Mid-week update. Just before solstice...
*Wed night we unceremoniously plucked and sucked down the first glorious tomatoes. A pair of cherries from the back corner of the garden. YUM.
*Sighting of a red-brown dragonfly.
*Something ATTACKED the butterfly bush, taking a bite here, a bite there, enough to wilt and kill the buds and new growth all across the top. The black ants were swarming the wounds. We kind of wanted to blame them for the damage, in the absence of any other obvious culprit. We were distressed.
*Daily squash bug vigilante rounds have not turned up any new attacks. We're hoping that clearing away the old straw from last year helped. That and swooping down on that first three and their modest stash of eggs...
*Thursday - mysterious flock of tiny grey birds. Very much a group. Nervous. Vocal. And off they went! brown/grey. no wing bars. no white rings around their eyes. tiny grey bug beaks. ?! [Update. Watching them again with Trina at UNM--someone walked past and shouted "Bushtits" Very funny. Yup, that's what they are alright. He said there was a Robin's nest over in front of Castetter Hall. I pointed out ours... He was impressed. Trina had just taken some great photos of all the baby Barn Swallows.
*First load of compost in our garden truck. Soilutions trip was as much fun as ever. Dot likes all the big equipment. The person on yard duty said it takes about 2 years to rotate one of their enormous piles full circle--ready to go out the door as compost. G fell in love with a handmade pitch fork in with the tools of a landscaper who was making a drop off. He got her a business card and said he makes them. (Why do I see a new pitch fork in my future?!)
*Hotter than they said Wednesday night. Those Indian Givers. And no rain. A muzzy sky.
*Bamboo wind chimes. My mantra the last couple of years has been: Powers of Observation. To develop and hone my skills at reading the natural world. This is not a project I've been able to undertake without a lot of "aids." We had 2 sets of wind chimes already... a big metal set and a tiny metal set. And I often notice them: wind. The invisible passing of energy. Motion. When we got the sudden urge to go find a bamboo set, for a different sound, I was shocked to discover that they sang and sang and sang, while their metal relatives didn't even wave. It was as if we got a new weather instrument, one that was 5 times as sensitive as the previous ones. Who knew?! And of course, the sound has an entirely different mood to it. Falling water.
*Wind has knocked off most of the desert willow blossoms. Chaste tree next to it has begun to bloom in earnest. The bees have moved right over; that corner of the yard is humming!
*Maria told us about the Green Porno short posted to YouTube. G looked them up and we watched yesterday afternoon. Hilarious. Bawdy. Ingenious. Guaranteed to get the attention of the average disaffected highschooler. I said they should have to create one as a group project, but G. said that might not go over well. After all, "sex"?!! Hmm.
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*Sighting of a red-brown dragonfly.
*Something ATTACKED the butterfly bush, taking a bite here, a bite there, enough to wilt and kill the buds and new growth all across the top. The black ants were swarming the wounds. We kind of wanted to blame them for the damage, in the absence of any other obvious culprit. We were distressed.
*Daily squash bug vigilante rounds have not turned up any new attacks. We're hoping that clearing away the old straw from last year helped. That and swooping down on that first three and their modest stash of eggs...
*Thursday - mysterious flock of tiny grey birds. Very much a group. Nervous. Vocal. And off they went! brown/grey. no wing bars. no white rings around their eyes. tiny grey bug beaks. ?! [Update. Watching them again with Trina at UNM--someone walked past and shouted "Bushtits" Very funny. Yup, that's what they are alright. He said there was a Robin's nest over in front of Castetter Hall. I pointed out ours... He was impressed. Trina had just taken some great photos of all the baby Barn Swallows.
*First load of compost in our garden truck. Soilutions trip was as much fun as ever. Dot likes all the big equipment. The person on yard duty said it takes about 2 years to rotate one of their enormous piles full circle--ready to go out the door as compost. G fell in love with a handmade pitch fork in with the tools of a landscaper who was making a drop off. He got her a business card and said he makes them. (Why do I see a new pitch fork in my future?!)*Hotter than they said Wednesday night. Those Indian Givers. And no rain. A muzzy sky.
*Bamboo wind chimes. My mantra the last couple of years has been: Powers of Observation. To develop and hone my skills at reading the natural world. This is not a project I've been able to undertake without a lot of "aids." We had 2 sets of wind chimes already... a big metal set and a tiny metal set. And I often notice them: wind. The invisible passing of energy. Motion. When we got the sudden urge to go find a bamboo set, for a different sound, I was shocked to discover that they sang and sang and sang, while their metal relatives didn't even wave. It was as if we got a new weather instrument, one that was 5 times as sensitive as the previous ones. Who knew?! And of course, the sound has an entirely different mood to it. Falling water.*Wind has knocked off most of the desert willow blossoms. Chaste tree next to it has begun to bloom in earnest. The bees have moved right over; that corner of the yard is humming!
*Maria told us about the Green Porno short posted to YouTube. G looked them up and we watched yesterday afternoon. Hilarious. Bawdy. Ingenious. Guaranteed to get the attention of the average disaffected highschooler. I said they should have to create one as a group project, but G. said that might not go over well. After all, "sex"?!! Hmm.
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