On a beautiful June morning AC and I made a quick trip up to Belfast to get a few things I can’t get locally around me, including locally produced one-pound blocks of raw butter, which freeze well.
I have been a member of the Belfast Coop for many years now, and I always enjoy shopping there. With the virus, the Coop wasn’t opening until 10 am and with an hour for “compromised shoppers” shopping, so AC and I had a little walk along the waterfront park, which just gets prettier and prettier.
Here is where the Passagassawaukeag River meets Belfast Bay, which is an inlet of Penobscot Bay. The resulting estuary is beautiful, and Belfast has been working hard to make a beautiful trail that runs alongside the river for some distance up the river.
AC had a little swim in the tiny beach along the river:
Afterwards, we walked a bit to dry him off before I did my shopping and we came home.
I woke up this morning to the news that yet another young African-American man/boy was found dead—hanging from a tree in California with a rope around his neck.
This news follows news of the past few days that three white policemen in Atlanta found an African American man passed out drunk in a car in a fast-food chain line. They wound up tormenting him, chasing him, shooting him in the back, and not calling for medical help while one stood on his shoulders while he died. When the officers were charged, other Atlanta police called in sick to protest.
Later today, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump Administration did not follow the law when they tried to get rid of the DACA cohort. Trump, the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, responded with images of shotgun blasts in people’s faces: “These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives.”
These events are just from the past few days. And I didn’t even cover John Bolton’s book which details even more corruption and lawlessness that the GOP has chosen to ignore and/or facilitate.
I am so exhausted and so sad. I don’t recognize this country any more. The past 3 1/2 years have been hell on earth as EVERYTHING I hold sacred—truth, honor, integrity, service to others, faithfulness—has been…debauched and disappeared.
I, for some reason, about a week ago started listening to Michelle Obama’s memoir BECOMING, and as painfully hard as it to hear in places, I have really enjoyed living in her mind for a bit of time. For one thing, the memoir pulls together her history, the history of her part in Obama’s campaign, and her/their time at the White House. I’m still listening, but I’ve heard enough to think that this book is one that is meant for this moment in time.
These cedar chairs and the little table are locally made by an Amish business. They will endure our winters and will not have to be carted to the upper floor of the garage for the winter.
And the best news: the brown tail caterpillar infestation has stopped (until a rehatch in the fall) so the fabric cushions can go out for the summer. (I already had the cushions from the old chairs.)
One of the old chairs and the matching table were rehomed to a friend. The other old chair had to go to the dump landfill, sadly
AC and I visited a local meadow yesterday, and it is carpeted with wildflowers. I’m sure it will be mowed very soon, so I couldn’t resist picking a few and bringing them home to enjoy, but also to identify the ones whose names I did not really know.
On the left are buttercup and blue-eyed grass. I separated them out as they are delicate and would be lost in the big mixture, and I wanted you to see them. The buttercup is actually a tall plant and can light up where it grows with yellow stars waving in the breeze. They are so cheerful. This one had been mowed, so the plant was small.
The blue-eyed grass is short and has one bloom that peeks out from the upper surface of the meadow plants. You don’t really see it at first, until your eye settles on it’s little spot of blue. It’s in the Iris family. I think of this type of wildflower as being one of the “quiet” ones, but whose presence makes up the richness one encounters in a meadow filled with wildflowers.
I’ve always called the white daiseys that are blooming everywhere now Marguerite Daisies. It’s really called an Ox-Eye Daisy and is in the chrysanthemum family. It is really a composite flower, as the yellow center is a grouping of disk flowers that are very tiny. The white pets are a ray flower that grows around the yellow center. Who knew? I didn’t. They pick well and last in an arrangement. Right now, they are knee high under my clothesline—which is not in use given the brown tail caterpillars.
The clovers we would all know: red and white. I was fascinated today with the fact that some of the white clovers were almost variegated with delicate, blush pink petals in the mix. This discovery actually requires slowing down and looking much more closely.
The orange flower is Hawkweed, also known as Devil’s Paintbrush. It’s very hairy! The stem, especially. Like the ox-eye daisy, the outer orange petals are really separate ray flowers.
The yellow version of the orange is called Yellow Devil or King Devil.
I quilted on my domestic with a 12-weight cotton thread I’ve had hanging around for some time. (I have some parchment color too. Yum.) And I used a titanium top stitch needle—size 90/14.
You can see how pretty this heavier thread is in the following pictures.
This project went really well, and I just trimmed it. So, on to the binding, which means I’ll have some hand sewing next week.
My little sewing space in the big room is working out well.
Last night I finished one-half of the OTHER side of this grid work—and little diamonds formed in the process.
I’m using a 12-weight shiny cotton thread in pale blue that I’ve had on hand for some years now and a 90/14 titanium top stitch needle.
It’s coming out really nicely—that’s a 3-length stitch:
For the second side, I’ve been able to mostly sew without the tape—by going from one corner to the next—which is making the job a bit faster.
It’s a beautiful day here this morning—after a day of much-needed, refreshing rain. I’ll be checking my caterpillar-stressed plants this morning to see if they need more protective treatments. And I’ll fertilize the poor, poor blueberry bushes.
It was a beautiful sunny day Tuesday. While running errands I just had to stop to take some pictures of the more flamboyant wildflowers I was passing. There are, also, smaller plants that can cover a field with yellow blossoms and quieter plants that prefer a smaller footprint. And then there are the grasses, waving in the wind in unison to create a living canvas of movement.
Dame’s Rocket has always intrigued me. I’ve gotten seeds and tried to get it to grow in the ditches next to my property, but so far it has not liked that spot.
The flower form is delicate and comes in a range of pinks. It feels a bit like a phlox form.
The lupine is in full bloom now—and displays so many different colors and variegated forms. Lupine is everywhere in the ditches alongside the roads. I in no way captured all the variety of colors and variegated versions of different plants. The colors here vary from purples to pinks to pure white and to versions that have purple and white, and so forth.
The meadows now have growth that is long enough to mow. It will be a good year for mowing as for the most part, it has been cool and dry.
I’ve never seen this moth before s/he flew into the house when AC Slater went out for his final lawn visit of the night.
It’s a moth associated with maple trees: the rosy maple moth, or Cosmoth.
From wikipedia, where there are some very pretty pictures:
“Dryocampa rubicunda. Dryocampa rubicunda, the rosy maple moth or the Cosmoth, is a small North American moth in the family Saturniidae, also known as the great silk moths. … Adult females lay their yellow ovular eggs in groups of 10 to 40 on the underside of maple leaves.“
One day soon I’m going to leave the outdoor light on the garage and check first thing in the morning to see what moths showed up. That exercise can be really fun.
Now!
I can tell you what is NOT A PRETTY CREATURE: the brown tail caterpillar.
While heaving diatomaceous earth at my blueberry, raspberry, and strawberry plants in an effort to kill the caterpillars munching their way through them, I got one on my shirt sleeve—a long-sleeve heavy cotton t-shirt. I did not take off the shirt immediately. By nightfall, here’s what happened to my skin under the layer of the sleeve:
Holy Cow!! It itched like fire—and still does off and on, two days later. Lavender essential oil helps a lot. Did you know that lavender essential oil is also great for kitchen burns—it stops the burn immediately.
You know that pretty picture I posted with the blueberry bush with all the flowers on it?
At lunchtime I went outside to get some fresh herbs for my lunch salad and discovered it COVERED with brown tail caterpillars happily munching away at all the leaves on the two bushes. They have nearly been denuded.
I had just put diatomaceous dirt (which looks like a white powder) on the new blueberry bushes, which were suffering the same fate, and had dusted the new raspberry canes and the strawberries, which are blooming heavily and forming fruit. Yes, some of the new raspberry canes showed signs of being chewed, and I could see some of the caterpillars in the strawberries.
I brought the herbs inside and turned right around to get more diatomaceous dirt for the big blueberry bushes. LOTS of caterpillars on them. Ugh! I did my best. Now I just have to wait and see. I came inside to wash up (again) and found a caterpillar on my shirt. More Ugh!
Here was my reward, topped with fresh dill, chive flowers, chopped chive stalks, and tarragon. The lettuce is from my garden, too. The protein is roasted chicken.
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