feast

gabe came to visit a few days ago and brought us some goodies from the ocean---tonight we feasted on some beautiful crabs and oysters and had a nice salad made mostly from veggies from our gardens topped with one of mama's delicious persimmons...

the nasturtiums are blooming like crazy right now

staal cooked the oysters on the grill with butter and garlic---delicious

it was a great meal---thanks to mama and gabe---wish you both had been here to enjoy it with us.

sitting with eternity

i sat awake for eternity lastnight
staring out the window.
or maybe it was hours.
from behind a curtain of clouds
the full moon cast its blue-white satin glow across the garden.
i felt certain time had stopped.
the light did not change,
night would not come,
sleep would not come,
not a leaf stirred.
immortal oak branches held perfectly still,
frozen,
like ink-black lightning against the unending pearl-gray sky.
the world was silent and still.
and then,
one sure star blinked into the southern sky,
laughing joyfully,
as it danced within its own clear song of light.

training trees

the fruit trees i planted this summer are just starting to get some fall color and drop their leaves.  the pear trees are putting on a nice show right now and the persimmon and asian pear have dropped all of their leaves.  with the leaves gone it's much easier to get a look at the branch structure of the trees and get to work doing a little training to get them growing how i want them.  the apples, european pears, and figs will all be espaliered (i'll get to work on them once they drop their leaves).  the persimmon, asian pear, and all the stone fruits will be trained and pruned to be very compact, super dwarfy trees.  i hate ladders in the orchard and although it will take some extra time maintaining the trees, it will pay off in being able to easily protect them from birds and other critters and make harvesting faster and easier.  and anyway, i've always liked sculpting and working with living sculptures is about as much fun as it gets.

'seckel' pear showing off

i'm not doing any pruning yet.  i like to prune as the trees are coming out of dormancy since conditions are typically a bit drier then and the sap flow will help push out any disease organisms that may get into the cuts. so right now i'm just tying branches into new positions and marking the branches i will prune later.

'hosui' asian pear tied and marked

i worked on the asian pear and the persimmon this morning and i'll have a go at the other trees as they loose their leaves.

romantic walk in the rain

walden effect

i've been following a great homesteading/permaculture blog, walden effect: homesteading and simple living blog.  it's full of great information gleaned from the trials and experiments of a lovely woman named anna and her handy husband mark (sometimes i feel like they are the eastern equivalent of staal and me).  it's been interesting reading about what they're working on and how things are developing on their homestead.  
i commented on one of their recent posts and was surprised this morning to see my comment addressed in a new post on their blog.  kind of a neat thing and nice to have an exchange with people who are living and experimenting in ways similar to us.
you can check out their blog here: (walden effect) or from the link above.  i highly suggest giving their blog a browse---especially if you need to see some cute goat pictures.

unfinished poetry

rained today so i occupied myself indoors.  spent much of the day sorting through my poetry---doing some editing etc.  i came across an unfinished poem that wasn't too bad so i did a little work on it...


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after dinner you tell me about the mystics and spiritual guides,
teachers,
the sufis and sorcerers,
the buddhists and jesus,
about enlightenment and transcendence,
you tell about how the teacher can be anyone,
anywhere,
that the teacher is everyone you've ever known,
and the teacher is yourself,
that they have a presence of being that is undeniably alluring,
that's how i felt when i met you, you know,
that it was not the first time we'd met,
it was a reuniting,
like we've been following eachother across eternity,
sometimes losing sight of the other,
sometimes drawn down diverging paths,
but always catching up,
and sharing the tales of our adventures

broccoli and brussels sprouts

got some big, happy broccoli and brussels sprouts plants out in the orchard garden.  

broccoli bed (foreground) brussels sprouts (upper right just below zane)

when i checked them out a couple days ago i noticed they're starting to broc and sprout.
they're looking good.  a few aphids hanging out in the broccoli florets but nothing a little dilute mix of baking soda and dr. bronner won't remedy.

broccoli

brussels sprouts forming in leaf axils

got the row cover up over the garlic, onions, and newly planted greens.  some of it is on its second season and needed a patch here and there.

i love duct tape