Whoah! Will ya look at that? Who knew all those poppy seeds would take over the garden?
When the garden’s full of weeds,
We give thanks for poppy seeds,
Once they grow they cover up
Every weed that’s coming up.
Category Archives: Gardening
Thankful
The robins who flew down from the snowy hills a few days ago are having their Thanksgiving dinner. They may eat a few worms and bugs for meat, but the “robins’ version of cranberry sauce” for their dinner comes from these pyracantha berries by our house. Wikipedia says the berries are not poisonous although they contain miniscule amounts of a cyanide-like compound (heavy on the like, I hope). The berries are probably not harmful or I would see dead robins all over the place. They certainly gobbled down a lot of them, as they do every year at this time.
“Sure not much left on my plate,” he says, judging by all the emptied stems.
“But I think I spy a fat, juicy one down there.”
“Is it Anneli’s camera, or is this berry a bit fuzzy? … Never mind. It tastes pretty good just the same.”
“Ahh! That hit the spot.”
“And what are the rest of you Canadians having for your Thanksgiving? I hope your dinner was as good as mine. In my case, it may be just berries, but don’t we have a lot to be thankful for, even in these troubled times?”
First Dampish Days
A dampish day, but that’s okay,
The sky is overcast,
The garden’s wet, so I’m all set,
The watering chore is past.
A squirrel hops, he looks, and stops,
He chatters to my face,
Then turns to run and have more fun,
At some much safer place.
I pick a pear and am aware
That rabbits like to chew,
If fruit should fall to ground at all,
It’s nibbled through and through.
The garden thrives and gives up chives
To make a lovely sauce,
But not the squash, it was a wash,
Complete and total loss.
I’m glad that kale does not get stale,
It’s growing, slow but strong,
This healthy plant in soup just can’t
Make anything go wrong.
A lonely rose, so bravely grows,
And blooms its last few days,
But come next year, you must not fear,
Again, it will amaze.
Wilma the Pileated Woodpecker
Wilma is a pileated woodpecker. She doesn’t have the red slash that the males have under their cheek. Wilma is a juvenile. Her red topknot is not yet fully developed.
She is hungry for insects, her main food.
“Oh, look! There’s Anneli’s garden,” says Wilma. “She’s always complaining about the bugs in it. I should check it out.”
“Now let’s have a look. Yup! Lots of weeds, so that’s good for my bug search.”
“Just got to make sure that dog of hers isn’t around. That Emma can be a real nuisance.”
“Okay, first raised bed. Hmm … nothing but stray poppies and weeds. What gives?”
“And over here, she hasn’t even planted anything … other than a few rocks.”
“These oriental poppies look pretty. Buzzing with bees inside them. But I’m looking for bugs, not bees.”
“Okay, so that was a bust. I think I’ll just stick to my roaming around and around these fir trees, and maybe check out a few stumps.”
“By the way, you want to hear my dad calling? He is magnificent!”
Slime Mold
No, it isn’t what the dog threw up, but it sure looks like it could be. It was growing in the bark mulch in my backyard. First time I’ve seen it.
Back in April, Pit from pitsfritztownnews posted a photo of slime mold (also called dog vomit slime mold), and I said that we don’t have it here. He’s in Texas; I’m on Vancouver Island. I’ve added a link to his post at the bottom of the page.
This slime mold is about the size of an adult hand with fingers spread out.
Apparently this fungus frequently comes in bark mulch and grows when the weather is humid. Hot dry weather usually dries it up and it dies. Meanwhile, although it is not meant to be eaten, it won’t kill you and it’s not toxic to pets. It is just to be tolerated and possibly admired for its uniqueness.
Here is Pit’s link:
https://pitsfritztownnews.wordpress.com/2020/04/10/this-here/
