Sad day yesterday...

 

 Here is the very first photo I took with my new camera on Christmas day.

Yesterday day morning about 6am Meg found Grumpy on the dog's bed with his back legs paralyzed. I heard him in the middle of the night screaming loudly, but ignored it as he does this often. By 7am he was at the vets office. His legs were 93 degrees and it did not look very good for him, likely a blood clot was the cause.  Given he had FIV (feline aids) his chances were very slim for recovery. By 2pm Meg and I were with him when we put him to sleep. He purred loudly because we were there, he was in great pain yet so glad we were there to comfort him. It was really sad, he was the best kitty I/We ever had.

We buried him in the back yard while a huge flock of Robins came in and comforted us from the forest canopy. While we prepared his grave I went inside and asked to dogs who were inside the house if they wanted to come to Grumpy's funeral. Here is the unbelievable part. Both dogs went ahead of me towards the pet door. Dot goes out the pet door all the time, Daisy never goes out she comes in only. Both dogs nearly got stuck in the pet door at the same time as they went out the pet door.

Last night Dot stood in the laundry room looking very depressed as she always helped Grumpy finish his cat food. Daisy misses Grumpy too, she has been very affectionate. Valentine our other cat seems distant, she is very independent. Meg and I usually have coffee in bed after feeding the cats, Grumpy always joined us by laying on one of us.

Later in the day we went for a walk. We encountered the first aromas of spring from the flowers of two different shrubs in Hillsborough, intoxicating. The pansies above were found beside the Ayrmount House, Grumpy would have enjoyed laying in them.

Grumpy could be best described by this. He was one of those cats who would sit on your lap, you'd move him off your lap three times before he'd realize you did not want him on your lap. He sat on my knee many times as I typed these posts, he will be missed greatly.

Beautiful first day of the year!

Hope everyone had a great New Years celebration last night. Ours was quiet, Meg was in bed by 10:15pm. It reached 65 degrees here today and was a beautiful day.


Anyway the bees were happy today bringing in lots of pollen, they acted very elated as you can see in my slow motion video below. I found them nectaring on camellias, helleborus niger and Helleborus foetidus as well as violas and pansies.

Here is two bees on Helleborus foetidus, 

at times there were at least 6 bees on this one plant.

This bee is on Helleborus foetidus, this plant will have 40-50 flowers on it, it is just starting right now. You can see the pollen collected and the bees take a long time inside the flower usually several minutes.

This bee is on a viola often called Johnny Jump up. The bees get a quick snack and move on quickly. Pansies and violas will do OK during the winter here and be pulled up when it gets hot at the beginning of May.

Rainbow Carrots Meg picked for our salad tonight.

Edible mushrooms I found today at the local nature park on our walk. These are very large Oyster Mushrooms, saw little ones as well. Given these were at the nature park I did not bring any home for dinner.

 An update on my blue bottle collection somewhere around 215 blue bottles right now. The red bottle featured here in my first red bottle, I found it on the last day of 2011. Below is what 140 blue bottles look like.

 We have started something new with recycling also. I have a restaurant and a bar saving bottle caps for us. I made my first pick up yesterday, got about 200 caps. The pink Nehi  and the pink Mother Earth Brewing coolest. We saw some art made out of bottle caps, using the printed tops for design nailed onto wood, very cool. I have a few photos I'll share here one day. We looked online at youtube and it seems a lot of artists use new bottle caps and glue designs inside them and make jewerly, this is not what we want to do.

Back to fungus, I saw three of these today on a single tree 12 foot up. This was about the size of two grapefruits. I'll be looking for the ID, I think it is one that become permanent.

Here is Grumpy enjoying a sunny warm deck on the first day of 2012.

Changing up the garden

Today I added a new section of vegetable garden for Meg to plant potatoes, hope it is not too late to plant them. She planted them a labyrinth design, it is pretty cool. Then we pulled the kale, rape, mustard greens, half the arugula, radishes and mizuna. These were all bolting and it is time for tomatoes and peppers ect. The wheelbarrow was full and over flowing with bolted greens, I'd say 150 to 200 pounds of them. I feel like a murderer. We did get to eat most of that stuff daily if we wished for 3 1/2 months. The cold frames have been put away.

So on the harvest list we still have red mustard, lots of mixed lettuce and arugula. The sugar snap peas should be producing in a week or so. Also have carrots, green onions, red onions and garlic that could be harvested too. Kohlrabi is pretty big but not bulbing out yet.

The remainder of the French Breakfast Radishes. I'm sure we ate a lot more than this 2-3 pound harvest that is going in the icebox.

Grumpy was pretty thirsty drinking out of one of the birdbaths.

False Solomon's Seal, Smilacina racemosa growing wild in the hellebore garden. Also there is lots of Bellworts too, past flowering.

Speaking of hellebores I harvested some seeds today of Meg's Mother's dark red hellebores and several I for from our friend Breezy. The seeds should be opening in the next few days. Anyone wanting to trade seeds let me know? You can see the hellebores that bloomed this year here.

Last note, the bee hive was installed overlooking to pond today. Hope it is not too close to the Bluebird Box that is now in use. Both bluebird boxes now have residents.

Bottle Wall, Day Four

Spring is here! Today while working in the yard I saw 6 species of butterflies. The butterflies were 1 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail,  4 Falcate Orangetips, 1 Sleepy Orange, 2 Spring Azures, 1 Anglewing sp and 1 Mourning Cloak.

The frogs are calling nearly non stop, mostly Spring Peepers, then Upland Chorus Frogs and new for the year today Pickerel Frogs calling. Tonight the peepers are a 5-6 on a scale of 10 for intensity.

Between my errands I had to do today, I worked on the installing bottles in the bottle wall. The first being underground I have to make sure they were capped. I found caps or corks for most of them, the rest I sealed with duct tape. My expensive duct tape (left over from a job) messed up and can not be used until I can fix it, never had this happen before. FYI when you lay the bottles point them down slightly towards the opening so it does not fill up is it does get wet.

 You can not see it, the bottom two  rows of bottles are green then clear. The photos makes those lower clear bottles look green. The plan is to bring the wall up to (grade) the top of those sunken in concrete blocks(the upper blocks are one of the cold frames). The two green bottles on ends at a 45 degree angle are the base of leaves. Those leaves will curl out and then down slightly. Between the leaves will be a big blue flower above grade so the light can shine though it. The top of the wall will likely roll up and down.

A bonus with the bottle wall is the reflection on the pond, I like it.

The mix I used for concrete was 3 shovels Portland Cement, 6 shovels #78 gravel and 9 shovels sand per wheelbarrow load. This portion of the wall took two wheel barrow loads.

Right now I'm hoping that using Portland cement  instead of type S mortar is going to be OK. Type S motar is Portland cement with lime added. Reading the bags type S is for 1/2 inch joints and concrete is for 2 inches deep and over. It all looks good, in the morning we'll see.

Now some of what is blooming in the garden!

Crocus chrysanthus 'Gipsy Girl' just opened up yesterday, it is a stunner and new addition to our garden.

 This primrose we bought from Clifford Parks at Pine Knot Farms Hellebore Event last year. Glad to see it made it through our hot dry summer.

 Crocus vernus 'Jeanne d'Arc' in a small drift.

 American Plum blooms are at peak right now. The tree has been is sad shape for years, maybe 1/3 of the tree is blooming. The aroma right now on a warm day can be picked up more than 50 foot away! Butterfly magnet, yet today I saw no butterflies on it.

 Our Bleeding Heart, Meg pointed this out to me yesterday. It is a mini right now, hope it fills out like last year.

We have seen Valentine in the new bird feeder a few times, she scatters if you bring out a camera. Grumpy on the other hand has one-eye and he is very tame. No he won't catch any birds, just enjoying the view. I'm really surprised he climbed up there.