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Monthly Archives: March 2012

Honeybees

[Click on images for high-res versions] We see disturbingly few honeybees at the abbey. Last year, it seemed as though bumblebees did most of the pollination. There were some honeybees working the apple blossoms this morning, though, and they were a welcome sight. There also were lots of other nectar-sipping creatures.

What's happening at the abbey

Pear blossoms [click on images for high-res version] Carolina jasmine Kiwi, climbing Apple blossom buds Scuppernong grape Lettuce Heirloom climbing rose Violets Flowering cherry (Ruth the chicken is buried under this tree) Sedum Maple leaves on young shade tree planted last fall Day lily plants Chrysanthemum Kentucky 31 tall fescue

The new iPad

It took me months to decide to splurge on a new iPad. In the end, I decided that I could justify the cost by the amazingly many things I can do with it: — My old iPad 1 was my favorite reading device. The new high-resolution display is extremely easy on the eyes. It’s a […]

Free clover. Come and get it.

Photo by Ken Ilgunas The clover — and, to a lesser degree, the grass — at Acorn Abbey is greatly in demand. Everyone eats it — the chickens, deer, groundhogs, rabbits, voles, birds, and turkeys. Today Ken and I saw a squirrel eating both grass and clover. I had never seen a squirrel eat grass […]

Babbling and strewing flowers

The pear trees up the hill from me. Click on photo for high-res version. I think it’s time for the annual posting of a poem about spring by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Spring To what purpose, April, do you return again? Beauty is not enough. You can no longer quiet me with the redness Of […]

Ruth, R.I.P., and other chicken news

Ruth resting in the grass the day before she died Ruth died on Tuesday. Some sort of digestive disorder carried her off. She fought it for a week, then finally she stopped eating and drinking and weakened fast. Tuesday was a cold day with a very cold night forecast. We brought her inside and gave […]

Banana bread

It seems I regularly fret about how to get more variety into breakfasts, but I forget about banana bread. I had not made banana bread in months. As with many traditional American basics, I start with a recipe from Irma Rombauer’s 1943 edition of The Joy of Cooking and modify the recipe to make it […]

The income of the top 10 percent

Striking It Richer: Emmanuel Saez Charts like the one above help make it clear why the right wing hates — and fears, and demonizes — progressive economic policies like those advanced by Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Those policies left us with plenty of rich people, but the rich could no longer take it […]

Let's all scratch in the dirt

When the daffodils are out, it is time to scratch in the dirt. Onions, lettuce, and chard from plants bought at the roller mill in Walnut Cove. They don’t look like much when they first go in the ground, but they’ll be much more photogenic in a few weeks. I’m probably about two weeks away […]