Birth Announcement

Jackie did it again.  She often surprises me with her kids in the morning, even when I've been watching her closely for signs that she will soon be kidding.  But she knows her stuff and this morning there were two beautiful clean and shiny kids, and no afterbirth either.  They are beautiful - a male and female, Ike and Tina.  Ike is in front with the white patch on his head.  They are considered mini Nubians since Mom is a Nubian and Dad is a Nigerian Dwarf - both are milk breeds.

Pregnant goat

Last winter, I found a lovely woman on the coast who had a Nigerian Dwarf buck and she was willing for me to bring my rather large Nubian doe to him for breeding.  As it turned out, Tami went beyond duty and had to construct a soapbox, sort of, for her buck, Dusky, to stand on to mount Jackie.  Would you like a visual?  It's pretty funny.

As you can see, he's just getting ready and you can see he really does need a platform cause he's a little guy.  Now it's 4-1/2 months later and Jackie is looking very PG.  I'm hoping for multiple births and I don't think I'll be disappointed.  In the past she had singlets, boys. 

 

Her side is kind of in the shadow, but if you look closely you can see it bulging just this side of the fencepost.  So her due date is June 30, which is 150 days after impregnating, but can be from 145 to 155, so I'll pay particular attention to her from now on.  They will be cute and colorful.

Gardening

So what else is new?  But seriously, I do love being out in the garden with the birds and bees and all the amazing growth taking place in the last few weeks.  Finally, my tomatoes are beginning to look like hearty plants with blooms and a few tiny green tomatoes.  Although we have what might be called mild winters, our last frost date is still mid-May.  I usually plan on getting the tomatoes in around Mother's day, but they sit there wanting the soil to be a little warmer and the nights a little warmer, but eventually decide that they'll just go ahead and grow anyway.  So now they have their second cage around them and are good to go.

When I plant, I put one of those ubiquitous cages and wait for them to get some growth,  Then, hopefully before they outgrow those, I put the final cage around them.  I make 6' rolls out of fencing and stake them down.  I also tie them together in the middle so if one plant wants to try and fall into the path, it can't because it's tied to the one on the other side.  Here's a photo so you'll get the idea.

The garlic in the foreground was planted in October.  It's been watered a few times after the rains stopped, but I turned off the irrigation the end of May.  Now I pushed the tops over, gently.  I have some hardneck mixed in there and don't want to break off those tops.  I'll let them stay in the ground for another week, then dig and hang them, tops, roots and all, in the garden shed for a month.  During that time, I'll select some of the really nice ones for making braids, but leave the others to dry completely.  The tops will most come off of their own accord at that point and I'll store them in a cool, dry, dark place.  My garlic lasts a whole year, treated this way, and I've been growing garlic for 20 years now.  The head are huge which makes peeling one clove pretty easy.  And when a recipe calls for 2 or 3 garlic cloves, mine are probably the equivalent of 5 or 6 of the kind you buy in the store.  But I use the same quantity anyway.  Love that garlic.

All's well that ends well

Basil has been a houseguest here for about a month.  She's a 10 month old Beagle and her owner is away in India until the end of May.  She's coming home sooner because she misses her puppy.  Basil is cute and funny and a perfect little Beagle, but I'm used to Shelties, who are so biddable and trainable, so we've struggled.  We reached the final straw when Basil decided that it was great fun to run up and down next to the chicken pen, because being chickens, they flap and get very excited.  In fact, one was so discombobulated that she flew over her fence right into Basil's path.  Luckily, all Basil got was a mouthful of black feathers and some timeout in her crate, but it did bring home to me the realization that sweet though she is, Basil is just not a farm dog.  And I'm hoping for goat kids in a week or so, therefore the prospect of tiny kids and Basil's excitement did not bode well.

She was a great companion in my studio, where she had her favorite chair, and her funny little ways.

 Her owner's parents were up in Philo for the weekend and arranged for Basil to leave with them and live with their son for a few weeks until their daughter comes home to her puppy.  All's well that ends well.

Spring is sprung

I've been working like crazy to get starts transplanted, get garden beds ready, pulling weeds, setting up watering on beds that already have garlic, lettuce, cole crops and onions.  A gate was left open and a very large doe enjoyed the spring buds of most of my roses.  Let me just say, I think deer are vermon!  She also liked the bottom branches of the apple trees.  Luckily she became frightened and found her own way out, jumping over two fences.  As I went to close the big gate that was left open, there was another deer about to enter - she'd heard the good news!

I love this time of year, despite all the work.  The back of the house and trellis is particularly spectacular.  You can't really tell, but there is a yellow Lady Banks rose climbing over the wisteria on the right.  Dynamic combination.  And on the left of the house is a Joseph's Coat rose that I love.  Try to ignore the satellite dishes.

In new farm activity, other than gardening, I have new chicks I ordered.  They are Welsummers, a breed that is pretty and lays very dark brown eggs.  I have 12 pullets and 5 roosters (because that was the minimum order).  I'll see if anyone wants the extra roosters.  I'm hoping to get some araucanas also for a nice egg color contrast to the dark brown.  Here are the chicks.  They are a little crowded, but I want them to be a little older before I put them in the chick nursery in the chicken house.

Hummingbirds

It's March and there are new hatchings of hummingbirds, making life around the feeder a little frenzied.  They are like phone calls - they all seem to come in at the same time, but it's particularly busy at the end of the day, when they stock up for the long night.  Oftentimes, these little birds will sit side by side and take turns drinking from the same spot.  When they are full grown adults, they are not so cooperative.

Be sure to look carefully and you'll see my cat, Teddy sharpening his claws on the bench while a hummingbird (that bright red dot near him) hovers nearby.  I've never seen my cats catch one of these fast birds, nor even try.  Yesterday, Mattie was at the kitchen door telling me that her bowl was empty and a hummingbird hovered near and pointed in her direction, seemingly curious about this big creature.  She never batted an eye.

Back home and busy

We've had such great weather since we've been back, that gardening has taken up most of my day.  I unpacked my lovely fabric purchases from Sri Lanka, but here they sit on my work table.  Time to get them put away and the way clear for some actual work.   Our quilt group retreat was 2 weeks ago, and I started on the Life Marks project, using a photo I took at Sigiriya.

First, the mess:

Yes, I really did bring most of this stuff back from Sri Lanka - oh, it seems such a long time ago already.  The photo in the foreground, of 5th century ruins at Sigiriya, has been altered in photoshop and I'm using it to construct an abstracted version for my Life Marks project.  Now back to cleaning.

Last shoppng day in Colombo

Let me just say, I bought fabric, and an extra suitcase. We went to the
Pettah market area, and they were plenty of fabric stores, stores with buttons and ribbons and a young man who was delivering refrigerators to stores by carrying them on his back!

Poya Full Moon Procession

The elephants began leaving the park once they were dressed, and we were told the procession would start at 6:30 and go around the lake to the Temple. We walked until we found where the rest of the procession, I.e., dancers, drummers, flag bearers, flute players, more drummers, were waiting to start. We went to where it would start and found seats on the steps of a bank. For the first 30 minutes we were the only ones there and everyone else was headed more toward the temple. Then the fireworks began, then the procession, with endless troupes of dancers, drummer, singers, flag carriers, etc., etc. It was a long time before we saw any elephants, and they were interspersed with the performers. We didn't stay for the whole thing, but I think the last photo of the elephants with the lights on them would have been the finale. I spoke with a young man at our hotel and he said it was a special Poya day, with 1000 performers which happens only once a year. The elephants are in it 3 or 4 times a year. He also said there is a special one in Kandy that is the best one in Sri Lanka. I really felt like I had gone back in time to the old Ceylon.....perhaps royalty would be on the next elephant. It was a magical night.

The Elephants, getting dressed

We shopped in the nearly closed market, visited the Barefoot shop which has lovely heavy woven home furnishings, also went to Paradise Rd. boutique. On the way there, we passed a park and our tuktuk driver said "there are fifty elephants there". We saw them and it looked almost as if they were working as there was some construction going on there. After Paradise Rd. we decided to go the park and see if the elephants were still -YES they were. Evidently that had been at the park all day,waiting to get dressed up for the Poya parade. I was more than a little sad for them, with chains on their ankles and hanging from their necks. I don't know where they are usually kept, but I think they go through this every month.

Elephants, undressed and getting dressed and dressed!! How do you dress an elephant? Well, you have to have the right clothes! The elephant also has to have a bath first! An then some choose to take their food with them!

Colombo

We had booked first class tickets to Colombo, on the train, but we couldn't get seats together, so were hoping we'd be able to switch with someone. As it turned out, the car was half empty and I got to sit in the window seat next to Mark and take ridiculous photos of the stunning valley and mountain views as we descended. We were served lunch? Snack? Awful!! After a fairly gentle trip down the mountain, we were surprised to find the rest of the way was a really rough ride. It was if we were on zigzag tracks. I heard one woman who got off a few stops before us, complain loudly about bruising her arm from how we were thrown from side to side. We had a 3:00 pm departure, started a little and didn't arrive in Colombo until after 6:00. As we were checking into our hotel,(hotel Renuka, as recommended by Danny and Benna ) we were given a choice of a deluxe room, for just $10 more. I checked out the rooms and definitely preferred the new one with no perfumery smells, and that gorgeous view over the Indian Ocean. We then found the cafe also recommended by D & B. It was a very trendy place with sort of fusion food. Mark had the squid ink risotto, and had the grilled seer fish with coconut risotto, which was fabulous, but not enough of the risotto. There was a note in our room that told us the next day was a Full Moon Festival holiday and there would be alcohol available or served anywhere in the city, as we found a supermarket and got a bottle of wine and a few Lion beers just in case.

The next day our strategy was to go the Pellah market where the guidebook said there would be textiles. We hopped a tuktuk after the usual negotiations. When we got there we realized that all the Buddhists' shops would be closed. We still found a few open and they had lovely dupioni silk for $4 yard, some nice woven cottons too, but we will go back tomorrow to look for other things. That last photo is the view from our hotel room. Cool, huh?

Later, the elephants are coming!!!!!!

Kandy botanical gardens

One definitely needs 2 or 3 hours to stroll through these gardens, which we did. I was amazed to see trees full of large bats, the thousands. I didn't much like walking under them. Although most were hanging in trees, there was a constant screeching and some were flying around. I much preferred the orchid house.