Long Paws Pause Winter Report

Only the calendar noted the difference when autumn slipped and slid into winter.


This winter and past autumn ground me down. I gave up trying to do anything out-of-doors.

Some winters have been mild and dry enough to work outside every now and then. But, this year, even though we had a few pleasant days, the soil reminded me of chocolate pudding -- too wet to disturb.

From reading the newspaper, watching television weather reports and predictions, and reading posts written by bloggers all over the world, it appeared that weather everywhere was cruel.

I have lost track of all that happened here. Yesterday the electrical service was off again. This time it took only a few hours to get it back on; it was only a blown fuse on our transformer. It has been one thing after another all winter: rain, snow, ice, sleet, hail, some of these, or all of the above almost everyday.

Let me see if I can remember some of the events:
In January, our state (Kentucky, U.S.A.) had a whopper of an ice storm. It was rated as one of the state's worst natural disasters in history -- second only to the New Madrid Fault earthquake of Dec. 16, 1811 through Feb. 7, 1812 with aftershocks felt through 1817. At that time the huge Mississippi River flowed backwards, large lakes were formed, and there was much destruction through several states, as well as, western Kentucky.

This time the whole state was affected.

The county we live in had endured the severe ice storm of 2003, so, we were not damaged as badly as the rest of the state. In February 2003 the freakish storm seemed to cover only our county. It cleaned us out viciously. Our house was without electrical service 5 days which was very little compared to others. This time, we were without only 3 days, but across the state over a million people were without power, and many were without for months and months.

Today, some areas are still without their cable television service because the cable lines are down. Linemen workers are doing the best they can, but it is such a large, and mostly rural, area to cover. Houses and yards in those areas are sprouting satellite dishes.

Sadly, there were 36 deaths and several homes lost, some by fires, all related to the devastating storm.

Soon afterward, before there could be recovery, there was a wind storm that added to the power outages and much damage to property and trees. Workers had to go back and rework some areas where they had gotten the service back to running, and do it all over again.

I watched 40 ft. tall trees bend over to ninety degree angles or more. Eighty miles from here in Louisville, Kentucky, which is on the large Ohio River, the wind was measured at gale force and Tropical Storm wind speeds. The next measure would be hurricane speed. I kept telling everyone at Crocker Croft: "And, we still have March to go through, yet."

Kentucky is scheduled to receive over five million dollars in Federal funding to help pay for ice storm recovery. Portions of the funds will be released periodically as the state shows continued need. An estimated 503 temporary jobs will be formed. Temporary workers who have no permanent job will be trained. There is need for workers to do jobs such as: cleanup, demolition, repair, renovation and reconstruction of destroyed public structures and facilities in affected communities, plus repair of homes of economically disadvantaged elderly and disabled people.

Since then, we have had one more wind storm, but less severe and not as long lasting. Ice: we have had again, but less severe. In between were all the other things listed above. What a winter! Mud, mud, mud puts me in sympathy with our northern neighbors who go through a 'Mud Season'. No way to work outside.

Here is further explanation as to why there have been long spaces of time between my posts.

In September I reminded my physician that we were headed into winter, that I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.), and I didn't want to suffer as much as last winter. As a result of one of my posts about the problem I had learned of a new medication for it. So, another bottle was added to my medicine cabinet. I hate taking medicines, there are always side effects.

Well, the combination of my meds had me drifting about like a zombie with a head feeling like a block of wood, sleeping too much, and with not a original creative thought for months. I could not write! Now, after some tweaks of my medications, I am trying. I also have another handicap: I am a non-screener. I have read that people are screeners (and can screen out distractions), or non-screeners. We non-screeners are jerked around by every little sound, motion, and visuals.

Husband/Best Friend/Chief Photographer and I are retired, which means we are both home all day every day. I do not have a quiet place to withdraw for writing, much less, a poet's ivory tower; so that makes it almost impossible for me to write. I snatch a few minutes here and a few there when the TV is off. The flow of thought contains rapids.

So, what have I done most of that time? I have read. Blog after blog, and book after book, after book I have read. I will share that with you next time.

Summertime Has Arrived

June 21, 2006:
Today is the first day of summer; with humidity level at 67% and predictions of 91 degrees F., it definitely feels like summertime. The hot, muggy days deplete my scant store of energy more than the activity of gardening. I would consider that a sign of my age, but a fatigued young helper said, "The work isn't that hard, it's the heat!" So, maybe it isn't my age after all... I tell myself.

June 26, 2006:
Here I am, about to perish from the heat when I read that on Monday, June 12, New Zealand had about a foot of snow the heaviest and wettest in 50 years. New Zealand spawns serious gardeners. They are having a tough go of it now with broken trees, shrubs, and broken just about everything. I have deep empathy for them. The last big one they had was in June 2003. That was the year we had our extremely damaging ice storm in February - then they caught the weather in June. Wild Weather!

July 1, 2006:
My attention deficit problem is acting up today - thoughts and ideas splattered all about, can't get into the groove. Must be the heat. Will pull myself together here and get at it. Much needs to be done with the weeding!

Reminds me of the sign one gardener had in her potting shed that read something like this:

"Gardening is doing:
what should be done,
when it should be done,
the way it should be done,
whether you feel like it or not."

She's exactly right. And, I wish I could remember what magazine I saw that in so I could give her credit here.
Maybe a glass of nice strong iced tea will set me right.

July 2, 2006:
Today I discovered the Fahrenheit and Celsius conversion formula by which I can translate today's punishingly hot 95 degrees F. heat to approximately 35 degrees C. Whew! That sounds much better.
(I found the information here: http://vathena.arc.nasa.gov/curric/weather/fahrcels.html)

Wish I could bundle up some of it, and send it to gardeners in the Southern hemisphere who are worrying about the possibility of frost tonight. I do have difficulty getting used to the concept of their winter in July and August, and preparing for December holidays, such as Christmas, by mowing their verdant lawns.

Eastern Black Swallowtail on Lantana

July 3, 2006: Parsley in the whiskey barrel.

I like to start parsley from seed in order to have a large number of plants. Then I set them everywhere in all the beds for the baby Black Swallowtail butterflies. The females lay their eggs on plants of the carrot family which includes parsley. Also, I like to have some up close so I can watch the babies' development... thus the ones in the half-barrel.

At first, they look like tiny bird droppings, then morph to look like larger bird droppings; that is nature's way to protect them from the bird predators who might eat them. Before long, they are lovely, slick, and colorful black, white, yellow and/or green larvae. We usually call them caterpillars. If disturbed or provoked, as in being tickled with a blade of grass, they will show their beautiful orange antenna that emits an odor that surely sends the message: 'I'm not good to eat!'


The following photo shows two different stages of larvae. In the lower left-hand corner can be seen one younger than the large one on the right. The younger one does resemble a bird dropping, but at first they are much smaller than this one.

The Above Photo:
Black swallowtail larvae (Papilio polyxenes)
Used with permission from:
Hannah Nendick-Mason
Copyright © 2004

Above: Notice its little feet.

The larvae are little feeding machines, munching and munching away, so soon they are plump little things that remind me of our four babies when they wore pajamas that had feet. These fat little butterfly babies eat for days and then go off to make their cocoon.

The first time I cultivated some where they could be watched, I thought they were falling out of the large planter, so I kept putting them back in. Then they would "fall out" again. I finally realized they were through entertaining me, and were trying to go find a good place to attach to, where they would make their cocoons. They were ready to move on with their lives so they could become beautiful, graceful flying creatures.

This summer I have watched them eat the parsley totally up leaving nothing but a ring of little short stubs of stems.

Now the parsley is growing back again! Hmmm... Second crop of parsley? Second crop of babies? Will have to wait and see.

Addendum 2008:

Parsley grew, but there were no more babies in the whiskey barrel.

July 4, 2006:
A few years ago when an old black locust tree that stood in the back yard fell, I planted a small butterfly and hummingbird garden around the stump.

Several things including four Butterfly shrubs (Buddleia davidii) were planted on top of the many spring bulbs in the soil. The shrubs were planted approximately north, south, east, and west around the stump. There were one each of white, pink, lavender, and dark purple.

When I bought them, the woman assisting me said the dark ones are not as hardy and do not survive the winter as well. I wanted to try anyway. But she was right, the dark one did not come back the next spring. The others have done well. This year I noticed of the three, the pink butterfly bush bloomed first. Could that be because it is on the south side of the round bed? That would be my guess.

July 21,2006:
Humidity hangs thick and heavy. When I step outside it feels as if we could cut it with a knife. Even the birds are quiet... means storms are brewing.

July 22,'06:
Yesterday it stormed at six o'clock p.m., then in 30 minutes the electricity went off for ten hours. Rough weather.

Rain, Beautiful Rain

I will not be able to work outside this morning.
When I look out the windows this is what I see.


It has been so dry, we had begun to water.
This was a valuable rain, as I now consider water to be
the "new gold".


Maybe I am paranoid after last summer's drought.
But it came, and none too soon.

We had a line of multiple booming, flashing, thunderstorms and hard rain moving through the garden during the night and early morning. It was noisy. I snuggled deeper, and slept dreamily. It reminded me of Celia Thaxter's little poem:

More rain,
More rest,
More babies in the nest.

If you have never read her little book,
An Island Garden by Celia Thaxter
With charming illustrations by Childe Hassam
Copyrite 1894
complete with garden diagram and plant list,
it can be found here where you can read it on your computer. It is worth at least a quick look. An Island Garden

Rainy Days

Spring's pale light.



Rain, rain, go away,
Come again another day!

Where were you last June, July and August!

We recently had four inches of rain in twenty-four hours. It was such a hard downpour! And, now it is raining again. Makes me eager for sunshine. Getting tired of mud - I have to stay out of the garden so not to compress the wet soil.

Browsing through some old photos, I noticed a few that reminded me of sunrays piercing through.

Riding the rays into the garden.

February

The old folks used to say February did not have weather of its own, that it borrows days from January and March. So it seemed this morning.

While waking as I lay abed before rising, I could hear March-like winds roaring in the treetops. This month we have had snow and bitter cold with freezing rain as if it were January. But the wind has been ruthless across the country. Numerous tornadoes killed many people while destroying the homes and dreams of many more.

My own brother and his family lost their house in Tennessee. The house was demolished, but I am happy to report thankfully, that no one was hurt. It is a wonder that is so.

Brother's work had taken him away to Texas. With alerts and warnings of dangerous weather rapidly approaching, his daughter-in-law and granddaughter had the good sense to go to a relation's house to spend the night in their basement which was built to serve as a storm cellar. There they were safe. But, his son, my forty-seven year old nephew who should have known better, foolishly stayed and survived by going to the floor in a centrally located closet. He has said he will never do that again. I am relieved he lived to learn the lesson. He said it hit and it all happened in three seconds, then it was over. Will people never learn we cannot toy with the forces of nature!

My brother told us, if they had been in bed, his son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter would have been killed. His voice choked-up as he tried to describe to us over the telephone what had landed on their beds where each normally would have lain. His own room was less damaged, but the house, as a whole is 100% totaled.

Their town, Jackson, Tennessee, was one of the worst damaged. Nearby (I am not good with guessing distances, but I guess about two miles), there is Union University (a Southern Baptist university) where over a thousand students were in dormitories. Their cars (over a thousand cars) in the parking lots were destroyed, dormitories were heavily damaged, but the students came out of those dormitories with only minor injuries! All who have seen the campus have deemed it a miracle due to divine intervention.

And, so, little February has been pitching its fits and raging about.

For this gardener, it is beginning to seem February is the designated month for illness. Last year I was ill all month, recuperating into March. This year viruses have landed on me again. I hope it doesn't extend more than a week this time, and I hope this is not a pattern establishing itself.

Viruses are bad enough, but I have the complication of a chronic pain syndrome that always flares when a virus sets in. It turns my brain to mush and buckles my knees. I have tried to do some writing, but it was impossible. I am in the sixth day of this siege, and as I type this, I feel the pain returning - the medicine is wearing off - not that it does a lot of good. I do not like to take pills, but believe me during these spells, I must. Each day I think: maybe this is the last day and tomorrow it will be gone... Maybe tomorrow, it will be.

Garden work has been at a standstill for a few months. Then last week major tree work was done by a professional tree service company. After five years, the last major "hanger" left by the ice storm of February 2003 is now gone, as is, one of our beloved fifty years old Sugar Maple street trees. It was 85% dead, and I didn't want to make the mistake I made with "The Most Important Tree", of which I have written in the past.

So, that is done; thus progress has been made. Snow has melted and there, smiling bright as buttons, are the little yellow Eranthis - this garden's harbinger of spring. Sweet, white snowdrops are appearing everywhere. The color of the Goldfinches at our feeder is gradually returning to their winter-drab feathers with each day. It takes such a little to make a gardener happy! Isn't life wonderful!