Plant Identification Wednesday, Sep 10 2014 

gardening and Landscapes , acairfearann 14:58

I am hopeless at it, mostly because I never bring a guide with me and never bring the plant back.  (Trees are easy, I’m contemplating all those herbaceous things!)

Still, there is some learning going on.  Flat-topped goldenrod for example, has leaves that look more like a slightly overgrown tarragon than a goldenrod.  The beautiful wild blue relative of our fall garden asters has smooth leaves that feel like kid leather; it looks very weedy indeed…until now, when its color has the cultivated varieties well and truly beat. Blue wood aster has slightly paler, yellow leaves than the more common white wood aster, and a more pronounced notch at the base. Grey goldenrod has leaves that look almost like a sage leaf, but without the pebbly texture. The calico asters, with their thousands of little flowers, are very stiff, with lots of little branches and leaves.  One of the goldenrods that bloom all along the stems has a beautiful purple stem, the other doesn’t. The purple one has better form (and naturally is not growing in an area that is likely for long term survival: south of the barn where I must, must, do some weed whacking). And so forth.  The goal, of course, is to be able to edit the meadow lawn areas correctly in the spring.  For example, now that I know the difference between the flat-topped goldenrod and the regular goldenrod, I can remove the latter and keep the former in one area where the flat-topped type gives the right look.  (besides being rarer) Thankfully, because I didn’t know what the weird tarragon like thing was this spring (though clearly Not tarragon) and did remember that it was where the flat-topped goldenrod had been I didn’t pull all of it…quite!

Some things are easy: yarrow, one of the black-eyed susans (the felt leaved one that blooms all summer and the deer Love, naturally)

 

On Turkey Vultures Monday, Sep 8 2014 

Esperanza acairfearann 10:44

I love Turkey Vultures.  Rather weird I know. I’m actually not that interested with all the little song birds, hawks are cool, as are owls, but the vultures…

I suppose it comes from so many chances to watch them in flight, as they were the other day. Playing off a fast rising thunderstorm that was moving to the south of us, a dozen or so were checking out the newly mown hayfield.

Consider the view from the attic windows, out across those old blue hills. The sky: pink, gold, robin’s egg blue, except to the south where a black storm cloud rose; below lay the green fields. What one could hear was the snapping wind and the low, continuous sound of thunder.  Add the turkeys’ bizarre gobbling cry and the raven’s croak. But over this scene were those great, silent, dark birds.  They were playing, as they do so often, off of the wind from the storm. I’m reasonably sure I saw one that was working on hammerhead stalls just for the heck of it.  Looking for food, of course, as always; but mostly just flying.

There is a bit of adrenalin too, when they start to stack up above an area, so close that you can see the feathers.  Death has struck somewhere near.  But they themselves? The living wind.

 

Cornfield Church Sunday, Sep 7 2014 

Uncategorized acairfearann 10:41

Cornfield Church

Under the hard, harsh sun
Where the whispering corn
Betrays the coming storm
The white church faces the west
From whence the distant thunder
But beneath its spread shadow
The graves wait for the rising east

 

Considering sunflowers Saturday, Sep 6 2014 

gardening and Modern Photos , , acairfearann 13:54

095

 

Dam! Friday, Sep 5 2014 

Landscapes and Modern Photos acairfearann 09:37

Went for a drive yesterday looking for this and that in northwest Ct. Happened to stop by this location, have a dam or two actually, and a tree.  Lots of trees. I always laugh when people argue that you couldn’t possibly get lost in the woods around here. It is true that you couldn’t get lost in thousands of square miles of trackless wilderness. And as long as you have two good feet and keep walking without going in a circle, you will hit a road within a few hours.  But, nonetheless, you could do a pretty decent job of getting mislaid, especially in an area where the topography is so solidly confused.

147

Colebrook River Dam and in the distance the Hogback Dam*. The area is open to various types of recreation, though with multiple overlapping agencies and owners, it pays to check the current regulations carefully.

*It has some other official name, but is known as Hogback.

 

 

Random thoughts Wednesday, Sep 3 2014 

Uncategorized acairfearann 10:14

Male wild turkeys are rather impressive birds, especially a whole flock circling about the house in search of food.  Very talkative group too, rather like a flock of busy chickens.  Unlike chickens, the males get along quite happily in bachelor bands for a good bit of the year. I think this group was enjoying the seeds from the cucumber (false) magnolia tree.  They certainly seemed rather pleased about something anyway!

Is it really time for a second cutting of hay? I suppose it is.  Bit of a shrek last night in the dark to come around the corner into the barnyard to find the tedder and tractor parked in the lot.  My horse will be happy, eventually, right now of course he is locked up in his little paddock.  Great hardship!

Too many yellow jackets this year….I haven’t gotten stung, but other people have multiple times.  We had sort of been running on a live and let live policy, I think that is at an end.

 

Considering trees Sunday, Aug 31 2014 

Esperanza and Landscapes , , acairfearann 17:47

Esperanza has a horrid, Brigadoonish*, feel about it.  Alright, it isn’t horrid. It is lovely, I like the musical. But the fact is that being outside of time can’t happen, when it does…Brigadoon actually has a rather dark underside to the story and the older tales it is based on are darker still.

But I was fretfully contemplating a few trees in various stages of mature/decline/stone Dead.  Trees should outlive people, that is one of the points about planting them.  But they still die. Just like people, just like pets. When you have a history going back 140 plus years, some trees, important trees, will die.

It’s a long list. There was a horse chestnut on the east lawn in the 1870’s, that was gone by the 1890’s, two big maples on the north lawn, two big elms, we are on our second copper beech, at least four full sized white pines, one of the big Norway Spruces*, the old cottonwood, several white birches, several huge apple trees, several full sized sugar maples, at least one Norway maple, several hemlocks….

And those are just the trees that spring to mind and were big enough to require outside help in removal…

Sometimes I wonder, what hell would it be to live forever?

 

*The others are just as big now, 80-100+ feet, but this was one of the originals.

 

I know Saturday, Aug 30 2014 

gardening acairfearann 17:00

why it is Labor Day! I have peaches, and more peaches (though not as many as usual) and pole beans, and peppers, and tomatoes, and…..

Thank goodness for good quality chest freezers, so much easier than canning things. I know if the power went out completely it would be unfortunate. But you know what, that is what the generator is for!

 

The old Silver Maple Thursday, Aug 28 2014 

Julie's Pond and Landscapes and Modern Photos acairfearann 14:38

Down by Julie’s Pond, taken a few years ago. I have to figure out how to get the duckweed back under control on that pond….

IMG_6162

 

D-Day Birds Tuesday, Aug 26 2014 

Uncategorized acairfearann 20:10

Actually, a flock of Common Nightjars (Nighthawk), but those white wing flashes!

Pretty neat, we saw a dozen or so hunting high above the fields. They caught my eye because they were just not ‘right’ for either the swifts or swallows.  You know it when you see it sort of thing. Too big, wrong wing angle, and the white wing bars.

It turns out that our little group was probably a trailer of a much larger group, numbering in the hundreds. Shortly, after we saw them above our hill, a friend called asking if I had seen a flock in the hundreds on my way home from work.  The main flock must have been congregating in the river valley, presumably it is sort of gathering up birds as migration begins.

Never seen them before.  Two cool birds in one day (the other was a redtail hawk that I routinely see hunting along a busy urban/suburban road) he caught something in the shrubbery near the Staples/Car dealers/McDonalds, next to a four lane road, as I was stuck at a red-light.  Hopefully, he understands traffic….suburban bird-watching!

 

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