The Visa Quest Nearly Finished

Lughnasa                                       Waning Harvest Moon Today we moved from conjecture to certainty.  The top person at English Gate Academy, Ahmed, e-mailed Mark and said he would write a personal note to the Saudi Embassy asking them to speed Mark’s visa application along. His papers cleared the Saudi Cultural Mission today and are at the Embassy so […]

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Bee and Garden Diary

Mid-Summer                                                                                          Waning Garlic Moon Today I performed partial hive box reversals in all three colonies.  The second hive box of three gets rotated to the bottom and the first or bottom box rotates up to take its place.  This means that all the hive boxes have to be moved, so it is a labor intensive […]

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Chicken Pot Pies and Memories

Fall                                                 Waning Back to School Moon Before the Vikings game on Sunday I made two chicken pot pies, whole pies filled with chicken, vegetables and a thickened vegetable broth made in the process.  These are my second and third meat pies and I find I enjoy making them as much as I do soup.  Something […]

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A Green Neighbor

Lughnasa                                               Waxing Back to School Moon Early am picked wild grapes.  Kate makes them into a grape jelly.  The harvest was not as bountiful this year because we arrived about three weeks late to the banquet.  Others had gotten there first.  So it goes.  More than compensated for by the abundance of raspberries. After the […]

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Extra Work Raises Grade

Lughnasa                                 Waxing Artemis Moon Up early and out in the garden.  This is the way I like it, working in the garden before and during sunrise, a coolness, some damp lingering from the night, stillness carrying only the softest of sounds, the earth friable and eager, weeds willing to come up and the garden’s purpose […]

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Hooray for the Red, White and Blue

Summer                                            Waning Strawberry Moon Hooray for the red, white and blue.  That is, the blueberries, the raspberries and the white clover among which I picked them this morning.  Worked outside for an hour and a half, moving an outdoor table back to its original place on the brick patio outside our garden doors, a plastic […]

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Weed

Summer                                            Waning Strawberry Moon Nice weather for weeding so I took the opportunity and finally got into the second and third tiers of our back perennial garden.  Out go the raspberry canes.  Out go the stinging nettles.  Out go the dogwood suckers.  Out go the switch grass and and other weedy plants.  In stays the […]

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Fall Clean-up

Fall                                         Waxing Blood Moon Out in the garden this morning taking down plants that have finished their labors.  Large cruciform vegetable plants grew from the seeds I started inside, but they never developed any fruits.  They’re in the compost now.  All the tomato vines save one have come down.  The last tomato harvest went inside […]

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