Yesterday morning Celeste and I took an inspection tour of the property. It wasn't really cold enough to need my winter boots but the swaths of gooey mud made me glad I was wearing them. One of my most surprising discoveries was the emergence of several skunk cabbages along the edges of the stream. Tried to get some pics but the mud was so deep and thick I thought it would be much too likely I'd get myself stuck back there. So just take my word for it. There are skunk cabbages up and about - maybe they are always around this time of year but I haven't noticed because I've never lived in such close proximity to them. Their appearance revved my engine alot.
The cat has been quite frustrated because snow and ice have frozen the gap in our side gate in a position that's too narrow for her to squeeze through it. I keep telling her this is nothing compared to the six foot snow drifts that kept her inside most of last winter. At least this year she can go outside and maintain her patrol of the properties' edges. And that's important.
Does anyone happen to know the name of this prostrate evergreen? It's some kind of spruce, no? During our first summer here I wandered around a local nursery jotting down names of the various foundation and landscaping plants we have that I didn't know by name. Then I promptly misplaced the list. Was able to remember most of the names but not this one. It's very pretty and I feel badly that it's all but obliterated once the ferns have unfurled in late spring. The visual displacement doesn't appear to impede the plant's vigor. I like to walk around the frog pond so I can stand right next to it. This feels really good; it has an extremely calming and grounded energy. It doesn't appear to produce any sort of visible flower because if it did, I'd be all over any given opportunity to prepare an essence from it.
The white pine tree at the top of this image seemed to be beckoning to me. But, when I got to the upper portion of the field, the ice was packed tight against the ground. After last winter's fall (from which my dominant arm/shoulder/rotater cuff has yet to fully heal) I have grown wary of ice-walking especially when it's optional. When I was a kid I spent a lot of time with my grandmother and her friends. They were all petrified of falling and I always wondered why because, otherwise, none of them came anywhere close to being fearful about much of anything else but long-haired hippies. But now I'm starting to get it and I'm sure in another fifteen or twenty years I'll understand completely.
Compare and contrast: late January 2012
mid July 2011. It will be interested to compare last July's garden to this year's model. I'm sure there will be all kinds of changes once the plants re-emerge. One of my childhood friends thinks it takes 7 years to build a truly satisfying and fully productive garden space. I think it takes about 4 or 5 but the changes, additions and improvements are always ongoing. I don't think a garden is ever really "finished" unless that end result is such an important goal that there's more human imposition than cooperation and very careful observation.
now let's compare and contrast the vegetable garden. I can't begin to tell you (and, if you're a gardener yourself, I really don't have to tell you, do I?) how much time I'm currently spending getting super excited about whatever lies ahead during the coming growing season. I hope to continue creating the sort of meandering herb garden I've always wanted in the front half of this bed. Then we will expand to make more room for the food plants - gradually building raised beds as we go along. I told Jim I want to make an asparagus bed this year. And a designated pumpkin patch. And ... and... and ...
This picure was taken on the same July afternoon as the contrasting flower garden image. Notice the shade patterns farther back in the field. There wasn't much tree damage back there but, level with the garden spaces, many many many branches fell. Am very curious to see what kind of changes that makes in the shade patterns and how far they encroach on the field. There may wind up being more room than I thought for introducing some fruit trees on the road side of the vegetable patch! Oh lord. My pulse is racing just thinking about it...
not even a thaw here, nothing to thaw. so nice to be out and about this time of year. it was 60 here yesterday.
Posted by: jude | January 25, 2012 at 20:52
snow again today but only a dusting ...
Posted by: Acey | January 26, 2012 at 15:03