Shadows

It's probably because I'm back to living in darkness. Dark when I get up. Dark when I get home. That's probably why I've been enjoying watching the shadows, sitting in the sun, feeling the warmth on my face. 

Goodness knows that I avoid being in the sun most of the time. I'm one of those fair skin, burns easily types. So when I'm put gardening or walking our pup, I'm usually covered from head to toe. 

But these past few days when I feel the light slipping away and the shadows and darkness start growing stronger - I just want to grab on and make it last as long as possible. 

Never gonna happen. But you can't blame a girl for trying!

Morning Falling

This morning on my way through the Great Swamp I realized 2 things:

1 - I totally took August off from the blog. 

2 - Fall is coming sooner than expected. 

Well, not actually sooner because you can't change the rotation of the planet, but sooner as in I am so not prepared for winter yet!

So I suppose I should make some type of plan for the house, knitting projects, canning, cookie baking (my sister is always ahead of me on that!), my job(s), charities, the blog. 

Yep. A Plan. 

MY PLAN

1.  Make a plan. 

Alright then. Good start 

Running Errands

Dashing around today taking care of those last minute little details that always seem to crop up right before a major storm comes knocking on our door.

Is there enough wood cut and ready?  Do we have the coolers set up in case the electricity goes out for days on end like last year?  Are all of the batteries on the cellphones, smartphones, laptops, and flashlights charged and ready to go?

Is there food to eat that won't spoil without a refrigerator?  Is there enough gas for the camp stove and grill to cook with for a week or so?  Is there water for drinking - and other water needs?  Gas for the blow torch in case the pipes start to freeze up?

Is the truck gassed up?  Are the chain saws tuned and gassed up?

Where the heck are the playing cards!?  (My DH and I have marathon card playing sessions when the electricity goes out.  This time I *know* I'll win!)

Fortunately our emergency kit is stocked with all of the essential strange things we only use for this type of emergency - like flame starters for the fireplace, Dura-flame logs, sterno.

I'm still not convinced we are going to get as hammered as the weatherman says, but I've learned that caution is a good thing.

In the meanwhile, just a few more errands to run.  Enjoying the foliage.  Happy that most of the leaves are down already - less weight for any unanticipated snow to cling to.

Coloring Colors

I tried to make this photo really show the colors that were popping on the mountainside today.  I adjusted the hue, saturation, balance, levels.  But still, the colors I saw today were so much more vibrant!

Today was the day that the deep bronzes and burgundies were just plain showing off.  The hazy trees have already lost their leaves, I think those were the red ones, so the color palette has changed to these toasted colors.

It really makes me think of a Thanksgiving table.  Cranberry sauce, roasted turkey.

Maybe I should have had lunch before I went out today!

Marsh Grass

I can't say that I really enjoy looking at the grasses in the marsh during the summer when they are all bright and filled with green.  I believe it has to do with the fact that they are also filled with mosquitos.

I can really do without mosquitos.  And black flies.  And mosquitos.

Where was I?  Oh, right...

But I really love the marsh grasses in the Fall when they turn spectacular shades of gold and their seed heads wave in the wind.

So lovely.

Fall Foliage

After spending the day curled up with a heating pad on my back, I finally gave in to reality and headed out to do my weekend errands.  Once I got going and saw the colors of Fall everywhere - I was really glad that I did.

I wasn't sure if it was the color of the leaves or the colors in the sky that were more amazing.  Either way - it was worth the trip.

Besides, the heating pad would be waiting for me when I got home.

Pumpkin Peppers

It's almost time for pumpkins.  I've already made the first pumpkin pie of the season and today my DH and I were out looking for some carving pumpkins for Halloween.  We didn't find it yet, but I did find these "pumpkin" peppers in the gardens.

I guess I must have missed them somehow, so now they've over-ripened and turned these fantastic shades of orange, gold and red.  I think I'll leave them for Mr. Rabbit.

I just love it when Mother Nature takes care of the seasonal decorations!

Sunny Flower Day

Today might be one of the last warm days of the year, so I thought I'd have a little fun with my Jerusalem artichokes.

Okay - that sounds a little strange...

I thought I'd have a little fun playing around with a picture of my Jerusalem artichokes in Photoshop.

Much better...

These are the second to last vegetable from our gardens - the last being the Brussels sprouts, which hopefully will be ready just in time for Thanksgiving.  Even though the Jerusalem artichokes practically take over the entire garden in the spring and I have to weed them out of everywhere like mad to keep them contained in their little section, I keep them around for this fantastic display in the Fall.

I love walking through the parterre and having their sunny flowers dancing in the breeze way above my head.  It makes me feel like a kid again - running through meadows, picking flowers, months of vacation time and convincing my little sister it was her turn to do my chores.  (Sorry sis!)

So when the sun came out this morning and it warmed up like August, I just had to play --- even if it was only on the computer.

Last Blast

Today on the train I noticed that the trees in the Great Swamp are turning - it's too soon, I tell ya!  So when I got home tonight I took a look through my summer photos and made myself a little "painting" that tells the best part of my summer.

My DH and I were sitting on the porch at our friend's house sipping on a lovely glass of wine.  It's an historic home, perfectly restored, overlooking the valley.  Her daylilies were just coming into bloom.  The air was that wonderful summery scent.  Birds flitted about the bushes and shrubs.

The conversation was all about the gardens, the birds and the ever persistent threat of deer.  So relaxing - so calm.  It's what I like about summer all rolled up into one perfect evening.  No clocks or schedules, just living.

So one last look at this past summer.  Too soon for it to go, but then again, without summer's end the fall harvest would not begin (or continue...).

Berry Nice

I couldn't believe it, but it's apparently true.  The holly berries are starting to turn to red.

Somehow it doesn't seem fair.  It's still August - and today was as hot an humid of a day as summer could bring.  But I saw the first flock of geese heading south, and now with the berries...  Well, I'm just going to have to admit that Fall is on its' way.

(I won't say the "W" word yet - I just *won't*!!!)

City Sky

I was looking through photos on my camera - trying to decide which to post today - when I ran across this pic from October.  The pinks were unbelievably amazing!

It's hard to believe that only 4 weeks ago I still had daylight on my way home.  These next few months will be all about the darkness of the early morning and evening.  

Last year I didn't see an actual ray of sunshine during the week until May 2.  There should have been some sun before that, but it was so rainy that any chance of a drop of golden sunshine falling on my windshield was washed away by heavy cloud cover.

Over the weekend I spent as much time outside in the sun as possible.  It's not just the sun, though.  It's the lack of snow and bitter cold.  Oh, I know it is coming.  Right now those freezing temps are sitting up in Canada just waiting to come on down to the Lower 48.  

In the meantime - I think I'll just soak up as much sun as possible and look through pictures of brighter days.

Foolish Forsythia

It's Spring!!!

Imagine my surprise on seeing the forsythia in bloom out in the garden.  After all, it's November and the only blooms I except to see are the blisters blooming on my hands from Fall clean-up.

Thanks to the October snow, this foolish forsythia was tricked into thinking that it is Spring so it bloomed.  It's tiny yellow flowers started popping open on the bare branches.  Not a full bloom - there are plenty of buds that are still closed up tight.  But enough to make a definite splash of yellow.

On the one hand this was a nice surprise because these are cheery little blossoms that put a smile on my face.  On the other hand, it's a bummer knowing that the blooms are now spent so we won't have flowers there in April.

What? Not Spring? Oh.

Geese Hill

For the past couple of weeks this flock of geese has been camped out on the hillside next to this little pond.  I get why they are here.  It's a nice pond and the sun warms up the hill - a great place to swim and lie in the sun.  But even for geese, there has to be more - don't you think?

And there is!  Right across the street from the pond is this lovely field of cut corn.  Plenty to eat, a pond to swim in and a hill to sun on.  What more could you ask for?  You know, if you are a goose.

These guys are Canada Geese, Branta canadensis.  This time of year they fly over our town, stopping at the ponds and cornfields to rest up before they fly further south.  The first flocks start coming to town at the beginning of October, the last will come through in December.

Sometimes in January we get a late flock flying in.  They usually stay here for the rest of the winter.  I figure that they come from way up north in Canada so when they get here, they think it's a tropical paradise - temps in the -20s, snow and ice everywhere.  They must come from a really cold place.

Train Shadows

The end of daylight savings time brings the end of sunlight in my day.  Up in darkness, home in darkness.  The shadows are creeping up the train here.  It was nature's early warning, I think.

Happy Holly Time

The second year we were in our bucolic manor, we replanted the front gardens and added two little holly bushes.  They were so tiny and cute.  Round little balls of wintery happiness.  They are loaded up with berries this year, which, according to an old wives' tale, means we are in for an exceptionally harsh winter.

Of course, now the bushes are 5 foot wide sprawling prickly plants that block the walkway and shade out the peonies and coral bells.  Bees swarm around them in the summer and the fallen berries make a slippery mess on the walk in the fall.  Snow piles up on the unpruned branches, splitting open the bushes furthering their sprawling shape.  If we leave these too much longer without proper pruning we will end up hating them!  So, next Spring this gal and her sister are going to get a styling new haircut.

When I picked out the bushes, I really didn't know much about them at all.  We just thought we needed something to look at in the garden during the winter and holly seemed a natural choice.  For example, I didn't know that only the female holly bushes have berries - the male ones don't.  I only got female ones. Fortunately for us, our neighbors have a male holly and the bees take care of the pollen delivery for us.

These hollies are Ilex opaca 'Canary', an American holly.  They will grow up to 40-feet tall.  I planted them 4-feet away from the front porch.  This is yet another reason why they have to be pruned.  I now know that even if we prune them for all they're worth they will still want to grow tall and we need to take that into consideration as we prune.

Our pup is not allowed to munch on them.  They are poisonous to dogs and she could get an upset stomach (or worse) if she were to make a meal out of them.  Fortunately she doesn't notice them much at all - unless there's a chipmunk hiding underneath.

They need to be fed.  So we give them Holly-tone twice a year in Spring and Fall.  They get sunburned and the leaves turn bronze and fall off.  The first year I saw this happen I was in an absolute panic!  I was sure I had killed them.  I rushed off to the nursery to find out just what to do - could they be saved?  Sunburn - who would have thought? - so now we just trim off those bits and don't worry about it so much.  They can't stand salt from the walkway, even if we are really careful it ends up melting off into their soil.  So when it ices up, we use potassium chloride on that section of the walk and that has an added bonus of fertilizing them.

And, of course, they feed a lot of bees and other native pollinators in the summer as well as the birds in the winter.  One of the nicest things I like about them is taking a few springs of holly berries and using it in our winter decorations and gift packaging.  It always looks so fresh - a reminder of Spring during the dark days of Winter.

What *is* that mess?

This mess of dead plant is really not a mess at all.  And it's not dead - just sleeping.  It's a daylily.  A Hemerocallis 'Imperial Lemon' (Harris-Benz, 1985) daylily to be more precise.

When we hosted a garden tour for our local region 4 American Hemerocallis Society club - the Hudson Valley Iris and Daylily Society (HVIDS for short), one of the guests asked for a few fans (fancy daylily name for plants) of this particular one.  I waited for it to die back before digging up a piece - this way the roots would get a chance to store up enough nutrients so it will bloom next year.  I know this is the spot where this flower is, at least I hope it's the spot.  Now, I just have to find the roots in this mess!

This is the desiccated scape (fancy word for stem) of the old flower.  If I go about 4 inches around the base of this scape, I should get a good sized root mass to gift.  When I push in the trowel, I'll move it out further if I meet real resistance from the roots, that way I won't slice through too many of the bigger ones and the plant will have a good chance of living through the winter.

I've freed up the roots from the garden bed and it is a really messy slimy mass of icky-ness (that's a technical term!).

The root mass is at the bottom and the dead leaves and stems are on top.  I'll trim off the leaves and stems to neaten it up and also to get rid of any nesting bugs or mold spores.  This will give the plant a better chance to make it in its' new home.

So pretty now!  There is one little light green shoot sticking out of the middle of the plant.  This particular daylily is semi-evergreen.  That means that the leaves don't completely die off over the winter, but they don't completely live either.  It's like a zombie - not quite alive, not quite dead.

I took a bunch of clean paper towels.

And laid the zombie daylily on them.

Then wrapped the paper towels around the zombie root mass making sure to leave the little shoot sticking out into the air on top.

I trussed up the paper towels with some twine - like a pork roast.  Ummm - zombie pork roast?

Then I wet the paper towels with tepid (not too hot, not too cold) water to keep the roots moist until they are planted.

Then I tucked the zombie pork roast into a plastic zip top bag to hold in the moisture - but I didn't close it all the way.

Then I stuck the zip top bag zombie pork roast into a plain brown paper bag - because no one needs to know that you are walking around town with a zombie pork roast in a plastic zip top bag.

And I took it over to the HVIDS lecture and gifted it to it's new owner.  He will plant it in his garden and next June the zip top bagged zombie pork roast will bloom.

And display these awesome 7-inch blossoms on 3-foot high stems.  Then because it is a reblooming daylily, it will come back to life again at the beginning of July and bloom again.  Sort of like a zombie coming back from the dead.  Or a zombie pork roast.

October Snow?

As much as I loved staying home during the snow storm, I finally returned to work in the city.  I was dressed for the wintery weather aftermath - warm sweater, boots, bundled up in my winter coat.  But look!  No snow!  No broken limbs on the trees.  They still have their leaves which are just starting to turn.

After a long weekend with no electricity, the calm quiet of snow and a crackling fire it was strange to go back down to the busy noisy city.

Of course the trains are still not running all the way upstate - so transportation is a challenge.  Ack!  

Hydrangea

Happy Halloween!  Mother Nature played her tricks on us this weekend, so we had no ghosts and goblins knocking on our door.  In fact, the only knocking we heard was from our knocking the snow off of the trees and bushes.

This lovely beauty was weighed down to the ground by the heavy October snow.  After a good shaking midway through the storm she straightened up a bit and I am hoping she will survive to bloom another year.  

Her formal name is hydrangea paniculata and she is 8 years old this Fall.  She is a standard - pruned into a tree form - and fills our flower bower with her creamy blossoms in summer which fade to this fabulous tea rose.  I hope that I can get enough blossoms to make a little wreath or flower arrangement for Thanksgiving, but at this point I'm just happy that she lived through the storm.

Snow Days

When you live in the Northeast, you have to expect snow.  And we do expect snow - just not so much - at the end of October!  It was a bit more than we were prepared for.

This Saturday morning was a beautiful Fall day.  I was out in the garden bringing in the last of the tender plants for overwintering indoors.  Just as I finished up, the first flakes began to fall.  And they kept coming down for the next 12 hours.  After 5 hours of the heavy wet snow, we lost power.  Cell service lasted for another hour, but then the tower went out as well.  Luckily we have the wood stoves for heat and the water stayed on during the entire outage.

Midway through the wintery blast, we went out to do maintenance on the property.  Shaking the snow off of the bushes and trees, checking the outbuildings for snow-load, and running away from the larger trees when we heard the *crack* of a limb breaking and crashing to the ground.

I have to say we were very lucky.  The large limbs from our 150 year old pine trees did not fall on the house.  The black locust limbs that plummeted from hundreds of feet in the air slicing through anything they encountered in their path to the ground only hit gardens - not us!  One of our rescued apple trees was pruned by Mother Nature and seems so sad at half of its' height, but its' roots are snug in the earth.  We were lucky.

Once the snow stopped on Sunday and the roads were clear of emergency vehicles, we shoveled the driveway (the tractor is still set up for mowing - not plowing) and ventured out.  As is usual in the country, we stopped  to move downed trees from the road (sans power lines!).  Our little town was out of gas, so we headed north where we found gas and hot food.  After filling the truck and warming up, we headed back home to our bouncy puppy and another night of monitoring the water lines.  

Our power came back up on Monday, the snow is almost all gone now, but the damage to the gardens is bad.  It could have been worse, though.  Like I said - we were lucky.

Hot Pepper Bouquet

A perfectly pleasant pepper parcel makes a pleasing hostess gift.  Don't you think?

Total Time: 5 minutes

Last week I harvested what I thought would be the last of the Fall vegetables.  I guess someone forgot to mention that to the pepper plants.  But, it was a nice surprise and came in handy for a last minute hostess gift.

I left about 1 1/2" of stem on the peppers when I picked them.  That was to make sure they stayed "sealed" and preserve their freshness as long as possible.  I even pulled off a few leaves by accident, but that came in handy.

I took a rubber band to secure the peppers in a bit of a bouquet, wrapping it tightly so the ones inside wouldn't fall out.  Then I tied a piece of ribbon around it to hide the rubber band.  I thought the rust colored ribbon contrasted well with the bright green of the peppers.

There you have it!  A simple bouquet of peppers makes a great hostess gift when you perk it up with a little ribbon.  Much better than a reused shopping bag full of produce, don't you think?