From our garden…
We don’t have a large garden. Not even close to producing what we can consume, but it’s satisfying to grow food.
First Thoughts
… the clocks set back an hour last night… an extra hour of sleep… that used to be more meaningful when working full time… less so now… still, i took advantage of it and feel groggy this morning…
… dogs let out, treated, watered… they have gone back to bed with H…
… i crank up Bach’s Goldberg Variations… played on harpsichord by Maggie Cole… i think about C, who’s partner is a highly trained classical musician… i think about the northwest and about the book Analogia, by George Dyson… i think about mysterious things happening in wild cold forests…
… not a huge fan of the harpsichord… but it’s ok this morning… i am actually liking it… most of the time it seems a bit shrill and fussy to me… i like the rounder tones of the piano better…
… i read about Maggie Cole… white woman looking slightly aristocratic… am i thinking so because she is a classical musician and classical music is of the white patriarchy, aristocracy?… in addition to harpsichord she plays the pianoforte and the piano… she teaches… she performs… she records… the Goldberg Variations are a specialty…
… i think about zeroing in on the harpsichord, and then the Goldberg Variations (or was it the Variations first, the harpsichord second?) for expertise development… what must it be like to live this music in your head all the time?… what must it be like to find yourself in the settings conducive to its practice and performance?… the cosmos accessed through a narrowly defined pathway… what has she come to understand about all of it through the music?…
… M texts… they are up early… the time change… habits need to shift… sunrise earlier… sunset earlier… no, those things happen on the same schedule all year round cosmically… it is the humans that don’t… the humans adjust their time keepers to shift their relationship to sunrise and sunset… all things are relative to the earthly clock!… the reason, apparently, is to save energy… i am not clear how it does this… couldn’t we more naturally adjust ourselves to come and go during the available daylight?… i could do without it… it seems an unnecessary inefficiency in the human condition…
… did some cleaning up of the planter tanks yesterday, installed a hoop system that will be covered with frost protective fabric for the winter… will also mulch things in a little… hoping to preserve the herbs through the winter… the sage, thyme and oregano all made it through the winter last year… rosemary is new as is tarragon… hoping i can get them through this winter…
… i also swept up the natural detritus in the driveway, bagged it and put it out at the curb for the town to pick up… and, importantly, i reinforced the fence line where Fiona has been finding her way out of the yard… i have done this for a quarter of the perimeter of the yard at least over the past year…
… today i am thinking i will work on finishing the back stair…
… there is also the daily walk, the farmer’s market, the weekly family zoom…
First Thoughts
… storms passed through last night… rain only, not the possible severe thunderstorms warned… i tended to the chickens early and was proud of myself for doing that… having a weather app with radar imaging of approaching storms is amazing…
… no further developments on H health scare… no further possible symptoms… doctoring to be lined up this coming week…
… i received The Journals of Denton Welch yesterday… will begin reading upon completion of Modern Nature… i enjoy having an eclectic reading list… at least i think it is eclectic…
… began setting up herbs to dry… a large amount of sage yesterday… i will try to do some tarragon and maybe a little rosemary and time, though i’d like to see if the rosemary can be overwintered… i read about overwintering rosemary… it can be done in zone 7 and above… becomes a more dicy proposition in zone 6… there are varieties of rosemary that are tougher… i don’t know what variety i have… you need a dry sunny place… you can get frost blankets to put over them… i may try that… not too expensive… i look up our zone… on the border between zone 6 and 7… that seems promising assuming my rosemary is a hardy variety… i bought it at a local nursery, so it might be… i am thinking we will concentrate the planter tanks on herbs and tomatoes… maybe some onions and leeks… that was pretty successful…
… walk, breakfast, farmer’s market, family meeting… the order of the day… skin doctor this week, also gastroenterologist, getting caught up on doctoring… next up will be ophthalmologist and cardiologist… then annual check in with primary care doctor… then all set for the winter?… oh, flu shot and COVID vaccine booster shot… then we are good for the winter…
Drying Herbs
… i started to read MN which quickly reminded me that i have mountains of herbs in the garden that i need to harvest and dry… sage, thyme, mint, tarragon… i look up drying methods which are pretty straight forward though avoiding dust seems to be the biggest problem for me… the recommendation is to encase them in paper bags with holes punched in the bags to allow air circulation… i wonder if there are bags made for herb drying… and it turns out there are hanging mesh drying racks… the mesh doesn’t look fine enough to keep out dust, but perhaps that can be dealt with using paper towels over the top of the herbs?… will slow down the drying time but otherwise ok?…
07 In the Garden
… there have been many gardeners who write well, or writers who garden well… i am neither but i will do my best to extol the attention paying virtues of gardening, especially when it is gardening for food… that is what i have chosen to make my specialty, since i love to cook… H manages the ornamental gardening with some heavy lifting help from me…
… my food gardening is constrained to herbs, tomatoes, onions, leeks and zucchini this year…
… the spot in our yard with the most sun is paved over with an asphalt drive so i have worked out a raised bed system using livestock watering troughs fitte with 4” perforated drain pipe to provide a water reservoir… i can go days without watering even in height of summer…
… there are four of them at present…
… thyme, sage and oregano planted last year and returning, tomatoes and zucchini added this year…
… dill, tarragon, tomatoes and zucchini…
… onions, leeks and tomatoes…
… rosemary, parsley, basil and tomatoes…
…it’s all experimental for me, i am in the learning phase…