New England native, Florida resident. Blogging about boating, beach-combing, gardening, camping, and knitting. Work for Zazzle as a designer since 2008.
Skittle is my water-loving cat. She has decided that she must drink out of the birdbath each time she goes out front and especially if I am out there and spraying water to fill it.
She has a bowl of clean water right inside the garage, which I leave open a bit all day for the cats to hide from dogs if they have to, but this is more fun I suppose.
She also drinks from the hose if I have it turned on low to deep-water the shrubs, and inside the house she drinks from the sink. She is one of those needy cats who wants attention all the time and she goes in and out all day long.
I used to leave the back screen open just a bit for her until she decided that bringing a chipmunk into the house would be fun. After spending most of one day shooing it outside, I can’t do that any more.
Skittle is my water-loving Kitty
Eventually she pulled the top of the birdbath over and it broke. That thing was heavy and could have hurt her, so she was lucky.
My front yard slopes down toward the house and for the most part that doesn’t bother me, except when it rains hard and all the sediment and sand from the road washes into my yard.
The only real option was to put up a barrier of some kind to keep the water running off down the swale at the side of the yard.
Back in May I had someone out to give me an estimate to build a stone wall. Wow, it was gonna cost me! And then it rained, and they got busy, and the job kept getting delayed. A few weeks ago we had a torrential rain, which is unusual for this area, and I went out in my raincoat to pile some small rocks along the edge of the waterline to keep the water out.
I was getting ticked off at the landscapers who didn’t call, but finally one morning I got the call at 7:30 AM that they were coming to build my wall. Halleluiah!
They added a straight line of large rocks (the rocks in front were already there) to make a natural-looking wall. After about four hours of shifting the big rocks around I had my wall. It really needed to be longer, but I didn’t dare change anything with these people. I won’t use them again just because they were unprofessional as far as keeping me informed.
Now I will need to get the dirt moved to the garden area in back of the wall and find some good shade plants to add along the wall. The big part, and expense, is done.
Garlic Scapes in my Garden
Okay I am going to show my ignorance here, but I honestly did not know what a garlic scape was.
Yesterday I was out back checking on my tiny garden and saw these interesting pointy things on the tops of my garlic that I had planted last fall.
I’ve heard of garlic scapes, but have never seen one. In fact the other day at the organic grocery store, a lady in front of me mentioned them. I didn’t pay much attention, but put 2 and 2 together and looked them up this morning. Sure enough – it’s what I have in my garden!
So now I guess I need to cut them and use them in my cooking.
Can’t tell you too much more, as this is all new to me. But I love garlic in any form and leaving the scapes on the garlic means they will flower and go to seed. That isn’t good for the growing bulb, so I’ll be out cutting them today.
I used to live near Gregg Lake in New Hampshire and I had the opportunity to go back there a few days ago to take some photos from some of my favorite spots. The little bridge on Craig Road always offers a nice view looking off either side, and the wildlife didn’t disappoint me. The heron was on the far side of the swampy area, just off to the left in this picture, and I took a photo of him but it didn’t come out very well. I didn’t see any snapping turtles or snakes sunning, but I almost stepped on a big frog at the edge of the water. He didn’t move even though I was very close, so I took his picture.
The blueberries are plentiful, but still green of course. I’ll have to get back there in a month or so to pick some. It was quiet and peaceful and although some people were using the public beach, the water is still too cold for many I assume.
I saw an old friend drive by and met a new one. Tina was walking and asked me what I was photographing and I said, “just nature”. So we struck up a conversation and she told me that she had been coming to the lake each summer for over 50 years. Her family owns one of the few houses along the road.
I asked if she’d seen a lot of changes to the Lake area, but she said no, not really. That is the nice thing about living in a quiet small town, things don’t change too quickly. One of the things that makes Gregg Lake a nice place to kayak, swim or fish is that not many big, noisy boats want to bother with such a small lake. We had a nice talk and she told me about how she had come across a loon while out in her kayak and how it stayed right close by for about 45 minutes. She said it was so close that she could have touched it had she wanted to.
I love the water, and that is why. It’s always interesting and so full of life. I love having my own home now, but I miss my time spent walking around the lake area. Fortunately I am not too far away to visit, and I will again soon.
New England's Narrow Road 