Sidetracked Charley

I seems to happen every spring and fall here - during mud and flood season. Everyone gets in what can only be called "negative speaking." I used to blame it on the mud. But with the drought there hasn't been a lot of that for four years. The locals that can afford to leave in April or November or both are gone. Those of us that cannot stay behind and pet sit or property watch or do the little minor jobs like painting the living room when the owners are away. The owners call back from time to time to check on Pookie or the Puce they picked for the bedroom. They begin by asking how the weather is. "Been raining for five days. We had two and half inches on one day." "So the road is a sheet of mud, right?" "The grass is very green." "Will it need mowed before we return?" "The creek is bank to bank." "So muddy paw prints all inside the house, right?" I am not taking care of a pet for them so obviou...

Magique in front of the Bow Greenhouse Spent this whole last week working on the new and improved polytunnel. It is 11 x 16 feet. Previously it was 7 x 16 feet so I gained a lot of square footage and that means able to plant more things. Topped out by not tied down More room means more raised bed space and 5 gallon tubs for some plants like potatoes and I think Tomatoes. Been trying them out for size. Tomatoes  started from seed sunning outside before the rains Buckets also protect them from winds until they are in the greenhouse Tubs of potatoes between raised beds Been spending so much time on the bow construction I am a bit behind on the planting. Have a lot of plants under the low tunnel and seeds planted in the far raised bed. Still need to add more soil to the newest raised bed which will get broccoli among other plants. I have raised potatoes in tubs before. As they sprout up you raise the soil level and then when time to harvest you just pour out the...

May 13, 2014 and eight inches of snow My Canadian social media friend, Ien, says you are always behind in gardening. But this year seems to be a lot worse. Maybe it is because of my eye surgery and then teeth extraction or maybe I just had a foggy mind and didn't begin my grand plans to convert the polytunnel experiment to a real commitment to greenhouse gardening on the cheap. Or maybe it was the May full of late, late, late snows. Inner tunnel enlarged I did get the collapsing inner tunnel restructured and taller over my raised beds and even got one bed refreshed and seeded, but that just made it obvious how inadequate the high tunnel was. It would still work as a prop for more plastic to raise bed temps but would make it very difficult to work without removing the upper plastic. Beginning of new bow greenhouse I had saved a link to how to make a greenhouse for $50. The man lies. What you see is $60 and not nearly done. I am planning to use recycled materials a...

My Road Woke up yesterday to five inches of snow. Before what passed for dawn came the level was to almost eight inches. It snowed all day but temps for such it melted all day creating muddy messes on the roads. Mud and Flood And very wet and muddy dogs. They just love the snow. Mardi Gras I like spring snow even if it seems rude when I want to garden. Spring snow does not hang around. It melts into the ground and leaves green grass behind. Meanwhile the cows are having their calves and ranchers are having to check up on their herds. Cows in the Meadow Checking up on the stock The snow this morning is down to about a couple inches. Temperatures will be up today and the sun is out. All of the white will be gone before noon.

Mardi Cresting the Hill There have been a large amount of huge things going on in my life; Getting ready for the July show, trying not to go blind before then, a plethora of pet sitting engagements, and two badly infected teeth that must be pulled today. All of it has been complicated by requirements, re-scheduling, people not coming home when they said they were, and a winter which seems to be playing hide and seek with spring further delaying planting the garden. Beneath all that noisy stuff have been the little gifts and victories it is wise not to miss as they are our reasons for living. Mardi Gras at 14 and one half is still taking cross country walks. If she is not always keeping pace with Magique, Magique is slowing her pace to not lose her. Even letting her lead sometimes. Mistress, as usual, is overly concerned with her photography. Mardi and Magique's annual physicals showed that Mardi is doing great. And my vision improves. With a perfectly functioning right ...

Playing around with orchids. I have access to some beautiful blooms at the moment. And I took a bunch of pictures just before my desktop failed to open my photo editing software. Frankly between eye surgery and desktop software issues I had forgotten I took these pictures. So this morning was a lot of fun. I got to try different processing techniques back to back and learned a few things I believe. At least I had fun with this very sculpted flower with amazing grace. Photographing them is not always easy because the slightest disturbance makes the spike of orchids more for it seems forever. And the flower itself has depth and the curvature of the stalk adds to that. I was very happy with the picture above because of the focus on the whole array of blossoms. But sometimes a bit of out of focus, like in the vignette treatment below, has its place. And who says we need the entire spike of flowers. Got up close with the ones below and then cropped it in some more. But becau...

On the Road to Raton Had the cataract taken out of my right eye on the 25th and on the 29th drove to Trinidad and Raton. If my first reaction after surgery was that the world has edges, my reaction on the familiar road to Raton were the colors. Who knew the plains could be so colorful even in a drought. Distant Volcanic hills Vision is about light, color and definition. Painting is about all those and sometimes lack of definition as Monet proved. Photography is supposedly about light. Though lately it seems to be about pixels and hyper definition. A photographer friend and I got into a discussion about the differences in photography as a craft and photography as an art. We were, as artists frequently, critiquing the judging on a recent show. And talking about the ones we will not enter again because of the judging. I was thinking about that and color, light and definition as I drove. It takes effort and money to enter shows. I do it to expand name recognition and audien...