We've been having stunning weather the past few days. Yesterday afternoon, in celebration of a long productive desk-day, I took a walk around with my camera while chickpeas boiled away on the stove. I brought Diesel out for some sunshine, too. Tried to get a picture of him laying down in the orchard, or rolling in the mowed grass, but as soon as he heard me approaching with the camera he righted himself and walked off.
So the best shot I got was this.
Things are really looking good out in the orchard. The little islands of biodiversity I've planted around each tree-- chives to repel bugs, comfrey to break up the hardpan and serve as living mulch, lemon balm and speedwell because they're pretty and I have a lot of them, and lupines to fix nitrogen-- are flourishing, and I can only hope that soon the flourish will spread to the little trees as well. I'm in no rush, really. Whether they bear in three years or thirteen, we'll all get there eventually.
The garden is looking late-summer woolly, full of crabgrass and spent flower-stalks. I've been clearing ground, bit-by-bit, and planting rows of cold-weather things. Beets and carrots, in the middle of this photograph, and yesterday I planted mache, Asian greens, and more kale. Never enough kale.
Arugula.
Spinach babies.
Broccoli. Twenty-four plants I set in April, which have been growing strong all summer. I cut them back pretty hard in mid-July, when the hot drought was making them leggy. Now, with some rain and cooler temps they're back to cranking out the tasty.
Slowly, the balance is shifting from outdoors to in.
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6 comments:
thank you for the Diesel pics!! He's a very frenchie looking boston. Too bad he can't see the sun :(
Does he know the layout of the house ok by now? Is he fenced in or is he good and stays close by?
Diesel has it absolutely down! He runs into corners occasionally, but usually isn't off by more than a few inches. He definitely feels the sun when he's out there-- and he loves it. :)
Diesel looks great. How old is he? Our Petey The Boston Terrier did the same thing when his sight went bad. Sonar almost.
Hooray for the re-birth of the broccoli!
Fourteen. I think you're right about the sonar--sometimes outside, when we call him our voices echo in an unfamiliar way, and he gets disoriented, but usually he's right on target.
sometime when you can't think of anything to right, could you post some ideas for using kale? I've sauteed it and used it in soup but that's about it...
omg, I meant WRITE, not right! horrible.
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