Odds and Ends

 

Not much is going on around here. The mulch pile is heating nicely under its plastic cover. On the weekend Ron takes off the tarp and stirs it up with his tractor. I receive so much satisfaction watching it steam in the air. It smells so nice and loamy. Ron was in a car with his boss driving to a job and they were talking and Ron was telling the man how nice that mulch pile smelled. His boss asked, " What does it smell like? What makes it smell good?" We were on a walk, as he was telling me this story, so we both pondered since his boss isn't a gardener apparently how do you describe the smell of mulch? Forest floor? Walking in the woods after a rain? How would you describe it?

We have had so much lovely rain. One of the things I love to so is pull up that tarp and watch that beautiful, cold and clear water pour off onto the ground. The pasture is so wet you couldn't get a tractor in it. We are ahead of our rain amounts. One of the weatherman I watched said we have another atmospheric river headed this way and its lined up past Japan. It should be here next week by Thursday or Friday.  Isn't that grand?

 Okay back again, just had to go for a walk to take some new pictures because I hadn't got my 250 steps for this hour. Then I was so close to the next thousand steps I had to go take a fast walk out in the rain. I have it bad let me tell you. Yesterday at Bible study I parked my car as far as I could away from the church I walked out to my car 3 times.  When we took a bathroom break I went down the stairs into the next building for more steps. I ended up with 13 floors yesterday because I went up and down steps so many times. I do feel so good with all of this exercise. Or it could be because the weather just energizes me knowing I can have a garden this year.

These pictures I just took. All of my flowers are so bedraggled. When I went out there I realized I haven't trimmed my roses and its January.

Its so cold this rose has been frozen at this stage. It might have been waiting for its picture to be taken. The air has that feel to it when it is snowing in the mountains. The air is so fresh and clean.

I continue to be mesmerized by raindrops. This is the feverfew that is going to town this year because of the rain. So are my bulbs. My iris bulbs and tulips are growing I hope they don't rot with all of the standing water.

Here is one of my flowerbeds.

The ground is so saturated that standing water is everywhere. Hopefully this weekend we get a break and it will have time to soak in before more storms come. It is nicer to have rain and water outside than  inside. I think we got everything dry this week using a heater to dry things. At least it doesn't smell like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. That was what I thought every time I came in the house this week.

 My poor ole Black-Eyed Susan's look like black-eyed spiders. I should have cut those back too, but it is nice to see them even if they are so wet.

I took Sasha for a walk this morning. Even the sheep wasn't out grazing. He is mine and Sasha's highlight of our walk. They must be going to keep him as a ram as he hasn't become a wether yet. He is very unique looking his head and to his shoulders and his two front legs are all black. Then behind his shoulders and his back half is white. I noticed too they had not docked his tail. You know seeing that lamb on walks sure gives me sheep and goat envy. Along with chick and cow envy. There is that pig next door now. I miss having more animals than I do.

I have to tell you this funny thing I saw the other day when I was out walking. I had my chickens out in the back yard. I am always on the lookout for hawks. I noticed there was a small falcon sitting in the top of one of the trees. I could tell by his hooked beak. He saw me long before I saw him. He very gracefully glided over to another tree. I kept walking. He knew I was watching him when he decided to fly to a tree in the back of the pasture. There was a blue jay sitting in the top of that tree and when he saw that hawk flying at him, he sort of just fell out of that tree with a scream. I just started laughing because it was so funny. The hawk, decided to fly on to a different place, and I never saw where the blue jay went.

Well should stop writing its almost time to get up and go get 250 steps. That hour flew by. Peter is on the mend. He looks like a little chipmunk with his cheeks full of seeds. I hope you have a lovely weekend. I hope to work outside this weekend if it is sunny.* Crossing my fingers.* The nettles in our last years garden is lush. I would like to cut it and dry it. I need some nettle tea this time of year.

Blessings from me to you.

~Kim~

I had not known before that love is obedience. You want to love, and you can’t, and you hate yourself because you can’t, and all the time love is not some marvelous thing that you feel but some hard thing that you do. And this in a way is easier because with God’s help you can command your will when you can’t command your feelings. With us, feelings seem to be important, but He doesn’t appear to agree with us.

Elisabeth Goudge---Scent of Water. My current read.