Flitting away

.. the last butterfly of the season 😦  Winter well!

Last Butterfly

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One Odd Egg

Gertie, our oldest hen in the coop was a peculiar gal, but a great old bird.  She truly believed her job on this earth, other than to give me one fresh egg a day, was to do nothing more than just set and be broody and to hatch out every other fertilized egg that was laid in our coop! Even the duck eggs she’d hatch out!  Wrong!  LOL

Gertie telling Olive to move on over

Whenever she spotted one of the other ladies hop up into a nesting box.. there she’d also hop in an attempt to confiscate the newly laid egg.  Truth be known, Gertie, was the reason we had over eighty birds in our flock and a major problem with supply and demand when our faithful egg customers show’d up to make their purchases.

We sold our eggs, both standards and bantam eggs separately on our farm.  You know those health conscious individuals that were trying to minimize their daily fresh egg intake along with lowering their HDL and cholesterol levels?  LOL but they secretly didn’t want to give up that delicious flavor of a truly, just laid fresh egg either! They purchased solely the little banty eggs–while the rest just scooped up all the other standard egg cartons we offered in the barn refrigerator.  But once Gert started hoarding everyone’s eggs in the coop we had to change our methods of marketing.  So instead I’d put one banty egg in each carton of standard eggs, and a hung a new sign on the frig door..  New product–‘One Odd Egg’ farm fresh eggs for sale!

One odd egg -- farm fresh eggs for sale

I’ve always believed that no farm should be without at least a few girls around the barnyard.  If you are lucky enough to have  a good old gal in your henhouse, such as Gert, you must be blessed too–even if she was a rather odd egg in her own way. She was a sweetie!

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Can you hear it?

Ssshhh — listen a moment.  The quiet is deafening! Summer’s End. The tourist season has finally ended.  Back to solitary days, no traffic jams and best of all, I have the beach pretty much to myself again! Hooray!

Walking is good for the sole & soul

 

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Tough getting old

Good old boy, Jake

 

A quiet moment - Erin & Jake

Younger days - Erin & Jake

It’s so hard to lose a good buddy. Jake here, has crossed over  rainbow bridge and was a joy in my daughter Erin’s  life.  Enjoy the heavens as you did the Earth Jake!

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Autumn notes

I guess it’s pretty safe to say that Fall is oficially in full swing. Another years’ wonderful Punkinfiddle Festival has come and gone.  What a great estuary celebration it was! I can’t speak for the rest of the country, but up here along the northeast  coastline the leaves have changed from green to gold, rust and crimson and the crisp Autumn air has brought about the first chills of the season.

 

September Coneflower

 

Much of the garden has been put to bed–the herbs, have been harvested and dried for winter meals, my morning tea or be formulated into my herbal soaps and healing balms. Though a long one,  it’s been a great growing season this year, with marvelous yields.

Today, I’ll be busy hauling up seaweed and salt marsh hay and emptying the composter to begin the winter mulching.  The farmers almanac has predicted this winter to be an accumulative one–snowwise ugh ugh, and though a nice white blanket helps to insulate much of the perennials in the beds.{ just the thought of shoveling gives my back a twinge already! LOL} this fall covering of leaves and hay will also help to protect the soil from winter wind and soil erosion.

As I watch the golden leaves swirling down this morning, I can’t help but think to myself what ‘gold’ indeed they really are to a gardener.  I learned a way back when about leaves from the woods.  Look at the forest floor when you take that Autumn walk — deep in it’s carpet of leaves.  This is the very building block of the rich soil needed for healthy plants.  The forest is lucky enough to feed itself as each year Mother nature adds another layer of nutrition to it’s greens.  Though it takes many years for nature to break down all these leaves into beneficial nutrients, the gardener can speed up this process.

In days gone by, I was a charter member of  the leaf thieves of America.  I’d cruise up and down the streets of town watching for those bagged up packages of gold placed by the curb.  I’d toss them into the back of my Jeep and be off with my treasures.  And then once home I’d make huge piles of compost and wait patiently for the wonderful ‘black gold’ to appear at the end of winter in the bottom of my composter.  This rich humus was then added into my gardens soil.

So, I’ve taken a lesson from the leaves. W ith all the hustle and bustle of the busy world, what better teacher than nature?  What other free source provides us with shade from the hot steamy sun of the summer and offers us bright glowing colorful beauty come the Fall, plus offers us the perfect building block for a rich garden soil? I can’t think of a one. 🙂

 

Autumn Harvest

 

I think I’ll just put down my garden rake for now.  The days are growing shorter and in the next two weeks the garden will have been put to rest.  Hmmm? Now why don’t we all use this philosophy–damned if I know! Another flock of geese is honking their way south overhead.  I think I’ll pour a cup of warmed apple cider and watch the last of the maple leaves drop to the ground, before I head down to the gardens.  Happy Autumn!

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