Spanish lavender

This is my new favorite lavender.  I plan to use it as a mother plant for cuttings.  It seems to be very happy with the climate and the soil here.  I shall clone!

Early, early spring

 This time of year, the last of the carrots have to be pulled out of the ground because they start getting hairy in early spring in anticipation of the growth of the bloom/seed stalk ----which makes the carrot inedible.  I dug up about 10 pounds, took some to Rachel Ashton and her babies and have these left to can for summer eating.  I pull up the big ones all fall and winter, so these are all sizes and shapes.  I LOVE garden carrots!

 Yesterday we had 9 deer in the back yard at dusk.  They were eating the clover that is coming up from last years blooms.  We have large picture windows in the back of the house, so they could see us moving inside and they don't like that.  I have to sneak to get a photo before they dash away into the woods.  I wasn't very sucessful.  They blend so well into the background, as you can see.  They were very frisky yesterday skipping along with odd gaits and gambols.

In what line was I standing in heaven when the sports gene was given out?  I guess I was in the collards line.

Moon log

Our moon views are also often spectacular.  Here is a lovely gibbous moon I caught in the north sky just above the horizon at about 4:00 AM January 30th or so behind the winter tree limbs.

Sometimes I have to scavenge the garden for lunch.  That is one of my favorite things to do.  Today I found a bunch of cool stuff that needed to be picked because the season is changing to spring and all these will be ruined soon because of bolting or sprouting.  I got some of them cut up and put in the steamer before I realized that I should photograph them.   So I retrieved them and put them here.

You can see (7:00 o'clockwise) broccoli, Brussels sprouts, turnip; white purple and orange carrots; la Ratte potatoes and a Brussels sprouts top.  Yummy lunch!

Sunset log

Sunset on Windmill Hill February 2, 2012

Now and then, we have a spectacular sunset and we watch for them religiously.  Strangely, they only come when conditions are specific and it is a pretty rare occurrence.  I usually have to go out to gather the eggs at sunset, so I rarely miss the chance to check for them.

There is this little house....

There is this little building on the property we acquired in a tax auction. Just an uninspired concrete block rectangle….almost a square, two stories….with a tin roof. Ugly to anyone, really. I think it was a “garage apartment” at one time (because there is a two-port garage with a dirt floor downstairs). It sits on the edge of the woods at an odd angle to everything else that matters, an odd color of yellowish-white which looks like some paint the store couldn’t sell. It lies just northeast of our own 5 acres in the country. All the other houses on Windmill Hill face southeast which is just messed up. Compass points are at the corners and that makes me confused all the time. After seven years, I almost have it clear in my mind, but I always have to stop and think. But, the building…..

Maybe it is the two story aspect which catches my attention. None of the other houses on Windmill Hill are two stories, though the barn is. The barn is dark upstairs. This little building has six lovely 12-paned, very weathered windows upstairs which allow the full winter sun on the west side. Views out of all the windows are into the trees and sky being on top of a hill as it is. One could imagine that there is nothing BUT trees and sky outside those windows. Being that many of the panes are broken out and light seeps up between the floor planks gives it an even more tree-house feel…..breezy, you could say….which is fine if the day is fine.

Today it is 32 degrees at noon….had a strong cold front go through yesterday. But this weekend will see 60 degrees again. South Carolina is for balmy winter days. Not August!! Wintertime, it is why we love it here. But we do like heating and air. The power was cut to this building a long time ago and I’m sure that is the safest thing, because there are power lines hanging around like Barney Barnwell and Pogo installed that thar wirin’. So, if the weather isn’t nice, too bad. I can’t imagine anyone living in this place 24-7 anyway. There is no wall or ceiling covering, just stick construction, which I find lovely, if not unsafe. No drinking allowed.

Last week my 17-year-old grandchild who scored in the 99th percentile on “ideaphoria” went into this upstairs garage apartment and decided immediately that it should be cleaned up and made into a place to go….just a place to go, not live. My response was the usual “paint, renovate, sheetrock,” etc. Normal stuff….but, normal=dull to this grandchild. “It is beautiful with wisteria vines growing through the windows and studs standing naked.” She just wanted to move out the junk which was placed there by the former owners, sweep out the raccoon scat and leaves, and place the stored, seatless couch frame in front of the open stairs so we wouldn’t meet with disaster one clumsy day….so the rooms would retain their natural state. Something like that. I’m not sure I completely got it, but something like that. I was inspired!

So, yesterday when it was still 65 degrees, I cleaned up. You know the kind of cleaning up where when you blow your nose afterward there is a startling contrast on the white Kleenex? All night long I was aware of a small animal lying in my brochia. There was the dirt of 15 years, maybe, flying in the air as I push-broomed the detritus off the stairway-hole cliff. I backed the pick-up truck under the window and threw out Christmas decorations, cans of motor oil, rollup blinds, curtain rods, bottles and jars, cans of screws and nails. When we took the load to the recycle center, it looked like Santa’s workshop exploded!

Today, I walked over to inspect the results. Surreal, the last few dust motes wandering in the streaming sun, over the old unfinished wood floor, with a plethora of old chairs in a formal seating arrangement around the perimeter, along with an old water heater and a stack of lumber in the corner. So inviting in a Halloween sort of way! Two dirty green jugs and an old Hoosier with the doors permanently hanging open were the accents under the curling bare wisteria vines suspended just above eye-level. As I went out, I put an old screen door over the downstairs entrance to keep the cats, possums, and raccoons out of this place.