Walks and hikes – Page 7

Olio

Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things

I finally gave up on trying to contain the mature hens. Ms. Houdini and Ms. Apprentice could get out no matter what I did to prevent it and the small area in front of the Palace was getting dug up to a hazardous state for my old bones. I took the plastic fence “gate” and put it on two step in posts across the front porch opening. The shorter pieces of plastic fence that had been protecting flower gardens but had to be removed to put the scaffolding up are being used to block the holes under that same porch to prevent the hens from going underneath. Those two hens will probably hide their eggs, but the production from the hens fell sharply when I stopped them from free ranging.

Yesterday, the wild birds had no feeders up. Today we went to Lowes to replace the Niger seed feeder and the suet feeder and instead I found a large tube feeder that was divided similar to the one that was destroyed by the bear, so again the three favored feeds are hanging from the double shepherd’s crook pole and they will be brought in every night. The Finches, Titmice, and Woodpeckers have already found them and started visiting again. The Chickadees which I favor, quit coming to the feeder in spring and summer and will rejoin the other small birds in the late fall and winter.

A couple of days ago, I finished my May spindle challenge spinning and plied the yarn on my wheel, gave it a wash and hung to dry. It is a pretty 4 ounce skein of turquoise Falklands dyed wool, about 485 yards. I haven’t measured it’s WPI since it’s bath, but it was about 18 prior.

I haven’t decided whether to knit it or sell it as yarn. Falklands is a nice spin and very soft.

Last week, I purchased a destashed Jenkins spindle that was in Sweden and figured it would take at least 3 weeks to arrive here. According to tracking, it has already been processed in Chicago, so I may see it by the middle or end of this week. It is a size that I don’t currently have and a weight that is within my preference.

This is a photo that the seller sent. It is Birdseye Maple, a very pretty spindle. It is only 9 grams, so it will be my lightest, though not my smallest spindle.

One of hubby and my walks is a section of an old paved over railgrade through part of Blacksburg and into Christiansburg. Since I moved here, it has been expanded from the original 7 miles to more than double that. There are two sections that we often walk, in both cases going out and returning on the same trail. The one at the origin point takes you to right across from the University stadium and last night we left the trail, took the sidewalk up a known road and picked the trail back up at the bridge that crosses that road. In doing it, we saw another trail that appeared to go along the edge of Stadium Woods, so once back to the car, we drove back toward the facilities buildings near the stadium to see if we could find it’s origin. In doing so, we discovered three streets with a cross street paralleling the one we had been on that we didn’t even know were back there and the trail and decided that the trail that we had seen from the stadium must be the origin. Today, we again walked out the section of the railgrade to the stadium and took the paved trail we had seen the night before. It wasn’t the same one. The one today took us on the other side of Stadium Woods parallel to the one we had found last night in our exploration, but it eventually brought us out near the same termination point and we walked back through the neighborhood to our car. I had hubby drive back to were we had seen it last night near the facilities building and let me out while he drove around back to the stadium parking and I walked it toward the stadium to see where it originated. I beat him to the parking lot as it seems that where he let me out was less than 1/10th of a mile from the origin and I walked out to the lot to wait for him. It looks like it will be a nice walk to do on another day. It will give us some variety, making an out and back walk into a shady loop.

Blackberry Winter and Growing Things

The littles aren’t little anymore and they don’t walk anywhere. They flap and flutter out of the coop and once all are out, bump breasts and fly across the pen. They are an entertaining morning event.

Yesterday we walked bundled up like for winter in a chilly, breezy day. By last evening, it has gotten milder and stayed mild over night and today is pleasant. Our walk was around the pond today, which was teeming with new life. There were thousands of tiny tadpoles, turtles the size of quarters, and small fish but I couldn’t get close enough to get any good photos of them. One of the geese has hatched 4 goslings and she and proud Papa had them out and about, pretty fearless of the walkers on the path.

Salamanders sunning on the retaining wall.

And flowers providing some color where there was none only a couple weeks ago.

The peas in the garden are climbing the trellis, potatoes are sprouting tufts of green leaves, garlic and onions standing tall. The tomatoes and peppers aren’t showing any new growth yet, but as soon as it warms again, they will. The fig moved to the half barrel is showing new leaves and new growth as are the transplanted raspberries. Soon it will be time to plant the cucumbers, corn, beans, tomatillos, and ground cherries. Every year, I plant some lettuce, spinach, and chard or kale and every year they don’t do well and I purchase it cut and clean from the Farmer’s Market. I am still hopeful that the transplants will provide some food for us. The hay is thick and as tall as the deer bellies as they walk through it. Mowing of hay will begin around the area soon, if the rain doesn’t throw the schedules off like last year. It is definitely taking a turn toward warmer weather.

Walk On

When spring came and we dedicated ourselves to a daily walk, we expected to have a day or two each week when the weather was uncooperative. We have walked 28 out of the past 30 days. Only one of those days did we cut the walk a bit short, only doing 2 miles, when we could see a thunderstorm bearing down on us. We thought today was going to be a washout. There was no rain in the forecast, but gloomy gray. Yesterday, I purchased replacement tomato and pepper plants for granddaughter’s garden as something ate every pepper plant to the ground and most of the tomato starts I gave them didn’t take. Today, we planned to take them to daughter’s house after lunch and after picking her up from the car servicing center and helping daughter and granddaughter plant them in their garden. I took two of the flexible poles and bird net to cover the peppers, T posts and the pounder to create the Florida trellis for the tomatoes. On our way to pick daughter up, it started raining, continued to rain while we waited for her to get her car checked in, and part of the way back to her house. Then it stopped. The garden is replanted, the tomatoes a bit larger than the ones I started, the peppers now protected (we hope) by a dome of bird netting. And the only picture I managed to take while the three of us gardened was the variety of lichens on the neighbor’s fence that provides one side of daughter’s garden too.

The picture was accompanied by a lesson for the 9 year old on symbiosis, which her mom said was a refresher from last year.

Our walk followed the garden session, still cloudy, but no more rain. Each week our miles for the week are recorded and shared with a virtual walking group in our community and each week we get a cummulative report with photos. A fun way to keep up with neighbors.