bush, and later saw
several adult robins nearby; I guess one was feeding the
youngster, as the loud frantic
chirping had stopped. I wonder if the blustery winds had
knocked it out of the nest
a bit early. The oriole nest is still anchored to its
slender branch, although at
one point it was nearly ninety degrees off-kilter from
the wind.
What a wild ride for those little birds within !
Have a fine day,
Daisy
Thursday, June 2, 2011, 8:00 a.m.
55 degrees, windy, partly sunny
As hot as the last two mornings have been, it is that
chilly on this one.
I came in from the back porch to put on a fleece, for
when the sun is behind
a cloud that lovely solar heat disappears in a flash, and
all that remains is the bite
of a northwest wind. The front that brought this cooler
air came through in the after-
noon with some amazing gusts, and it was a perfect night
for sleeping, snug in our
flannel comforters. Late in the day a young robin got
lost in our garage, and it was
running around chirping quite loudly in distress. I
guided it out the door with a big
push-broom, and when it go outside it made an
unsuccessful attempt at flying, flap-
ping its downy wings to beat the band but not gaining any
altitude. I chased it into
the big forsythia bush, and later saw several adult
robins nearby; I guess one was
feeding the youngster, as the loud frantic chirping had
stopped. I wonder if the
blustery winds had knocked it out of the nest a bit early.
The oriole nest is still
anchored to its slender branch, although at one point it
was nearly ninety de-
grees off-kilter from the wind. What a wild ride for
those little birds within !
Have a fine day,
Daisy
Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 9:00 a.m.
76 degrees, mostly sunny, windy
We are under a pale blue sky studded with even
paler pearly white clouds on this fresh-washed morning.
A thunderstorm swept across the Hill just before dawn,
and had me scurrying around closing windows and
unplugging the modem, but the storm was over almost
before I crawled back into bed. There were some pretty
good flashes of lightning, but the downpour literally
lasted only about two minutes. The yard is full of adult
birds
herding their young, who for the most part are still
hidden in shrubs or the low branches of trees. A baby
robin
was hopping around, still a bit downy and totally unable
to fly, so the momma chased it into the rose bushes
where is sits partially concealed from predators,
particularly our cat. She has been hauling worms to it,
as
well as to the others still in the nest in the privet
hedge. The brown thrasher has been chit-chit-chit
–ing
away as it hops from branch to branch; I believe its
young are still in the forsythia tangle, where they
hatched about two weeks ago. The young grackles appeared
at the edge of the tall grass early this
morning, but after one sharp hiss from an adult they
scattered and returned to cover. The sweet melo-
dious love songs of spring have switched to sharp
monotonous clucks, chirps, and sibilant croaks as the
adults try to keep tabs on the adventurous little
fledglings as they explore the vast world outside the
safety
of the nest. We haven’t seen any young turkeys yet,
but the hay is tall and they will be all over the place
after the first crop is removed, probably later this
month. I think about the score of years of parenting
a human child requires before achieving independence (if
they are lucky), and for a bird it takes a
mere month or two. And the birds go their own way at
summer’s end, and we stay connected
to our offspring through the wonders of modern technology.
Hey, call your momma or daddy
today, or send an actual letter (in an envelope with a
stamp) to your sons and daughters.
Leave a note for your partner on the steering wheel of
their car, or call your sister.
Send your love backwards through time and space to those
who have passed
on before us, and project a greeting ahead to those still
waiting to be born.
People stay connected, birds fly away. It’s all good,
yes?
Have a great day,
Daisy
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