the little wild kingdom

flowerbug

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i did get that nap in after all. we had a delivery and installation scheduled for the afternoon but i got it in under the wire... *whew* high stress situation.

last night we got frosted. it wasn't in the forecast a few days ago and the weather service has been so innacurate this season i'm not sure i'd have believed it anyways, but yes, now that it is light enough outside i can see the frost on the creeping thyme and ice in the two birdbaths.

going to be interesting to see which beans will finish up ok or not from this. today i can pick a bunch of shelly lima beans and get those shelled out and cooked.
 

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as i was taking pics the other week i also took a quick few shots of the irish moss bit that i rescued last year (after trying to get rid of it thinking it might be an invasive weed i didn't want in the creeping thyme). so i moved it after i determined that i really did want to keep it around. so then it survived the winter (the first important test of any plant here).

early this spring.

DSC_20200315_130608-0400_160_Iris_Moss_thm.jpg



looks like a little green volcano now. :)

DSC_20200912_144033-0400_642_Irish_Moss_One_Season_thm.jpg



closer...

DSC_20200912_144042-0400_643_Iris_Moss_Closer_thm.jpg



for full sized images links are on the project page:

 

flowerbug

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That's really cool! I don't think I've ever seen it - or at least didn't identify it if I did.

just to be sure what i'm talking about i'm talking about the little circle in the middle of the rest of the creeping thyme. :) it's a very wispy/frondy plant. as it keeps growing i'll be able to better evaluate how it handles that clay slope.
 

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baked up some of the smaller squash. not very impressed with the buttercup variety we tried this season - the texture and flavor make me think it crossed with an acorn squash, which is ok, but not really a buttercup IMO. will give it one more try next year and if it does about the same we'll move on. the kabocha varigated cross (in the picture above) we like seems to have done ok. i haven't tried one of the baby blue hubbards yet.

still drying, shelling and sorting beans. i have the most recent batch almost shelled out and finish drying before i can do the first sort of them.

with recent rains i'm not sure what is left outside that i can pick. the forecast for today is no rain so i'm going to try to start working on getting some gardens put up for the winter. burying garden debris and using up some fireplace ashes that i've had stockpiled for a year or longer. we need to get those buckets back to the people who give me their ashes and Mom will be very happy to have them gone. now that i have the pathway project finished up those buckets stand out more where they are at so they'll at least get moved today.
 

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getting gardens cleaned up and beans picked. luckily most of the beans left in the north garden seem to have come through the rains ok. picked a whole bucket yesterday and will probably pick another today once i get done doing some digging in another garden to bury garden debris, squash stuff, ashes, bean pods, nanner peels, etc. :)

i can only do about 5hrs out there lately (gradually increasing as i get more used to it again) so i'm just about to start the outside routine today now that it has warmed up and dried out from the dewfall. the inside routine is shelling beans and helping if Mom gets on a cooking project (she doesn't do things by small measure) so i turn to sous chef and bottle washer or dishes or lift and carry or ...

all week the weather is supposed to be near perfect for this time of the year so i have no complaints at all. i can get a lot done and Mom too keeps pretty busy with all her deadheading and projects. things are looking nicer as we get some things taken care of that have been sitting around too long (like 12 buckets of ashes i couldn't get around to using this past spring). only six more of those to use up. three today, three tomorrow...

ok, time to get to it. cheers. :)
 
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