The garden (an update)

This is a bad picture . . . . 

we have been enjoying the fruits of our garden.

Since these pictures we have had lots of cucumbers,

and to many red tomatoes to eat!

Zucchini and squash don't really do well in this area,

they don't produce enough for you to get sick of them.

We got a few pickings of peas.  

I didn't really plant a whole lot of them,

so it was a good crop while the cool weather lasted.

YUMMA, YUMMA.

Update

I planted peas way back on President's Day.

Since then, we have had very cold weather for Maryland.

It has snowed, and frozen, and just been awful!

I was afraid my peas were goners.

and I was going to have to replant and post another "fail" post on the blog.

Here is a picture maybe 4 weeks ago of the peas, peeking out.

and then here again, about two weeks ago.

Also the day all three of us got exposed to poison ivy

which we are still dealing with today.

AWFUL stuff.

Springtime is so fun. . . . . . 

Bring on the Spring!!!

No more snow please :)

Spurt of Energy

A couple of weeks ago,

totally by accident,

I watched a video about getting your peas planted in to your garden

by Presidents day.

I wasn't even looking for gardening videos.

Hmphhhh!

I watched the video and got inspired to get my peas into the garden.

Whether or not the garden is prepared for them.

I got them in the day AFTER President's Day!

Here are my tools, 

garden gloves,

garden spade,

a pad to kneel on

(I'm getting old!)

and a bucket of peas that have been soaked over night.

It was between 30 to 40 degrees but the sun was shining and it felt nice outside.

Peas love cool weather!

(which is why I've never planted them in the past, I can't get them in soon enough :)

The soil was really easy to work, and the weeds from last year pulled up nicely

due to the recent rains.

I decided I'd line the peas up next to the fence

giving them a place to climb,

and hopefully leaving room to til or spade the rest of the garden.

My plan was to skewer the soil with my spade and drop a pea in.

But soon decided that was for the birds . . . . 

It would take TOOoooooo long.

Speaking of birds, we have had HUGE flocks of them around hear lately.

1000's of them . . . . hopefully they haven't eaten my peas!!!

I decided it would be faster to make a trench and drop the peas in.

It's a short row of peas.

There is NOTHING like the taste of fresh garden peas!!!

Marie Antoinette started a feud over a bowl full of fresh peas.

She took the whole bowl for herself and left the guests gaping at her.

I know why she would do this, but not saying it was right of her!

GROW PEAS GROW!  

To be continued . . . . . . 

Wonderfall

Fall is beautiful here.

So many great colorful plants and leaves.

Fall is a time of lots of yard work though!

We've been raking leaves every weekend for a couple of months.

Yesterday I hope was the end of the raking . . . .

I didn't think we had many leaves but still got 24, 39-gallon containers.

Lincoln is thinking a total of 160 of them for all the weeks.

WOW!

This year there has been an over abundance of acorns.

I thought we were imagining it, but have heard on the radio

that there may be triple the acorns this year.

(have I blogged about this before? hmmmm)

We got an entire 39 gallon container of them a couple of weeks ago.

Probably another one this week

and haven't even STARTED getting them off of the backyard.

We've got to get them up as they will choke out our grass.

No rest for the weary!

Some pictures I took last month:

Living in nature

I love living in our house nestled in trees,

BUT

those trees sure do keep us busy!

We rake,

we sweep,

we power blow,

we hope for wind!

In the early spring it starts with pollen,

LITERALLY everything is coated with a green sheen.

Literally!

And then come the seed pods,

and then the leaves that didn't quite fall from the year before,

then the evergreen Holly trees start to lose their leaves.

Storms come and make messes.

Dead limbs fall off, some of them quite big!  

OH MY!

And now, 

right before the big leaf drop

we are getting acorns.  

It has been raining acorns!

Literally! (really!)

I sweep, and then another layer falls.

Last year the acorns were LARGE and there were fewer of them.

This year they are small and they are abundant.

I went outside to take a picture of the deck and realized

that my entire yard was covered with blackbirds.

I wonder,

are they eating the acorns 

or bugs?

One of them seems to have an acorn in its beak in the picture.

I thought the squirrels were going to be in fat city this year.

The birds are beating them to it.

The flocks of these birds flying around are quite a site to behold.

These are very healthy birds!!!!