The Day Shift

 

Yesterday was a beautiful day.  The warmest Christmas Day in our area since 1982.  When I went out for my morning walk it was 43 degrees.  The sun was out, the squirrels were busy and there were plenty of birds including Blue Birds, Jays, Juncos and two or three kinds of Woodpeckers.  

My husband, always eager to see what the new day will bring, is usually up well before 6 am and out the door before the sun is up (7:43 am as of yesterday).  He commented yesterday morning that it was still so dark and when would the sun start coming up earlier?  I looked it up, and although we are past the winter solstice, the sun will not rise earlier until January 9th.  For the next two weeks, while the sun is setting later each day (4:50 pm yesterday), it is still also rising later each day.  The whole day is shifting.

Ahhh... science.

Merry Christmas

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

 

Here is a YouTube playlist of my first and favorite Christmas record.

A&P Christmas vol 3 1972

Solstice

 My last office when I worked had a wall of windows that faced full south.  My desk faced the windows and over the years I found that the sun dropped below the top of the window on November 12th and rose above it on January 30th.  I even noted it on Facebook.

During those weeks, on a sunny day, I would sometimes have to wear sunglasses in the afternoon whenever the sun hit a gap in the blinds.  Now I notice the sun's trajectory most on the mornings when I walk.  

Not long ago the neighbor and I were discussing the sunrise location through the trees and the effects of the shortened winter daylight on our moods and how we looked forward to the Solstice and the lengthening days when I had an image of my ancient ancestors sitting around a fire on the wide expanse of Salisbury Plain.  

 "Every winter these shortened days get me down more and more.  I wish we could somehow mark the point on the horizon when the days start to get longer so we would know we are on the upswing...

                               ... hey, what if we got a couple really big rocks..."

Photo Source

Happy Solstice!

Digging Horseradish

 The thing about fresh horseradish is that it doesn't stay fresh very long.  In the refrigerator, the prepared radish begins to lose its fire in a matter of days although I will keep it for five or six weeks.  With the holidays upcoming, I want to have some really good radish on hand for making cocktail sauce or as a condiment for beef meals.  Many a Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve has found me out in the snow with a pan of hot water and a fork, thawing the soil and digging in the mud.  While that can be done, I have learned to plan ahead.  The ungrated roots can be kept in the refrigerator for weeks without losing any quality.  I have tried freezing the roots, but they lose texture and heat immediately.

 The weather has been mild and clear, the recent rain has drained away and the ground is not very frozen.  The weather is supposed to get colder and wetter this week so I figured I had better get out there.  The roots I want are an inch to two inches wide.  The larger roots at the crown are very dry and coarse, and the smaller ones whittle away to nothing when you peel them.  I look for a good sized crown, two or three seasons old, on the edge of the clump that is sending roots outward.

These outward growing roots are the ones that are trying to colonize and spread your clump into areas where you don't want it.  This nice root (above) is headed for the railroad tie retaining wall and will eventually send up sprouts in the walkway on the other side.

I ended up with a lot of bits and pieces that I threw in the compost, but they could all be replanted today to create a larger crop.  I saved out the two roots I wanted, rinsed them at the outdoor spigot, then in the garage utility sink, and finally brought them in the house.  I don't want to put any effort into scrubbing these, I just want them mostly clean to store for later.

I cut off the crowns and cut each root in half to fit into a gallon sized freezer bag.

This goes in the hydrator where it can stay for a month or so.  There is enough here to make about two pints prepared.

Darn Deer

 It would be nice to think that in the winter, when all of the flowers are gone and the shrubs are protected, that we could rest for a few months.  Not so.  Yesterday afternoon, as we were sitting out at the firepit enjoying the mild weather with one last fire, we noticed that two of the mature Linden trees in the backyard had buck scrapes on them.  Bad ones.

I used to protect these with tree tubes, but they have outgrown the tubes I have, even if I use two per tree.  Tree trunks of this size aren't normally targeted.  The bucks we usually have around are more likely to work on the slender fruit trees that are narrow enough to get in between the forks of their modest racks.  This is a BIG buck.  Something that we haven't caught on game cams yet.

Below is a photo from last year.  We usually don't see bucks this big, but now and then one comes into the area. ...and leaves his mark

It was getting towards dusk when we noticed this.  The first thing I did was protect the apple trees.

I already have tubes on the small Gala apple tree and the pear tree.

Even the apple trees require double tubes.

It was a tight fit.  But I patched them together.

The third Linden is untouched.  All I could think of was a pair of tomato ladders.

Today I replaced the tomato ladders with some proper hardware cloth, but I prefer the tree tubes because if he gets to rubbing on the hardware cloth, he can still abrade the tree.

And next year we will have to protect them again.  This should not kill the otherwise healthy trees.  But it will scar them up pretty badly. 

Darn deer.

Wild Forage Wreath

 Today started out beautiful.  It has been gloomy and rainy and we have more rain and mixed precip on its way.  But this morning was warm and sunny and we were tempted outside just to do whatever.  Hose off the car, pull a few weeds. ...Sit and think.  This morning as we were coming home from breakfast I noticed that many of our neighbors had put out some greens and red bows.  Even the neighbors who are never home.  There are not a lot of outdoor decorations or lights because we are on a dead end and there just isn't a lot of traffic to enjoy them.  But I suddenly felt our home was looking kind of Scroogey.  I went as far as to pull out a wreath form and a paddle of floral wire.  Outside we had sat for about 5 minutes when I decided I should get going on my wreath while I could forage in nice weather and while I could keep the mess outside.

I've made many wreaths over the years.  My mother always makes beautiful Blue Spruce wreaths for gifts and my sister brings us one of those for our front door.  All I needed was a basic blob of green to go out front by the road.  So I can use anything I can forage and most of what we have is Hemlock which will drop every last needle before the end.  But its not going in the house and its not going on the door, so it can shed all it wants.  It isn't hard to find a nice variety in your average woodland and you can just trim the low cross branches or anything that smacks you in the head when you mow the lawn.

I ended up with Hemlock (from the yard), Spruce (from the dry creek bed), Pine (from the woods)  and Juniper (from the front landscape).  I considered adding some rose hips, but it turned out not to be necessary.  When making a wreath for a door I would usually use a wire coat hanger bent into a circle.  Those are the perfect size for your average door.  But I needed something a little bigger scale so I used a 18" (?) wire wreath form salvaged in past years.  All you do is cut up your branches to shortish tips, make a little bundle, lay it along the form and wrap the paddle wire around it.  You never cut the wire you just wrap it off of the paddle.

It was immediately apparent that I had underestimated the amount of greens I would need,  I wanted a big, full wreath.  But I didn't want to harvest too much unnecessarily, so I made several trips around the wood edge.  I added a bright red bow and wire tied it, top and bottom, to the front fence rail.  

Now it at least looks like we are making an effort!

Rosey Morning

 

It looks warm and rosey but its cold on the nosey