Friday, October 23, 2009

Ten things that happened while we were taking a break from blogging.

1.  Our pineapple lily bloomed.

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This is Eucomis 'Oakhurst'.

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2. We learned that the pepper seeds that Curmudgeon successfully sprouted belong to capsicum pubescens--rocoto or manzano peppers. The seeds came from a pepper bought at the grocery store. Curmudgeon saved them because they were quite unusual--they were black. This variety can grow to 5 feet and can tolerate sub-freezing temps. We had 8 of these perennial pepper trees in the potager. Four have now gone to good homes.

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3.  War was declared on whatever has been eating our winter squash. Operation Pantyhose was launched after the destruction seen below.

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Unfortunately OP did not deter nor slow down whatever it was--racoon and squirrel were top of our list.

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So Curmudgeon escalated to Operation Cayenne Pantyhose. She became a bit obsessed and Wing Nut had to go without cayenne in her kitchen as Curmudgeon would not hand it over.  Early one morning, as she was leaving for work, Wing Nut caught a glimpse of something climbing up the bamboo tomato cage. She thought it was a squirrel, but as she got closer she realized there was no bushy tail. It turned out to be far far worse than we thought--Rats!  Eeeeewwwww!!!!!

4.  We attended the Tilth Harvest Festival.

5.  We participated in a Bat Walk sponsored by Bats Northwest.

6.  We read A Short History of the Honey Bee. And we are now on a quest to find locally made honey.

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7.  We put in a fall garden -- lettuces, radishes, arugula, cilantro, mustard greens, beets and carrots.

8.  We visited the Museum of Glass in Tacoma with our friends C&M from Minnesota.

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And found an artichoke on the ceiling of the Seafoam Pavillion, which is part of the Dale Chihuly Bridge of Glass.

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9. Our crocus sativus popped up and bloomed. Now we understand why saffron is so expensive!

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10. Our blog won "Best Blog Name" over on Blotanical.  Thanks everyone!

 

14 comments:

Sarah Laurence said...

Nice to see you back to blogging!

Squirrels gobbled up my son's mini-pumpkins...at least I think they were squirrels. We don't bother growing them anymore. That glass museum looks interesting.

You do have the best blog name - says the woman with the least imaginative blog name in the world.

Phoenix C. said...

Your blog name is wonderful!

I love the glass art.

I had rabbits eating things a couple of years ago, and found sloshing garlic which had been stewed and soaked for several hours, over them, (over the plants I mean, not the rabbits!), a good deterrent.

Celia Hart said...

Great to see your autumn garden.

So, did you harvest the Saffron? What will you make with it?

Love the glass - wanna go back to Tacoma and see it again!
:-)

Celia

Daphne Gould said...

I think you need a good cat that will catch rats. Or do rats scare cats too?

our friend Ben said...

Thank heavens you're back!!! I was on the verge of emailing every day for the past couple of weeks to ask if you all were okay (only to remind myself every single day that it was your business, not mine). Those glass museum shots are just amazing!!! As for the rats, they're so smart and adaptable. You might want to walk Diva Dog around your beds for her bathroom breaks, but I'm not sure it would be enough to really keep rats away. You may be forced to resort to poisoned traps. Unless a neighbor is willing to rent you a great horned owl for a few nights! Anyway, welcome back. We've missed you!

garden girl said...

Welcome back Wenches! Looks like you've been busy. I'd recognize Chihuly glass anywhere - he's outdone himself with that ceiling. Just gorgeous!

So sorry about the squash carnage - especially sorry about the cause of it!

Congratulations on your Blotanical award. You do have the best blog name.

Curmudgeon said...

Thanks Sarah! We missed blogging and are glad to be back. The glass museum was very cool.

Thanks Phoenix C! I may just need to give that garlic concoction a try!

Hi Celia! It was our first time to the glass museum and we enjoyed it very much. The saffron got away from me--they don't last very long. I went back a few days after I took the pics and they had already faded. Nect year I need to be quicker with the harvesting.

Hi Daphne! We have enough neighborhood cats roaming around. Maybe they don't care for rat.

Hey OFB! It was not our intention to go MIA but time just got away from us. It's good to be back. BTW, you can email us anytime. The glass museum was so awesome. As for the rats, smart and adaptable was not what I wanted to hear--although, my favorite childhood book was "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" by Robert C. O'Brien. I'm definitely going to keep the rent a horned owl idea in mind.

Curmudgeon said...

Thanks garden girl! Except for my neck hurting, I could have stared at that Chihuly ceiling for hours. We only got 2 rather small potimarron squahes, no delicata at all. Funny, the rodents didn't seem to care for the summer squash.

Anna said...

Congratulations on a most well deserved Blotanical award !

Curmudgeon said...

Thanks Anna!

RantWoman said...

Heh! Great to see you back to blogging.

Spraying garlic over the rabbits would work best if you were planning to roast them, but you'd have to butcher and dress them first. Sound like fun?

Curmudgeon said...

LOL RantWoman! Maybe we should just give up trying to grow squash.

Kit Aerie-el said...

Glad to see you back up and blogging, with some fascinating info about the '10 things...', and having been selected as having the Best Blog Name on Blotanical! It really is the best. Congrats WWW!!

Curmudgeon said...

Thanks Aerie-el. It feels good to be back.