elainegrey

It's overcast, not nearly as dry as Thursday and Friday, but oh so mild. At least two crows have been making a ruckus in the woods. At one point a red shouldered hawk joined in: i don't think the crows were mobbing the hawk though. ("Hold it down, it's Sunday morning!" seems unlikely as well.) A woodpecker's drumming rang out -- the Merlin app identified it as a pileated's work -- and then a barred owl called out. That call surely seemed to be a "Hey, cut it out, sleepin' here."

From Thursday morning:

I've been delighted by evening Barred Owl calls for over a week. Not every night but many nights, including the raucous carrying on that is spring delight. On Easter, when i was at my parents with my sister and her husband and daughter, a Barred owl swooped through the woods and caught my eye, perching on a tree outside the dining area. We got a good look at the bird, a magical moment to add to the first time in a year gathering around the table.

Tuesday night i saw my first firefly; last night another.

Dawn this morning i could just see the old crescent of the moon in the east. Next month the wall of green will have erased glimpses of the sky anywhere from the horizon up to forty degrees.

Headed over to M&D's as sister is taking a spring break trip to the mountains ("Not what we were expecting, kinda deliverance," she said about arrival.) Dad's had a rough few days: iPad woes, some times where his needs to go get things done conflicted with Mom's desire to direct him to get things [1] out for her (leaving the job of putting it back on him as well)[2], and the doctor going over Mom's living will with them forcing him to think about mortality and her current condition.


[1] Crystal drinkware and china dishes, this time.
[2] Mom's stroke immobilized leg and arm limit her abilities, her dementia has made stroke recovery out of the question.

I'm not sure where therapy is headed, except in a few months my therapist is leaving the insurance group, ( Notes )
--== ∞ ==--

Yesterday, I saw another another hawk, this one a red-tail, just outside my work window at noon yesterday. They perched for several minutes, turning on the perch, allowing me plenty of time to look at the feather patterns and both sides of the tail. Then they glided into the garden, ate something, and then flew off. After eating i walked a bit outside and heard two hawks calling to each other. Spring is in the air.

Also on the walk i noticed more daffodils sprouting and a clump of star of Bethlehem leaves near the driveway. I guess it's time to go looking for bluets.

In the early evening, coyotes called over a chorus of frogs. I suspect that the hawk had found a frog or toad in the garden, given the audible activity.

Marlowe is collarless this morning, much hissy-fit between her and Edward. And i moved Luigi on top of the hassock so that Edward can't bite him.

Yesterday evening, as in other evenings recently, Carrie is crawling up on Christine's shoulder when they are on the couch. Internet says either "aww, luv" or "dog is demonstrating she thinks she's dominant, nip in bud!" We discussed: not sure we are ready to go full pack theory. She's also licking her lips (internet says sign of anxiety) and trembling. Hound dogs are so different from shepherds.

--== ∞ ==--

There was a slight unpleasantness at work with someone taking my behavior to my boss. I'm pretty sure it was (probably unconscious) retaliation for not backing down. If A is going to work as discussed B must be done*; B won't be done until May. But the Someone doesn't want to wait months and months. So Someone will do a partial solution that can be done without A. Then, 45 minutes into the meeting i called, we returned to my topic. At the end of the meeting, Someone wanted to know when the next step that i needed to do would be done. Not for two weeks was my answer, and when i was pressed to give a solid date, i balked.

After hearing that Someone complained to my boss about not getting a when i felt shame -- until a few hours had passed and i realized that Someone had signaled that the work was of little consequence (having postponed the meeting once, having derailed the topic in the meeting for something else). If Someone had called the meeting and was driving the work, i am sure i would have behaved differently. My boss said he didn't think i was in the wrong, given the whole context. I didn't say i thought it was retaliation, but we did discuss Someone's snit over the delay.

* It is true that A can potentially be hacked with baroque programming that leaves possibilities for security gaps, but the division leadership we are in has made it clear that that sort of "debt" is not going to be supported. AND the person i was engaged with would NEVER agree to their team doing such a hack. So "doing it wrong for speed's sake" is not on the table.

I am doing pretty well. Still working on the tension, but not paralyzed with depression as i had been.

Yesterday i saw a blue jay here, the first i've seen since moving here. I'd been surprised at not seeing them, so i was delighted to see the striking blue and white. I've seen more and more squirrels, surely harvesting the black walnuts. I continue to suspect Carrie's presence in the enlarged back yard discourages foxes and emboldens the rabbits and squirrels. I watched Marlowe at the base of the closest tulip poplar watch a squirrel much higher up: i was surprised she hadn't made more of an effort to chase it. I wonder if climbing large trunk trees is harder than the skinny ones.

Malabar spinach is HIGHLY mucilaginous. I took some leaves, poured boiling water over them and let them lightly "cook", and then pureed them. Except the result was a highly viscous slime. I mixed it in with a baked risotto with green peas, and the resulting green was ... bright. I'm not sure how to use this power. I know it's a little TOO green for Christine.

I've harvested more figs. I'm delighted at the ripening. I don't know if i'll preserve any green figs or not. The figs are fairly small when ripe: a generous bite. They aren't the dark purple i see in photos, but the skin is slipping off. I missed two and they became ... mush. It's been a wet year, i think. Anyhow: i am happy with the figs. Next i'd like to get a Italian honey fig and clone my parents' fig which is presumed to be a brown turkey.

Edward's diabetes is under control, hurrah! And perhaps the associated urination is also. We're down to three litter boxes, sadly the one in the (ugh) kitchen is most popular. The drain flies have also died down -- the heat seemed to be part of the issue as the population seemed to plummet as it cooled off.

I had a good conversation with a woman at the meeting. She's 73 and planning on staying with Spring, but recognizes some of the same things i do. I also went to a FLGBTQC meeting for business on zoom, immediately felt the depth of practice as people settled into worship before Meeting for Business, saw some faces of people who mean much to me, basked in the warmth, and volunteered to help with a new worship scheduled once a month. Some Seattle folks had been holding a weekly worship since the pandemic began, apparently there's some Drama going on in one of the Seattle meetings, and the two or three folks running the meetings are burnt out.

Carrie Dog would like everyone to know there, right there, there there are, right there, let me get closer, there! After the first 12 hours of this novel behavior, i saw a little hole in the pinestraw at the base of the large pine. Snake? I booted up with my higher topped boots that came in the mail, heavy gloves, the hoe, and went to take a look.

The hole appears to be lined with rabbit fur: i think it's a bunny nest.

Why, oh why, mamma rabbit, did you put your babies just outside a pen of predators?

My guess is that she can tell the predators don't get out and perhaps the fox and omnivores don't come that close to the fence? And maybe if she's only coming and going when the pets are inside?

But what is Carrie feeling? I swear she exhausted herself standing guard over the spot yesterday. I wonder if she'll feel maternal for the kits by the time she actually sees them?

( notes from the week )

Another 28°F dawn. The dewpoint is lower than that, so perhaps that helps keep the saucer magnolia from losing its pink petals?

Pine warblers: i'd been mistaking them for goldfinches the past few months. There ARE goldfinches at the feeder: right now a male, coming into breeding plumage, is feeding away on sunflower seeds. (Does anyone ever visit the fancy finch feeder? Rarely. Squirrel proof and unattractive to birds. Grumble grumble.) But someone suggested my blurry photo of what i thought was a female goldfinch was a pine warbler. I scoffed. But the yellowish bird at the feeder the next time i looked had a small black bill, nothing like the thick triangular seed cracking bill of a finch.

I skipped Meeting and Meeting for Business yesterday. I will need to reengage with community, but at the moment, there's a weariness i get from some of the family care i'm engaged in right now. I wonder if this meeting always had waiting worship whether i would be attending more regularly.

It was a beautiful day and eventually i stopped lingering at the computer. Less lingering and more wrestling with decisions around shopping for my mother. Eventually i found pants that i think will be suitable for my mother, to replace the many many pairs i packed up on Friday. Christine and i strolled around enjoying the spaces we have curated from the overgrown wildness we moved to in 2016. The sun was blazing war despite the cool air, and i realized that i would rather visit my mother during the bright part of the day and then work outside in the shadows.

I took Mom a thermos of tea and a serving of cake. Our little picnic was a pleasure. I was able to show her before and after photos of her study so she would understand what i did in her space. To my relief, she was appreciative.

At home, i got the chipper fired up while Christine began lopping down some of the thicket area to the west of the driveway. At the end of our work, i felt the garden has sufficient chips for the moment. Tonight i'll chip, and the results will go to mulch around the fruit and nut trees in the orchard. Leaves raked up in the autumn provided some initial mulching, but it's far from sufficient for the summer growth season.

The garden is organized somewhat like an E, with the top of the E facing North and the long "spine" of the E facing west and the house. Border rows wrap around three sides, like the outside lines of the E, except my garden has gaps on the long border so one can enter the garden on either side of the center divide. The upper and lower white space of the E i refer to as "the squares." Each square has three rows running east to west.

Right now the top of the E -- the borders, north square and the center divide -- are all well tended. I'd shoveled out the soil from between the rows onto the rows over the fall months. I mulch as i can in between the rows, and all that mulch had pretty much disintegrated and blended with the clay. This winter i mulched the isles in the square with pine straw. Brown pine needles, it turns out, aren't the source of acid that i'd been taught. I hadn't enough pine straw for either side of the center row. I'd gotten cardboard on the ground, and with the chipping yesterday, managed to get the cardboard covered. It looks tidy at the moment: Christine is delighted. I am dubious it's enough to keep back the weeds of summer, but it's better than nothing.

The south square of the E has two rows of potatoes. They're planted in the clay with a thin layer of newspaper and then some old plants -- marigolds and holy basil -- and autumn leaves on top. When it comes time to hill the potatoes, i will dig out the isles. I ought to sharpen the shovels before then. With soil on top of the autumn leaves, they will decompose quite quickly in my worm-populated clay. I remain amazed at how quickly leaves and duff decompose in the heat and humidity.

I kept that end of the garden fairly well mulched over the winter, keeping back a decent amount of weeds. I added some of the greener chippings as mulch -- the twiggy bits of branches, including the autumn olive that is already leafing out. The nitrogen content might be enough to compost a little more quickly.

I finally had a decent amount of worm castings from the household worm bin. It wasn't fully digested, but it was black and rich. I plopped blobs of the thick black goo down the top of the row i plan to use for tomatoes. Right now Austrian winter peas are growing as a cover crop there. Hopefully it will be rich and delightful for tomatoes. I missed tomatoes last year - something nibbled on the plants and ate the fruit. I assume some combination of curious deer and squirrels. I also think the soil was too poor for the tomatoes to thrive. The volunteer tomatoes from the previous year (2017) grew out of the rich compost i used to build the hugelkultur. Hopefully this row will be satisfactory for tomatoes with the pea and worm contributions.

No rain in the forecast for a week!

8:30ish 2 AMGO, mNORC(g), CAWR, TUTI, CACH, MODO(g), WBNU 9:45

Six different species at the feeder this morning. The usual tufted titmouse and Carolina chickadee, with a pair of Cardinals wandering around underneath. Then the distinctive (comparatively) shape of a nuthatch got me to look with the binoculars: a red-breasted nuthatch. And a Carolina wren, an eastern phoebe, and a pair of goldfinches. Whee!

Yesterday i found a arrowhead!! I was digging up Star of Bethlehem so Carrie and the cats don't try eating it as grass, and noticed the symmetric chip of stone. I think it's the first arrowhead i have ever found. Using http://www.projectilepoints.net/Search/NorthCarolina_Bifurcated_Other.html, i think it's most like Culpepper or St Albans, both of which are Early Archaic, 8000 years before the present. Which is kind of ... awe inspiring. (I go to touch it again.)

Also, i was digging up Star of Bethlehem bulbs. *cough* I am unlikely to run out and eradicate it because it is not as problematic as similarly aggressively-spreading non-natives. There are certainly native spring ephemerals i would love to replace it with, but it's not outcompeting them, particularly. Since this was all plowed ground, naturally getting small, native species back that aren't wind or bird distributed takes a nice bit of luck. The ones i have found so far are Partridge berry (Mitchella repens) easily explained by birds, Spotted wintergreen ... maybe seed capsules were caught in a critter's fur and then brought here? Once one was here, it does spread by rhizomes and the spread throughout the woods makes sense. The most mysterious for me is Spring Beauty. I've found two small clusters so far. I can't imagine them being brought by ants this far from the creek. I suppose i can imagine the seeds in mud that deer tracked up the hill, falling, and then establishing the small colonies. One was on the septic field so it was less than 25 years since establishment. http://www.nomadseed.com/2016/11/spring-beauty-claytonia-virginica/


Mom care this week: a visit to the hospital, before she was moved. Helping dad pick a good nursing facility (which was disappointing, as the nearby one is awful). Calls to find out what Dad needed to take for mom. Newsletter emails. Medical appointment wrangling and logistic calculations: morning appointments with the worst area traffic between the rehab center in Raleigh and the hospital in Chapel Hill.

Tomorrow i will visit her after i check out a coworking location very close to the nursing home, with the idea that a midday drive is less likely to hit traffic, and working from Raleigh for four hours should be agreeable. Then i can visit mom in the early evening and drive home after traffic clears.

We have the windows open this morning as Christine has a sinus infection and instead of running a humidifier, it seems opening the window is a much more reasonable solution. That meant i heard the chittering of one wren just outside their nest and was watching to witness both birds fly off. Could this mean there are chicks? One has since flown back. Greycie Loo has shown a good bit of interest in the action just feet away from the window sill.

Outside is green -- it glows in the windows. The slowest trees are just budding out: some sweetgums and on particular crepe myrtle. Dogwood petals carpet the ground under trees. The walnut has tasseling blossoms. I've noticed the black cherry trees blooming -- which has helped confirm my identification. The trees are 40 and 50 foot tall, so i don't see how anyone other than birds get at the fruit. I've never noticed the fruit, but there sure are plenty of little seedlings. I don't begrudge the birds though as we are are doing out best to rid the land of the autumn olive (Eleagnus umbellata).

This morning a fine mist hangs in the tops of the pines, accentuating their height.

The impulse purchased plum red gladiolas have sprouted. The bulbs i dug up from the yard to clear for the driveway have not. I transplanted poppy seedlings from where they are too tightly growing in the garden to a number of places in the yard, one of which is a scar of red clay left over from the drive way. I had seeded the area with a mixture of seeds some months ago, including poppy seeds, and was happy to see one has sprouted. The area still seems likely to succumb to weeds (defined as aggressive prolific nonnative plants). But it's now time to plant the annuals with confidence, so i'll try again with zinnas and marigolds and sunflowers.

The grass seemed to grow inches during the rain earlier in the week. I got a good bit mown on Wednesday evening.

Last night our grading guy came by to give us an estimate on the orchard. He's going to haul off the stumps for us(and huge poison ivy on two of the three large sweetgums he's going to take out). This adds a good a bit to the estimate, but it's better than the usual dumping in the woods. He's busy, so i have three weeks to dig up the ferns (Christmas and sensitive and southern lady along with cutleaf grape ferns), find the partridge berry again (Mitchella repens, i think, not Gaultheria procumbens), and move the mosses. Doing this slowly and on our own terms -- artisinal land clearing, as it were -- has allowed me to really get to know the patch of ground. Having three more weeks means that i should be able to see all sorts of plants get large enough to rescuable size. Christine has a couple more sweetgum to do in as well.

One other yard thing for this weekend will be hilling the potatoes. They've been slow to sprout, but i don't think i have drowned as many as i thought i had. They're shooting up now, so adding "biochar" - the charcoal left after i burn our clearing debris - and other organic amendments to the clay at this point seems a good plan. It's a long term improvement -- i don't know that it will be particularly good for the potatoes -- but it can't be any worse than the clay.

I told my folks a tiny bit about Christine's elephants yesterday. I'm sure Christine would mind, but it felt like an important bit of context for them to understand where i am as well as Christine.

It started snowing Wednesday at 8 am and just didn't stop. We received around 9" of fluffy and sticky snow which created great billows in the tops of the pines. This is just the thing to cause power outages, and indeed, my sister's family were without power around noon Wednesday to the early evening on Thursday. With their wood stove and gas range, i think they did well, but with lows in the single digits, it's concerning.

Between the many power blinks and knowing my sister was without power leads to a little bit of vigilance. I don't believe the power outages are over, and so i'm still making sure devices are charged, etc.

Wednesday in the late afternoon i stood on the front porch for a while, just watching the pines sway and the occasional avalanche of snow cascading through the branches. Eventually i put on boots and a hat and went out. First, Christine and i pulled out plastic Adirondack style chairs and sat a little beyond the house -- but not beyond enough that the drip in one of the downspouts to be audible. While Christine went somewhere else with her mic to record, i went down the driveway to stand under the pines. Branches weighed with snow creaked, hung in unaccustomed positions, and rubbed against neighbor branches also not in accustomed locations. I listened wishing for a poem to come to mind, but it was more important to soak in the company of the pines, listen to the soft thuds of snow falling out of the branches.

Despite the hard freeze Wednesday to Thursday night, birdseed still sinks down into the snow. Wednesday I cleaned up a bird feeder the previous owners had left and was surprised to find it was pretty high quality: in its filth it looked cheap. I may get addicted to feeding birds outside my work window. I'm trying to tell myself it's just for this weather. I really wish they had shown interest to the sorghum i grew. I assume the birds have worked on the millet in place. Slugger, our male cardinal, looks incredible against the backdrop of snowy trees. The birds found the seed on Thursday and i had the constant company of juncos out my window while working. Tufted titmice are adorable, and there were a few sparrows - hard to distinguish from the juncos as the plumage wasn't particularly striking in contrast. With binoculars i could make out what i think were distinguishing marks on one that would be a savanna sparrow. I noticed birds with yellow plumage several times: i don't know if i'm able to strongly distinguish a pine warbler from an American goldfinch in my memory as when i saw the bird i just assumed it was a goldfinch. A chickadee was probably present, but i only noticed it as a smaller bird than the juncos and only had a fleeting moment with it in the binocular view. The birds aren't far away -- maybe 10'-12' away from the window? But perhaps the windows do need cleaning, and i know my eye sight isn't what i wish it would be.

The crisp clear skies changed the color of the snow: deep footprints became bright blue, shadows a soft blue, and the snow in sunlight a creamy gold with diamond sparkles. When the avalanches of snow fell out of the trees, diamond dust drifted against the bright blue sky.

After work i circumambulated our home's clearing (so greatly extended with our work the past eighteen months). Birds have left marks, and the falling snowballs from trees left pockets, but i didn't see anything looking like the tracks of larger animals. I assume small mammals like voles are happily tunneling at the ground level, snug under the thick blanket.

As of the past hour, i think i'm getting better at junco vs sparrow. The sparrow variations are vexing. Particularly because there's no way of knowing whether one observation is the same individual as the next. Were there white stripes on the wings or was i imagining it? Well, not on this one, but.... [HA: there's at least one white throated sparrow calling out there.]

I saw a Pileated Woodpecker yesterday! The photo at iNaturalist was the best moment in the grainy video i captured. My, they are huge. And they hop down the tree backwards -- somehow it seems so odd.

For some reason, i have doubted Christine when she says she sees them, i suppose because i hadn't seen them. I confess now, because i feel guilty about it now.