Fenimore art

The artwork out behind the Fenimore Art Museum was just as fascinating as what was inside. Sue and Joe picked a perfect weekend to visit. I was worried there would be no color left when they got here, but it was actually a perfect leaf-peeping time to come. And warm enough that it did not feel like October in Upstate NY.

One of the 2 main exhibits, Pete Souza: Two Presidents One Photographer, was a different kind of view inside the White House during the Reagan and Obama years. It takes a good photographer to remove the politics, pomp, and party nonsense to see 2 very different men in power acting very much the same.

The American Folk Art exhibit on the first floor had a 19th-century silk quilt which I could have stared at for hours. Just imagining all the garments that produced those colorful strips of silk...

And when we were done wandering the grounds behind the Fenimore, the site of James Fenimore Cooper's estate on Otsego Lake, we did a second wander around Brookwood Point, also on the lake. All in all, a good day for art and wandering.

Morning sun and the crooked pig

The dogs woke me up early enough this morning that I could catch the sun lighting up the trees on the mountain behind us.

Some dark clouds are left from yesterday's storm that came with plenty of thunder, wind and sleet, and left us chilly today.

The wind was strong enough to send things flying. The lid to the one grill is all the way back by the fire pit, 2 huge willow trees came down far from the house, but we were the lucky ones. Just a few chairs, trash cans, and tree branches needed picking up, and our metal porch pig needed a little butt lift.

The internet was out until now—but compared to all who are still without power—we were truly were the lucky ones.

Autumn chicks

The leaves have turned color in just the past week. I thought we might have something other than brown to see when the Martinis come to visit in 2 weeks, but now I am not so sure.

I created quite the stir on Facebook yesterday by posting pictures of interesting rocks that we have dug up or found in the creek. I didn't think they were worthy of a blog post, but they got more comments than anything I have ever posted. Who knew there were other rock lovers out there?

Geodes, chert, vugs? I need a break from my geology lesson. Here are some pics of the chicks from today. Almost full grown, I am sure they are 2 roos and 3 hens—blond girls and red boys in the photos, and there is one blond-headed black girl who was hiding. Hoppy is the older blond hen on the right (below).

The big pic at the end is my soggy Big Roo. He's staring me down for leaving him outside in the rain yesterday while I was learning about rocks on Facebook. He still loves me. I give him food.

Dirty pictures and old fossils

I spent what could be the last 3 nice warm days of the year out playing in the dirt. Not very playful actually, more like hard labor. The big pic is from May 28, when I had spent probably the first 3 warm days of the year digging out all of those rocks along the edges of my little garlic and tomato garden. I added some peat moss and wood ash to improve the soil. Adding more wood ash on the top later to keep out the slugs may have been what damaged the tomato plants. Or it could have been that the dug up area was only about 8" dug up. 6 tomato plants gave me about 3 ripe tomatoes, but the garlic did very well, thank you.

So I went back in and dug a little deeper, as much as my bum knee and my shovel could manage. Several hours on Saturday and Sunday, and part of a Monday morning gave birth to the latest collection of rocks along the fence on the left (below). Those, plus the 2 big muddy chunks added to the firepit.

You might notice that the firepit has been dug out in the center by a certain big old hound dog. Took him about 3 minutes to go 8" deep. I wish I could employ him to do some gardening for me.

You might also notice the variety of rocks we've been digging up. These in the firepit are not all from our property, but most are. There are some that are vaguely red, some almost blue, and plenty of white—all very patriotic in this election year.

The white one in the back with the grumpy fossil face is representative of this old fossil and how she feels about this upcoming election.

The Brothers Blue by Bruce & Sue

COVID-19 changed the Cot and Crackers House Concerts to the Cot and Crackers Out-of-the-House Concerts. Kudos to Bruce and Sue for being able to pull this off. This was the third outdoor concert this summer, and they managed to order perfect weather for all 3.

Musicians and audience are grateful to them for providing this perfectly gorgeous concert venue. Social distancing is not a problem here in Fly Creek.

And The Brothers Blue provided the perfect end to this summer concert series. Sadly, it is ending...we've already had a few frosty evenings, and October will surely bring more of those.

 

First Frost

Good thing I covered up my little green tomatoes yesterday, we woke up this morning to our first frost. I haven't even uncovered them yet to see if they survived because it is still pretty chilly out there. I think the black plastic trash bags plus dog towel and dog blanket were enough to keep them warm, but we have 2 more nights of chill before the weather settles down again. And that won't last more than a few days.

Middle Sister turned me onto a book called Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I am just at the point where the author was talking about the color combination of asters and goldenrod in September. This is a combination I have always appreciated as well. It is such a pleasure to be allowed to have "weeds" in our yard up here. I couldn't get away with this in NJ.

Also a good thing that I took some pics yesterday of these pretty weeds. Today the goldenrod is a bit more brown. Very soon, brown will be the dominant color in the landscape. We have to appreciate the other colors while they last!

Little green tomatoes

We had a late start to summer, still using the woodstove in June if I remember correctly. We are making up for it now with some very warm sunny beautiful days in September. Just this weekend we are starting to get chilly again. I hope it stays above freezing at night long enough for my heirloom tomatoes to get ripe. I started them from seed in the basement, and I was very late getting them out in the garden. They have plenty of little green tomatoes on them. It would be such a shame if it gets cold too soon!

MonkeyCat spent the morning all the way under that blanket, and then a few hours more on top of it. The hydrangea blooming behind him is having a very good year now that it is protected by the fence from the deer. If I could only get the dogs to stop digging holes underneath it on the hot days. It is nice and cool under there!

A visiting Tara took this great pic of Rico AND she left us some Barnwell Inn goodies! Peach cobbler is The Husband's favorite!

Plum pickin', jam makin', creek walkin'

We have had some fantastic end of summer weather recently. Friend Roberta and I visited Don on the Hill on Friday so she could appreciate his marvelous view AND pick some of his marvelous plums. He has 2 large trees that have not produced much in the past few years, but this year, for some reason, so many they bent the branches to the ground. It just made it that much easier to go pickin'.

But what do you do with all those plums? Jam was the easy part. I am still finding some new recipes. This is a really easy, really good one (easier still when you have too much goat cheese)! I have made it twice in the last week.

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/charred-buttered-plums-with-cheese

The featured photo is from the walk in the creek that we took after the plum-picking adventures. Since we could not go in the direction we planned in search of the heron and ducks—beaver dam with a deep pool, weeds were too high—we went out to the road. As we got to the overpass, there were 2 horses having a drink. As we approached, they wandered off out of sight. Damn shame they couldn't wait for us to get a better pic!

New legs and a big dragonfly

My big oak beam that we rescued from The Pantry is now officially a bench in the backyard thanks to 4 new hemlock legs courtesy of Tom and Roberta. I plan on letting the paint weather away for another year or so, and then I will seal the whole thing somehow. Haven't figured that out yet. The next backyard project will be the paver patio that will probably have to wait until next year. The bench will be much happier on a drier, level surface.

While we were all in the back watching Tom put the new legs on the bench, the largest dragonfly I have ever seen found his way onto the screen porch. It took me about 20 minutes to escort him back outside. Dragonflies are big mosquito eaters. We love our dragonflies!

It's hard to get a good photo of a moving target, but I got a close enough look to identify it as a Brown Hawker—about 3" long, brown body, clear wings with a coppery sheen along the edges, and some yellow green stripes on the body. Easy ID when you can just type in "big brown dragonfly" and find the name of your mystery insect. What did we do before Google?

Growing like weeds

The baby chicks are now the teenagers. I love this awkward coming of age stage. Little boys are sparring like big boys do sometimes. Little girls are staying close to mom and each other. (Guess which 2 I think are the roosters?)

My first year of protected gardens inside the big fence was hampered by my old-fart knee. I did manage to plant some heirloom variety tomatoes behind the weeds and flowers by the living room windows, but the Zebrina hollyhocks and Rudbeckia are winning the battle so far. The tomato plants have blossoms and some small green attempts at tomatoes, but they are struggling for the sun behind their taller neighbors. I will learn from my mistakes and do better next year with a better knee by then I am sure.

The Husband's gardens are doing much better inside their improved fencing. We have a huge crop of large tomatoes, and are starting to get some corn for the first time in about 3 years. But his perennial gardens have been struggling with the critter dining and the rough weather and those darn weeds.

The zinnias in the feeding trough, however, are spectacular!

Garlic, tomatoes, hot peppas, and corn!

Here is my very first successful crop of garlic. Lack of attention is my usual problem,  and it was this year too, but the whole crop managed to survive the weedy, stony plot where I planted them. They are a bit small. Something to work on next year.

I have 5 tomato plants in the same plot. So far, only 3 tomatoes have gotten red enough to pick. All 3 were rotten and chewed up by something on the bottom where I couldn't see. I thought it was the slugs that I saw on the first one, but the last one had tooth marks on it. I suspect the devilish little chipmunk I have seen out there. It is the only thing that can fit through my double fence (I think).

The Husband has had much greater success with his much larger garden. Woody is pointing out the spot where I "hide" the tomatoes. He has no great interest in the corn or peppers, but he would like you to know that Ball jar box is full of nice big fat ripe tomaters.

The last photo is added here to see if anyone has any suggestions on how or where to sell these 2 swords. I tried in a group on Facebook, but apparently it was denied because these are considered weapons. The Macleod has a 40" sharp blade and is as heavy as it looks. The other appears to be a replica of a US Marine sword with scabbard. My good friend Colin moved from a house to a small apartment and has "hired" me to sell these for him. I might just be giving them back if I cannot find them a home...