I do believe the Alewife hawks are back

Today, as I was loading fresh-purchased whole foods into the car, some motion made me look up. Then a barrel-chested, broad-winged bird swooped over the Petsmart. And another, which lit on some lights. Hawks! The red-tail hawks are back at Alewife! As you can see from the terrible quality of the attached images, it was […]

A green and happy new year

My herb garden wishes you a Happy New Year. Scallions are standing up and waving from the back. On the left quadrant, thyme is lounging. And on the right, bright green parsley clusters around the solar lamp. In the mild winter we’re having, a few mornings of frost doesn’t even dent these hardy souls.

Even the critters get a merry Christmas

For the last couple weeks, I’ve left a small bag of pecans has been laying around, with the vague thought that maybe the squirrels would like them. You think? Anyway, today seemed like a good day to offer this treat, so I poured the pecans into a little cardboard basket, and set them outside.

Chilly birds

Today we got a proper taste of winter. I went out with a tea kettle of boiling water to melt the bird’s water dish twice. It would have been three times, but my Michael saved me the first trip. I love seeing the birds swoop in for a drink before the water even stops steaming. […]

This is why I feed the squirrels, too

Squirrels don’t know which food is for the birds and which is for them. The acrobatics they go through getting past the difficulties I try to put in their way are so entertaining, I always forgive them. And then bring another ear of dried corn. Because you know sunflower seed and suet is bird food. […]

Raspberries that just can’t quit you

I thought I had posted the last about raspberries this year. I thought when I went out yesterday to cut down the spent canes, I would be done taking care of them. Even when I picked a ripe one and ate it, I thought that was the last. I was wrong, as usual. Yes, there […]

Getting in touch with my inner cilantro

Ta-da! I have an indoor garden! It’s frail, it’s spindly, it’s floppy, it’s skinny — but it’s still doing better than any of the cilantro seeds I planted outside.

Last assault on the weeds

The evil Black Swallow-wort thinks it’s so clever, dying down and hiding under the fallen leaves. Too bad for the weed it forgot that leaves falling would reveal where it’s trying to reach up into the crab apple trees and drag them down. So I plunged into the fray one last time, wielding my deadly […]

Raspberries?! Still? Get out!

It’s a beautiful day today, perfect for climbing the hill and seeing how the raspberries how doing. Not that I’m expecting much. It’s fall. We even had snow already. It’s time for raspberries to take a break.

Mystery squash meet their fate

The mystery squash have finally met their end. They were chopped up, peeled, tossed with olive oil, and roasted. Along with a parsnip, just in case they tasted weird. Weird they were, but not too weird. Some tasted like overgrown zucchini, some like bland winter squash, some like a wild grassy feral relative of squash. […]