Watching a bewildering world from the middle of nowhere
A fence rose
With Ken here to do the planting, the landscaping around Acorn Abbey is finally starting to take shape. We planted climbing roses along the new fence. The rose variety is called Awakening, and it’s a relative of the New Dawn climbing rose. I believe it is considered an heirloom or antique rose. I expect these climbing roses to cover the fence in three years or so.
A gardenia
It was a long day, but Ken and I finished building and installing the two gates today. So the fence is officially done. We let the chickens celebrate this event by letting them out of the chicken coop to scratch inside their vast new garden fence for the first time.
Ken opens the door to let the chickens out. By the way, I believe we are seeing the pecking order here, left to right. The red chicken is No. 1 in the pecking order, so she is first up to the door.
All this new ground to scratch!
One of my regular stops is the Monitor Roller Mill at Walnut Cove. There’s a family of cats there, working cats that patrol the mill. Here’s one of the spring kittens, making himself at home on the front counter.
The first day lily of the year bloomed today. This is a hybrid lily. My common lilies, which I call railroad lilies, should start blooming any day now.
Hmmm. Another gate.
Cats really know their territory. I had kept Lily indoors for more than two weeks, mostly to try to get her to adjust to Ken’s presence. I let her out this morning. I noticed that she immediately started checking out the changes that have happened outdoors while she was trapped indoors. She walked the fence, found the gates, and noticed all the other changes.
Something’s missing.
Where’s the trailer, my old home?
What’s that over there?
Someone’s been busy here.
This is not so bad.
Ken and I planted some tomatoes and basil in the straw bales yesterday. We’ll see how it goes. The vegetable garden is going to be very limited this year. The fence-building project got in the way. Not to mention that to start a garden before the fence was up would be to take chances with the deer (again). Last year, for example, the deer pretty much wiped out all my tomato plants in one night.
This year, however, there will be a weekly farmer’s market in Walnut Cove, and a farmer’s market every other week at Danbury. I’m hoping those two farmer’s markets will make up for the smallness of the vegetable garden.
I had never eaten sardines until yesterday. But lately sardines have been showing up on such lists as “the top 10 healthiest foods that you aren’t eating.” I bought a can at Whole Foods.
How do they taste? Not all that bad. Kind of like canned tuna, but with a stronger flavor.
For more than a week, Ken and I have been hard at work on the deer fence. The posts are all in place, and the corner reinforcements are done. We’re ready to start putting up wire. I’ll blog the whole fence-building process when the job is done.
Two years ago, I cleared an acre of pine trees to make room for the house and garden area. I was amazed to find a magnolia growing among the pines. It was tall, spindly, and starved for light. The loggers worked around the magnolia tree, and in the last two years it has started to fill out. It’s about to bloom for the first time.
The coreopsis, which I planted from seed a year ago, is flourishing.
The sign marks the spot on Brook Cove Road.
It had been 20 years since I’d made strawberry preserves. Ken was eager to make preserves for the first time. Monday, May 10, was an unusually cool day, perfect for picking strawberries. So off to Mabe’s Berry Farm we went. Mabe’s Berry Farm is on Brook Cove Road near Walnut Cove.
A strawberry field worker loads berries to be sold already picked.
The berries are cheaper if you pick them yourself. Here’s Ken with the three gallons of strawberries we picked.
Our berries are transferred to boxes for the ride home.
Back at home, the jars and berries are almost ready to start. The jars will go into the dishwasher to get them clean and hot.
Ken caps strawberries.
Washed and capped and ready to cook
The strawberries are boiled with sugar. The preserves use a lot of sugar — five cups of sugar for each quart and a half of strawberries. The lids are boiling in the pot to the right.
All done.