altheas

My youngest grandgirl is here for her week so if anyone is wondering where I am (because I just know that I am first on everyone's mind), I'm busy with her.

In the meantime, enjoy the altheas.

The altheas, also call rose of sharon, are exceptional this year. Or so it seems to me. I think I said the same thing about them last year, the ones in front especially. We have 8 on the property, 4 white and 4 purple.

The white ones started blooming first and they are winding down. Since we built the shop behind it, this one doesn't get much sun once the pecan trees leaf out so I'm surprised it blooms at all.

The purples are in full bloom.

Same small tree, different day

Altheas are a member of the mallow family along with hibiscus and like hibiscus, the flowers last one day only. They can be small trees or shrubs, depends on how or if you prune them.

These are old established specimens for the most part. A couple of them have some serious trunks. 

a day's work

I spent the entire day out working in the yard yesterday. There was a hope of rain, which never really materialized. It was sunny when I went out about 9 AM with dark clouds on the horizon and rumbling in the distance.

Eventually the cloud cover reached us and the rumbling got louder. Then a strong cool wind blew up. I could see the rain in the distance but it never really reached us. What it did, though, was to keep the day cool enough for me to get a lot accomplished. At one point I was starting to notice the edges of the lightning flash and the thunder rumbles were coming closer so I went in for a short break.

I tackled the far end of the long flower bed behind the shop digging up the weeds and evening primrose that had invaded it and adding some good dirt and getting it all mixed in. Friday, I had worked on the far middle section (still have the near middle section but I imagine it will wait til fall). I moved stuff to different locations, I planted 4 or 5 things that had been holding in pots, I moved other pots around, I spread mulch everywhere, I put in some periwinkles for the summer that I got a great deal on at the feed store, I fertilized the azaleas for the third and last time for the year. There's more I'm sure.

Since it lightly sprinkled off and on all day, by the time I went in about 6 PM it looked like I had been playing in the mud all day, which in a way, I had been though it never rained hard enough to get more than the surface of anything wet.

I know it sounds like a lot of work and it was but it's the kind of work I like to do. I don't mind physical labor, I guess I actually like it, so while my body got a workout, my spirit also got one.

Before my shower I told Marc that my shorts would probably need to be soaked in a pre-wash.

“Nah,” he says, “I'm just planning on burning the clothes you wore today.”

After my shower, I could barely move though I did manage a stroll around to view the results of all my work. It all looks nice but, man, are my hands and back sore today.

I didn't take any 'before' photos so you won't really be able to tell what I did but here's some 'after' pictures:

Little Bunny Foo Foo

There is a young little rabbit that has been hanging around the last couple of days. I say it's a young rabbit because it looks that way to me but I suspect it is fully grown. I see rabbits every year when they venture out of the Wild Space and into my neighbor's expanse of yard to graze but usually they stay far away.

This little bunny seems to have taken up residence under the old abandoned trailer in my neighbor's yard and yesterday early evening I ventured out into the Little Back Yard and the little bunny foo foo was right there on the other side of the gate between it and the iron fence section at the near end of the garden perhaps wondering if my flower beds and garden might be a little bunny foo foo buffet.

It retreated to the space between the end of the garden and the trailer.

A little while later we fixed our drinks and were sitting at our new outdoor table on our new outdoor chairs and bunny foo foo was still grazing away. Only a short time after that, little bunny foo foo was sniffing at the edge of the garden.

Hey! Marc shouted to no effect. So then he gets up and makes a false start like he's going to run at it. Still no reaction. The little rabbit doesn't seem to understand it is supposed to be afraid. Marc finally got within about 12' or 15' from it before it decided to run off, but only about 10' or so. He finally ran it off where it took shelter near the trailer.

Less than 10 minutes later it was back only this time at the near end of the garden, close to the gate into the Little Back Yard.

Where's the cat when you need her?

Although I would be heartbroken if she actually caught it and killed it but I think there is little chance of that so I rousted her out of the garage where she was cooling herself on the concrete in the shade.

The bunny took one look at the cat in my arms and took off for the safety of the trailer, where it sat while Emma took up station on the near corner of the garden.

guard kitty

unfazed bunny

stealth mode

unfooled bunny

Eventually we , including the cat, got bored with the stand-off and went and admired the sunset.

Little bunny foo foo has been out all day, resting under or grazing in the grass around the old rusting trailer. It will let me get as close as 15' or so before it starts exhibiting nervousness.

I haven't seen it come close to the garden today though.

jeweled weavings

The spider is one of my totems and courtesy of Spider Woman, the Navaho goddess, I learned a very valuable lesson some years ago.

When we first looked at the country house that June, there were huge webs all over the property with golden orb weavers on them. I had recently completed the piece Boxed Lunch which featured a golden orb weaver so we took it as a sign and bought the place.

The following year we had a few of the giant webs and golden orb weavers and after that, none. I guess there is too much activity around here now for them and so they build their webs elsewhere.

However, we have many other spiders that decorate the place with their weavings. They were very busy last night as this morning there were webs all over the yard glistening with dew.

spring reads

This past quarter's list:

Getaway by Lisa Brackmann - Michelle, fairly recently widowed after 10 years of marriage to her financier husband, is in Puerto Vallarta trying to recover/figure out how to deal with the scandal and debt her husband left behind.  She allows herself to be picked up by a good looking guy on the beach thinking 'why not' and things go downhill from there.  The amorous encounter didn't happen and thugs break into her room and Daniel gets pistol whipped.  As she is headed for the airport to return home, her cab is stopped by the police who find drugs on her and she is thrown in a Mexican jail.  24 hours later one of the men she had met through Daniel arrives to get her out and then proceeds to hold her passport and forces her to stay and hang out with Daniel and report back.  The whole premise seemed far fetched to me and she didn't seem believable.  Never really acted, only reacted, or rather just did whatever she was told to do until the end then she's throwing the F word out there every sentence being defiant.  It was OK.

The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton - Fiona Sweeney, a 28 year old librarian, is feeling unfulfilled and wants to make a mark on the world, do something greater than herself, when she sees a post on the bulletin board where she works for a volunteer to help deliver books to the semi-nomadic tribes of Africa.  She takes a leave of absence and boards a plane for Kenya where she travels by camel with her African colleague and their helpers bringing books to the far flung tribes and settlements, to people who have never seen a book much less know how to read or even speak English.  I thought at first that this would be a shallow feel good story but it developed into much more.  Fiona is a typical white American with western values and has no concept of how these largely illiterate people live and their relationship with the earth and how it shapes their identity.  Fiona forms a personal attachment to one settlement in particular and after two books are not returned, she takes it on herself to go retrieve them.  Not knowing if she will be welcomed, she arrives at the settlement. During her four day stay she becomes the focal point of a struggle within the tribe between those who think it is time to join the modern world and those who seek to maintain their way of life even in the face of drought.  It turned out to be very thoughtful, written not only from Fiona's point of view but also all the main characters, a good read.

Dragon Tears by Dean Koontz – an evil apparition appears to a homeless man and a homeless woman and her son promising to kill them at dawn and then disintegrates into a whirling mass of rats or leaves or trash or becomes an inferno. An interfering police detective draws it's attention and gets on the kill list. The detective and his partner, with the help of the homeless and a stray dog, have only about 12 hours to figure out what's going on and stop it before they are all killed.

Time Untime by Sherrilyn Kenyon – a conglomeration of Greek, Atlantian, Mayan, and Cherokee pantheons and an end time/cycle story in which all the evil mauraders will be let loose if the gate keeper doesn't reset the stone. Only the gatekeeper doesn't know who she is or what stone or anything about it as she has been kept in the dark by her mother and grandmother. Both of them died before the wisdom/task could be told to her and she is thrust into a mythological maelstrom. Kinda dumb.

Fever Dream by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child – FBI special agent Aloysius Pendergast discovers that his wife's death by lion in Africa 12 years previous was not the horrible accident he thought it was and she was actually murdered. He begins his quest to discover who and why which leads him and his friend NY detective Vincent D'Agosta to Africa and back, to New England, and Louisiana as they begin to unravel the events leading up to her death.

Cold Vengeance by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child – In the second of this trilogy, Pendergast is determined to get vengeance for her death and in the process of tracking them down is stunned to learn that she may have participated in her own demise and that she may also still be alive and has been in hiding all these years. As Pendergast digs deeper he discovers a conspiracy that goes back generations.

Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich – the continuing adventures of Stefanie Plum, bounty hunter, bouncing between Morelli and Ranger. Many cars get blown up.

The House On Willow Street by Cathy Kelly – The postmistress in a small Irish town who has kept herself separate from the social life of her town while hiding the secret of her own life has it all unravel when her niece, after being ditched by her boyfriend of two years when he abruptly marries a young woman he has only known for months, comes to stay for an extended length of time. Different residents of the town have their own story lines and they are all woven together.

Two Graves by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child – The final book in this story. After Helen dies in his arms, Pendergast sinks into a depression that it seems none can pull him out of until a series of gruesome murders occurs and D'Agosta asks for help. Pendergast, almost against his will, becomes interested and discovers that it appears the murders were committed by his presumed dead brother. He is stunned when his son, a son he did not know he had, shows up at the penthouse and tells an unbelievable story that causes Pendergast to embark on the conclusion of his investigation not only into who was responsible for his wife's death but also the conspiracy behind it all. It takes him finally to Brasil where he finds a remote Nazi enclave that has continued the eugenics research into perfecting a master race. These three books also contain side stories that intertwine with Pendergast's involving the characters Corrie Swanson and Constance Green from previous books.

Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz – the continuing story of Odd Thomas. Odd sees dead people and they come and ask him for help. Well, not ask so much as pantomime since they can't talk. Usually whatever help they are asking him for involves some sort of terrible evil that needs to be combated. He has prophetic dreams and visions too, can see things the rest of humanity can't. His path or calling had led him to join up with a seemingly young pregnant woman who asks Odd in the previous book if he will die for her. Her gift causes people to offer her whatever she is most in need of at any time, thus they have ended up as guests at Roseland, a walled estate of 40 some odd acres where they are advised to stay in after dark and make sure all doors and windows are locked. While there a ghostly woman on a ghostly horse pleads for him to save her son. Thus does Odd's next foray into evil begin.

misc pictures

I have a lot of pictures piling up to share but instead of diddling around on the computer when I wasn't working, I've been spending my time outdoors diddling around in the yard. I had another day of diddling in the yard planned for today but it's raining, and very welcome, so instead I guess I'll diddle around on the computer.

Speaking of computers, someone needs to coin a better term for these devices because I rarely do any computing on mine. I use my calculator for that. It's really a communication device. We write on it, email correspondence, share our views and express our opinions of the world through blogs and social media, find images, do research or, as I like to call it, consult the All-Knowing Oracle. But compute? Nah.

a row of birds in silhouette above the etched shower and toilet stalls

You might have noticed that I used the past tense when referring to my income producing work. We did finally finish the last of the commissions last week that had piled up starting from the end of last July. Whew! We are both a little burned out. There are a few things still in the works, one small job that we will probably be doing sooner rather than later and two other proposals still hanging out there.

I'm hesitant to be too happy or wish too hard for a break as we must be careful what we wish for because, as we all know, gods and genies love to fuck with our heads, but I am looking forward to not having to go into the city every week for a while. And the week long grandkid visits start soon. I can't believe it's already that time again. Seems like they were just here. Well, they were just here but only for the long weekend.

So here's a few bits and pieces of the past several weeks, not in any sort of chronological order.

The big pecan by the corner of the shop dropped another big limb while we were in the city last week. This is what we came home to. The trunk end of that limb was at least 8” in diameter. That's the second one off this tree in a week's time.

This might be why. Girdling is not good for women or trees.

We also discovered that the birds had gotten to our first tomatoes that ripened while we were gone.

Yesterday was market day in this little town. I got a bag of (wormy non-GMO) corn to put up so I sat down to shuck it all and blanch it and get it in the freezer. One of the ears didn't get pollinated except for a few kernels.

Each strand of silk is attached to a future kernel. If that strand doesn't get pollinated, no kernel develops.

This guy was hauling ass. It looked just like a stick humping it's way across the bare ground. By the time I got back with my camera, he was in the grass so I relocated him for the photo shoot. It was doing it's 'see how scary I am' defense dance, thrashing it's head back and forth trying to get that big thing hovering over it to move along. I have no idea what it will become as I couldn't find it in my caterpillar book.

The spring blues, pinks, and purples are all going to seed and the 13 Acre Field is yellow and white with cone flowers and horsemint.

The altheas have started blooming.

A soft and pastel sunset.

Just hatched stink bugs on a green dewberry. This photo snapped right before I doused them with insecticidal soap. Not very crisp, I know, but I can't very well run out and take another.

Most of my efforts in the yard this spring have been in and around the Little Back Yard,

although I have worked some on this end of the long bed behind the shop.

I have more pictures but this is enough for now.

the rat bastard is pissing me off

You might remember that one of the chores for my grandkids was helping me clean out a rat's nest in the garage.

I've known about it for quite a while, known I would have to move two crates of glass and one of kiln shelves to get to it.  

I have, for weeks now, been yelling at the rat bastard as he gnawed away on my crate, his nest being in the back of the crate next to the adjacent metal shelving unit, banging on the crate with a hammer, shaking the glass around.  

the section of crate the rat destroyed, now flipped over

I can hear him when the door to the garage is open.

I guess he moved in during the winter or early spring.  While the one garage door is propped open enough for the cat to get in while we are in residence, we always close it tight when we are in the city to work.  Which, this year, has been half of every week so the little bastard settled in on the days we were gone.

Since I was disturbing him in his main location, he started building an annex under some metal shelves on another wall.  I swept out the most peculiar things besides the expected acorns and shredded fiber blanket that we use in casting.  

And by sweep, I mean that I took an old broomstick and waved it back and forth underneath the shelving unit pulling out stuff like round and peanut shaped ceramic insulators, plaster fingers (that's a different story), and metal brackets for mini-blinds among other things.

So now that we had cleaned the nests out, we stopped propping the other door up but he was still getting in through the hole in the wall where the wire that powered the old well pump came through because I could hear him gnawing in the garage again. Before we left for the city this week, I nailed a piece of flattened aluminum can over the hole.

When we got back yesterday, I noticed that my aluminum patch was gnawed and torn up and he had started building a new nest. Repeat the sweep under the shelving unit and pulled out all those weird little things again...plaster fingers, ceramic insulators, metal brackets, kiln furniture. The rat bastard had fetched all those things again off the bottom tray of the cart that the kiln sits on where I had put them.

the rat's eclectic collection

Last night I was determined he was not getting in again so I set up a much bigger barrier. Now if he wants in he has to gnaw through 2 pieces of 1/4” glass and about 4” of brick.

an impenetrable barrier

So far so good.

Since he has such a fondness for plaster fingers and kiln furniture, I'll just keep my eye on that stuff and if it disappears again, I'll know he's back.

In the meantime, I'm getting a trap.