Stay at Home/Cleansing Time 2023

Hopeful Daffodils

Greetings from the heart of the Finger Lakes. We're just ending the month of Stay at Home/Cleansing Time. 

Our weather has been odd. Winter has been rather like a guest that stays briefly, then travels to more "exotic" locales; only to return to us; then leave again right away.

We haven't even been able to take the snowshoes down from their wall hooks this year.

We have been able to enjoy more of a rest time this winter. Bob's retirement must have something to do with that. Now however, we feel spring coming and our activities have begun to ramp up a bit.

Time to get cleaning

I've begun my annual deep cleaning. This year I decided to break our 11 rooms into five units. I will thoroughly clean one unit each weekend for five weeks. With that schedule, I should be finished by the first weekend in April. Perhaps spreading the work out so much will make it less tiring.

Setting up the seed starting area

I've also begun some of my garden seeds. The ones that go out in April always take me by surprise, so I started them earlier than usual. I also started some that go out in May because I want nice, large plants to set out. Here's a gallery of what's growing in the cellar today:

Sweet potato slips

Tomatoes and eggplants

A nice tomato

Lettuce

There are also cabbages, kale, tat soi, spinach and peppers.

Bob's been busy building perches for the Wildlife hospital at Cornell. He's built 39 so far. It's very interesting and he's really enjoying the project. The perches are for sick and injured birds that are being treated at the facility. The design of each perch varies with both the species and the gender.  He's built for eagles, all the way down to his current project: hummingbirds. Here's a gallery of his work so far:

Back to front: Eagle, Eagle & Barred Owls

Red Tailed Hawks

Woodpeckers

Stump perches for Turkey Vultures & Screech Owls

This is a great time for Bob to do these perches because his outside work can't begin for a while yet.

Today Bob received a couple of new woodworking projects. My birthday is this week, and he ordered two accessory kits for my harp: a clamp on music holder and a dolly to put under the harp, making it easier to move.

Happy Birthday to me!

It was so nice of my luthiers to put these kits on sale just in time for my birthday! Bob says the kits are very well done and is looking forward to doing them. A gift for both of us, really.

Bob's other activity has been to prepare for his enlarged mushroom garden. 

Cutting logs for Shiitake mushrooms

He has readied 20 logs for shiitake mushrooms. The spawn and tools have arrived. The spawn is resting in my refrigerator.

Mushroom spawn and tools

In addition to his 20 shiitake logs, he will start a bed of winecap mushrooms. The shiitakes should start to produce in the spring of 2024. The winecaps should start to produce in late summer this year.

Well, that's what's been going on here. Just like things outside, things within are beginning to stir, readying for the season ahead. 

What's germinating in your life?

 

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Spring is coming!

Cold Time/Renewal Time 2023

 

January in our woods

Warm greetings from the cold Finger Lakes. Actually, today we're beginning a warming trend. In general, we've had a warmer winter with relatively less snow than normal. Cold Time however, decided to go out true to its name.

Feb 2 Moondog-harbinger of storms

From February 2nd through the morning of the 4th, we had cold temperatures and very high, gusty winds. The old house was continually buffeted by the winds. Thankfully, this particular 170+ year old house was built to stand for generations. Short of a tornado, it's not going anywhere.

We hunkered down by the stove, reading and playing cards.

Cozy in the storm

We just enjoyed the time in quiet ways.

Earlier in the month, we finished our threshing chores.

Bob helps with his first threshing

We now have our annual stock of beans (aka protein) all ready for use.

Sieving lettuce seeds 

We cleaned the lettuce seeds that we saved.

Howling Mob sweet corn

And cleaned the sweet corn seeds. We like to grow this variety and it is very hard to find. There is only one source that I know of that still sells it. Since no one knows when they may decide to drop it from their listings, it makes a great deal of sense to save our own seeds.

Besides working on our chores, we've been pursuing the Renewal Time part of the month. In addition to reading and resting,

A new piece for spring

I've been working on a new hardanger project and practicing my harp. I'm a SLOW learner, but I am persistent, at any rate.

 We've also been busy with medical appointments. Due to the pandemic and Bob's subsequent increased work schedule, we fell behind in our Well Adult checks. Now we're trying to catch up. Gone are the days when this could be done in one, or even two visits. At our age, it involves many tests and each one needs a separate appointment somewhere else. Additionally, scheduling these appointments can literally take months. By the time you finish one round, it's time to start all over again!! All that being said, so far, so good for both of us.

Bob is enjoying his retirement. He likes the change. The first change we made was to move our morning alarm from 4:30 am to 5:00 am. That's very nice. We also can eat supper a little earlier. We like that because we have more time to digest it before bed, and we get a bit more evening to enjoy.

He's been relaxing, reading, and helping me more with the routine household chores.

One of his goals is to become more consistent in his exercise routine. Since I've a longstanding (29 year!) practice of daily (weekday) walking and afternoon yoga, he has decided to latch onto this structure. He joins me on the daily walk. For now he has to walk at a slower pace and for less distance, but hopes to build up on both counts over time. In the afternoon, while I'm doing my yoga practice, he does a tai chi practice, which he prefers. Again, it's a dedicated time and is honored as important.

Other things that he's done, are to finalize the porch plans, prepare the tax returns as much as possible at this time and is planning out new mushrooms that he wants to grow. He's expanding his mushroom garden. Just a fun-guy, after all.

Winter tree Identification walk

Another thing he wants to do is to be better acquainted with our winter trees. He's been reading up on this and his first Cornell Retiree newsletter told about a local Winter Tree ID Walk. So, we went on that at the end of January. It was very basic, but a nice day to get out.

Within the next moon cycle, I'll begin some of my seeds and we will begin turning toward spring.

To prepare for spring, we'll spend some of our time examining our lives to see what needs to be cleared away to allow for new growth. Everything is on the table; possessions, habits, beliefs, and thought patterns. It's an annual "housecleaning" of sorts. Sometimes the "delete" list is long, sometimes short. It's the examining and acting that makes the difference. It helps us live consciously and purposefully. It helps us remain centered and at peace.

It's a very worthwhile discipline that I highly recommend. 

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Flowers to brighten January

Long Nights Time/Darkest Depths 2022

 

Solstice walk on our land

Long Nights Time (Darkest Depths) has come to an end. Our time of resting and rebuilding, however, has not. 

We're enjoying times of quiet reading - both aloud and individually...

Bob relaxing with a book and a sip

working on puzzles ...

Found this challenge at the thrift shop

and taking walks.

Taughannock Falls State Park

Of course, we still have some jobs that need to be done. 

Winter is a good time to do some mending,

Mending the binding on a wool blanket

and Bob has been bringing in firewood to fill the bin in the cellar.

We've also been threshing out our dried beans.

Bob threshing beans

Bob has been helping with this task this year. We had 11 bushel boxes of bean pods in the cellar. We have five more to do. Hopefully we'll be finished soon.

This weekend we had a planning session. I planned out the 2023 garden, inventoried my seed stock and decided which company I would order seed from.

Bob worked on the plans for the west porch. That's his project for the upcoming summer.

Planning, a necessary task

With regards to our weather, we have been generally above normal in temperature, with very little snow.

You've heard about Buffalo's Christmas blizzard (and perhaps Watertown's Christmas storm). Well, we had none of that. We did get four days of very high, cold winds. That made a Christmas walk very infeasible. We opted to stay by the fire, reading and playing games.

We have survived our COVID experience, although I still have a "froggy" throat. I hope that resolves soon. Our energy levels have bounced back, and that's a good thing.

Bob has now worked at Cornell Vet School for ten years. He will be retiring next week. His final day of work will be on the 9th. It's a bit scary to not be receiving a juicy paycheck. Pensions and investments just don't feel as secure. But Bob is looking forward to the change, and I am looking forward to having some help around the place. We'll be making adjustments for some time to come.

He wants to help me out more; get closer to nature with walks and study; do more volunteering; and get into a more consistent exercise routine.

I'm continuing to cut back on my chores by simplifying our lives more and more. I hope this will free up our time so that we can take in more park trails throughout the week.

That's about all of the news for this month. We hope you're taking advantage of this season of rest and restoration.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Taughannock Falls on 12/30

Frost Time 2022

Snowflakes for the season

The moon is full, so you know what that means. Time for another "check in" from your favorite lunatics at Thistledown Gardens.

This past month saw us put the garden to rest for the winter.

Harvesting carrots

I harvested the beets and carrots. They are all packed away in the root cellar.

Last harvest of beet greens

The beet greens were enjoyed as our final fresh greens of the season.

Garlic (left) and shallots (right) go in

I planted my garlic and shallots. They are now tucked in under a thick layer of straw, as are the strawberry plants.

Bob grinding (swim goggles a big help)

The horseradish has been dug and processed. It, too is in the root cellar. We had a couple of jars left from last year, so we didn't have to put up as much this year.

Log spitter put away for winter

Bob has serviced the equipment and either stored it (log splitter and mower) or has it ready for use (snow thrower).

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

You all heard about the snow that parts of New York received during this last month. We didn't get any of this. We're far enough from both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, that we don't get the heavy lake effect storms so common to those areas.

We've had a little snow and some rain. The temperatures fluctuate between normal and slightly above normal for the season.

Cookie prep

We made a small batch of cookies to have ready for the Yule season. Our spicy cookies need time to ripen before we dive into them.

We've both been preparing for our gift exchange. Bob has ordered and received my nice chocolates. I'm nearly finished knitting his sweater, the 2022 edition. For our joint gift, we chose to order several Audubon Nature guides. 

Our set of  new nature guides

After using several types of guides, we decided that we prefer these, so we chose the ones of interest to us. Now we have a nice assortment. These will be a mainstay of our winter resting and rebuilding season.

Bob's award and gift

Bob was honored to receive an award (and a nice dinner) recognizing his volunteer work as an advocate for alternative energy sources and helping people to save money on their energy bills. Way to go, Bob.

After three years, COVID has finally found our house. (A gift bestowed by one of Bob's coworkers.) As I write this, we are in the midst of the struggle. We got, I suppose, moderate cases. It's particularly bothersome for me, because of my latent asthma. I'll be glad to stop coughing my brains out!

Oh what fun!

 
During this down time, we've been laying around, reading and I've been working on Bob's sweater.

Another ball of energy

We look forward to regaining our health so we can really enjoy our time of rest. Personally, I'm eager to have enough energy to sit behind my harp again.

So, take care of yourselves, especially with the holiday activities. Remember, there's a lot of junk out there, and some people could be more ill affected than you realize. It's the season to think about others, after all. Enough said?

Change your routine with this seasonal change. Hunker down like the plants and animals. Let go of some of the busy-ness. The benefits may surprise you.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Happy holidays, whatever they may be

Seed Fall 2022

A foggy sunrise over our garden

Another full moon and time once again to check in with our family and friends. 

Speaking of the full moon, did you see this morning's eclipse? Since we rise at 4:30 am, we had to make no special effort to view it. Cloudiness kept us from watching the entire show, but we were able to see it while the moon was completely orange colored. It was lovely. Sorry, no photos, only pictures in our memory.

Filmore Glen State Park

Our weather has been unseasonably warm and dry this month, with still no widespread killing frost here yet. With our seasonal chores at a bit of a standstill, we've been able to take a couple of days and  enjoy some of the local scenery.

One day we drove a ways and walked at the Filmore Glen State Park. It was our first visit there and we enjoyed it very much.

Filmore Glen State Park

On the 31st, we walked at Taughannok Falls State Park. It was another lovely outing.

Taughannok North Rim trail

The falls at Taughannok

The warm weather has rather slowed our autumn garden chores. Since we've not had a frost in the garden, there are still nasturtiums blooming like mad. The bees are still busy (also because of the mild weather). I don't want to pull out the flowers until after they're no use to the bees. So, there they stay. Also, because I'm waiting for cool weather, the beets and carrots haven't been pulled and the garlic is waiting to be planted. They say freezing temperatures are on the way, so I hope to get some of this done on the weekend.

Harvesting chervil

 

What I have been able to do is harvest some more of my herbs. I had a nice patch of chervil growing by my compost pile.

Last picking of parsley

I've also pulled all of my parsley plants. Since I have plenty in the freezer, I've been drying this and making it into powder.

A bit tedious, but worthwhile

I always leave some of my lettuce to go to seed. I gather some of the seed for next year, and I let some fall on the ground. It gives me a nice crop of fall lettuce with no extra work on my part.

Some nice "no work" lettuce

I've also made and frozen applesauce. The last item to go into the freezer. (Hurray!)

Making applesauce

While I've been busy with all of this, Bob's been preparing for winter. He's picked up leaves (of which we have many!). There are far too many to leave on the grass. He makes a huge pile and composts them.

He's also been doing maintenance work on our various pieces of equipment. The other day he finished filling the wood bin in our cellar.

Indoor bin: full and ready to go

 

We hope to soon be finished with autumn chores and begin to settle in for our winter rest.

We wish you all well, and success with winding up your own busy seasons as you prepare for a time of rest and restoration.

Follow nature's example in this. It's been around much longer than people and has "learned a thing or two".

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Another shot from Taughannok