Leaves and Other Things That Fall From the Sky

Yup. That's a whole lotta leaves! And they're not in the woods; they're in the horse field so they need removal as they simply pile up and kill whatever grass is underneath. Additionally, they're really slippery if I chose to ride my intrepid steed in the lower field. Here is Neko- my leaf colored horse:

Neko isn't concerned with much of anything besides eating, but she can't eat oak leaves, so rake them I will! I make numerous piles like this:

Put them on a tarp and then haul 'em away to the woods. I cannot even count how many piles I've hauled away so far but I figure if I drag four or five piles a day, I should be done by next year. Endless!!

Robin supervises. She thinks autumn leaves are awesome and enjoys chasing the leaves as they blow around the yard. (She also enjoys chasing shadows of birds which is pretty funny because she's running around, nose to ground, as the birds fly overhead.) 

The other thing that falls from the sky is meteorites! Last week Thursday, there was apaprenly a meteorite that traversed southern New England, passed over Long Island and landed in the Atlantic. Sorry to have missed that! 

(That is an actual photo that someone took.) We were coming back, oblivious on the train from New York, tired from our lovely trip to Tribeca and overloading on art viewing. We saw all kinds of wonderful, thought-provoking thing but nt that danged meteorite. Maybe next time!

 

World's Tallest Amaryllis!

Just when I had despaired that our purchased amaryllis bulb had decided not to bloom (and we were stuck with figuring out what to do with a couple of strappy leaves and no flower) our friend Bob (one of many Bobs) gave us another bulb. This one was already promising to flower...
It's really out done itself. As you can see in the picture, it's a full 36" tall (that's a yard stick next to it) and has four large siren-like blossoms. AND it had another bud stalk rising form the pot!

It has made me so happy to see color and leaves as outside remains grey/tan/brown and bleak. It is a bit warmer (not over night!) and things are beginning to grow (not fast enough for me!). I guess Spring will officially arrive. I'm so eager to see how all those tulip and daffodil bulbs did.* And the lilacs! My infatuation with lilacs continues: I already have a short list of ones I need to find this year, like "Monge" and Charles Joly" and "Katherine Havermeyer". I guess this keeps me going when it still seems like warmth and flowers are so far away.

* I am a bit concerned as it's been so damned wet, and then we had a sheet of ice with water sort of trapped underneath. I'm afraid some of the bulbs may have rotted as they prefer a drier situation.

(Another) Week of Smelling Badly

That should scare you, a couple of days past Halloween! Just Lil' Robin the Good, rolling around exposing her teeth. And as frequently happens on my blog, the picture has NOTHING to do with the post. (I simply could not locate anything that smelled badly...)
This Wednesday, I was thrilled/relieved/ecstatic that I had NOTHING that I was required to do: no deadlines for submissions, no WTF merchandise to prepare (although I am receiving more orders!), no where I had to be. In short I had the day to myself and I decided to (finally) spend the day with Robin and plant the white daffodil bulbs I had ordered.
The day was perfect; warm (really warm), sunny (finally) and delightful. I gathered tools and dog and headed down to my "spring garden" area. As I wheeled the wheel barrow, I couldn't help but notice that one side of the yard presented the distinct aroma of chicken soup. Someone was obviously cooking. It wasn't the worst smell, just not what I expected.
But as I began cheerfully excavating rocks (lots of them) and inserting my first bulb, the atmosphere changed from chicken noodle to asphalt. The road crew had decided that today was the right day to pave our section of the road and I had to be party to it. Soon, further scents drifted over from our neighbor's house in the form of laundry softener sheets. I had anticipated the autumnal smells of fallen leaves and maybe a bit of apple cider but instead I got petroleum and artificial floral. Yeech.

This weekend, Bob and I are driving to Vermont to retrieve his sculpture that has been in a show all summer. In preparation for our voyage, Bob decided to apply a liquid metal patch to our truck's manifold which has a crack. (No danger in driving it, but it was getting loud.) As we are down to one vehicle, I have been driving the truck to work. About three miles up the road this morning, I became aware of a pungent, sulfur/eggy smell. The source was manifestly the patch, burning off but boy did it stink! I rolled down both windows, opened the back slider and tried to breath minimally. I have a forty minute commute to work.
As luck would have it, I wound up behind a school bus that was burning oil. The combined odor was something else and I was gagging by the time I arrived at work. There, I knew something was up because the front door was ajar. It has been unseasonably warm but it turns out that several pieces of furniture (and maybe a rug or two) that had come to the auction house smelled of cat piss and my co-workers were attempting to air the building out.
But I did ultimately get that pumpkin spice/cinnamon latte/apple cider autumn smell I had sought. There is a leak somewhere in the wall behind the bathroom at work and to mask the smell, our general manager had plugged in one of those peculiar room fresheners that get stuck in wall sockets. (Who thinks up this stuff??!) Truly this week, my world stinks!

Legs 'n' Leaves Etc.

I've been digging out my heavier tights and stockings because (bloody hell!) it's getting colder. I keep reflecting on how big this (crazy) country is, as there's lovely (albeit chilly) weather here and a huge hurricane ripping a tropical path of destruction there. Thank goodness that everyone I know that has some association with Florida is somewhere else, safe. I guess people like the idea of living in warm, sunny, beautiful sunset laden beach-y areas but Climate Change has mangled that equation.
For one reason or another- including becoming somewhat weary of the company of my fellow human beings, I haven't even felt like blogging recently. We were so busy with the garden tour, parties, work, cleaning up Mommy's house that I needed a break and to get into my studio and rest. (And I need to resolve my dilemma of the death of my digital camera. I really don't want to use a phone...)But I'm back! No more shirking my blog-a-tory responsibilites!

And speaking of tropicality, take a look at what we grew. Those leaves are truly gigantic. This is the first time I grew this particular variety of elephant ears and they are pretty amazing. Here's a shot to give a sense of scale:

I got these bulbs (marked down and really cheap) at Home Depot. They sat for weeks in this container and I was feared they had rotted and died. But as soon as the weather got really warm, a little green nose appeared and then they sprouted extravagantly. I will attempt to winter the bulbs over; some varieties have been easy (cannas, dahlias, a couple of elephant ears) some trickier (the elephant ears that require even moisture, striped cannas etc.).

See? We're enjoying the last of the summer! We were picking blueberries this morning- yes! we're still picking "Elliot" a remarkable variety- and our fingers were freezing. I told Bob I'd help him finish up after I take my walk and get warm. And peaches! We've had a bumper crop of delicious spicy sweet peaches. And beans, and tomatoes and peppers. It's been a great gardening year and I hate to see it go. But at least we're not awaiting a Category 4 or 5 storm... just snow.

Musical Interlude Number 156788

At least someone is having a good time! The irrepressible Jules is all smiles as he has a favorite ball (or twenty) thrown into a freshly raked pile of leaves. He's so agreeable and willing to just get on and have a good time... something that has been in short supply lately as Bob and Rita have encountered especially tough times in the household project department. Nothing at all has worked or been easy.

But Jules is a charmer and doesn't let anything get him down.

Thank goodness for dogs!