Birthday Flowers

I spent the weekend celebrating my birthday.  That included spending Saturday night around a fire with a few friends, drinking much good wine and eating amazing food including homegrown and wild picked mushrooms, chicken wings and pork tenderloin cooked over the coals, baby sweet potatoes roasted with peanut oil and maple syrup, they melted in our mouths, home grown salad too.  I just polished off the last scrumptious piece of chocolate cherry torte that my honey pie baked in honor of my special day. 

We laughed, sang and danced and the resulting hangover didn't keep us from spending yesterday out in the garden.  The day was way too beautiful to stay inside and as its autumn, well, you gardeners know there are things to plant, move, rearrange, dead stuff to cut back, WEEDS.  I planted two new camelias including this one called Sarrel.  It has a mounding habit and I put it in a spot where I hope it will trail down the hill.

I had to share this lovely with you as well- planted last spring, October Affair, it's decadent in its perfection, this photo really doesn't do it justice.

Tucked in for the night

We're expecting the first frost tonight, forecast for 31 degrees which means it could be cooler here. We put out the remay to protect the broccoli, beets, lettuce and peppers.  There are still at least 2 dozen big peppers out there and we hate picking them early when they could have kept on going, so we pulled the blanket over the whole big row.

This bed is looking so lush- I just want to bite into everything, parsley, nasturtiums, turnips, chard, spinach, dill and green onions all such a yummy "eat me" green.  Most of this should be alright with the cold- accept the nasturtiums- which could be laid flat by morning and finished for the season.

A sleeping bee, hoping to stay warm under the cover of this zinnia tonight.

La Luna

Lately the moon has been just amazing.  We were coming back up from a walk along the creek on Monday evening and as we came across the farm the full moon was rising over the dairy, HUGE and golden.  It stopped us in our tracks.  I just  love the way she looks so big when first coming over the horizon.  I was talking with a Spanish speaking friend about the full moon and the fact that the sun is masculine, el sol, the moon feminine, la luna, seems about right to me, the sun so powerful and full of energy, the moon quieter, more tranquil, moodier. 

The past few nights, the light from her has shone so brightly into my bedroom window that its kept me from sleeping very well, and even this morning as I left early to go to a meeting, their she was, still high and bright in the sky, tonight, coming home after dark, she was rising again over the farm, one corner lopped off, waning.

So much wildlife lately too, I think since the time changed I've been driving in after dark and in the past couple of days I've seen a possum, fox, rabbit and 2 deer just on our drive!  Everyone is cruising around in the moonlight looking for something to eat.

EGGS: free range vs. cage free

Can you tell which is which? 

The one on the left is "cage free".  I'm not sure what that means- they probably run around in a giant chicken house, but they clearly are not eating what the chickens on the right are eating.  The egg on the right is from the dairy farm chickens that run around the barnyard all day eating bugs and picking through cow poop.  Bright orange with a firm tall white compared to the thin runny white on the cage free egg which obviously sat around in the store for a while.  Sadly the dairy chickens have been being ornery lately- not laying well or laying outside the hen house so their eggs can't be found.  I'm "jonesing" for those rich yellow yolks, the others just can't compare.  I keep threatening to set-up a hen house all my own, but it sounds like too much work.  Maybe next spring....

The Fall Vegetable Parade Continues

The first head of broccoli!  And many more to come, we planted a nine-pack and they are all looking good, I'm glad those on the shadier end of the bed are growing more slowly so they won't all be ready to harvest simultaneously.  This variety should also make side shoots once the main heads are cut, so I hope we'll be picking broccoliettes right up close to Christmas.

Tonight we made soup with chicken broth, broccoli, bok choy, carrots, red peppers and shitake mushrooms all from the garden and seasoned with garlic, ginger and soy, so delicious and easy to prepare.

We were stirred from our slumber at 5:00 this morning by the barking of what we guessed was a fox, rather incessantly, and quite close to the house.  It was so warm yesterday that we had the bedroom window cracked and could really hear the critter.  It stopped eventually and fortunately we were able to fall back to sleep.  Oh those precious hours between the sheets, I hate waking early and not being able to slip back under.

Big-assed horses on the farm!

The NC Percheron Horse Association held their field day at Chapel Hill Creamery yesterday and we wandered over to see what it was all about.  We found teams of massive, powerful and stately horses pulling all manner of farm equipment around the place.

There were sit on plows for one person

others for 2 persons

And some that you walked behind

They were coming and going all around that field turning up the soil and showing off their skills,

geein" and hawin", goin" and woein"

Here is a 3 horse rig dragging a rake across after the plows to smooth things out, actually that's a mule on the left, you can see he's smaller and has tall ears

Then the seeder came along to sow the seed

There were black ones

And white ones

And wagons to tour the visitors around the farm

These big guys really worked up a lather as they were put through their paces and at the end of the day the field was smooth and sown.  I am not a horse person but I really enjoyed seeing these fine animals and their trainers/owners working them.  Everyone out there seemed to be having a real fine time.

Spooky Forest Spirit

In honor of Halloween, I share this tree spirit I spied the other day.  The blue eye, pointy nose and spider web snot were too good to pass up. 

With this post I've achieved my goal for October of posting every day, 31 posts in a row.  I must admit its been challenging some days and I feared my subject matter was veering into mundane and uninteresting but ya'll just kept on visiting, reading and commenting on my daily ramblings.  Thanks for your continued support.  Not sure what November will bring, but I'll try to post as often as I can.