9/29/2009

See How They Grow

 

   The gourds finally began to grow, a surprise, probably left over from last year’s Big Ugly Fiasco…032

 

  By August 12th the vines were covering the left side and sprawling fast.  White blossoms began popping out all over.

079   We found 2 little gourds growing on the bottom row.

066

Sept. 5th…

009

Sept. 5th

014

 

 

Sept. 12th

099

 

035

  Sept. 21

100

  Sept. 26th.

071

  Sept. 21st…

126

It took a week to weigh down the basket.  Sept. 26th

I078

Last Friday…

076

  Maybe two weeks before first frost?

9/27/2009

Where the Wild Things Are…

What the neighbors must think…It’s pouring down rain and there I am, wearing my dad’s old foul weather gear and…

PICT0031

stalking wild bear poop…PICT0032

At least, it sure looked like huge, wild animal poop. 

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Believe it or not- it was only a hard, stubby mushroom.

PICT0033   Oh, well…There’s always something of interest to be found out here where the wild things are…even in the pouring down rain.

rainphonepole

September 27, 2009

 

We go on without you…  11-13-2008_028  

We remember the good times….IMG_0655

The wise and wonderful things you taught us…002

But it isn’t the same.  052

    We miss you swell, Dad.

9/20/2009

Life in the Country…Branding

pano

Another lovely weekend in paradise. The rain held off until I’d painted the porches…

076

073

Some time after midnight it poured and I’m afraid there may be a price to pay. Little bubbles had formed beneath the new paint along the edges of the porch. Oh, well…live and learn. Painting’s good exercise for the brain. You can do a good bit of thinking while the brush moves back and forth, back and forth.

I’d just finished putting the rockers back in place when the Moonshiner showed up bearing a white plastic sack full of food from his granddaughter’s birthday party.

“There’s cake in there, too,” he said, nodding at the bag. “All she wanted was a John Deere tractor cake.” He beamed, ever the proud grandpa.

“Which birthday is this?” I asked.

“Second.”

Precocious child. Already knows her tractor brands.

9/15/2009

Slipping Seasons

  Maggie and I do like our morning walks. 

020   She’ll let me have a cup of coffee, but then we’re off- striding across the fields, exploring.

009

This weekend it was evident Summer is on the wane.  The grass is crisp and crunches beneath our feet. The tops of the trees are already beginning to glow red and orange.

cabinpano914   The deer must’ve gotten the memo about Bow Season starting up Oct. 3rd, because they are nowhere to be found.  The Moonshiner says that’s on account of the big cat I caught on the trail cam back in May.  He says its got all the deer scared.  tsfield

Whatever. 

Change is coming, that’s for sure.

But the trellis and the Big Ugly aren’t about to give up the ghost…

014

 091

9/14/2009

More Unidentified Growing Objects…

 

  Okay, I know what these are. They’re growing beautifully in a pot alongside the cabin’s front door.

 

043

  But no one knows what the next two plants are. There aren’t any more in the holler.  The old folks took them into town and asked more folks and even the neighbor’s 95 year old woman couldn’t identify these.

 

117

 

107

  Or this vine clambering up over the old gate.  Glenn next door just scratched his head and allowed as how “It’s gotta be in the morning glory family cause of its leaves but I don’t know.” The seed pods look like milkweed pods but it’s a vine.

  122

110

  Anybody out there know?

057

9/13/2009

See How They Grow…and Grow…

079

  In one week the gourds doubled, maybe tripled in size.

083

They’re everywhere…popping up and out.

118

  I had to reinforce the trellis, just so the whole thing wouldn’t collapse under their weight.

   I couldn’t resist adding dragonfly twinkle lights.244

  It’s been a good summer for gourds and zinnias.

  256

    It gets harder and harder to leave this place…

9/08/2009

They’re Everywhere!

 

IMG_8498

At a distance, she appears like a goddess in a long, green prom gown, about to step out, arms outstretched, sleepwalking away from summer’s waning days.

But oh, to see her up close!

IMG_8479

  Dropping down from the top rails, huge green leaves waving overhead like fans carried to shelter the sultan’s mid-day walk.  Little gourds dropping in along the sides of the trellis like little green alien children playing on monkey bars.

IMG_8484  They hide, the bigger boys, behind clumps of leaves, hunkered down and growing fat.

IMG_8483  

Happy, happy gourds, finally warm enough to spread their wings and fly across the trellis…

 IMG_8487

I had to add extra tree limbs to support the heavy growing vines as they tossed tendrils across the top span and began working their way toward the west-facing side of the structure. 

It was a full moon the night the little gourds began sprouting and I envisioned them stretching out their flappy tendrils, waving at the big giant gourd overhead, saying “Hey, look down here! Look at us! We’re just like you!”

I bet those gourds think they’re going to one day grow so large and round, they’ll just float off to join the moon.

No wonder they’re so happy in the Big Ugly!

9/05/2009

Way Up Yonder…Life in the Country

 

Up Yonder

 

Up here, when the neighbors come calling, it looks like this…

043

   Margie and Patrick caught me sitting in the middle of the field, staring at a plant I could’ve sworn was Angel Trumpet, which it was…but it’s more commonly known as Jimson Weed and is deadly poisonous.

 

048

  047

  If I hadn’t found it on a Google search, I know my friend, Beth, could’ve told me all about it.  She’s good that way…and her pictures are a lot better, too.

 

035  I stood up behind the old home place this morning, looking down toward the Lil Sister Cabin and beyond that, my cabin, thinking I could feel Fall nibbling around the edges of late Summer.  The grass is drying up. Some leaves are falling, their tips brown and crisp from days on end of heat. 

 

037 

The burn pile’s waiting on the late September rains that always come, bringing with them the cooler weather that heralds another Autumn.