Fruits and... More Fruits!

 

And this is only part of our peach harvest! Bob informed me today that he's picked 150 (!!!!!!) peaches from our tree. Thank you, my friend Laurie for having given us this tree when we moved in, knowing how much I love peaches. I know we're going to be busy eating peach pie and freezing a slew of them for enjoying mid winter.

And did someone say blueberries? We have so many blueberries... we've had blueberry pancakes, blueberry pie, blueberry upside down cake, blueberry muffins, not to mention simply cramming blueberries into our mouths, straight of the bush and...

even blueberry crisp. That was quite good! The freezer is packed with frozen blueberries. We certainly can't complain about a meager crop. These bushes are amazing; several "Jersey" bushes and three stellar "Elliots".

And fruits of another kind. Lots of tomatoes finally; they were a bit slow to ripen but are now going great guns. I'm looking forward to yet another Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich. My favorite! And look at those eggplants; they really like the hot weather. At least we won't go hungry. I am actually thinking the opposite is true: I think I'm putting on weight, trying to keep up with everything our garden is producing. Too bad the summer seems to be winding down!

Unexpected Things Underfoot

 

Hey! We've got "Lawn Vaginas"! Actually, I stand corrected. As a friend pointed out, technically this is a "Lawn Vulva". This must be a very female part of our property because we have at least three in this area!

Every time I mow the lawn, or stroll by, I think, "Wouldja look at that?' So today, I finally got the camera out and documented.

My feet are here shown to give a sense of scale. 

And here's another one:

I'll bet you'll never look at your lawn the same way... there's all kinds of things out there! (*1)

(*1) And I am smart enough to know NOT to put "labels" on this post as all kinds of weirdo grass fetishists will be driving by...

Horse Hosin'

 

After remarking that I bath my horse Neko after riding her in hot weather, my sister Beatrice suggested as how this would be an interesting blog post. I realized that this was probably true as not many of my blog followers have horses or experience the pleasure of hosing down a large animal. I kept forgetting to bring my camera or phone along with me but finally, today, I was prepared.!

Following a vigorous episode of "torturing" my poor pony by demanding that she perform all kinds of arcane movements, like stopping and turning left or right, she can be sweaty. 

Typically this occurs under the girth and beneath the saddle pad. You can just spot wash it off but when it's really hot and humid- like today- they LOVE to get wet!

I always start by hosing the feet and legs first, as their hooves can be hot and need cooling first. I've been told this by several experienced horsey people so that's what I do! So after all four feet and legs have been wet down, the rest of the horse is fair game.

You will notice, Neko's eyes are actually closing; she's like, "Oh boy! This feels GOOD!". 

You will also take notice that I don't even have a halter on her as she enjoys this so much that she simply stands there. In fact, Maggie often crowds in, wanting to get hosed, too.

There's Maggie in the background, enjoying some of the over spray. I am only hosing Neko today; I don't use shampoo or soap often as that can dry their coats. Plain old water is better. It's like going swimming.

And here comes on of those funky details that you probably wouldn't have guessed at. A mare (a female horse) has her mammary glands (read: horse boobs) between her hind legs. They can get a nasty, waxy build up soooooooo we gently hose up there and then reach in and remove any crud.

You knew that was coming!! Yuck! Removing this must feel really nice as they often spread their legs a bit wider and accommodate my efforts. Oh, the pleasures of horse ownership! 

I then finish up by squeegeeing off excess water. Neko is looking at me as if to say, "What!? All done? Do it again!" And of course, a horse loves being squeaky clean and shiny and experiencing our standards of grooming and hygiene... WRONG!

The next thing that Neko does is lay down and roll, the better to adorn herself with dirt and dust:

You can only imagine the self-satisfied grunts that accompany this. Heaven.

And lastly, here's Neko, doing what Neko likes best- eating, delightfully encrusted in a patina of dirt, but cooled off!

Sundries

 

Let's start with a nice photo! Look at that butterfly (a swallow tail, I think?) He/she actually waited for me to run into the house and grab the camera... what were the chances? It looks so perfect, perched on the flower spire of our in-full-bloom Vitex Agnus-Castus. (A great shrub, by the way! Lovely blue-ish purple flower clusters, a bit like lilacs and nice clean green leaves that nothing touches. This year it looks particularly good.)

Here's another picture; I tried to get the butterfly to spread his/her wings wide but he/she was shy. This is the closest it came, but the sun was in a funny spot so it's sort of dark:

As is usual for this time of the year, despite the long days, we've been busy and I always feel I could have another couple of hours to do things. But I'm tired, too. Bob and I whaled away at my riding area again and boy does it look good.

I'm not sure how well this reads; this area was a mess of old stacked logs, roots, overgrown bittersweet and scrubby trees... a mess! Just what we did in the past several days expanded the width of my "arena" by a good eight to ten feet. That makes a whole lot of difference to Neko and me as we canter through.

This is the pile of stumps, sticks, twigs, bark and general debris that we hauled off. (We need to get the truck in here to cart it away.) It's been quite the project and the results are dramatic. I'm tired, although I confess that it was Bob who did the all he chainsawing and maddoxing and the majority of the digging out of serious roots. I chopped back smaller stuff and did most of the schlepping the leavings over to the brush pile. I also dug out some sizeable rocks. I'll be ready to train for the Olympics now in my improved Dressage Arena! (*1)

And did I mention that some of the vines and roots I removed were poison ivy? You knew this had to happen. I'm waiting for my arm to truly erupt later tonight!

 (*1) I trust we've all been watching horses "dance" in dressage? Impressive! Neko and I are lucky to stay upright, let alone perform a piaffe!

Rita Abhors A Vacuum

Oh my god! What is that?!?!? Empty space? Raw dirt exposed in my garden?!?? NOOOOOOOOO!!

I am not a minimalist gardener. I cannot abide empty real estate. If there is a hole, I long to fill it... in case we haven't noticed. I'm a maximalist by nature...

See that? Gardening is about plants: Nature is the one who concocted the idea of close planting. I like cheek-by-jowl flowers against belly-to-the bar foliage. Close quarters, no room at the inn. Go take a look at how fields are "planted": a dense carpet of plants.

A dense tapestry of color and form and excitement and delight. I am happy when you cannot see the forest for the trees. This year, I am happy to report that except for that aberration in The Blue Garden, I have very few holes yearning to be filled. I guess I've been diligent in "repairing" the spots that aggrieved me in past years. So despite loosing a million seedlings to slugs and weird weather, my garden has looked pretty good all season. 

A long time ago, I read a book entitled, "Square Foot Gardening". The author's premise was an inspiration to me. Again, in Nature, plants don't "space" themselves out; the duke it out. I realized this author and I had a lot in common. I have subscribed to this principal ever since. Cram 'em in!

Here's a chock-a-block nasturtium container... who would want to see an acre of exposed potting soil in place of that eruption of foliage and flowers? Craziness! Needless to say, I cannot abide what I call "mulch gardens": those desolate expanses of (often dyed) wood chips with a pathetic clump of flowers... here... and a minute shrub... there and lots and lots of barren waste land in between! Make me crazeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! I am mentally filling it all in!

A corner of the terrace. Although maybe I did go a bit over board with containers this year. There is not a lot of maneuvering room on the terrace. But there IS color!!

*A brief postscript: It has been so insanely hot this summer; REALLY hot. Our computer is in our office. The office has many windows and gets really overheated in the afternoon. It has been absolutely impossible to spend time in there so I have been negligent in posting blogs. I am sure you have all missed me (and my latest birthday!). Fortunately, cooler weather- and heads- are returning!
 

 

New Project! (Equine Activity Inspired Edition)

 

Here's Horse #1 stopping by to say "hello". Maggie is essentially a large lawn ornament for these past several years, occasionally indulging in her new pass time, "Collapsing Over While Sleeping". Such fun! She looks like one of those small toys whose legs bend in wonky angles when you press on the underneath of the stand:

Hahhaahaha! Especially entertaining when you're considering she's an 800 pound beast. We run around clapping our hands and yelling her name in an effort to get her to right herself. Never a dull moment. But where I going with this blog?

Here's Horse #2. Hi Neko! (Love how I captured that live action tail!)  Anyway, this post is more pertinent to her, as I ride Neko and I am currently attempting to expand my riding area. Here's what it  looks like at the moment:

It looks like a huge flat expanse from this vantage point, but once you're careening around at high speed, atop a deranged beast (that's Neko's department) it looks a whole lot smaller! So I have considered for quite a while now how to expand our riding horizons. I debated surreptitiously moving, under cover of the night, our property line/fence line; our neighbors would never know, right? No... I suspect that's illegal, along with being pretty un-neighborly behavior! So I am undertaking expanding into the scrubby, woodsy strip to the right (in the picture above).

Currently, it's a pile of wood, still left over from that tornado of several years past:

and a mess of poison ivy, bittersweet and adolescent trees. (Probably ticks and snakes, too!) But does that stop me? Not on your life; I'm made of sterner stuff! I got the my tools together: loppers, a rake, hand pruners and my wheel barrow. (I had to move a pile of compost that I had deposited here, thinking it was "out of the way". Ha! As soon as something is placed in an "out of the way" location, a better use for that particular spot is found and you have to move the first stuff. I think Bob and I specialize in this!)

Anyway, three or so hours later, I had made good progress. You can actually walk behind the pile of wood, and Bob's going to fire up the ol' chainsaw and remove some of the larger trees. We're also happily digging out rocks and some pesky stumps. Like I said, never a dull moment!

Would It Please Stop Storming?!?!

                                        

This weather is crazy!! We were awakened at 1:30 by an amazingly loud, nasty, brilliantly evil thunderstorm. A real record smasher!

I am hoping everyone made it through that storm unmolested; I worried about middle-of-the-night tornadoes. Late afternoon tornado was bad enough... I seriously don't want trees crashing and roofs leaking at midnight and beyond. (Not that I want to see damage.)

                                             

And it's doing it again!! The sky is crackling and heaving and there are ginormous puddles in our usually well-drained yard. I am sick of opening the windows to get some air in the house and then running around slamming them all shut because torrents of rain are washing our floor. (Well, it does need washing!)

                                    

 And tomorrow, we're expecting Tropical Storm Elsa to pay a wet and windy visit. Heavens help us!