Random things of late…
Our garden is done, but the CSA is finally paying off – we completed a massive tomato and tomatillo salsa canning session last weekend.
The deer called Doe [rhymes with Zoe] might have had some babies, joined up with a larger family group, and has been bringing along another five or six to nibble at our backyard smorgasbord and leave an astounding number of shits – making me re-consider putting in a perimeter fence.
I found another alarming pile of poop of another kind when N moved one of our new window-unit air conditioners. I identified it possibly as:
1. bat guano
2. squirrel turds
3. roof rat droppings…
Amazingly, all of these beasts leave remarkably similar scat. I’m leaning toward bat though, because of the height of the window and I don’t want rats in our roof. Perhaps a bat took up residence in or under the air-conditioner while we were on vacation? But it didn’t stick around (at least I don’t think it’s in there still).
And I forgot to shoot the shit.
And speaking of bats, I do love them, and we’ve got plenty around here – I love watching them swoop in in the evenings and take out a sizable chunk of the even more sizable population of ‘skeeters. Eventually we’ll get around to building some bat houses.
I found out by accident that the giant spotty crickets that I found living near our well (that I was so startled by and didn’t bother to photograph in case I was the only one who saw them and they didn’t really exist) turned out to be another Asian invasion and quite common in the area. And now I’m wondering if they’re edible…
And we’ve finally experienced the yard in every season, and have identified all of the flora. The last hold-out was a large Burning Bush – I suspected that it could be one, and hoped it was so because otherwise it was a somewhat boring green thing.
Some of the weeds I never got around to pulling ended up being lovely flowers. I see the stuff around the roadsides here, so perhaps it’s native, or perhaps it’s an invasive beast? I wished I’d paid more attention to what it looked like when it was coming up, so I don’t pull it out next year, unless of course it is something to be rid of… I think it’s a Sunchoke. Anyone know if this variety is native to the Eastern states, or a nasty invader? I haven’t gone digging for the tubers yet.
And I have another pair of socks on the needles – these might end up being a gift.
I’ve been traveling for work a bit, and have enjoyed going by train, even though it adds another three hours to the trip. But the leg room is astounding, the cars are nearly empty (come on Americans, use it or loose it!) and the scenery on this particular route is nice.
I never wrote down (or can’t find my notes) my formula for going down a needle size or two for my standard socks, so I have to go through the misery again of figuring it out. In the meantime, I’m just using a heavier yarn and my old numbers…
And because of the new-to-us house and its ongoing expenses and labor (and my continued hobbled state) we decided not to go to Italy this year. The weather turning to autumn reminds me of my boots crunching along the trail in the warm central Apennine sun, so I’m a bit bummed out about it, but hopefully we’ll be back next year.
I also decided not to go to Rhinebeck to save money too – and since we’re often in Italy when it happens, this year was good timing for it – but I got enough of a fix at the New Jersey festival a few weeks ago.
I’ll have my own personal wool festival when I can finally unpack my boxes of the stuff soon…
ASTITCHMATISM 
cute little chicken creamer/vase…is it vintage?
Nope, though I’ve probably had it for almost 20 years. It’s a large water pitcher, but I have the small creamer too, and mom has the medium size – they turn up at thrifts because I think Marshalls/TJMaxx used to have them – I don’t think I got either of them actually in Italy which is where they’re made.
That looks like a native sunflower to me–they grow wild around here, too, and that variety looks like a thin-leaved sunflower. (I’ll look for a good link.) Very pretty!
Helianthus decapetalis looks likely. It’s tricky to distinguish without having the plant to look at, but I’m a sucker for trying to identify plants. lhttp://www.njpalisades.org/greenbrookBlooming.html
Yep, I think you’re right! It’s weird because I never saw them around at our old place or farther west, but this year I’ve seen them there, and heard of others seeing them for the first time in their areas too – I wonder what has helped them spread so suddenly…. But glad that they’re native, and they deer either didn’t eat them or there was enough to go around, so hopefully they like that untamed spot in the yard!