The Storm Breaks

It was early to sleep for the gardener last night. It was a pretty exhausting day, by the end of it and the weighty adventures of Ratty, Toad, Mole and Badger hit me square in the face (no worries though: paperback) around 8 p.m.

Around 10:30, I stirred to some distant sound and realized there was a noise behind the fizzly hum of the air conditioner, and I grabbed the camera and tripod and went to sit outside for a while. I was sort of fuzzy from the sleeping, and formerly, I'd have called on that nicodemon (so foolishly believing I had him on the leash) to bring me out of dozeyness. I set up the tripod and sat back for the show, which woke me up just fine, thanks.

It's an uncertain experience, anyway...the way the world is dark and nothing's recognizable. Because of the early dozing and distraction by other things, I'd not lit candles in the garden, so there was no light along the fence to orient by.

At first I felt a little teased, as the biggest, baddest part of the storm seemed to be north of us, and since the porch faces south, I only saw reflections of those on the houses across the street, but damn, it looked intense.

In a sudden flash, I spied the sunflowers, dancing on the wind gusts, daisies spattered with rain, then dark. A few seconds later, the brilliant deep purple-blue of the clematis is revealed and the red of the gloriosa daisies...and then blackness again.

Tendrils of electricity dance across the sky, turning everything purple-white. The rumbles of thunder occasionally roaring. The urgent rustling sound of the rain soaking the garden and the grass and the trees and the street.

Of course, some wonderful aspect of Murphy's law dictated that some of the best bits of visible lightning happened as I was shutting off the camera or just before I turned it on. But I still got some good glimpses of the experience. That they are screen caps from digital video means they don't enlarge very well.

But still.

Thursday

I saw my young bunny friend this morning as I gave the garden the morning review.

I'd seen one of the medium-sized buns of the bunch last evening and had wondered if it was this little guy, growing fast...but no, he's still a small one, for now.


Oh, and yah, it looks like he's a little transfixed by that snake slithering by in front of him, and I was too when I spotted it in the photo this evening.

And then I walked out to the driveway and by moonlight, could see that it was actually a stick.

The morning glories were putting on a nice show today.
Here's that white cleome again. It's taller than the others, which are all (so far) purple. They all came from one packet of "Purple Queen" seeds, so I guess this is the "accent" cleome, meant to show off the deep colors of the others.

The hens n chicks' flower stem is continuing to grow.

What an odd little alien like plant these guys are. I don't think you really get that image clearly until you see them starting to flower. I'm a little afraid it's going to suddenly open up a mouth and eat me. Or I would be, if I didn't know that the flowers will be pretty lovely when they finally open.

I am becoming very fond of these sassafras trees that mark the western border of our little property. I like the bright greens of their mitten-shaped leaves, especially against that blue sky!

When I got to work, I parked under the shade of the pear tree outside my office and was sort of drawn to this little patch of sun and moss. I don't know why...just a very tranquil little spot in the world, I guess.

It was nice to know where I could find that spot as the day progressed.

After work, I stopped by Rock Harbor for a few photos of the full moon and Jupiter. I'll let those speak for themselves.





It's still Doodle Week, and now that I've started looking at my old journals, I'm finding all kinds of little floral fiddlybits I worked in here and there. Thought I'd share a few more of those to wrap things up this evening.

Anyone who'd like to see more of my old doodlings, I've put together a short post on today's theme of Doodle Vacation, over at the Other Blog.

Hope your Thursday was kind to you!

I'm having another go at Finishing With Cigarettes starting tomorrow. I'll try to keep posting but I may take a day or two off just to get through the first screams of the Nicodemon.

Also, there's a possibility I'll be getting to see The Dark Knight tomorrow. : )

And So it Grows

Checking in at the Sunflower Academy, some of my most eager seedlings have now surpassed the one foot mark, and still not quite a month old. I'm so proud. I'll be happy to get these guys outside in the some real sunshine and let them see what they can do.

With such a good start out of the gate, I think we stand to be impressed.

Not far from the sunflowers is this easter cactus. I bought it as just a small plant as a gift to myself when I moved into my Provincetown apartment. It's never bloomed for me, though grown considerably in the ten years since.

This week, I'm seeing for the first time, a few hot red flower buds. Woo woo!! Don't underestimate the power of a south-facing window!

The rains were heavy overnight and continued for a while this morning. If there were thunderstorms--I don't think they materialized--I slept through them (not an impossible scenario).

But the quantity of rain itself was a good test of the new level of the garden...and I'm happy to say, it seems to have passed admirably. The rain water still pools outside the garden, but doesn't spill through the rocks and flood everything...meaning the water is in the perfect place to feed the garden residents, without washing them away. And that's good enough for me just now.

As you can see, the rain's done a world of good for a garden already thriving, and the shades of green seem so much richer today against the dark wet colors of the dirt.

A few of the very full young hyacinths flopped over under the weight of the rain, which is not a sad thing...since I'd been thinking about cutting a few to bring inside.

I'm a big fan of their scent, and it's kind of fun to have it wafting through the indoors, as well as the garden.

Planters Moon

We recently were gifted an old telescope. I've never had one before and don't know much about them...but I'm looking forward to playing around with it. Look at this picture I got of last night's Full Planter's Moon, as late night turned into the wee hours.

It looks like there might be a few scratches on one of the lenses (although I suppose it could be cat hair). There had to be a reason it was free, right?

I'm hoping this new bit of equipment might afford me a few views into some nearby crows' nests as the season progresses.

Well, here was a nice change of pace, when the new rental provided a pleasant surprise this morning, in the form of this unexpected hyacinth.

I think it's a hyacinth, anyway, but the leaves do seem odd somehow. I'm not sure if there's maybe some sort of miner bug inside, or if the chevron marks are just damage from pushing up from such a rough area. Until a week or so ago, the bunny cage was located here and so it was pretty high traffic spot.

Anyway, I'll keep an eye on it to see what it will be, and also clear out the area around it, in case it's part of a larger garden grouping that wasn't visible in the fall when we landed here. I think I see a few money plant seedlings in there, too.

I've mentioned the bird song in general before. It's just amazing how it suddenly increases as the days grow longer and it's time to find a nestmate and all.

There's a woodpecker who seems to enjoy banging on the side of our house in the morning. I've tried a few times to get a photo of him doing it, but he doesn't hang around long enough when I appear. Next time I hear him, I'll try to sneak out the front door and walk around.

The cardinal songs are especially notable, and easy to pick out from assorted other members of the Morning Bird Chorus. I seem to hear them everywhere, all happy and optimistic. I'm not unhappy with it as a soundtrack choice. (That said, I'm sure there's a gloomy Gus or two around who'll say they sound just like a car alarm. I do know from experience that it's a sound I love when I hear it in the Wild, but don't enjoy quite so much when it's created artificially from a Christmas ornament.)

We've got at least two pair of them in the yard in Harwich. This male cardinal, however, was singing outside the restaurant in Orleans as I left early this evening. I think I heard another one across the bank parking lot singing in response...or perhaps in competition.

Below is the view off our back porch around 7:30 this evening, looking through the sassafras branches. Isn't it funny how you just automatically hear the Theme From Tara in your head, or is that just me?

I hope the next image reads clear on your monitor. It's dark enough that any difference in settings between my computer and yours could mean the difference in it being kind of cool or a muddy mess. (I'll hope you think it's the former.)

I was a bit taken with the patchwork quilted look the clouds had overhead and since I had the tripod, I gave it a shot. The real trick was timing it to catch the moon's sudden reappearance through the cracks in the clouds.

For those of you pining for spring (and really, who isn't at this point?), MSN has a great article about garden tours and hidden gardens in a few different parts of the country. You can see if any are near you here.

Faith Rewarded

The garden move is always a little stressful on plants, though for the most part, I've had some terrific success. I was a little extra-concerned about them through this past winter (lingering still, it seems), when I discovered the garden site I'd chosen was a little bit of a flood zone.

But I've noticed this week that things seem to have come through just fine. This morning, I spotted this clump of tulip foliage.

Many of these tiny little crocus tips are beginning to emerge all along the border of the garden.

Elsewhere, I'm recognizing the foliage of daisies and daylilies and irises and sedums all adding little bits of green to the dark and dull earth tones of the garden at winter's end.

This evening I began to clear away the dead foliage of the garden residents, to encourage them as the season begins. Tomorrow I'll be spending some more time tidying things up out there and if the weather allows, I'll add a fresh layer of topsoil to start the season off right.

Now that the days are a little bit longer, Em and I have begun a nightly Walk Around the Block routine. She has not always been the easiest dog to walk, but seems to have mellowed in more recent years. We've been enjoying watching the sun sink behind the trees, as the moon appears in the sky.

But I need to get larger baggies.

Bump In The Night

So...we had another lunar eclipse this evening.

I was afraid we wouldn't get to see much of it, as the moon was almost fully obscured in clouds when it first rose, but as you can see, things cleared off as our little satellite coasted across the sky.


With a temperature of about 23 as our average high for the week (forgetting all about Monday's 50s...), I didn't have the motivation to go out and crouch in the dunes as I did for August's late night lunar eclipse...and besides, with the same camera, how could I top those pics?

I was at work during the first half of the event, and so took these without benefit of a tripod. Being tired and cold when I got home, I was really more interested in sitting by the fire than standing outside in the dark watching the eclipse.

And as you'll see, the later part of the evening brought some distraction.

Yes, friends, what you see here raiding our window bird feeder here is indeed a rat. Augh.

Despite his appearing to be tidy and almost "cute", at least compared to some big nasty, mean-looking city rats I've encountered over the years, I'm still not real pleased with this new turn of events.

Now, before you all jump on me, yes, I know, they really aren't any worse than the squirrels and chipmunks whose feeder raids I used to be amused by in Eastham. After all, just about any wild creature is potentially a carrier for disease or an agent of destruction. But now you'd never know that just a few days ago, I was feeling badly about having found a dead mouse in a trap under the sink.

When I stopped being freaked out and could comfortably put my feet back on the floor and turned on some lights, I did find that this website was pretty helpful in calming me down and offering some perspective on the bad reputation rattus carries with it after that unfortunate business years ago with the Black Plague.

Don't get me wrong: I loved Ratattouile--it was a great movie. And I haven't forgotten that Templeton the Rat was the one who brought Charlotte the cool words she wove into her webs.

But still, unless one of them appears at the door in a chef's hat, speaking French and offering to cook us a lovely dinner...and even then...I just don't like the idea of having them around.

Poison is a very last resort to our mind. No interest at all in rats dying in the walls or beneath the house, or poisoned ones being found by our dog or cat (or anyone else's, for that matter). Big deadly traps are also not our first choice, since the last thing we want is to accidentally kill any of the assorted cats and dogs who occasionally roam the neighborhood (those cats clearly aren't carrying their weight, BTW...).

We'll give the have-a-heart trap a try when we can get our hands on one of those, and see about a relocation campaign.

And so, the long winter of our discontent continues. Gee, what a great time we're having here in Harwich.

As Charlie Brown would say: "Rats!"

Waning Moon

Cloudy Half Moon

April Moon

Moon rise.