Peggy's Jibber-Jabber: Speaking Of ...

“Peg, my mountain Laurel is blooming,” Miss Rosie said.

“It is!” I got up from my seat on their front porch and went to take pictures.

“If you want to get a cutting from it, you’re welcome to,” my Miss Rosie said when I got back. “That’s an old bush. It was here when we moved in 45 years ago.”

I Googled it and discovered if you take a cutting you need growth hormone. It’ll be easier for me if I wait until the seeds have set and get a few of those.

Mountain Laurel is related to Azaleas and Rhododendrons.

The leaves are used as a disinfectant wash and liniment for pain from rheumatism, scratches, inflammation, and will even eliminate body parasites.

Speaking of pictures…

You know I’ve been having trouble with my camera which turned out to be just trouble with my lenses. My two big 18-250 mm lenses don’t want to focus all the time. Then I used a smaller lens that cast a blue hue on all my photographs. I dug around in my camera supplies and found an 18-55 mm lens that’s like new. I’m using that one most of the time now. While digging around I found a macro lens!

And to think I was looking to buy one! I laughed at myself.

With a macro lens I have to be pretty close to my subject before it’ll focus. The very first thing I took a picture of was a dish of marbles on the kitchen patio. If you’ve been following my jibber-jabber you know why they’re covered in dust. And since it was just a practice picture, one I hadn’t planned on using in your letter blog, I wasn’t worried about the dust. And here I am using the photo anyway! OY!

Speaking of macro lens…

I had a good time taking macro pictures for you.

A toady and Blue-eyed Grass.

I went out early Friday morning and took the macro lens with me. It had rained the day before and I can’t tell you if this is rain or morning dew.

Speaking of morning dew…

The spider webs are easy to spot in the early morning with rain or dew on them.

I was looking for one of those big beautiful Garden Spiders but I found this guy hanging upside down in his web. In order to get a picture of his top-side I’d have to lay on the ground and shoot straight up — and that wasn’t going to happen. You’ll have to be content with this view and it’s not enough to give me an ID.

This is a Monarch look-alike, the Viceroy. He only has a row and a half of white spots and a Monarch will have two full rows. That’s how you tell them apart. Birds can’t count. It looks enough like a Monarch that the birds leave them alone. Because the Monarch caterpillar feeds exclusively on Milkweed it makes them bitter and the birds won’t eat them.

On the way back to the house I almost walked into this guy! He was holding a water droplet and suspended in mid-air by a filament I can only assume was web.

Speaking of the house…

My little chipmunk found his morning offering of walnuts. He was sitting there in the sun, happily munching away and I was watching him. Then I saw Anon coming across the yard. You can see the exact moment Alvin spots her. He stops chewing, sits straight up, and watches as she approaches.

He doesn’t wait overly long before he scampers off to his hidey-hole and Anon saw him go.

Speaking of critters…

The baby woodchucks have dug a hole in the new rock wall Mike made down by the barn. I thought I’d trap ‘em and re-home ‘em.

“Peg! It’s illegal to move wild animals from one location to another!” you say.

Yep. Yes, it is. But you are permitted to do it provided you don’t take them any more than five miles from where you trapped them.

All I caught was a raccoon and I let him loose.

If I can’t trap ‘em, Mike’ll have to shoot ‘em. We can’t have them damaging the walls and foundations. And I know that killing a few isn’t going to hurt the population of whistlepigs any.

“I don’t want to be around when you do it and I don’t want to know anything about it,” I told him.

And speaking of rocks…

Mike was working on replacing the big rocks that block off our second driveway and keep people from driving up that way. He’d moved them to allow the bridge builders to come up and dump the cut stones from the old bridge foundation.

Mike can’t see the front of the front of the forks when he’s working on the tractor and has to guess when they’re on the ground. He misjudged and bent the bottom of the frame. If you use your equipment it’s bound to get dented and scratched. It wouldn’t be a big deal except the forks won’t stay on now.

Mike wasn’t happy about his mishap and wouldn’t let me take a picture.

“How are you going to remember this in a few years if I don’t write about it?” I wanted to know.

“I don’t want to remember it,” Mike says.

We went to the local welding shop and while they were looking at it, I was able to get this shot for you. The rail, on the far left of the frame is bent out.

“I think we can heat it and straighten it out for you,” Scott says.

We left it and picked it up the next day. They did a great job and it didn’t cost us that much.

And speaking of boo-boos…

“At least your mistake can be fixed,” I confessed to Mike on the way home. “Mine can’t.”

“What’d’ya mean?” he asked.

“When I was mowing the dog run, I was mowing the edge of the Gladiolus and the mower sucked up the wire. It ripped off almost all the tops!”

“Did you hurt the mower?” Mike wanted to know.

“Nope. I stopped as quick as I could. It’s fine — but my Gladiolus aren’t!”

And they were doing so well too!

Now, without any wire, the cats are using the soft soil for a litter box. I can’t keep them out of it. I’m just hoping cat poop makes good fertilizer!

And speaking of cats…

Someone dumped a cat and kittens and my beautiful cousin Stacey has taken them in. She wants to keep the mama and posted pictures of the kittens on FaceBook.

I showed the pictures to the Kipps in case they had room in their house for another kitten.

“I’d like to have another orange cat,” Miss Rosie said. “I miss Julius. He was my favorite.”

Living in the country the way we do, cats just come up missing. We speculate they’ve entered the food chain via a fox or coyote but we never know for sure.

“I’d like to have another orange cat too!” I confessed and thought of Rascal. He was my favorite and died from complications of a bladder blockage.

“No!” Mike chimed in.

“Thanks for thinking of us but I think we have enough cats for now,” Miss Rosie finished.

Then our Molly died. My house felt just a little bit emptier. I messaged Stacey.

“Any chance you have an orange kitten left?”

“No. They’re all spoken for.”

It was just as well. I hadn’t cleared it with Mike first.

Thursday night, sitting in the recliner, watching TV with Mike, I got a message from Stacey. “Someone just called out of getting the orange male cat… fate says he must be yours!”

I handed my phone to Mike. He read Stacey’s message, handed the phone back to me and said, “No.”

“But we just lost Molly and only have one cat in the house now,” I begged.

“One cat? How do you figure?”

“Macchiato is the only full-time house cat we have left. The boys stay out most of the time.”

My phone dinged again, signaling a new message. “He’s very sweet and likes to be held.” I handed the phone back to Mike so he could read it.

“We’ll have to get him fixed.”

“We can take him to the Spaymobile. It’s only thirty-five dollars.”

“Oookay,” he relented.

They’re only about seven weeks old. Eat hard food and are litter trained. “They’ll be ready in about a week,” Stacey said.

We had a long discussion about cats and kittens. “Kittens who stay with the mother until she weans them tend to do much better than those who are taken away too soon. It’s just better for both of them. Since I’m planning on keeping him for 16 or 19 years, could you keep him longer?” I asked.

“The mama is already starting to push them away and not spending as much time with them. But I’ll keep him for a couple of more weeks. He’ll be the last to go.”

I’m looking forward to having a kitten in the house.

But back to speaking about rocks…

All the cut stones were spread out on a concrete pad out back. It’s where we had a huge fire to burn the brush.

“What can we do with the rest of rocks?” Mike asked.

“We could stack them around the edge and make a wall,” I suggested.

“You’ll have to help.” Mike didn’t want to bend the frame again.

It was my job to stand in the baking-hot sun and tell Mike how to adjust his forks. Using our phones allowed for communication beyond what hand signals could convey. It took us a couple of hours to get them stacked and they’re not perfect but, “It looks like a nice place for a bonfire,” I told Mike.

And speaking of moving rocks…

While Mike was pushing a rock, try to persuade it up unto the forks, he ground up a little black snake. Sigh.

We also scared up a good size Wolf Spider carrying her egg sack. I tried to pick her up and move her to a safer location but every time I convinced her to get on my hand she’d jump off before I could restrain her.

“Come on Peg!” my impatient husband, sitting in an airconditioned tractor cab yelled through the speaker on my phone.

“Wait! I’m trying to get this Wolf Spider!”

“The heck with that spider! Let’s get this job done!”

I kept my eye on her for a little while as we moved rocks and she scampered from one to another but eventually lost her. I don’t know if she made it out of the war zone or not.

Speaking of spiders…

I found two interesting ones this week. This one’s called a Hackledmesh Weaver.

And this one is a Common House Spider also called a Tangle-web Spider.

Speaking of spiders… again…

We happened on the spiders while looking for a 4x4 to make carpenter bee traps. Mike likes to just spray them with an aerosol insecticide but I hate using poisons — unless it’s absolutely necessary.

We scrounged around amongst our vast and varied supplies and found a piece of 4x4 that was saved from a previous project. See! You never know when you’re gonna need this stuff! Mike used a three-quarter spade bit and drilled up about four inches. He drilled a matching hole in the coffee jar lids.

A half-inch spade bit drilled an upward hole (the bees like to climb) on all four sides to intersect with the main hole.

A metal staple hammered in the top is what we’ll suspend it from.

I added a drizzle of honey to act as bait.

This was a fast and easy project. Now we’ll wait and see if it works.

On a side note here, if you’re going to try this project and it’s going to be out in the elements, you may want to either add a roof or cut your wood on a slant to shed water.

Speaking of projects…

I completed two new ones this week and started a third one.

First, I made a set of three jars. I used a salsa jar, a pickle jar, and a garlic jar. Chalk paint and decoupage images. For the lids I spray painted, drilled a hole, and added a drawer pull.

“Peg, what are you going to do with them?” you ask.

I don’t know. I just have such a desire to make things and this one didn’t cost much of anything except my time.

Then I made a ‘flower’ to decorate our plant-protecting fences. I have a bunch of old dishes I picked up at a rummage sale that are patiently waiting for their turn to be reinvented. I drilled holes in the plate to thread a wire through. That gives me a way to attach it to the fence. The bowl and candle holder are siliconed on.

In process, I have two flower pots that were broken. One of the pots was in a holder on a post and a racoon knocked it down. I picked up all the little pieces and set it aside intending to pitch it later. The other was in a plant stand and much closer to the ground. It broke when they pushed it over. That one was in four big pieces. Again, I picked it up intending to pitch it.

Then we started watching Bones. In the show they put skulls back together and other than the cracks, they look perfect. Somewhere along the line, my mind decided if they could do that, then I could put a flower pot back together. The one with the big pieces went together easily and I was pleased with my craftiness. The one with the small pieces was more of a challenge. For one thing, if you don’t get the angle just right, the next piece won’t be right, and the piece after that won’t be right, and in the end you end up with more piece than you have hole to put it in! The pieces didn’t fit back in! I’m not unhappy about it the though. The flower pot is 2-D as some of the pieces are glued on top. It kinda looks like a flower or a leaf, don’t’cha think?

I don’t have any real plans where to go from here. I’m going to paint it with my homemade chalk paint and either decoupage it or paint each broken piece in a bright, fun color.

Speaking of making and painting…

My beautiful friend Jody came over Saturday afternoon to make concrete leaves. I’d been eyeballin’ some nice-sized burdock down on the lower part of Robinson Road. Then Mike came home from visiting with the neighbors and gave me some bad news.

“They’re putting in power lines down there and tore out all of the burdock you were looking at.”

Sigh.

Having heard my story of woe, dear sweet handsome Lamar kept his eyes open the next time he went for a run. “There’s a nice size one growing about halfway up the hill.”

When Jody showed up to make leaves, I knew where to go to get some. You don’t want to pick them too long before you’re going to use them because they wilt.

I saw on a You Tube video that a guy coated the leaves with oil to make them easier to pull off. I’ve never had any problem with that but decided to give it a try anyway.

Mike mixed the concrete for us and shoveled it onto the leaves after we had them placed on forms.

“How big do I want my hill?” Jody asked.

“As deep as you want the bowl in your leaf.”

I tried to unmold one after 24 hours but it broke apart on me. Mike is guessing because we used dirt to form our molds that it’s holding more moisture. It’ll be at least another day before I’ll try again. Then we just clean and paint them!

Speaking of Jody…

I’ve got a picture of a chickadee bringing food to the youngins in the birdhouse on the patio. Three days later I’ve got a wren going in and out.

“What is going on?” I asked Jody. “Do I have a male chickadee and a female wren? You know, a mixed marriage?”

Jody laughed. “I don’t think it works that way. But wrens can be aggressive. They’ll drive other birds from a nesting box and cover the eggs or hatchlings with twigs so the parents can’t feed them.”

Meanies!

Jody always gets tickled when she can teach me things. She thinks I know a lot but in reality, I just have good Googling skills.

Speaking of Googling skills…

I Googled this tiny little pink flower so I could tell you what it’s good for. I already know her name. She’s Deptford Pink. I remember it because it almost sounds like Stepford as in Stepford Wives. I don’t know. I’m weird.

“What did you find out?” you wanna know.

I didn’t find any uses. Only that it gets its name because of the 17th century naturalist Thomas Johnson. He described a pink flower growing in Deptford in South-East London.

I love these little flowers and I didn’t even have my macro lens on.

Speaking of pink flowers…

Herb Robert is blooming. This is a small five-petal pink flowers. Other names for this wildflower are Red Robin, Death Come Quickly, Storksbill, Fox Geranium, Stinking Bob, Crow’s Foot, and Roberts Geranium.

It’s named after the abbot and herbalist Robert of Molesme.

In herbalism, it’s used to treat diarrhea, to improve liver and gallbladder function, reduce swelling, and to prevent the formation of kidney stones. Some people use it as a mouthwash, and chew on fresh leaves to relieve a sore mouth and throat. Applied to the skin it’ll repel mosquitos.

The leaves can be eaten or made into tea. The flower and the leaves can be dried and used throughout the winter.

I read this and can’t imagine the leaves taste any better than they smell. It’s called Stinking Bob because if you crush the leaves, they smell like burnt rubber.

And now I’m running out of “Speaking ofs”. How about some random pictures to round out the week?

Spatter Dock, a pond lily.

Spike Rush, a pond plant.

This is Curly Dock, also called Yellow Dock. I never thought it got a flower but one website says it does. To me, the flowers look just like the seeds. Dock is a very seedy plant. You can grind the seeds and make a flour that tastes somewhat like buckwheat. The leaves can be eaten when young.

In herbalism, the root is often used for treating anemia, due to its high level of iron. Both the leaves and root may be a laxative in some individuals, though not in all, and generally it’s mild. Dock will also help with skin conditions if applied externally to things like itching and sores. It’s also used for respiratory conditions, specifically those with a tickling cough that is worse when exposed to cold air.

I am anxiously awaiting the opening of the Milkweed flowers. I think it’s such a pretty flower. And, of course, I can hardly wait for the Monarch caterpillars! I’ve got my butterfly house all cleaned out and waiting!