stubbed toes and mud pies

[flowerbug]

the Irish Moss is there but you do have to look closely to see it after recovering from last winter and being left alone. i didn't remove the Creeping Thyme this season and with the heat and drought that was probably a good decision. i'm not going to weed or thin it any more and see how it does. indications so far is that the two plants cohabitate just fine. i have several other small patches of them now and will let them all do what they'd like as having a community of ground cover plants that get along is exactly the kind of thing i like to see. it makes it harder for weeds to get established...

this other Thyme really filled in faster (two growing seasons) than the Creeping Thyme and is taller. i'm pondering shifting that whole edge of ground cover plants over a few feet to put that taller Thyme down the slope and at the bottom. somehow i'd need to find the time to do that... hmmm... it is working really well and may even survive being mowed and spread into the neighboring grass (fine with me!).

pink Mums. at first i was surprised by the one flower in the entire patch that has the yellow center and thought it was the odd one out or perhaps even insect eggs, but in looking very closely with a magnified image i could see bits of the yellow centers in some of the other flowers it just happened to be that there was just that one out in the whole patch when i took my picture.

yellow Mums needed a close shot too.

i'm really proud of Mom getting this garden redone without me being too involved. it was gettiing really overgrown with grasses and weeds and where it is doesn't get much sun any longer due to the surrounding trees.

 

[flowerbug]

got the garlic planted. it didn't take me that long to do since i already had the cloves needed for planting busted out from their bulbs and i had a garden already cleared so all i needed to do was go out and dig a trench for some extra drainage and then spade the area a little and then bust the clods with a cultivator a little, poke holes with my hand trowel and put the cloves in there.

it was still pretty wet and heavy soil there and chances of rain most of this week to get the garden settled in but i'm not too worried about those conditions now that i piled some extra dirt on top and made the trench to encourage less water in that area.

i love how my fingers smell of garlic.

 

[flowerbug]

well plans for yesterday got interrupted as we had a mixup in scheduling, i was just about to get into the shower when some relatives came driving up the driveway. oops! so i did not get any beans shelled but i did a little reading. Mom had scheduled a friend to come over and play cards a bit later so we scrambled and got ready and played cards with the relatives until Mom's friend showed up and then i could step aside and let them play. i did not want to sit there any more than i already had. too hard on my back in those chairs.

so today i'll get back to my regular indoor schedule as the rains are still coming down.

 

[flowerbug]

nice calm day of shelling beans.

 

[flowerbug]

today i could get outside and get some more of a garden cleaned up but it was rather wet and muddy. will try to do some more for a few hours tomorrow before the garden club meeting.

 

[flowerbug]

finished up shelling beans this morning. done for this season. now on to a few intermediate projects before i return to stage two of the bean harvest which is sorting and going through and making sure each bean is ok before i put them into the glass jars for storage. can't have any moldy beans in there and also pick out or clean up any bits of pod still attached or whatever else should be fed to the worms instead being cooked and fed to us.

i had zero gumption as i woke up early and so i crawled back into bed for a nap and woke up and have been watching stand up comedy most of the afternoon. sometimes a day off is good even if you're already retired...

 

[SPedigrees]

i had zero gumption as i woke up early and so i crawled back into bed for a nap and woke up and have been watching stand up comedy most of the afternoon. sometimes a day off is good even if you're already retired...

A nap and stand-up comedy are sure fire cures for lethargy and exhaustion.

 

[flowerbug]

neighbor came over and we talked about what they're planning on doing to the south field a bit and then we walked some of our property and we talked over some issues and then he flew his drone and took some pictures, which i've not seen yet, but i think they turned out ok.

it was a very nice drone. it had built in GPS and stableizer stuff so as long as the breeze was less than 30 mph it would stay in position until it was changed. it also knew where it took off and would return and land exactly there if he told it to do that. i thought it was a lot more quiet than i expected. when it was up 50 ft or more i could barely hear it and 100 ft up it might not have even been there. it was so small it was not even easy to see.

it will be interesting to see the pictures and i'm sure i'll put some up on the website if they work out ok. i think they will.... hope they will... first time trying this so don't know until it happens.

also good to give him some more practice because he's going for the more complicated license which will let him do commercial stuff. so i asked him to do a roof inspection of some spots i've not been able to get up to look at more closely in some time and so i hope to see those pictures and check out what's going on up there...

which meant i didn't quite get as much done today as i expected or hoped but it was great to have some fun and talk to someone different for a change. i mean in person...

i did get a part of two different gardens done inside the fence so they look much nicer but still a lot to do. nice day. could use two more weeks...

 

[flowerbug]

garden club meeting, the three regulars were there and maybe we'll have a new person as he and his Mom showed up to visit the library again (i'd seen them once before but they did not venture in that time since i was the only person in the room then, but this time since i had the other two there as wing-people and they are friendly it was easier).

 

[flowerbug]

i'm just up to the usual still, working on gardens to get them ready for winter when the weather cooperates. today i should be able to finish up one garden and not sure about another (i probably should get some ashes spread since it will be raining) we'll see what happens. then rains return for tomorrow and then the rest of the week is back to moderate and clear enough i should be able to get a few more gardens done which is about all i need to do. depends upon how much rains we pick up and how frozen it gets at night. a slight frost will burn off by the time i go outside (i don't do cold weather in the morning gardening - at least not in a long time i haven't).