Chickens are growing

Chicken number two

Rooster

The three chickens are getting used to things around here. They arrived one hot day in the summer. Now that we've had rain, frost, and a few good north winds with downpours, they're no longer running into their coop with the slightest bit of rain or wind. They generally spend most of the day outside, foraging for plants, bugs, worms, and seeds. They do get particularly excited about worms, so if I find one that is waterlogged on the pavement, I'll take it back to the birds where they pick it up and carry it around, keeping it from one another.

Last week they had a visit from a small hawk. I heard the hens making an uproar and looked out to see them in a flap with a small hawk. The hens fought the small bird off, sending it to a nearby branch, and when I went out to check on the birds the hawk flew off. Assessing the scene I noted the rooster napping nearby while the hens were in rather a froth about the fight. I felt a tinge of pride in those two hens. They all went into the coop for a while, and then came out again a bit later.

The rooster is working on getting his crow just right. He's not singing his song regularly, but more frequently now. Some days his tone is a little better than others. I think with practice he'll have a nice bel canto crow with which to express himself. His black feathers have a lovely greenish sheen in the light and he's learning to share!

The hens have established their peck order and it was heavily enforced for weeks, and now they've seemed to relax about it a bit.

One unexpected delight for me is the sound they make when they drink water. They dip their beaks into the container of water, then tilt back their heads and make a gentle tapping sound while they swallow the water. It is such a simple act, taking a drink of water, but I love watching and listening to them while they do it.

One recent weekend day I let them have free run of the entire back yard. Anywhere they wanted to go I'd let them. I was working out in the garden most of the day and they made their way to points previously not visited. They roamed around—a little cluster of black and white—and explored their larger world. They generally have about 100 ft of fence to explore, but that day they roamed near the apple trees, across the small lawn, and a bit into the main food garden. When they got back to their familiar rosemary bush in the afternoon, I started closing up the fencing so they'd be sure to find their way back into their coop when the time came.

I find it very beneficial to have the birds as part of the garden. I do not feel sentimental about them as pets (though I'm warned that may come) but I do like having them as workers in the garden. Like our cat makes our house feel warmer and comfortable to us, the chickens make the garden feel more alive to me. They are fertilizing and eating bugs, and creating movement out there. I can usually see them from my desk, and when I feel like taking a break, I'll head out to watch them for a while.

Pumpkin pie experiment

This week I cut apart one of the Winter Luxury pie pumpkins and roasted it in the oven, then made a pie out of the pulp. The flavor and texture were both delicate and wonderful. And the pumpkin produced many seeds, which I saved for growing more of these delicious pumpkins next year. In the past I have made my pumpkin pies out of butternut squash flesh and they have been delicious, but this winter luxury pie pumpkin has a much more subtle and refined flavor. I cut down on the amount of spices which the recipe called for, to allow the pumpkin flavor to be available to the palate. This pumpkin definitely lives up the the description I read in the Nichols Garden catalog which states:

Beautiful 5 lb, 10" diameter, netted pumpkin is what every pie pumpkin promises but rarely delivers. Completely smooth, thick flesh cooks to a rich mellow flavor. A friend asked a market vendor to recommend a pie pumpkin; she reached under the counter and exclaimed, "This will be the bes you've ever had," as she brought out a Winter Luxury Pie.

The pumpkin I used was the largest of the harvest and produced six cups of cooked flesh, enough to make three pies total. I froze the remaining flesh in two-cup increments. I'll be ready to make another pie soon.

Cold Weather

Lemons

We've got a frost alert for the next few nights. This means various tender plants need to be protected from the cold, mostly citrus. This evening I went about covering and insulating my two lime plants and two lemon plants. I also picked most of the lemons from the lemon tree that bears fruit. Last year the fruit froze and fell off in a cold snap. This year I was looking forward to harvesting lemons on an as-needed basis. Now I have a basket full of lemons that will need some sort of processing. I could juice them and freeze the juice or I could make lemon marmalade. I love the idea of doing some of each.

I started making some green tomato jam yesterday, and it is resting before I'll cook it up some more and then process it in half-pint jars. Since water bath canning is so energy intensive I could do a batch of marmalade and process them all on the same day.

Thanksgiving day in the USA is on Thursday, November 25 this year, and I'm thinking I'll make a pumpkin pie using one of the pie pumpkins I grew this year. I'm going to brine two organic chickens on Wednesday and then on Thursday I'll roast them in the oven. One will be stuffed with tomato and feta from my Greek cookbook, and the other will be unstuffed.  We'll have mashed potatoes with lots of butter, perhaps some pan gravy, collards from the garden (which will be nice and mellow from the frost) and perhaps a few other things. I enjoy cooking with things that I've grown. The pie pumpkin and collards in this case. A few weeks ago I made some pumpkin cannelloni with one of the French heirloom pumpkins I roasted and some tomato sauce I made in September, and had in the freezer.

Fall rains

Cool fall rains have finally arrived and have washed the dust of summer away. The air feels clean and the plants are refreshed.
Walnut harvesting has begun in the orchard across the street. Normally that would mean a dust cloud for days on end but the rain has helped keep that down.
Our walnut trees are dropping nuts and I've been harvesting them. The chickens seem to like walnuts so I've been feeding the broken nuts to them. The best nuts from our trees will be given to friends. It is rather a shame that walnuts do not appeal to my palate since we have so many nuts from the big old trees.

Along with the cooler weather, and the rain, the abutilons have really started to look their best. They struggle a little through hot weather and then they thrive once it cools some.

Abutilon

This yellow abutilon is visited frequently by hummingbirds and is a plant I grew from seed.

Fall Gardening

The temperatures were in the 80s this weekend, a little warm for the chickens so I put the mister on to cool down their yard, but not too hot for me to move a pile of old ivy and sticks. This pile was created  out of branches and pieces of cut ivy. I piled and piled and finally I decided the pile wasn't doing much but making a comfortable home for a few mice. We get such little rain here that it would take so very long for that pile to break down. I had tried planting squash to grow upon it, but the rodents chewed through the squash plants, killing them.


Old ivy on top of new...

I've been saving up cardboard boxes and flattening them for use as ivy suppressors. There is still so much ivy, even though a huge pile has been pulled out. I've put down cardboard in a large area, spreading out a little at a time. I finally had a critical mass of cardboard and laid it down on top of the ivy, then I took the pieces of the pile—sticks and dried out ivy mostly—and spread that on top of the cardboard. Geoff Lawton of the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia says that a forest grows on a fallen forest and so my food forest will have plenty of organic matter to build upon and grow into.

With the pile gone, there is a rather large space, maybe 30ft by 30ft (I've yet to measure it), that is ready for a garden. I am thinking about making a small lawn in the middle, upon which to lounge, and then make the edges into a chicken-friendly pasture. At the back end of the space is a very old almond tree and some old lilacs, at the base of which I am thinking of planting lavender, keeping it pretty drought-friendly. Beyond those trees is the chicken house and yards, with a small foot path connecting the spaces.

At one edge is a group of trees that has been acquired as scaffolding for a large grape vine. The wild birds love to come and eat the grapes when they ripen, creating a cacophony of bird song and various bird arguments. At the parallel edge is an island of ivy with a mature cypress tree and some old fence posts covered in ivy that haven't been taken down yet. Still lots of ivy remains. And at the other end, is the entrance from the decomposed granite patio, where much outdoor time is spent, and also a male American Persimmon which had been coppiced many years ago and how has several long trunks. The grape has made its way from another almond, which resides next to the fruitless Persimmon, into the Persimmon. Once the pasture is installed, it should feel like a nice meadow in a ring of various trees. It will require summer irrigation and I am looking at tall fescue for the more refined lawn area, as it has lower water requirements than many grasses. Plants suitable for chicken forage will go in the rougher area.

I was somewhat surprised at my desire for a small lawn in the backyard. I've been spending time and energy removing the lawn in the front yard and replacing it with various useful plants. We've lounged around on the remaining front lawn in the summer, and it is rather pleasant, save for all the dog walkers and other people who can tend to take a look at whatever we're doing. Our street also gets some maniac drivers who roar down the 25 mph street at 45 mph, or even faster. That makes our little cat nervous, and us nervous about our cat. The shrubs will grow up taller in a few years, but I am not interested in having an audience when I'm hanging out in my gardening clothes and having a refreshing beverage. So I feel that a small lawn/pasture area will make a nice lounging setting that is more private, and have a more pleasant feel for the people and the cat. It will also provide a nice forage area for the chickens.

. . . 

Nicotiana tabacum 'Havana'

This year I grew some tobacco plants, just to see what the plants looked like. Tobacco has a long history with humankind and I am interested in plants that people have found or do find useful. The plants made very large, sticky leaves, which smelled of tobacco, and they bloomed with these long pink flowers at the tops of 3-4 ft plants (in partial shade). They are the prettiest plants in the garden bed they're in, and they brighten up our fall evenings.

Berm & Basin and other things in early Fall

The weather is starting to feel more autumnal, leaves are dropping, the air is cooler, wind has kicked up, we have even had some rain. The walnut trees are dropping leaves in the front yard, and the berm/basin area is a great collector of the leaves. The leaves gather at the edge of the road and the planting area, and they also fall in from above. I'll rake them off the grass and put them in there too, or use them in mulch piles around the pomegranate and peach in the front yard. The bamboo is sending up several new culms, so we'll have a good clump soon enough.

Berm and Basin progress.

The sole surviving pie pumpkin plant made two nice pumpkins, which have been curing in the sun. The other pumpkin I planted is a Cinderella's carriage type, which has more pronounced ribs and is flatter than these winter luxury pie pumpkins. The Cinderella pumpkin is a French heirloom type and is apparently good for pie also. More of the Cinderella plants survived the gopher attacks and so I have many of those pumpkins to try this year.

Pie pumpkins curing in the sun.

The chickens are adjusting to their environment. The male bolts through the chicken door when I open it in the morning, and the females follow a little timidly. I've made a temporary fenced area that connects to their more secure fenced area and I open their gate to let them out into a larger and grassier area. They scratch and eat grass, which seems to be their favorite food, and then when the early evening comes they all go back into their house. The male has consistently been roosting now and the females still want to be in the nest boxes, so I move them onto the roosts when it gets dark. One night this week they all three went on the roosts of their own accord, so perhaps they are starting to get the idea. It is hard to know what goes on in the tiny bird brains.

Male chicken.

Hot weather in early fall

We've been having a bit of a heat wave here, with temperatures in the high 90s and even cresting 100. My chicken books say that hot temperatures can be deadly for  chickens, so I've hooked up a fine mist sprinkler to spray over one part of their outdoor pen to cool the air down. I've been refreshing their water several times a day to keep it cool, and they seem to be doing fine. The male will even stand under the mist, while the females tend to avoid it.

In early September we had cooler weather and so I started thinking about taking fall cuttings of some plants I want to propagate. I took some lavender cuttings back then and put them in a shaded spot, close to my office door so that I would be sure to pay them the care they need – frequent watering mostly. Now I am not sure if they are going to make it with all this heat, but it'll be a good experiment. And if any of them do make it, all the better.

The berm in the front yard is looking pretty good, considering I don't water it much and that most of the plants are from re-seeding. There is a lush growth of new calendula, daikon, and fava beans. The pineapple guavas look pretty good and one of them even has a few fruits. In place of the ginkgo tree that the gopher killed I've planted a lime tree. The poor thing had a crowded root system so I pruned the roots and the top very heavily before planting it, I mulched it very well, and now it is sending out new growth, while in amongst the flush of calendula, etc. A few strawberry plants I moved out there in the spring have taken hold and are sending out runners. Strawberries make such a nice groundcover, and the fruits are pretty good too. The sunflowers have finished their show and are now ghosts towering over the other plants, as are the hollyhocks, their long stalks covered in seed pods and the odd flower.

The bamboo served as a great support for the pole beans, and it has started to push up some new growth.

Alphonse Karr bamboo with pole beans.

Detail of beans on bamboo.

Chickens

After attending my first Permaculture workshop at a farm in New Mexico, I decided that I wanted to get chickens. The farm had many chickens and turkeys which they moved around the place to help with weed control and insect control. I was interested in the weed and insect control, as well as feeding garden excesses to the birds and getting something I could eat in return, mainly eggs.

And so I returned home all excited about getting chickens and my partner went to work building a 6x8 chicken house with nest boxes and a human-sized door and a chicken sized door. I painted it before the winter rains came and then I stalled on building the fence. I am not particularly handy with certain types of projects. Like building a fenced in yard for chickens. The winter rains came and we got some leakage in the house, but nothing too bad, it just needed a little modification.

White-crested black Polish bantam chickens. Two hens and a rooster.

In my master gardner training and such, I met a man who had raised chickens from his own chickens, and he said he'd give me some of the new flock. And he showed me picture of the tiny chicks with their little white heads on top of their little black bodies. 

Off to the hardware store I went and loaded up my little car with fence posts and poultry netting and other fencing. And I went to work creating a fenced yard for the chickens and my partner went to work modifying the chicken house to keep the rain out of the few leaky areas. 

The chickens arrived yesterday afternoon, a little hot and a little shaken up from the drive from the farm. 

Today they were up and preening and drinking water. The rooster was patrolling for bugs and they all seem to be adjusting to their new surroundings. In a few days they'll get to go outside in the daytime, where they'll be able to scratch and dust and so forth.

Next spring they'll probably be laying eggs and hopefully they'll be helping with weed control and insect control.

Catching up...

Luxury winter pie pumpkin

September fourth and I haven't made an blog entry for approximately one month. Things are happening out there in the garden. My luxury winter pie pumpkin vine (the sole survivor of the gopher/microtus infestation) has two lovely fruits maturing on the vine. These pumpkins are supposedly delicious for pie – I've been using butternut squash in my pumpkin pies for a few years now, and they've been delicious. If these luxury pie pumpkins are sooooo much better, I'll definitely plant a ton more next year and hope for a bushel yield (unless the rodent population has abated by then–I'm working on it).


What else? Well the popcorn is starting to mature. Various winter squashes are putting on weight with time to mature before the cold weather. I've planted a few decorative things in the immediate patio area. Native dicentra, and a few other things. I've moved some of the crispy heuchera from the front yard (solar oven microclimate) to the part shade in the back. I continue to move the alpine strawberries from the way-back to the near-back. Those seem to like the heavier shade and a bit more water than the dry, baked area I am too scared to water for fear of gophers destroying my figs trees. Some successful trapping has occurred. Four gophers in two days, actually. And then a mole (they share the tunnels and I feel bad when I get one). My gopher to mole ratio is pretty high though, so, it is what is called collateral damage. 


The tomatoes which survived the ruthless attack from the gophers are almost exclusively cherry tomatoes. Black Aztec from Suzanne Ashworth via seed savers exchange. These are a very delicious tomato. Sweet and tart and copious in quantity. Also from Suzanne I've had excellent yields on the tomatillo plants I grew from her seeds.


Members of the cucurbit family have not fared entirely well. More than a few cucumber, melon, and squash plants were eaten by rodents. The rodents ate many of my bean plants too. They ate all kinds of things this year and left me feeling rather hopeless at times. A few of the bean plants that did make it through are starting to make pods! Including one that grew with the bamboo I planted in the front yard. The bean has spiraled up the stalks and is hanging seed pods in the air. My corn variety this year was popcorn and has not fared well with the invasion of gophers. I'll have a few kernels to try popping, but my crop was so impacted that I'll not have enough genetic variety to save the seed.


The front yard has sprung to life in the berm/basin area, after a spell of certain unattractiveness. Orange Cinderella pumpkins are growing out front. Various other plants went to seed and are re-growing from new seed - daikon, hollyhock, calendula. It looks sort of lush just now. I've been watering out there some.


The Thompson seedless grape in the front yard produced a few berry clusters this year. They were very sweet and delicious. The lemon tree has quite a few fruits on it, and is also draped in orange Passiflora caerulea fruits. 


I've planted some things for the fall garden. Peas, lettuce, arugula, collards, chard. I'll plant some spinach seeds I was sent when I renewed my Seed Savers Exchange membership. I hope they perform better than the German Pink tomato seeds they sent. It is a potato leaf variety of tomato and it produced not one fruit while it grew beside the prolific cappuccino cherry tomatoes from Suzanne Ashworth, across the way from the Black Aztecs, and near some Amish pastes - all of which produced fruit. Perhaps it is just the potato leaf varieties that don't work for me. Last year I planted one in a spot that I felt got enough sun but the plant did not produce. This year I planted a non-potato leaf type of tomato plant in a spot very close by and it fruited.


Back to planning the fall garden......

Feathers

Sitting out under the empty hummingbird nest I found a tiny feather. I can't be certain that it belonged to a hummingbird. A photo here of the feather in question, a cherry pit for scale, and a scrub jay feather that was also in the back yard.

Ginkgo

Last week the weather was rather hot and the ginkgo in the berm was looking a little droopy. I don't water there much and the tree had been in that spot for three years - it was one of the first things I planted when we moved into this house. I cut up a little circle of lawn and put in the ginkgo seedling I grew from seed I harvested from a tree in our previous neighborhood. The tree thrived and grew to a height of 8 ft over the few years.
I gave the tree a nice, deep watering and went on with my life. Last night I looked out the kitchen window to see the ginkgo tilting at an angle. When I pulled it out there were no roots and just a chewed lower trunk left.

gopher damage to ginkgo

I wondered why the gophers left the tree for three years and I also wondered why hollyhocks still stood in the berm, when in years past those hollyhocks would have been long gone.
I am now accustomed to the loss of plants to gophers, and I do feel sad about the loss of this tree. It is somehow different to grow a nice tree than to buy a nice tree. I felt a certain pride in the tree. I was also excited at growing a seedling ginkgo, which creates diversity in the gene pool, unlike grafted male trees.

Ginkgo

The tree will not go to waste, the leafy branches will become mulch for the persimmon tree in the back yard and the trunk will perhaps become a bean pole or a stake for something or other. Perhaps I could fashion it into a spear with the special power to pierce the earth and get a gopher every time.

Gardening for the birds

With the gopher invasion taking down tomatoes everywhere I look, microtus helping themselves to the squash plants, right at the start of their stems, thus rendering the remainder of the plant dead, and the destruction of other various plants by other various rodents, I find myself appreciating the birds who come to the garden. This little yellow bird sat atop this blooming/seeding catnip plant and picked away at the small, black, seeds inside the seed pods, while I stood not more than 8 feet away. While I stood still, with my camera pointing in his direction, I heard a delicate rustling under the plants to my right, and when I looked that way I saw a small, furry creature and the opening to its burrow. I remained calm, so as not to interrupt the feasting bird, and made a note of where that little rodent has made its home. A spade will be dispatched to that area later. A small fig tree I grew from a cutting has had its roots eaten away, and I fear for my larger fig trees. I feel a certain vigor returning in my setting of gopher traps.

Hummingbirds have flown the nest

Today was the big day for the baby hummingbirds. Early in the afternoon I saw them practicing flight, hanging onto the nest by their toenails while whirling their wings. They took a break to sit on the edges of the nest. A while later only one bird was in the nest and I watched the other rather closely. At some point the bird started the pre-flight practicing again, and then lift-off occurred! Oh it was magical, and the bird flew to a spot about two inches away from the nest. There it sat for some time. An adult bird (not sure if it was the mother or an intruder I'd seen yesterday) came along and nudged it away from the nest. It took flight again, to sit atop the beam around which the string lights are wrapped—still not very far from the nest. It sat awhile there and then flew back to the nest. A few minutes later it whirled its wings and left for good. It was a magical moment to see that little bird take flight for the first time.

An adult bird, perhaps the mother or the intruder, started amending the nest, picking out feathers, fluffing the lining. I'm not sure if a new mother is looking to make the nest her own or if the original mother is making adjustments. It seems as if another round of babies is somewhat likely.

Here's a photo of the two earlier in the day, getting a feel for perching.

First Apricots

Yesterday and today the first two of four apricots were picked and eaten. One of the four had been tasted by birds a few weeks back, and one remains, ripening on the tree, soon to be eaten.
Peaches are filling out in size and a few, here and there, are starting to show some color. The chard is starting a new cycle, so fresh, baby leaves are ready to eat, and the arugula reseeded itself and is ready to harvest in small quantities. I lost another tomato plant to the gophers today, and of course it waited until fruit was on the plant before severing its roots. I've been tasting the black currants for a week or so now, and they are finally starting to sweeten a bit. The fall gold raspberries are done with their spring crop and have started work on their fall crop. The red raspberries are producing delicious fruit every day. Even the strawberries are putting out a few small fruits. I ate a lovely fig yesterday, from the Mission Improved tree, and all the breba Conadrias are long gone. The Conadria is looking to make an impressive late-summer crop though. One tomato plant, that got in pretty early and wasn't battered by the hail storm, has one fruit on it with a hint of color. I refuse to get my hopes up, but the gopher in the area of that tomato plant seems not to be too interested in tomatoes. Fingers are crossed. Many of the leeks have succumbed to gophers, and the top-setting onions are starting to disappear too. I've been lax in my trapping regimen, and so I pay the price. Much of the popcorn is about 18 inches high now, and some squash plants are finally spreading out. The pumpkins in the front yard have a couple of growing fruits on, and some new ones too. I just planted Alphonse Karr bamboo in the front yard. It is a clumping bamboo with beautiful green stripes on the stems. I am going to try to use the culms (stalks) as stakes once the plant gets established. Around the base of the bamboo I planted seed of popcorn and pumpkins and pole beans. It's a guild! I've started moving the alpine strawberries from the way back yard into the area nearer the house. Back to zone 1 where they thrive and belong. I'll be giving some to my friend who provided the Alphonse Karr bamboo, along with many other plants in the yard. It is very  much a friendship garden.

Well, onto the hummingbird photo.....

The babies are growing up.

View a series of photos of the mother bird arriving to feed these two babies here.

Hummingbirds are growing

The nest is probably starting to get a little close with two growing hummingbirds packed into it. The mother bird has started to feed the babies even when we are at the far edge of the patio, something she wouldn't do when they were smaller. She comes and feeds the birds and they eat and then do some stretching and flap their little wings. One of the babies is definitely larger than the other.
An interesting phenomenon is the spattering of droppings under the nest. We've seen the little specks come flying out of the nest.

One baby hummingbird chin

The mother hummingbird has now started sleeping elsewhere, which means the hatchlings are feathered enough to regulate their own body temperatures. I've seen two little chins poking above the nest, and today while the mother was off foraging I got close for a quick photo of one tiny chin.

Hummingbird eggs hatched

The mother bird has been feeding babies for several days now. In the past two days when she feeds the baby bird beaks have been cresting the rim of the nest.
I set up the tripod in the living room and waited for her to come back from a foraging flight and took many photos when she returned.

Hummingbird Nest Decorated with Lichen

The hummingbird has added a considerable coating of lichen pieces to the outside of her nest. It would work great as camouflage in a tree. I'm not sure she's really blending in with the string lights though. She is on the nest for longer periods of time, and away for shorter. Makes sense. She will bring back little pieces of fluff and tuck them inside the nest.

She'll feed at some nearby flowers in the back yard, and also at flowers in the front yard.

I'll start watching for babies in about a week or so.

Lovely Lavender

Lavender, oh how I love this plant. I have planted many lavenders and yet I never seem to have enough. It is easy to propagate by cuttings though, so I'll be making more. I even grew out seeds one year and got some good plants.

I had big plans to harvest the lavender and have long beautiful bundles of it, to give as gifts and so forth. I paid attention to when the lower two flowers opened, and cut the stems before noon. I banded the bundle of stalks with a rubber band. I followed the directions I read in the Lavender book by Robert Kourik. It was time consuming and tedious. And this from a person who is growing wheat with which to make bread. I'm into process, but something wasn't doing it for me with this process. And it made a rather unimpressive bundle once it dried.

A week passed and the flowers opened and drew the bees in. And I had a thought, since I was getting a little low on my batch of lemon verbena syrup, I thought I'd try making lavender syrup.

Harvesting was simply cutting the stems just at the base of the flowering head. I stripped off several heads and got about half an ounce of flowers and calyx. It was fast and easy.

I massaged the flowers a little, to help release the oils, while the sugar water boiled for 5 minutes. 2 cups sugar, 2.5 cups water.

When the 5 minutes of boiling was up, I took the pot off the heat and added the lavender to the sugar water. Cover and let steep at least 30 minutes.

The flowers shrank considerably. I strained it into a bowl while I cleaned the pot, then strained it back into the pot to boil for another 30 seconds.

I let it cool a bit and then poured it into my bottles. What a lovely color the syrup picked up from the flowers. I got myself a glass of ice and put a teaspoon or two of the lavender syrup and topped it off with water. Delicious!

Another bird...

The front yard has large English walnut trees along the street and there has been quite a ruckus lately with a few starlings. We were sitting out on the front porch this evening and spotted what the immediate ruckus was about. An owl has taken up residence in a hollow of a branch of a big walnut tree. Last year, in the summer, we noticed a pair of owls up there and this is the first sign of them this year. I got out the long lens and tripod and still managed to get blurry photos. The owl blends right in with the tree and through the viewfinder it was hard to get the focus just right. I could also go on about camera shake, but that might get boring.

Here are a few photos.

Back to the garden

The hummingbird has been taking up lots of space so I thought I'd best get back to the garden for a bit. This spring has been terrible for gophers. They've been going after the usual favorites (theirs and mine) like leeks, garlic, onions and potatoes. They've expanded their diet by also eating a couple of abutilons (common name is flowering maple but they are not maples), they decided this was the year to eat up the campanula, and interestingly they've been eating tomato plants, which I had understood they would not eat. I have lost several tomato plants to the rodents and, while I've been toughening myself to the losses over the past few years, I find the tomato losses a bit hard to take.

When I look at the front yard and see the lovely, large hollyhocks in bloom, I know it is only a matter of time before the gophers will chew the large roots up until the things fall over. I'm enjoying the flowers while they are here. Life in the garden is transitory anyway. In a side note, Hollyhock flowers are frequented by hummingbirds.

The gopher situation in the back yard (where the tomatoes are) is the most bothersome. I set traps, and so far I haven't had near the success in trapping as I've had before. Though I did manage to snag one in a trap I set last night, which buoyed my hopes of at least getting the leeks to go to seed, so I can disperse them to a wider area. Leek blossoms are also rather beautiful, in my opinion. I suppose I would rather lose leeks than my fruit trees. And I am unwilling to sink hardware cloth into the soil, so losses must be accepted.

Hummingbird update

The Hummingbird has been spending much more time in the nest the past few days, and she is in the nest tonight. I did a little research on the nesting habits of hummingbirds and it seems the female builds a nest soon after mating, then after a day or two lays up to two pea-sized eggs. She'll incubate them for two weeks or so, then she'll tend to the babes by keeping them warm and feeding them frequently until they are feathered enough to regulate their own body temperatures. Not sure how long that process lasts, a few more weeks I think, then they'll leave the nest.

You won't see any egg pictures from this nest because I feel that would be too intrusive. I've been out in the general vicinity of the nest, keeping my distance, moving slowly, and she's stayed in it the whole time. She usually makes a chirp as she leaves the nest and goes off for a while, then returns for a while. She was gone in the late afternoon and early evening, but I did see her profile out there tonight, so I'm guessing she's incubating eggs.

I'll be sure to try for photos of the babies, without bothering the family. It is all a bit wonderful.

Hummingbird in the Nest

This hummingbird will avoid the nest if I am hanging around nearby outside, or too obviously gawking from the living room. It has been chasing away scrub jays and doing the intimidating hover/chirp at the cat. I have found if I hide behind the curtains just so, with my camera focused on the nest, I can get more photos of the bird in the nest. It doesn't stay long, so I have to be quick, but I got a few that I've cropped to show more of the bird.

Nest Expansion

Day two of nest building. These photos are shot from underneath the nest and it looks like those green pieces could be lichen, but I do not know. Top photo taken around 8 a.m. and bottom photo taken around 11:45 a.m. The bird is building at a pretty fast pace, but I suppose that is what one might expect from a hummingbird.

New Resident

We light our patio with LED string lights, which look very festive and are much easier on the eyes than the bright spotlights that were installed before. We've noticed a hummingbird hanging around the string lights, and hanging around the patio area - buzzing by for a close look at us while we drink coffee in the morning, and taking a close look at the cat, when she's on the other side of a glass door. The hummingbird has been a regular visitor.

Today I noticed it buzzing around and stopping by the string lights rather frequently. It seems to be building a nest on the string lights. I took a few photos of the brown duff after it had been back and forth all morning.

A little later the hummingbird was back at the nest site, and I caught a picture of it, sitting there. The nest site is in a spot I can see from my office, at a short distance, and directly out the living room window, at close range. I'm a bit thrilled with the idea of having a hummingbird nest to watch all summer.

Nanking Cherry Harvest

Almost half a pound of nanking cherries in today's harvest. These fruits are about the size of a garbanzo bean that has been soaked. They are a little tart and have a pit, but not so large as to make it undesirable to eat the fruit. The pit comes away easily from the flesh. This is the second spring for these plants, so I'm impressed at the amount of fruit on such young shrubs.

In future years, and larger harvests, I imagine I'd make preserves out of these, but this year they'll just get eaten up.

Solar Powered Laundry Dryer

The weather has finally been warm enough to fire up the old solar powered laundry dryer that I use in the warmer weather.

Our place came with a big electric plug for the motor-driven laundry dryer, so I'm glad to be able to lighten the electricity usage.

Some things are a little stiff if they dry on the line, so I sometimes put the things in the electric dryer for a few minutes to get them a little hot and pliable, then I hang them on the line and that seems to really make a difference in the feel of the cloth. Some things go directly to the line without going in the dryer, like these sheets and pillow cases. They'll dry pretty quickly with the warm, gentle breeze we have today.

Making Dolmades

The grape vines are producing lots of leaves, many of which are rather tender just now. I also have a couple of small fennel bulbs and lots of top setting onions, scallions, leeks, and various herbs around. I decided to make vegetarian dolmades for an upcoming art reception at a non-profit art gallery, where I have a couple of pieces on display. I looked at several recipes, in my various cookbooks and online, and I had a couple in front of me for reference as I went. My practice run went well enough that we ate all of the dolmades and I decided to refine my process based on the first go-round.

Today I went out and picked many grape leaves, no smaller than the size of my hand, and only the tender ones. I also harvested the other things I mentioned above: fennel bulb, leeks, top-setting onions, scallions, mint, and parsley. I used a store-bought yellow onion (certified organic and grown in California) and I used Arborio rice (I do not grow rice in my garden, but live in a rice-growing region so it is a locally produced ingredient).

Fresh grape leaves, and other ingredients.

Bamboo steamer lined with fresh grape leaves.

Preparing the leek. Sliced down the middle eases rinsing of any dirt caught inside.

Chop chop chop.

Mixing leeks and rice.

More chopping.

Laying out the blanched grape leaves.

Filling

Folding

Rolling

Uncooked dolmades in the bamboo steamer lined with fresh grape leaves.

On the stove for approximately 45 min.

Cooked dolmades await.

Viola! They are steamed to perfection! Now they will cool and then wait in the fridge (where the flavors will develop overnight) until the reception tomorrow evening. Of course I had to sample one to make sure it was cooked!