Welcome to Fungus Fairyland
September 25, 2009 at 3:32 am | In Botanical Photos, Funky Photos | 3 Comments
Check out this beautiful mushroom spotted at Clark’s school this morning. I was so taken with it that I went back this afternoon to photograph it. I just couldn’t get over the way this spongy little plant had literally burst through the solid moss. See how it has just torn right through it? I mean, how fast did that thing grow?? I’m under the impression it basically shot up through the ground overnight. It is just too perfect and adorable–just the sort of mushroom one expects to have fairies living under. I didn’t see any fairies, but I did manage to catch these creatures in the act of hanging around this fungus.
This specimen is clearly a fairy table:
And this is “yellow golf ball mushroom”:
And in case you had any doubt that these bizarre looking things existed millions of year ago…
Next time you’re outside take a look around and you just might see some magical places right at your own feet!
This and That
September 10, 2009 at 1:27 am | In Big Green Froggie, Botanical Photos, Chickens, Gardening, Sewing | 2 CommentsI’ve been so slow about posting lately (I have quite a backlog of books to do over at The Last Book I Read), but I suppose in part it’s because I’ve been doing a lot of sewing and hobby stuff lately, dealing with a mysterious fever Clark had (swine flu? Lyme disease? It went away and he’s fine), and throwing myself into the change of season. I’m so ready to embrace apple picking, jean wearing, apple eating, and so on. Clark goes back to preschool next week and he’s quite excited about it, as am I for him.
So here’s a rundown of pictures of note and such. First, another bee top for Tabitha. It turned out too large, but since it is summery I decided not to alter it, but to save it instead for next summer. This was my first time making real pleats, which came out pretty well.
In progress: sewing a tote bag
In progress: baby quilt for my dear friend’s baby, who was born today. I’ve got the top and bottom tied together and am going to embroider today’s date and the baby’s name on it now and then bind it. Here’s the top after it was pieced together:
The change in sunrise/sunset and daylight hours is very apparent in the chickens’ laying behavior. During the summer (and as recent as 2 weeks ago) by 9am all 9 eggs would have been laid. However, now they are laying much later in the day and I didn’t get all the eggs today until mid-afternoon. One of the ladies:
Our ladies, by the way, are completely people friendly and always on the lookout for treats. They run up to cars that pull in the driveway. If you call out “here chick chick!” one will run and then all the others will follow. If you are sitting on the front porch, one or two might hop right up there to see what’s going on. They are a delight.
Cooler days are very pleasant for Big Green Froggie-he’s been spending quite a bit of time out on the patio. He was in the pond, though, the other day when a hen fell into the pond! The hen turned out to be fine-I ran outside and scooped her up and wrapped her in a towel.
We saw some interesting fuzzy caterpillars yesterday.
Check out the teeny tiny grippy feet that help it hold on to this thick piece of grass:
And here is Tabitha making the face she does when she says “Nooooooo” Ever since she finally started saying Clark’s name (“Clark-Clark”) she says it all the time. It’s especially funny when she says “Clark Clark No!”, as she is here. By the way, neither of us has ever said “Clark-Clark”, so I don’t know why she does.
In the front the squash plants have run amok, reaching out like a sash across this tree:
What’s neat is the tiny tendrils that reach out to whatever they can and grab on, holding up this big vine and its big leaves and blossoms:
Here is Clark standing next to a very tall…plant. I am holding out hope that it is going to be a beautiful flower (I did plant a lot of seeds here), but I think it just might be a spectacular weed. The other tall plants are zinnias. The black thing behind the plants is our new composter, which Clark won at the Somerset County 4H Fair! Very exciting. We are thinking that by having it closer to the house (and it doesn’t smell, so why not?) we will be more likely to empty our compost into it daily.
Hoping to finish the bag and quilt in the next couple of days, and will certainly have some updates then.
On the Road to being a Roadside Stand
August 17, 2009 at 5:31 pm | In Botanical Photos, Chickens, Gardening, Sewing | 1 CommentI just ordered blank egg cartons! We can make our own labels to put on them and then it will be so fun to give eggs to our friends in their very own Debraski Farm Fresh Eggs cartons. We’ll also be selling them. It’s not uncommon around here to see people with “fresh eggs for sale” signs at the end of the driveway. We will be joining those folks by hanging out our own sign. Paul has been working on it:
What do you do with lots of eggs? Make souffles and custards! I found a recipe in my giant binder of recipes I never seem to use for a “Spinach and Parmesan Fallen Souffle.” I made it and it was quite green (the spinach was blenderized). Clark almost had a tearful meltdown that I’d made something so “disgusting” and not what he’d wanted. Five minutes later he requested a tiny taste. He tasted it and declared it “delicious” and proceeded to tell me I was the best mom ever for making it and ate almost all of it himself! I think that may have been the highlight of my week. I will definitely be making more.
Other highlights? This morning in the garden, while picking some tomatoes, I found a cicada right in front of my face. He was cool looking, but what was really awesome? He then proceeded to make the cicada noise! I got to see it in action, which I never have before. It was really neat. His whole big black body shook like a rattle and vibrated like mad. Again, it was just the neatest thing to get to witness so up close.
Things are cuckoo in the garden. We’re at the point of the summer where I feel like we just venture in to pick stuff, but don’t really tend it anymore. The butternut squashes are crazy. I did pick my first one, though I’m not certain it was ready. I also was yanking out the dead green bean bushes and discovered one that had about 6 nice beans on it. I added them to a vegetable soup. I’m sad to say that every single ear of corn we’ve picked has not tasted good. I just keep giving them to the chickens. Here’s yet another squash on its way (truthfully I’m unclear on whether or not this is a butternut squash, a zucchini, or what)
I finally harvested a couple tomatilloes.
A day’s harvest:
I’ve been doing a fair amount of sewing recently. I’m working on a patchwork ball for a baby. I’ve just
got all the hexagons and pentagons cut out, now I need to stitch them all together.
I also made an apron for a friend’s birthday. I loved this pattern and think it came out really well. I took my time and even made sure to switch out my thread to make it match the binding of it. I really like the scalloped bottom.
We went to the park this morning and picked some interesting mushrooms. I want to go back and take photos of them unpicked because I think they look like cool fairy villages. But these are some neat closeups. Mushroom undersides are so incredibly delicate looking, aren’t they?
and look at this little starfish image on the top of one:
And finally, we went to the county 4-H Fair on Friday, which I’ve been going to since I was a kid. I love it that there are things about it that have literally not changed in 25 years. Here’s a cow getting fresh with Paul:
Five Senses in my Garden
June 10, 2009 at 3:15 pm | In Basic Musings, Botanical Photos, Gardening | 1 CommentSight: We have so many beautiful and brightly colored flowers blooming, as well as about a million shades of green everywhere. I love our varieties of hosta, the round upright leaves of the water forget-me-not, the new growth on the rhodie.
Sound: We have baby birds in the birdhouse and they are noisy! I love listening to them and seeing the mom and dad hopping out to the adjacent bird feeder. Other sounds? The fountain in the pond, the noisy chickens
Taste: We picked a big bowl of peas and lightly steamed them for dinner a few nights ago. Delicious! I also love just picking them off the vine.
Touch: Curiously, this one does not easily spring to mind. I suppose I touch the dirt and the petals and the leaves. It’s been a cool start to summer, but we have had some sprinkler times. I do not touch the snakes that have decided this year to make their presence known 
Also try not to touch the poison ivy that that seem to crop up here and there.
Smell: Especially at night the scent of the roses and honeysuckle is positively intoxicating. Just lovely.
Record Highs!
April 26, 2009 at 12:26 am | In Big Green Froggie, Botanical Photos, Family, Gardening, Wildlife | Leave a CommentIt was in the 80s today, giving us a day that felt like we were smack in the middle of summer. It was quite fun and we spent much time outside playing on the slip n’ slide and such. Of course Clark had to take all his clothes off. It was weird that it was hot, but there was no shade–because the trees don’t even have their leaves yet! And weird to have it be hot and be looking at tulips and daffodils!
I rigged up some stakes and twine to give the peas something to jump onto, and look how clever these little tendrils are. I did this two days ago and they are already reaching and wrapping on:
Along our driveway we have some lovely clumps of daffodils we planted a couple years ago. I like the varieties:
I wish we had tulips en masse as well, but we only have a few groups we’ve planted (which seem to be groups of 2 or 3), as well as a whole bunch of oddly single ones. Several of these I’m sure we never planted ourselves, such as this lone magenta one that has not a single other flower near it:
Here’s a lovely red one that also stands in isolation:
Here are a few beautiful ones that I know I planted. They are so frilly I think they look like peonies or roses:
A couple days ago I noticed a beautiful flower in this sort of messy front area that has been, frankly, an annual struggle for us. I investigated and there was a beautiful teeny little shrub with a few flowers and lots of buds on it. I didn’t remember planting anything there, but further investigation showed that the tag had been left on the plant and then I remembered, ahhh yes, I’d planted a flowering quince there in the fall. I do hope it gets a lot bigger because right now it’s fairly invisible unless you are standing right there.
So, on to the family fun.
Tabitha gets up close with the slip n’ slide:
Tabitha runs off and climbs up on the tractor (I feel like between the grass and the forsythia our backyard just looks like it was created by John Deere. This is only reinforced by the tractor being left out there.)
Clark slips ‘n slides:
It was a lovely unseasonable day, topped off with dinner outdoors.
And finally, some local wildlife. Paul got a great picture the other day of the white deer which lives at the end of our road:
And our Big Green Froggie and friend (who this year is equally as large) have been spending much time out of the pond. They still will only let me take pictures through the kitchen window (rats!). We’ve heard them making their wonderful loud bass froggie sounds (“jiggerum” is what my mom says). Click here and scroll down a little bit to hear what it sounds like!
Springtime at my mother’s
April 22, 2009 at 12:56 pm | In Botanical Photos, Family | 5 CommentsMy brother and his kids are visiting this week so we were all hanging out at my mother’s yesterday afternoon. The weather was beautiful and the kids went right to playing in the wooded area and the brook, which sparkled and was just lovely. It’s a very pretty yard and it was nice to see what was coming up there that was different than at my house.
In little wooded area a carpet of moss was bright green. Up close it looks like a little secret world. In fact, the whole yard seems like it is home to fairies!
These little yellow flowers were new to me, mom says they are dogtooth violets:
But best of all…..ferns just beginning to unfurl:
(I’m so in love with the above picture that I think I will have an enlarged print made and matte it and frame it and hang it in my bedroom!)
We also had fun in and around the dollhouse, which was built by my grandfather for my mother and her sisters when they were little. My brothers and I played in it when it was at our house, and now my the grandchildren play in it.
Would you believe that in the evening we had a big thunder and lightning storm that turned into a hailstorm? Huge pellets of hail loudly battering the house! Just went outside and it looks like the flowers and plants are fine. By the way, the beautiful tulips we had this year around the mailbox were all eaten by deer. BOOOOOOOO!
Happy Birthday to Me!
April 20, 2009 at 12:38 am | In Botanical Photos, Family | 3 Comments
yes, that’s right. Today is my birthday. It seems the whole weekend has been a delightful spring birthday weekend. We had very warm weather yesterday (high of 74!) and today it was about 60 and not too bad at all. We did a ton of gardening, but still managed to not plant the seeds we meant to. I’m thinking as long as we get them in this week we are in good shape. We also still don’t have trellises for our peas, which will be needing them quite soon. We may just use tomato cages! My good friend Denise gave me a lovely bag of dahlia bulbs, which I promptly planted in a nice big clump. I’ve always been intimidated by dahlias, though I love the way they look.
This afternoon we went to a really big park not too far away. Clark rode his bike all over the paths and was wildly excited. We don’t go to this park very often and I’m always suprised by how many people are there. There is a field that always has Indian gentlemen all dressed in white playing cricket, which is always a neat sight. I’ve never seen cricket anyplace else.
Yesterday both kids enjoyed spending time in the chicken coop and at one point I tried to take a picture of a hen sitting to lay an egg. She leapt off her nest in an indigant huff and came striding out of the coop:
Our pink tulips started blooming for my birthday and the park had gorgeous cherry trees and beds of daffodils. So, here are a bunch of flower photos.
Daffodil, our house:
Tulip, our house. These red/yellow ones remind me of the kind my mother used to grow.
Pink tulip, our house (because I really cannot get enough pink tulips)
Tabitha in the daffodils (she has just started to say “flower”, as well as sniff them, which is adorable.)
Clark, smirking in the daffodils:
Trees at the park:
All in all, a great spring weekend and a great birthday.
And in other happy news–bluebirds are nesting in our bluebird house!!
Happy Easter
April 15, 2009 at 1:22 pm | In Botanical Photos, Cookery, Gardening, holiday | Leave a CommentOK, it was a few days ago, but this is the first chance I’ve had to get to a post (and I’ve got a backup of book posts for The Last Book I Read, too!) We had a lovely Easter at home with just my mother joining us for dinner. Mom was bringing a nice vegetable lasagna for dinner, so we decided to have a lavish holiday breakfast: fresh scrambled eggs, scones, and bacon. Not just any bacon, but the bacon we brought back from Virginia from the Smithfield Ham place. It is smoked slab bacon so you can cut off your own nice thick slices.
I was pretty excited about it because many years ago I went on a Girl Scouts Wider Opportunity in Canada and a highlight of the primitive canoe trip was the slab bacon. Sadly, this did not live up to that memory. It was just way too much fat for me.
Also, I’m crazy for salty meat and this was too salty even for me!!
For our dessert I made a rabbit shaped carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and of course, coconut fur. It was pretty delicious and Clark enjoyed eating its parts.
The teeny tiny grape hyacinths are blooming again. This year they actually seem a little bigger than last year. I did a super closeup and it was neat to see that the cluster is made up of little bell shapes.
Lots of rain yesterday and today. Today is supposed to be the lowest temp of the whole week, so this weekend we are hoping to put in our “plant after last frost” seeds. Hooray!
Vacation, Part Deux: The Garden
April 11, 2009 at 11:39 pm | In Botanical Photos, Chickens, Gardening | 3 CommentsApparently while we were away there were great spring garden conditions, which included lots of rain. We returned to discover first of all, that the grass is green! It was wonderful to walk into the kitchen, look out the window and see bright green grass, bright yellow forsythia, and I can even see a tinge of color on the maple tree.
All of the hyacinths had grown tall and fully bloomed (and smelled heavenly):
Most of the daffodils are blooming, including these tiny ones:
The peas had sprouted up:
And now, seven days after our return look how high they are today:
The plum tree had lots of buds:
Yesterday the first one opened:
And tonight, take a look:
Seems like the earth is suddenly saying “enough with the slowly waking up, let’s grow!”
Before we left Paul completed constructing the other two garden beds, plus added a narrow rectangular one which has potatoes and asparagus in it. Yesterday we allowed the chickens into the fenced in garden (after blocking off access to the two beds which do have things planted in them). I swear, they are nature’s rototillers. Take a look here and note the narrow area between the beds.
See how part is green grass and part (with the chicken) is churned up dirt? It all used to be grass! They did a good job digging things up and seemed to enjoy eating up lots of fresh spring grass as well as worms and grubs.
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors (for deer, dogs, and rabbits!)
March 22, 2009 at 4:15 am | In Botanical Photos, Family, Gardening | 4 Comments
Seems like it’s the purple crocuses turn! I saw pictures here and here, and ran out to my yard and found my first purple one blooming. Well, white with purple stripes, really, but these are the ones that bloom after the batch of yellow ones in our yard.
And here is the progress of the hyacinths:
And our plum tree has lots of lovely buds:
Paul continues to work on the putting in the new permanent fence around the garden (with room for two additional beds, which are next up on the agenda). To my (but not his) surprise there turned out to be many rocks, including large flagstone type pieces several inches underground.
Clark was a big help.
I’m really able to envision our garden now. I’m planning on sunflowers along one side, morning glories along the other, and am toying with the idea of painting it cottage garden colors. (like purple and blue.)
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