And Still...

tomatoes

I think we are up in the hundreds range.

How Is the Garden Growing???

Here it is today.

Jungle tomatoes!  Cukes are taking over and they are supposed to be 'bush' plants, not vine.  Peppers, well, eh.

Compared to the photo in this post:  http://harmonyclubwaltz.blogspot.com/2013_05_01_archive.html

Here are a couple shots of plants given to us by our hippie friend, Pete.

These are going to be purple tomatoes.

R says these will be purple, too.

And of course, a massive amount of cucumbers.  This weekend I think I'll can (jar) some sweet and sour.

I kind of forgot to check the plants for a couple days.  Should have this many more in about 4 more days.

How Does Your Garden Grow?



The newly planted veggie garden complete with decoration.

All I can say is it better do well this year!  Last year we yielded, I think, a grand total of three tomatoes and one cucumber.  It just HAS to do better this year!  Planted are:  3 Beefsteak and 5 Big Boy tomato, 8 green pepper and 8 red pepper, and 6 cucumber plants.  Since we had the Linden tree cut down in the Fall, the garden will get a good deal more sunshine.We've added new soil, purchased stuff and the super black gold from the dump, errrrr, transfer station, where they compost and grind and process enormous piles of clippings and branches.  The first year we used the dump stuff, the veggie crop was spectacular.  Here's hoping.

One of many poppies seen on a recent walk to the beach.

Flowering plants and shrubs are showing off this year.  May the veggies take a hint!

Mom's azalea at the entrance to her side garden.



2,4,6.......

Most of you know that I hate winter.  Yep, snow is pretty and all if only it didn't make for work shoveling, nasty driving, mud when it thaws, wet socks when someone tracks it in to the house and cold temps. 

Even worse is snow when it is windy.

Overnight and today we are predicted to have 4 - 6 inches of the white stuff.  Not bad until you add wind gusts over 35 mph.  So...once again we have drifting snow.  A pain to shovel.  Nothing in all the wrong places and too much where you don't want it.  You no sooner move it and it's back where you don't want it again.

Phase one has been completed.  You'd never notice it by looking out the window.  Phase two will be at noon.  'A' has to be at work at 3 p.m.  Hopefully the storm will be over by then.

Second Post - Starting the Worst

Looking across the front yard

 It is nasty out there.  I've been out twice kinda shoveling.  First time I did everything.  My drive, my mom's and our three walks. 

Mr. Cat in hibernation

This last time, with horizontal snow at somewhere above 35 mph, I did around the cars and just my porch and the front walk.  That's it for tonight.  I expect to wake up to something between one and two feet and drifts.  My back drive will take days to clear, it is totally drifted in.

Mr. Cat's view of my truck

Minimum of twelve more hours to go and just starting the worst part.

Stumped

It only took ten years to make it happen...

The linden tree as the removal service began work early Friday morning

Friday A and I had the linden tree cut down. It was a beautiful tree in many ways.  A tremendous annoyance in every other.

Waaayyyyyyy up there with a chain saw

Back when we moved here and built our house attached to my parent's house my mom would not allow the tree to be cut down.  "It's beautiful."  "The house will look so bare at that end."  "Just trim it some."

This guy really knew his stuff

Well, all that may be so, but A and I got real tired of the bugs that, along with my mother, loved the linden tree.  Spiders, bees, winter moths and ants.  The spiders and ants particularly bothered me.  For many months my truck, which was parked beneath the tree, would be covered, inside and out, with spiders and ants.  Mostly the spiders gave me problems as they bite.  Nothing like driving down Nugent Stretch, at night, trying to squish spiders on the inside of the windshield as I drove.  They came inside the house, too.  I think the ants taught them how to do that.  The bees arrived when the tree was in bloom.  They would buzz all around, high on each branch...and then crawl around on my truck trying to lap up the sweet sap that would drip down.  Oh yeah...that sap was a real hassle, too.  For a month or two the truck would look sugar coated.  A hates the winter moths.  Don't ask me why, but at age 30 she is deathly afraid of moths.  It was hard getting home from work after dark and seeing thousands of the white-winged things crawling up the trunk of the tree...and then have to get out of the truck parked right there next to 'em.

Less and less tree

Ten years of whining and complaining to my mom combined with her forgetting that she had said not to cut it down...

Chain saw man back on solid footing

Now its gone and along with it all those pesky problems.  I'm sure we will miss the green of it and the shade of it near the house next summer.  We will love, however, the opportunity to have a better, maybe bigger, vegetable garden.

Me and the stump (Thanks, R, for the photo)

Gone except for the stump.  The tree service's stump grinding machine is in the shop for repairs so they will be back in the next week or so to erase the last reminder of the linden tree.

(I missed some of the action - the main trunk being felled and slamming to the ground.  I had to be at a tuning job.  I got home in time to see it in its fallen position, though, before being sliced up, loaded, and hauled away.)

Three More Things...

since the first post today.

First it was Bart the Bunny.  He was over a month ago.  Several weeks ago, as I looked out the kitchen window while enjoying that first bit of morning coffee, I spied more wildlife in the driveway.

Mr. Turtle bewildered on the pavement, no water in sight!

We were very concerned that Mr. Turtle's fate would be being run over by a car.  It was going to be a very long trek for him to get himself back to water.  So...

Oh no!  Mr. Turtle doesn't like captivity!

I will say he wasn't happy about being in that box.  I had put on some heavy garden gloves and approached him from behind to lift him in the box.  Once boxed, R and I carried him down the road to Loop Pond.  Mr. Turtle managed to provide a half inch of liquid in the bottom of the box during the short walk!  Once he got within detecting nearby water he was anxious to dive right in.

He ran for the water and before my camera could cycle for another shot he had dove in!

*************************
So second,
A local piano tech has pretty much retired and he decided that he should liquidate some of his stock.  R and I headed to his house last week to take a look.  Now, it's not like I really needed all this stuff, but sometimes I just can't resist the idea that there might be a hidden treasure.

There are lots of goodies including a lifetime supply of damper felt, a set of Steinway B hammers, several sets of wooden caster cups, and a Spurlock hammer hanging jig.

And there was.  So it was a good purchase and there may be the offer of more at a future date.

*************************
And finally on Friday I found myself helping R reinstall two valve units in a pipe organ.  Fortunately(?) I can manage to squeeze into even tighter places than he can!

Thanks, R, for the picture taking of the top third

And the middle third

There is still more work to do before the job is complete...including more squishy work.

New-sy

Well, the first thing is trying out the 'new' Blogger.  Not thinking that I like it much, but like most other changes it will become routine after a while.

This week, or so, has been/will be birthday week.  Mom's came first this past Tuesday and A's will be this coming Tuesday.  As normal, and to avoid too much baking and eating out, we combined the two, celebrating on Thursday with a trip to Skip's (they had opened for the season on Wednesday).  We came home for presents and cake. Thursday was the only evening available in A's schedule.  She had an extra load of hours at work this week.  39 hours when she's supposed to be part time.  Her boss claims it was because of another clerk being on vacation.  Weird that everyone else only had between 15 - 20 hours though.

Our view from our car.  The parking lot was near capacity.

Our timing for Skip's was good, arriving before it got too busy.  As you might notice by the picture, by the time we were nearly ready to leave, the line was out the door.  I'll add that the line started inside, to the far right, about where it says Skip's.  Tradition dictates that we eat in the car.  The weather was beautiful.  In the mid 70's.

Which does bring today's weather to mind.  It's now in the mid 40's...and raining.  It's going to rain tomorrow, as well.  A real Nor'easter, they claim.  We do need the rain.  We're somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 - 8 inches shy of norm this year.  Beats getting a late season snow like upstate New York and western Pennsylvania (hi Norma!).  The bad weather has brought a halt to a search for a little girl missing from Long Beach since Thursday noon.  A tragic story that can be best read through the Gloucester newspaper.

It's been a bit over a week since I got a copy of the book that's new in my sidebar.  Mark Carlotto had written "The Dogtown Guide".  "The Island Woods" is his newest book.  Guess who got an acknowledgement?  Guess who also wrote a 'blurb' for the back cover?  Did you guess?  Did ya?  Yep, me!  And you can bet I got my copy autographed by Mark. Why my presence?  Well, through the historic society I was able to read the proof of the book.  When I emailed Mark with some comments (mostly praise), he asked if I would contribute the back cover blurb.  I had no idea that my comment about an additional D.T. Sq. boulder would earn me the acknowledgement.  I'm very pleased.

In other news...things are looking pretty favorable for a contract on a Mason & Hamlin reed organ rebuild for a Boston church.  Tomorrow I will be pricing out some movers for them and sending along the contract for the work.  Fingers crossed.

This morning, as I looked out my kitchen window, sipping the first of my coffee, I spotted this rather large bunny hopping down the front walk.  He (or she, I guess) sat at the end of the walk for a couple minutes looking around before hopping on into my mother's front garden.

Bart the bunny

Indoors, we started our vegetable seeds a few weeks ago.  Tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans and pumpkins. It's been about a 50/50 success rate and I've planted more seeds...just in case.  We've been carrying the tray of seedlings outdoors on sunny warm days and they do look better for it.  At worst, the garden will be mediocre.  At best, we will also have a second crop later in the summer. 

I'm still working on my web site.  I wrote the text and R is doing the editing.  I've accumulated a few more pictures and I've picked a template on a web hosting site.  As soon as a large, uninterrupted block of time is available I'll be getting it done.  Yay!

Today was the day to take artwork out of the Rockport Art Association Contributing Member's  Show.  R and I went down at noon to retrieve the painting and the photograph that I had exhibited.  No sale this year.  At least it keeps my name in circulation.

Haskins Hospital depicted on an early Rockport postcard

In a couple weeks, I'll be running a PowerPoint presentation on the former Leander M. Haskins Hospital of Rockport.  Another SBHS member will be doing the talking.  I'll be doing a bit of explaining about what remains of the property...now a town park.  Getting all the photos scanned and also exploring and taking current photos, not to mention a heck of a lot of research has kept me busy for weeks.  I am happy with the photos and hope that the entire presentation is a good one. It should be.

So, there you have it...I think.  Pretty much what has been going on around here recently.

Garden Goodness

The first three carrots.  They are earlier than the rest of the crop.  They were just screaming at me to be pulled out!  Next year we must plant the seeds earlier (and more). 

The rest of the garden?  Well, the tomatoes have been delicious and there are still plenty more to go.  We lost a few in the heavy rain and wind over the weekend but there are still plenty.  The cucumbers continue and continue and continue to produce.  We haven't been too successful with our pumpkins.  I'm blaming it on the fact that they are suppose to be some hybrid huge things.  Next year we stick to the boring, even-an-idiot-can-grow-these type.  We have 3 cantaloupes.  One is large enough that it may mature before cold weather!  No broccoli.   If we try for it next year we'll have to be sure to start it earlier and plant it where it will get a lot more sunshine.

All in all, it's been great watching the plants growing from seeds to producing yummy veggies.  "R' has been a super gardener!

Eats

I rarely write about food.  I don't get very enthused about the subject.  Honestly, I think of it somewhat as a waste of money...just flushed down the...well, kinda literally.  You could eliminate the middle man and just send those bills on their way.

Oh well.

This week has been a good week for food finds.  First we visited a British import store while walking around Newburyport the other day and I found Lyle's Golden Syrup!  It's been a few years since I've been able to locate this favorite.  My grandfather got me hooked on the sweet syrup when I was very young.  Having found a new supplier, I bought two cans leaving one on the shelf for someone equally as fortunate to find it.

The other food doings became finding a recipe for sweet and sour cucumbers.  I remember Rosa making them.  I worked for Rosa and her husband, Aage, many years ago.  Aage was a Danish Masterbaker (Yummmmmmmmmmmy stuff).  Rosa used to make a hot lunch for me every day that I was there.  I particularly enjoyed her Danish meatballs with sweet and sour cucumbers.  Anyway, we've got a lot of cucumbers growing in our veggie garden and it has become obvious that we need to find a variety of menu options for them.  Today was my first attempt at the recipe below.  I just tried them...a bit too sharp.  Maybe I should switch to a different vinegar type?  Or try more sugar?

Sweet and Sour Cucumber
300ml white vinegar
75g caster sugar
1 cucumber sliced paper thin (I used two of our small bush cucumbers)
Combine the sugar and vinegar in a saucepan and heat, gently stirring the mixture to make sure all the sugar dissolves.  Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.  Cool, then add cucumber and let sit for at least 1/2 hour.  Drain for serving and serve chilled.

In the Aura of Black Gold

The un-pink flamingo

We hauled four loads of heavy, smelly dirt from the transfer station to our new veggie garden.  The dirt is called black gold deservedly.  It's darn rich stuff, obviously, well, naturally fertilized.  I was challenged to take a photo of that dark stuff before planting in the morning.  A couple problems arose.  First being that it's dark out...dark soil, dark night...must use the flash...except it's foggy out, too, and that doesn't mix right with flash photography.  So I decided to use the 'good' camera.  The one that manages to shoot decent night scenes with no flash.  Problem number three...this tired laptop won't read the images from the new decent camera.

On to the bitty, tired, old camera and some not so hot shots.  Except for the one on this post.  I wonder what is emanating from that black gold that resulted in that shot!

It's Not Political

It's just that one thing led to another...

First, if you remember, there was Dexter the snowman.  Dexter began to suffer mightily when wind and snow changed to wind and rain.  So much so that poor Dexter lost his head.  Then he took a hit to his midsection.

Dexter looking a bit doggy

After being emailed some clever Calvin and Hobbes snowmen cartoons (thanks with a big smile), my thoughts turned to salvaging what I could of Dexter.

"I'm sinking"

Then I thought a bit more and gave up real work for the morning to create this...

As Lady Liberty

I'm sure some will read all sorts of stuff into my current snow display.

(Before y'all jump on what you think is an error on my part...there ARE seven points on the crown.  Ya just can't see the one all the way around to the left side.)

Three Words

 No More Snow.

partially dug out back drive

                                                                            

Just some pictures from the past week or so...

the deck - fence is 6 feet tall

Oh, have I mentioned ice?  We've got that, too.  This is my back drive.  At least what I shoveled of it.  Today it is a cascade of thick ice.  Two and a half inches thick in some places.  Yes, I measured it while I was out chopping some of it up.

this morning's icy mess

I sure hope that groundhog wasn't just snow blind when he didn't see his shadow.  I'm ready for some seriously warm weather!

Some things do make for pretty pictures though.

Have I Ever Mentioned...

Cattitude...yes, I'm grumpy even with a winter coat

that I hate snow?  Not a precisely accurate statement.  I hate having to shovel snow.  And I have to shovel a lot of area.  Mom's wide driveway, mom's crushed stone parking area, mom's front walk and steps, the back walk, the deck, my crushed stone drive, my steps.  At least the 6-8 inches that we were not supposed to get last night is fairly light and fluffy. 

The meteorologists should have stuck with their original forecast.  They changed it from 6+ inches for our area to 0 or a dusting.  Last night's late news included word that 'the event' was over...no more snow for the weekend.  Done.  When I woke up this morning I noticed, from my angle still in bed, that there was a light coating of white on a nearby rooftop.  Oh, no worries...just a dusting.  Then there was a rumble that got louder and louder. 

A snowplow?

I got out of bed and looked out the window.  There it all was, waiting for digging out...and a sizable plow-in, too!  The dread felt was soon replaced by a gnawing irritation.  The town had plowed the back drive...again.  They are supposed to stay off of it.  I started a pot of coffee and bundled up in snow gear to start shoveling.  I checked the back drive...yep, they've dug up more pavement.  That adds another chore to tomorrow's list...a trip to the DPW office to complain.  Obviously they forgot that they agreed to stay off my property and drive.

I propose a compromise.  It can snow all it wants to...as long as it doesn't accumulate on drives, walks, or streets...and it's 80°F while it does it.  (I'll settle for 60°...but don't tell)

The Baglady (another self-portrait)

When I haven't been working, or walking, or taking photographs, or shuttling 'A' to work, or being sick...yes, I had a terrible head cold all last week...I've been raking leaves.  We have huge oak trees lining our street.  Enormous.  And they create an enormous mess of leaves later in the season than any other.

Although I have declared the job FINISHED for this season, I know that there will be many more to rake up come Spring.  You see, several neighbors don't bother to rake and all it takes is a bit of wind and........

This season's bag count...and they are 39 gallon bags packed solidly...is 98.  Pictured are just a small portion of the total that I raked and bagged yesterday and today, 29 I think.  'A' and my mom will load the bags into mom's car and take them to the dump to empty in the lawn debris pile.

The Baglady

I'm sure glad that it's done for another year!  All pain killers, massages, and tickets to tropical vacation spots will be joyfully and gratefully accepted.  Nice comments welcome as well, but do make note of the preceding list of acceptable congratulatory items.

Out the Side

The morning ritual has become coffee and toast at Mom's end of the house AND feeding the Bubbas, our bluejay family, peanuts. More recently the Bubbas have been joined by a distant relative, a blackbird. Squirt no longer visits as we have spent some weeks trying to discourage him. He got far too demanding. In his place, however, is Chip our garden chipmunk. Chip has been taking every opportunity he's found to sneak through the fence and 'steal' peanuts from the Bubbas.

This morning we had a new visitor. Another squirrel, definitely NOT Squirt, as this little guy wasn't at all interested in the handful of peanuts that I had just thrown out on the deck.This straggly one looked like he had gotten into some bad berries.He staggered along a bit and then stretched out for a nap.5 minutes later, a scratching episode, nearly tumbling off the fence, then settled down for more napping.Moved along the top of the fence, scratched, more napping.Came right up to the corner and peered at me through the ficus tree, (can you find him back there?) turned around and scratched, then more napping. This went on for the better part of a half hour before mom had decided enough is enough and scared him off. The rest of our morning crew needed time to get more peanuts.

Today was a gorgeous day. Breezy, warm not hot, and sunny. A perfect day NOT to do work. And I didn't. Well, no work, but I can't do nothing without someone to do nothing with, so...I did something. I baked cookies. Peanut butter ones. And just this moment it has occurred to me how weird that is considering this post.

The stained glass window at the top is located in a door at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Rockport.

Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas

Any of you know how to read Finnish?We found this card in the Lanesville house. It is addressed to the long deceased V. E. Haapa Natti (subsequently Storns). A fitting card to post here. We've been feeding the large clan (flock) of Bubbas and Squirt has reappeared to steal what he feels he's due. He hasn't been very pushy about it as there are an abundance of acorns this year. Today, he was having fits just trying to get one peanut as the bluejays kept landing around him and dive-bombing him. Poor little Squirt was frozen in place and ducking!

Even more wildlife have been coming around. Some not so welcome...

On Sunday there was a lot of shoveling to do. Near the end of the day I shoveled the back garden walk near the birdfeeder and deck. As I scooped up a shovelful at the base of deck steps, I nearly sliced up a small, dark grey mouse under all the snow. He scurried out of the way and burrowed neatly under a nearby drift of snow. Eeeeeew. That makes me real enthusiastic about snow removal back there for the rest of the winter.

On a more interesting note, today after Squirt and the Bubbas were finished with their feasting on peanuts, a hawk landed on out deck railing. Wish I had had the camera handy.

I wish you all the best of the holiday season and I'm so thankful to have you all visiting here.

At Least It Didn't Snow

But it was sure a yucky day.

We had our first snow of the season early last Sunday morning. That didn't amount to more than a dusting, but it was annoying to have to scrape the windshield. For the past couple of days the meteorologists have been predicting a doozey. "Watch out, we're going to get a major snow storm," was all I heard on the weather. It started with heavy rain in southern California (thanks Scribbs) and spread itself halfway across the country with snow in New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, then Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and the upper midwest. Today was our turn.

But not here.

It's very rainy and very, very windy. Very grey and gloomy. Squirt and Squeaky had their breakfast in the lee of our big oak tree.

NO SNOW!

Drive a few miles to the west or north and they had snow. Up to 10 inches in some places, but NOT HERE! Of course, we have huge puddles and the wind was blasting so violently that a cement weighted sign in Stop & Shop's parking lot blew over doing some significant paint damage to the hood of a shiny, black Mustang parked in front of it. It was a small enough sign, on a metal post, with a circular mass of cement about a foot thick and 2 feet in diameter. The metal post did the damage. Yes, I braved the wild and wet storm to go in to the store to tell the manager.

So, now we're all home, nice and cozy. Thankfully, I've got key work in to keep me busy with more arriving tomorrow and Friday. Dinner is cooking, the Christmas decorations are all out. I'm heading for the living room to stare at the tree.