Wild Ways

Sugary rhizomes of a licorice fern can be chewed as a gum when raw, boiled or steamed and used medicinally to treat a cold or sore throat. We'll be gathering some up on our next walk in the woods a half-mile from our house, where this fern grows like crazy. Thank you for the information, Wild Girl.
(photo and info from Rebecca Lerner/First Ways.com)

This blog has eye-opening talk from journalist Rebecca "Wild Girl" Lerner about getting more wild in surprising places:

http://firstways.com/

Check out her experiments in living off the land in Portland, OR, on the web magazine Culture Change.

YouTube video of local news apprehending her wild ways. Listen for how impressed they were with her roadkill dinner. haha We're with you, Wild Girl! Last year we feasted on roadkill deer for Thanksgiving, and I was ever so grateful for it.

Bloom Day November 19, 2009

This photo of Frida with a small bouquet of current blossoms is the only picture I took. Credit for the rest goes to Rainer and Frida.

Veronica

Neglected Brussels sprouts

Good view of the compost pile to the left, brambles, kitty in the raspberry patch.

Poppy and nicotiana

Bee on wild radish

Mexican sage

Dried elephant garlic flower head

Portrait of a kitty in blueberries and borage

Ecium

California poppy

Anyone know this one?

From the Redwood Forests

From the National Geographic website.

Our backyard wildlife exists within a regional ecology that includes redwood forests. There are lots of great pictures and information on redwoods in the October, 2009 edition of National Geographic magazine. You can buy it at the store now, or free online.

Video about making photographs in the redwood forest:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/video/player#/?titleID=nichols-redwoods-gatefold&catID=1

Poster from October, 2009 National Geographic:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/redwoods/gatefold-image

Belated Bloom Day, October 2009--photos by Frida

She reminded me of bloom day, took the pictures, and reluctantly allowed Rainer to take one of her. Now she's looking over my shoulder helping identify.

Chamomile

Another kind of fuschia, maybe the most amazing flower I've ever seen.

Dandelions around the edge of the big hole. Rainer's back at it after taking the summer off from digging.

Daisies with a stunted red poppy.

Don't know what they are but they survived a lot of neglect before they were put in the ground.

Another survivor-thriver that loves shade. Violets?

This giant sequoia redwood is growing at an alarming rate! Started from seed, Rainer claims urine is the best fertilizer for this species.

The horrors of this season

So, looks like about 1 full inch, right? We respected this pumpkin spider. It made a huge web all over our door step. We walked to the side. Took pictures. Then Zak came home and we all got excited to run out and meet him. I ran through the web! This spider crawled on me for twenty seconds. It finally jumped off from somewhere on me and crawled under the car. I shiver to tell the tale!

Enormous Rosemary

For Dushani:

Pumpkin Spiders, September 25, 2009

For cousin Paige:

Here is a link to quick info on pumpkin spiders:

www.bugpeople.org/taxa/Arachnida/Araneus_trifolium/Araneus_trifoliumPage.htm

Bloom Day, September, 2009

Frida loves to pick and eat borage.

Jasmine is finally taking off. Frida brings me sweet smelling blossoms every day now!

Yarrow

Rainer is not kidding one bit! He has become arachnaphobic this fall. Good thing he's got armor and the bugzooka to vacuum capture any offending spiders.

Oops, Zak accidentally pulled up the French Lavender pumpkin. Might as well carve it.

One more, a shot of the front yard today, lush and so much better than only a short 6 months ago.

Woolly Bear Invasion

Over by the corner climbing tree Rainer discovered several woolly bear caterpillars.

They are so big and fuzzy.

Can you spot 4 woolly bears in this picture?

Frida made a playground for four of them.

Common Sight: August 2009

Bloom Day Tour with Frida Rose and her new flower dress, August 16, 2009

Many sunflowers at their peak right now.

New pink nicotiana.

Flowering broccoli going to seed.

Flowering oregano.

Chamomile

Even the lowliest dandelions are precious to Frida.

New Graywater Feature

Here's how it works:

We take a luxurious hot bath in the new outdoor tub. Zak got this extra deep old cast iron horse trough at a job for free. Thanks J.D.!

Then we drain it through a hose to various parts of the garden. Here is a tiny hedge, a little borage sprout and an animal bone. We've dug up many, many animal bones in our gardening venture. Lots of metal, too.

Speaking of digging, here is an update on the hole. Rainer doesn't want to build a cob structure right there. He wants to keep making it bigger. During the summer the earth gets so dry and hard to dig. The current plan is to wait until the winter rains soften up the soil and go at it again.