My Spot

 

Really the End of an Era

 If I had foreseen the death of QE2 I never would have titled my previous post as end of an era. Much of the World will face change and adjustment with her passing.

I had thought Charles was going to pass on the King hood when all the drama went down with Diana and Camilla. Not sure when that changed, I suppose when the drama moved on to Harry and Meghan..

I am under the impression that Charles is strong on the environment-a subject dear to my own heart-so perhaps this will be my only grumble about the ascension.

Although if I recall, the break up happened because he preferred to spend time with Camilla blasting birds out of the sky, a passion not shared by Diana.

End of an Era

 After 17 years of taking care of goats twice daily, beloved pets Obi and Moonie have crossed the rainbow bridge. Moonie, a 17 year old moonspotted Nigerian/Pygmy cross wether, died Sept 4th. Obi, an Angora/Alpine cross 16 year old wether, died Sept 6th.  I wonder how long it will take before I stop looking for them out the back window.

Rewilding

 I love gardening. I wanted to talk about rewilding, which is a pretty good description of how I have been managing my 4 acres plus marsh and stream frontage.

I work with what I have, what does well; I usually let volunteers go. I have had different things come on a bit too much; one year I had tons of Queen Anne's lace-I simply snipped the flowerheads as they matured and then threw them along the road frontage. 

The road frontage gets periodically razed and ditched by the town, and sprayed and whacked by CMP, and then brush hogged by the town. In order to maintain some sort of vegetated buffer between the dirt road and stream, if I have extra seed heads I toss them down there. This year I actually planted a bunch of fern in the ditch, because I had to rip it out of one of the gardens and hate to kill plants that are doing well.

Then I let the lambsquarters go. This one is easy to weed out as seedlings, and can be eaten fresh or sauteed, but I never seem to get around to eating it. I still have a couple plants here and there this year, because I do like to have it but not SO much of it.

One year I had plantain take over the lawn. This was bad because it is slow to grow in the spring and the Firebird had the lawn a mudfield with his soccer ball. The geese took care of it in the lawn, that and one or two summers pulling the seed stalks. Ditto with heal all.Today I saw some of the blue flowers mixed in with the now in bloom white clover-a must in an "intergrated" wild lawn, but not the WHOLE lawn in the case of heal all.

I do have some flowers and vegetables out there. Tomoatoes, Italian pole beans, Nasturium, sunflowers, bee balm, yarrow, daisys, iris, tulips, on and on..

But it takes a lot of hand weeding, learning what you really won't tolerate (weedy amaranth was a nightmare once it got ahead of me, and I rip every one I see now.)

I lost the battle with the jewel weed, the entire far side of the drive is jewelweed, and also down over the bank. I was actually thinking of buying a weed whacker to knock it back this summer. I am loathe to do it, because it offers excellent cover for the small songbirds, and the bumblebees like it when it is in bloom.

But luckily for me, the deer, who has discovered my garden of delights is no longer scented with dog, likes jewelweed. Sadly, it also LOVES hosta, and they look like bare celery stalks at the moment. It denuded the raspberries and blackberries, comes back every few days and razes the red potatoes(!) loves jeruselum artichoke, and tall phlox. And evening primrose, which  was going to be the strong volunteer in the garden this year, but the deer really like it. They actually just basically top what they eat-except for the big blue hosta, where they took every leaf. The first time through it left ONE leaf-it made sure to get it a couple nights later.

I hung a stinky t-shirt on a stick by the poles beans this afternoon hoping to deter it. But since it was weaving through the clotheslines out back this winter, I don't think much is going to stop it. I need to find a motion activated dog barking device. 

I can't really be mad at the deer. I mean such variety!  Like a kid in a free candy shop.

 

Leaf

 This morning I was putting out hay for Moonie and Obi, and a scrap of folded faded newspaper fell out of the flake of hay.

Curious, I picked it up and examined it.

I read:

"...another leaf

....,one far away

....with gentle mist:

....with amethyst."

 

Drops of moisture were falling, the leaves on the bare trees springing to bright green life, a full "blood Moon" eclipse in what was then exactly twelve hours.

In awe, I copy the wording and then carefully tape the scrap into a journal with the description, fantasizing about the origin and author.

Well versed poets would have known it instantly, just a few words typed into my favorite search engine immediately yielded. "October" by Robert Frost. 

Not only was it a half day to the eclipse, it was a half a year away from the original poem.

October

By Robert Frost

O hushed October morning mild,

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all.

The crows above the forest call;

Tomorrow they may form and go.

O hushed October morning mild,

Begin the hours of this day slow.

Make the day seem to us less brief.

Hearts not averse to being beguiled,

Beguile us in the way you know.

Release one leaf at break of day;

At noon release another leaf;

One from our trees, one far away.

Retard the sun with gentle mist;

Enchant the land with amethyst.

Slow, slow!

For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,

Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,

Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—

For the grapes’ sake along the wall. 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53084/october-56d23212a5b72

 

Another hungry visitor

 

Spring Turkey hunting season is coming up he better stick close. He hung around all day and even just circled around when Pluto the gander took offense and charged him.

Life

 

Easter Sunrise

 

Love Always

 

Will Smith

 To any readers who aren't aware, at this year's Oscar ceremony, Chris Rock was on stage and made a shout out to Jada P Smith, Will's wife, and said he couldn't wait for GI Jane 2. This was in reference to her shaved hair, which was due to a medical condition rather than a fashion statement.

Will got up, sauntered on stage, and slap punched Chris Rock in the face, returned to his seat, and shouted profanities in follow up.

There has been a lot of public discussion about the incident.  

My question is, where was security?

If they were unable to stop Smith mounting the stage, surely after he slapped Rock, security should have approached him and escorted him out of the room. Yes, it would have made a scene even more dramatic, the show must go on, blah blah, but in my opinion the Oscar organizers are to blame for not removing Smith immediately and getting him psychiatric help. 

Psychiatric help, you say? Yes, in one evening, Smith expresses violent anger, then cries uncontrollably when accepting his award, and then is shown ecstatic at an after party.  Three emotional extremes in a short period of time. 

I don't like award ceremonies.  Smith has proven his worth as an actor many times over the years. I own a copy of "I am Legend".  There is one point in the movie I get too scared and can't watch it anymore.  I tried to watch it within the last year, thinking I could tough it out, and nope, enter that part of the movie and I had to turn it off.  LOL. Now if that's not good acting, I don't know what is.  He doesn't need a group of people to acknowledge it.  The rest don't need the disappointment of not winning.  All the movies, all the actors , and a handful of people rule who gets an honor?  

But, I don't like games either.  I am not only a poor winner I am a poor loser.  I feel sad if I win and sad if I lose.  Don't we have enough emotions to deal with on a day to day basis without willingly piling them on? I have seen people go into mourning because "their" team lost.  I have seen them happier than when their children were born if "their" team won. WTH?  People are nuts.

Ban trapping in NWR's

 I support banning of ALL trapping, but did you know trapping is allowed in National Wildlife refuges?

Here is a link where you can add your name to those who support a trapping ban in NWR's.

https://www.bornfreeusa.org/campaigns/trapping/trappingexposed/

Goats

 Obi on the left is 15. Moonie (Moonshadow) on the right is 16.

I bought these boys as babies at a livestock auction. They most likely would have ended up as meat. I have taken care of them twice a day since then.  Well, sometimes I would get the kids to do night chores. 

If I care this much about animals, you can imagine the grief I am feeling over the situation in the eastern part of the planet. IMO every democratic country in the world should have placed troops along the border at the first hint of buildup, and said, "Bring it on, bitch"

Moose on the Loose

 

Got any more corn?