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Recent Posts
- The Last Freeze April 17, 2021
- Surprises Every Day April 8, 2021
- Cherry Blossom Blizzard April 4, 2021
- Trivial Events Lead to the Spectacular April 1, 2021
- Frosty Cherry Blossoms March 31, 2021
- All Shapes and Sizes March 25, 2021
- What It Looks Like on the Other Side March 22, 2021
- March is Pink and Yellow March 21, 2021
- I Could Watch Clouds All Day March 12, 2021
- Happy and Sad at the Same Time March 5, 2021
- Life is Full of Mystery February 27, 2021
- Walking Through a Poem February 14, 2021
- The Trip Home February 9, 2021
- Pandemic Skies February 3, 2021
- Never a Dry Moment January 30, 2021
- Red Sky at Dawn and Dusk January 20, 2021
- More Marvelous Than Fairy Tales January 18, 2021
- Red Dawn January 14, 2021
- Is It Still Winter? January 12, 2021
- Winter Skies January 4, 2021
- Happy New Year! January 1, 2021
- Stories Untold December 28, 2020
- Blink and You’ve Missed It December 22, 2020
- Chatty Mud Birds December 20, 2020
- Getting the Mail December 10, 2020
- Soothing is Good December 5, 2020
- When Life Returns to Normal, I’ll Miss Blue Skies December 1, 2020
- Blue Skies in November November 21, 2020
- Sunshine Is Just Beyond the Clouds November 17, 2020
- Winter Returns to the Hills November 14, 2020
- A Squirrel’s Fate November 8, 2020
- November at Last November 3, 2020
- November 1 and No Swans November 1, 2020
- First Frost October 23, 2020
- Too Wet to Burn October 18, 2020
- Eyes Wide Shut October 13, 2020
- The End of Flowers October 11, 2020
- 20201010 October 10, 2020
- Am I Growing the Wrong Grapes? October 6, 2020
- Fog and Less Fog October 5, 2020
- First Blush of Fall September 29, 2020
- A Perfect Fall Day September 27, 2020
- Blue Sky to Rain to Shaggy Parasol September 26, 2020
- Six Short Weeks September 24, 2020
- 317 Days for a Miracle September 23, 2020
- We Can Breathe Again September 22, 2020
- You Can’t Help But Be Sad September 13, 2020
- Duck Serenity September 6, 2020
- August is Coming to an End August 28, 2020
- It’s Easier with Another August 21, 2020
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Monthly Archives: July 2016
Autumn Already?
It’s only the end of July and the red alders are starting to drop some leaves. Trees can produce more leaves in the spring than they can support when it gets hot and dry during the summer. And so the … Continue reading
Posted in How Things Grow
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On the Move
The hatchery chicks are on the move. I had two broody hens and gave each of the hens half of the chicks nine days ago, the morning they arrived. The hens keep the chicks busy much of the day, from … Continue reading
Posted in About My Chickens
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The Miracles We Eat
It’s early in the morning and I’m cleaning the onions I just pulled out of the ground for today’s Bow Little Market. How do onions do it? How do they make all those thin layers without them sticking together? How … Continue reading
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Pink and Fuzzy
What is pink and fuzzy in a summer garden? Mint in bloom. In a moist climate like here in the Pacific Northwest, mint will grow and spread with wild abandonment. If you want just a little keep it in a … Continue reading
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Time to Study
It’s time to study. Two books that I’m studying are Rebsie Fairholm’s The Lost Art of Potato Breeding and Carol Deppe’s Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties. I’ve learned that a reason you only see seed potatoes and never potato seeds … Continue reading
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The Early Bird Gets the Tomato
I had some tomatoes for Bow Little Market on Thursday. They sold out quickly. The only ones who got any were the early birds. This year I’m severely pruning the tomatoes as they grow, limiting each tomato to a single … Continue reading
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Something New Every Day
There is something new every day. Even if you think there isn’t, during the night while you slept, the sun has taken you about 7 million kilometers, over 4 million miles, from where you were when you went to bed. … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
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The Soft Time of Day
The sun is down behind the trees. It’s the soft time of day when the colors drift off to sleep, slowly, quietly. A flower falls onto the soft leaves below. The dogs pounce like foxes in the meadow. The heavy … Continue reading
Posted in Happiness
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Punctuality is the Virtue of the Bored
Writer Evelyn Waugh is said to have said, “Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.” I chuckled when I read that in a BBC article about the punctuality of the Swiss. Many of my ancestors were Swiss. When I visited … Continue reading
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What Do Potato Flowers Dream Of?
She’s a shy one. This little Turken cross chick is growing up fast. She’s got a very protective mother. Get too close and she will attack! To get a better photo, I’ll need to get the camera with a zoom … Continue reading
Posted in Happiness, How Things Grow
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Market Morning
The baby kale sparkled with dew this morning. And the potato blossoms were smiling when I went out to the garden to gather produce for today’s Bow Little Market. Their anthers are such a brilliant yellow. I’m studying Rebsie Fairholm’s … Continue reading
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No Boredom Here
So much happens in one day, it’s hard to keep track. Pepper has moved to laying her eggs in a nest in the chicken yard instead of in the nests near the garden. The eggplants are coming along. In a … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
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Eat the Weeds
Eat the weeds! It works when onions are the weeds. Last fall, I let some onions do their thing, go to seed, and let them fall where they may. I ended up with a bed thick with onions. I thinned … Continue reading
Posted in How Things Grow
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Tomatoes Are Blushing
A stand of bamboo is handy to have. Every year it produces shoots twenty to thirty feet tall. Cut and trimmed, they make great poles to string supports for snap peas. What’s great about bamboo poles, is that you can … Continue reading
Posted in Happiness
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Uncommon Flowers
Elephant garlic and shallots are worth growing for their flowers. The elephant garlic’s purple flowers are about to open, and the shallot’s white flowers fringed with green are unfurling. Such beautiful flowers. I’ll let these go to seed and start … Continue reading
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Yesterday was market day at Bow Little Market. It’s always a pleasure meeting customers and all the Bozos living in the neighborhood. When we moved to Bow years ago, we were told that people who live in Bow are known … Continue reading
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Worth Growing Just for Their Flowers
You don’t need to grow many vegetables to realize that many are worth growing just for their flowers. Eggplants with their blue and purple flowers, squash with their spectacular orange explosions, they are as remarkable as any daisies, and their … Continue reading
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Live Another Day … or Not
A few days ago, I discovered a spider hiding out in the carrot flowers, waiting to nab passing bees. Today, I found it feasting on a bee. I suppose, if you are a bee, dying on a bed of carrot … Continue reading
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What Flower Is That?
One of the trees is blooming, putting out tiny, spidery flowers with a hauntingly sweet fragrance. So many trees have such delicate flowers. Bashful beauties of the woods, their beauty is for the few who go looking. Niji-hime 虹姫 (Rainbow … Continue reading
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Colors of Summer
Yesterday was market day at Bow Little Market. Many of these colorful onions ended up going to people’s homes. Thank you for all who came to the market and stopped by. Our congressman, Rick Larsen, even stopped by for a … Continue reading
Posted in How Things Grow
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