Category: The land

A terrapin up and ambling on December 27, and chickweed blooming in the northern shadow of the house. It just doesn’t seem right.

When you’re serious about your yard, garden, and orchard, there are times when you need the advice and help of experts. The abbey is lucky to have access to a former agricultural agent who now runs a business of his own. Here’s what was blooming at his garden shop today. The photos were taken with my iPhone, which is a surprisingly good camera if you work with the limitations of its lens.

I bought this kieffer pear tree, which will be planted here within the next week or two.

The backyard parties seem to go on day and night.

Many of my wildlife photos are taken through upstairs or downstairs windows. Sometimes I notice a critter outside and run get the camera. Other times it’s because Lily is watching something. I run get the camera even before I know what’s she’s looking at.

There are two deer families that live in the yard here — a doe with triplets and a doe with only one fawn. This is the one-fawn doe. Her ribs aren’t showing nearly as much as the doe with triplets. They see me through the glass, but they don’t much care.

The most recent dump from the game camera caught a young buck in broad daylight — no surprises there, though I’ve never seen a buck near the house. The camera also caught a hawk walking in the woods like a chicken. I have no idea what caught its interest on the ground.

Every summer, black snakes stake out the territory near the chicken house and steal eggs. When Ken is here, they don’t get away with it. This snake was the second egg-stealing snake that Ken has caught this summer and moved to the river. He catches ’em, puts ’em in a bucket, and releases them down near the Dan River.

All the neighbors have game cameras. So it seemed like a no-brainer for the abbey to have one, too, to learn more about the many wild critters who live here. On its first night, the camera was set up for deer, but no deer showed up. Instead there were only shots of Ken setting up the camera and retrieving the memory card, while bringing a tomato from the garden.

I’ll post photos from the game camera when there are good ones.

I have seen my resident triplets fairly often, but I had assumed that the odds were poor that I’d ever catch them close enough together for a picture when I also had time to run for the camera. But here they are. They were in the back yard eating grass and browsing along the edge of the woods and the orchard fence.