November Hill farm journal, 136

 I just glanced out the window and noticed that my early indicator dogwood is showing its first blush of fall color. Such a nice thing to see after the very hot days we’ve had here lately!

Everyone on November Hill is, I think it’s safe to say, ready for autumn. The horses and donkeys are tired of the heat, the insects, and no one wanting to stay out for too long. I’m tired of all of the above. As I’ve said before, the beauty of four seasons is that they change! 

We’re still in jungle mode but now to the other side of it. As the leaves turn and then fall, we gradually become much more open to what’s around us. Summer is our most lush, most protected time. Which is one of the things I enjoy about it. 

I’ve done some walkabouts during the past week, checking in on various plantings and beds. The southern bayberries are looking good. Many have grown quite a lot this spring/summer and I’m hopeful we’ll experience their year-round screen in a couple of years. I spied a red berry on one of the still young winterberry hollies. The shade beds are looking better this year than last. The two original pollinator beds are in their late summer/early fall glory. All full of bees. We have had a huge bloom of wildflowers in the side strips this summer, and the bees are loving that as well.

Everything perennial in the potager is thriving, and the trees we’ve planted in Poplar Folly are all looking good as well. 

It’s nearly time to put in native perennials and I’ve got several things planned to put in this year. I’m working on the two shade beds + the bird haven area specifically, and thinking about finally putting in the mailbox bed. 

Two new for this fall projects: removing the three remaining butterfly bushes. It’s hard to take them out, but they attract butterflies who then lay eggs that hatch out and starve because they can’t feed on the foliage. So I have two spaces to fill with bushes that not only attract the butterflies, but offer food the caterpillars. We have milkweed, but I’ll add more of that and in proximity to the new plantings. I’m still researching what to plant. The other new project is purchasing a chipper/shredder that we can use to mulch some of the brush piles we’ve accumulated over the past few years. Primarily in Poplar Folly, where the brush piles are so plentiful we’ve invited habitat for copperheads. I’d like to tip the scales the other way for a few years, and will use the brush to make a wood chip pathway back there and make it a bit more obvious what areas are naturalized and what are for walking. 

Other than that, I have a few blueberry bushes to transplant, two heirloom (local to our county!) apple trees to find a place for, and that will be it for this fall’s gardening plans. 

The heat wave finally broke yesterday. We had a high of 80 and this morning it is 52. I am in heaven! The feeling of cool, even chilly air outside is like a tonic. The horses are standing in total bliss, the donkeys are playing, and I’m grateful for the opening night of the season to come.

A glimpse of early fall on Max Patch:

And on November Hill:

We’re having a bumper crop of figs this year! The colors in these two photos make my entire being happy. 

A couple of things for dinner

 

A couple of mid-summer birthdays on November Hill

 Violet and Isobel came to us as kittens with birthdays in late July and early August, and this year they turned 3! They are the youngest of the kit-meows here and bring a lot of energy to this house full of cats. 

Isobel is a very loving cat, but she remains slightly skittish, which is how she was as a tiny kitten. It’s almost impossible to pick her up, and if someone she doesn’t know comes in, she will run and hide, but she is quite a loving girl to her cat family here. She adores Pippin and is often found hanging out with him. She remains close to Violet - while they aren’t sisters, they clearly were kept together at the shelter and became friends early on. We think she may have some “munchkin” genetics, as her body structure looks a bit like that kind of cat. Her legs are short and she is a little fluff-budget. She’s a fierce huntress and in spite of not being able to roam the farm, she manages to catch prey in the back yard and even on the front porch.

Violet is a total sweetheart. She’s also quite an outlier as the other cats other than Isobel often pick on her. She hangs out with the dogs and actually responds more like a dog than a cat at times. She is fearless and persistent and out of all the cats, Violet is the one who must be fed separately because she will go full force at any bowl of food she can get to. 

Both these girls bring much joy to our home and we’re so glad they’re with us. Happy birthday, Violet and Isobel! We love you both! 

The Monarchs Are Here!

 

When You’re Mom To A Wildlife Photographer

You get to see really cool things. :)

My daughter and I visited the Alligator River Wildlife Refuge last week and got to see alligators, bears, and one very amazing barred owl. I love owls and have never had this kind of wild, close encounter. It was  amazing.

My photos are from my phone and simply snapshots of a few moments as we explored the refuge. When my daughter sends me some of hers, I’ll share her very beautiful work.

The refuge is a huge area and has many fields of soybeans and corn planted within it, which the black bears love to eat. A large part of our time was spent driving these gravel roads “tracking” the movement of  a few of the bears as they headed to the fields, always keeping a respectful distance. Periodically this bear would stop and turn to look at us. He really wanted to use the road, and he was fine as long as we stayed back this far. When another car came up behind us, though, he cut into the woods and took the shrubby route. It was fascinating to see the signs of bears moving around inside the refuge - flat swathes of grass left by bears leaving the road to cut through the woods, piles of bear scat, etc. We got many glimpses of mama bears with cubs, single bears like this one, and the very cool sight of bears bobbing through the fields from a distance - akin to a dolphin coming up and going down again in the ocean. 

I would never have seen this alligator were it not for the keen eyes of my daughter. We were driving slowly along the gravel road, adjacent to this waterway, when my daughter quietly said, “Can you stop and back up? I think I saw some eyes.” Back we went, and she was right. An alligator was resting with face barely above the water. Can you spot it here? I took the photo not quite believing it was even an alligator, but her close-up photos revealed its eyes. He was still there when we came back by an hour or so later. 

This next moment was from my favorite time of the day. Again, my daughter said, “Can you back up? There’s an owl.” I was expecting an owl way up in the top of a tree, but this one was very close to the ground and we stopped and hung out with him for quite a while. He was so curious, watching us, watching the many butterflies that were out, and keeping his eyes on the perimeter for, I guess, a meal. It was a gray rainy day with some wind, and the branch he sat on moved when it gusted up. He sat and sat. 

While we were watching the owl, this critter was watching us. I’m glad it’s in the refuge and not on November Hill!