A Walk in the Woods

 After several delays, I arrived home on Wednesday to find the pond leak and liner problems solved! It was a wonderful start to my 5 day break. Instead of looking out at a muddy, brown water bog (which made frogs very happy), I can now hear the sound of the water moving and see it as it rolls along the stones in the stream. So nice!!

I went on a hike yesterday with a few people from the hiking club I joined. We went to Clinton Nature Preserve which I had never heard of. It was an easy walk through surprisingly mixed terrain. Parts of the walk were very wooded, while other parts were across great slabs of granite, much like Mount Arabia or Stone Mountain. Still other parts of the walk were paths mowed through tall grasses. 

I didn't take a lot of pictures because I only had my phone camera, and I find that pictures of woods here all look sort of brown against brown and indistinct. However, there were a lot of ruins in these woods, remnants of a by-gone community. When you walk in the woods here, and you see piles of stones and lots of daffodils, you know that once upon a time there was a house and garden here. Sometimes even the chimney is left.  On this walk, some of the houses have been preserved (see the tin roofs) although they are still mostly falling in. 

This last picture is where slaves used to live. It was the smallest house and set apart from others. 

Isn't it astounding to think that people made and assembled these houses with hand tools? And isn't it beyond comprehension to think of the normalcy at one time of slaves and slave ownership??

I saw this hawk and got this rather poor picture of him because I didn't want to get too close. He was a beauty!

After the Snow

Look at these gorgeous tulips my dear husband gave me! It's so nice to have happy, bright flowers in the house on these gray winter days.

 

I spent this weekend cleaning up after last weekend's storm. So many scattered small limbs and pinecones! Some went on the mulch pile and some got put in yard waste cans. Because of the consistent cold, some things I hoped would be perennial, like lantana and Mexican heather, froze out. But, here and there I saw little promises of spring flowers.

I spent a little bit of time on the body of my sweater--and I think I am going to be okay with the colors.

My students (and me too!!) were all hoping for another snowy day on Friday, but it was not to be. School was on as usual.  

The pond repair men came and patched the leak, but 24 hours later, the water had dropped again. Boo! They will have to come again and replace the whole liner in the upper pond. Until then, the stream remains dry. The Kinglets and the Eastern Phoebe were dip diving into the remaining water before it sank too low and then pretty much dried up altogether. I am going to fill up my birdbath saucer (it used to be a hanging bird bath, but I lost the chain and hook in the move). I'll  put it near the stream. Haha. That seems like an old lady thing to do! But, I am kind of an old lady I guess.

Happy End of January to you all!

The Pond Leak

Monday of this week started with a power outage. Of course, winter arrived at the same time! The house was very cold.

Our landscape lights blew out and when we went to reset them, we found out that the app we use for them is no longer available.

The man came to install a new power box for our solar panels (which we have been waiting for for some time), but he could not test it so he had to go away and could not get back until the end of the week.

The pond pump stopped and the water level in the pond dropped drastically. When I went to check to pump, the plastic tubing that runs underground and up a hill to the waterfall was brittle and snapped at the skimmer housing. We learned how to dig it up and splice it, and did so on that very cold day.  However, the next morning we noticed that the water level had dropped seriously low in the upper pond and we called the pond and garden people who had helped us with the tubing issue the day before. We were advised to turn off the pump altogether, which we did. We moved the four gold fish that like to live in the upper pond into the lower pond where the water level was stable.

The water level continued to fall. The pond repair/builders are waiting on negative Covid test results so are not able to come help us with this. This morning I found one more little fish hanging out with very little water. I picked him up with my hands and moved him to the lower pond where swam away to join the school.

Luckily, at this time of year outdoor fish are semi-dormant. They don't eat or make waste and they don't move around a lot. I put an oxygenator in the pond that I had in the shed, and while I'm not sure it will help, at least it might. I guess now we are just waiting. I am very thankful that I don't have expensive koi! 

I am also thankful that the heat and lights are back on and the solar panels are running again. The landscape lights are still a problem, but that is a small thing, really. 

I am sorry for the birds who keep coming to the maple tree above the stream that carries water from the upper pond down to the lower pond. They love to step in that stream and bathe and drink. (And I love to watch them!) Today, the cardinals kept coming and standing pitifully on the dry rock bed. 

Well, after all these sorry pictures and my woeful tale, here is a little picture of some gorgeous glass birds I saw at the museum shop! Aren't they just delightful?

In the Garden

 So, the vegetables:

We got lots of peas before the powdery mildew and heat did them in. I just pulled out all the plants yesterday. We'll plant cowpeas there next, which should go good for the rest of the summer.

The cucumbers exploded. We've been eating them every day. I canned a few jars of bread and butter pickles and my husband made some jars of half sour spears. There are still plenty to put in salad and give away.

We've also got a bunch of eggplants coming and pablano peppers and bell peppers and jalapeno peppers too. (We love peppers!) If we can find them, we will add some shishito peppers. We love to pan roast them in olive oil, salt them, and eat them as a snack.

And of course we have tomatoes. We just picked the first one yesterday. This year, we are trying the string between posts method to keep them upright. Last year, they were huge and out-of-control. We hadn't anticipated that. The plants quickly grew out of their spiral tomato cages and I had a mishmash of garden frames and stakes holding them up. So far, the string and post method is working well.

And then, the flowers:

Well, everything is just happy as ever.

Lace cap hydrangea. We have loads of these in white and purple.

I had to stretch and hold my camera up over these six foot beauties.

Gorgeous ones like these only last a day or two!

Cat whisker reseeds itself

and grows like a weed. This year, I am letting some of them stay in certain areas of the garden.

We have few plants growing in the pond this year. Last year they were sucking up so much water we felt like we were refilling it nearly every day.

I had to stake these hydrangeas this morning because they were blocking the gate. We've also go an incredibly huge patch of blue one.

I know it's not for everyone, but I am so happy to work outdoors nearly every day. I love going out and pulling weeds and smelling gardenias and listening to the birds (or my audio book). I love staking overgrown plants and de-heading and trimming back and fertilizing. I love that bees come here and butterflies and hummingbirds and dragon flies. I love all the many bird regulars who nest around here. I love to see (or hear!) the occasional frog.

I hope you have a great rest of your week!

Small Projects

This week we had a lot of fish die in the pond. I was finding about one a day swept up in the basket near the filter.  We had to go at once to the pond store near us. There, we found out a lot about KH and adding carbonate to the water to keep it safe for the fish. Each day we run a test from a simple test kit to make sure the water in the tube turns blue. The goal is to add 8 or more drops and keep the sample blue. If it turns yellow, there isn't enough carbonate and the water is dangerous for fish.
Our water turned yellow right away!

The cure is easy enough. You have to add baking soda--like by the pound--to the water. So, we have been doing this amateur science all week.

It was also a week for more sock knitting. I am using Staci Perry's pattern for socks knitted on flexible double pointed needles. I really like the way these needles bend. It solves the problem of stretching all the stitches at the start when using a small circular, stitches falling off regular double points, and sliding all that extra cord with magic loop. I still like all the other methods, but I like this one too--maybe best so far.

This is also my first pair of toe-up socks. I love the cast on for this. However, I think my sock is a bit too long in the foot. Making this toe-up and on flexi-flips, I just wasn't able to find a comfortable way to try the sock on as I knit. I went by measurement rather than trying it on, so it is a little long.  I think. I will have to get them both made and blocked to be sure. If they are too long, it is only by a wee bit, so no big deal. 

I love the stripes. This is a self striping yarn I got from Knit Picks called Felici. I love that you can order two balls and get two matching socks. Super easy!

Water lilies in front of the pond supply place!

This was a difficult 4th of July for many reasons. I struggle each day to keep focused on the small sweetnesses in life and not let fear of sickness and the unknown overwhelm me. I guess a lot of us are like that.

j

Pond Life--Mornings

I wake up in the morning and it is hard to get started. I let out the dogs. They have my work day rhythm of getting up and going out and then returning to their crates for a nap. I let them keep that rhythm (just like with children--let them nap!).  And then I find myself sitting and staring out the window. Even on work days, I do the minimal updates and then sit.

I know it is some kind of stress inertia.

While I sit, I watch the birds come to the pond. Cardinals come all day. Four or five males and their partners. It's their calls I hear the most. And the robins come, dipping into the pond for muddy bits then flying away to make their nests. Blue jays, who really are beautiful birds, although they're loud and bossy, come in threes, going in all at once for a splashy bath.

There are brown thrashers and towhees and sparrows and chickadees and catbirds and bluebirds. So many kinds of birds!

I love especially the shy birds--little tufted titmouse and kinglets, and the yellow ones who are mostly warblers that I struggle to identify because yellow warblers come in so manyvvarieties.

The larger part of the pond with the goldfish and koi, has a net over it to keep away predators--herons and cats and raccoons. But the top is open and and the birds like to jump in the shallow stream under the maple tree by the bridge. Then they fly up into the tree and preen.

Peonies are opening.
And roses.

After my morning window gazing, instead of having to problem solve online activities and assignments (Kids are leaving me messages like: Miss! Help me. I need help! Which is very vague and a little alarming), I've been spending the hours outdoors, weeding and preparing everything for vegetable planting.  I am happy to have this week away from classes.

This year I've ordered some plants for delivery, which is very odd indeed, but should be interesting.

Stay well.