Even though today is an unseasonably warm one, we’ve had several cold snaps lately that have caused temperatures to plummet below freezing. The plants have reacted accordingly: many simply dying on the vine, others becoming dormant. The colorful flowers of summer have all but disappeared…almost.
Continue reading “Haiku: Peeking Petals”Tag: Ordinary Beauty
Haiku: Fall’s Finery
What constitutes a “perfect” Fall day? For me, it’s cool temperatures that bring crispness to the air and a touch of frost to the grass; clear, deep blue skies; a kaleidoscope of fiery leaf colors ranging from gold to salmon to crimson; and the welcome softness of the season’s light. It’s this quality of the light, in particular, that always causes me to take a moment to fully recognize that summer has departed for another year.
Continue reading “Haiku: Fall’s Finery”Around The Farm: Spooktacular Spiders
What’s Halloween without spiders? Certainly, bats, witches, ghosts, and all manner of ghouls are heavily featured in the day’s imagery, but spiders are right there, too. Despite the widespread biases against spiders, they are beautiful and fascinating creatures, worthy of respect and appreciation. We’re lucky to have a great variety of spiders on the farm, like those you’ll see in this post.
Continue reading “Around The Farm: Spooktacular Spiders”Haiku: Mercurial Mammatus
A strong storm blew in yesterday – the kind that made me wish I’d shut the solid coop door (often open for airflow this time of year, with the chickens safe behind a wire-covered “screen” door). The rain pounded the earth in slanted sheets, and the trees’ limbs flailed in the whipping wind. Thunder rattled the glassware in the china cabinet and I steered clear of the windows, wary of the brilliant flashes of lightning.
Continue reading “Haiku: Mercurial Mammatus”Haiku: Obstinate Orb Weaver
It’s orb weaver time of year. Throughout the pastures, the industrious creatures have been at work, draping their webs between stalks of grass. Wet with morning dew, they’re stunning to behold. I try my best to avoid damaging those webs as I move through, but, sometimes, a spider will decide to make a web in a place where it can’t be – like atop the wire “cage” that secures the ramp from the chicken coop – and I have to ruin the spider’s masterpiece.
Continue reading “Haiku: Obstinate Orb Weaver”Sunday Spotlight: Colorado Potato Beetle…Or Not?
Gardeners no doubt wince (or unleash expletives, perhaps?) at the mention of this insect. The voracious eater of nightshade plants – and notorious potato plant pest – may be hated and reviled, but it has a lookalike that’s just as lovely and arguably less troublesome!
Continue reading “Sunday Spotlight: Colorado Potato Beetle…Or Not?”