Season chat
Apr. 20th, 2026 09:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormI slept for the significant majority of the last two days and three nights, aside from Solly walks and feeding animals. When I wasn't sleeping or walking Solly I was mostly laying down, though I did take an hour total to work on pottery in there.
I'm not better -- my body hurts quite a bit in many ways, I'm still weirdly weak -- but my feelings are starting to live within perspective again.
It was actively hot outside yesterday. I want to get things planted, the cold weather seeds outside like favas and peas, the cool weather things inside like broccoli and fennel.
Today I get my summer tires put on. They're slightly more fuel efficient than my winters, and we may get snow but I don't think we'll get hard cold anymore.
One of the muscovy males who hatched here last spring has picked a harem and they can all fly really well, so they wander around the property being ultra ornamental. It does mean I'll need to cover any seeds though, extra well because there would be crows even if I didn't.
The crocus are coming up in the warmer places. Those I planted two falls ago have multiplied into tiny clumps. This is the first time in my life I've had a garden with bulbs long enough for them to multiply. My alba roses -- cuisse de nymph, chloris, and bellle amour -- came through the winter well, though I guess that's not surprising since it was a mild winter and this is their third (?). The romance cherries on the south slope look good too. One is suckering quite a lot, which I think means it's Valentine(?). I need to re-mulch that slope with cardboard, a bit of goose muck, and woodchips. It helps keep the grass down and the water in.
I'd also like to put in the second terrace down the slope in the front yard, but that's less pressing than many things. The lower oak circle is maybe more of a priority. I don't know how much of the upper back oak circle survived, but when I do I need to sort out seeds to complete it.
The cats are deeply happy. They've been bringing in the most ridiculous number of fat voles, as well as (sadly) a couple birds. They romp and frolic. Whiskey and Little Bear especially do long sprints. When I take Solly out at night they all come out and spread out like a security team across the area, all within sight. Hazard pounces on every spruce cone in case it's a vole and accompanies Thea on walks or Siri on hunts on the south side of the front yard.
The non-flying birds are confined to the back. I'm not counting them daily, though with onlly Thea on duty I worry. I'm getting a quote for fox-proof fencing across the midback, behind the current fencing, and kind of hoping 1) I can afford it and 2) the foxes all eat enough eggs they don't need to kill birds, and then I get the fence up before their kits are hunting age. I have lost a rooster to a hawk or owl strike (they come down and break the neck, so even if they're fought/scared off the rooster is alive but unable to move the neck right and soon dies) but only one so far.
I'm not better -- my body hurts quite a bit in many ways, I'm still weirdly weak -- but my feelings are starting to live within perspective again.
It was actively hot outside yesterday. I want to get things planted, the cold weather seeds outside like favas and peas, the cool weather things inside like broccoli and fennel.
Today I get my summer tires put on. They're slightly more fuel efficient than my winters, and we may get snow but I don't think we'll get hard cold anymore.
One of the muscovy males who hatched here last spring has picked a harem and they can all fly really well, so they wander around the property being ultra ornamental. It does mean I'll need to cover any seeds though, extra well because there would be crows even if I didn't.
The crocus are coming up in the warmer places. Those I planted two falls ago have multiplied into tiny clumps. This is the first time in my life I've had a garden with bulbs long enough for them to multiply. My alba roses -- cuisse de nymph, chloris, and bellle amour -- came through the winter well, though I guess that's not surprising since it was a mild winter and this is their third (?). The romance cherries on the south slope look good too. One is suckering quite a lot, which I think means it's Valentine(?). I need to re-mulch that slope with cardboard, a bit of goose muck, and woodchips. It helps keep the grass down and the water in.
I'd also like to put in the second terrace down the slope in the front yard, but that's less pressing than many things. The lower oak circle is maybe more of a priority. I don't know how much of the upper back oak circle survived, but when I do I need to sort out seeds to complete it.
The cats are deeply happy. They've been bringing in the most ridiculous number of fat voles, as well as (sadly) a couple birds. They romp and frolic. Whiskey and Little Bear especially do long sprints. When I take Solly out at night they all come out and spread out like a security team across the area, all within sight. Hazard pounces on every spruce cone in case it's a vole and accompanies Thea on walks or Siri on hunts on the south side of the front yard.
The non-flying birds are confined to the back. I'm not counting them daily, though with onlly Thea on duty I worry. I'm getting a quote for fox-proof fencing across the midback, behind the current fencing, and kind of hoping 1) I can afford it and 2) the foxes all eat enough eggs they don't need to kill birds, and then I get the fence up before their kits are hunting age. I have lost a rooster to a hawk or owl strike (they come down and break the neck, so even if they're fought/scared off the rooster is alive but unable to move the neck right and soon dies) but only one so far.
