Category Archives: Hobbies

Fair Weather

Posted on July 5, 2013 by AnnieRie

As in the Howard County Fair. I know it is four weeks from now,

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but planning for Home Arts entries starts when the fair books arrive in the mail. We got ours last week.

Unfortunately, the weather isn’t cooperating. My tomatoes this year are far behind schedule. The herbs were also decimated by the bunnies, so I am doing triage on the remaining stumps, and coaxing them to recover.

So far, only the Box Car Willie plants have the potential to give me ripe heirloom tomatoes in time for the fair. Mortgage Lifter and Paul Robeson are lagging in their production. Pineapple tomatoes are late bloomers anyway, and this year they are far behind. And, the hillbillies are downright disappointing.

Want to know about heirlooms? This is a good site to learn about the varieties.

Want to know about the fair? Check out their web site.

This year my husband gets the senior discount. I still buy the season pass for $20, as we go to the fair at least four or five days. Can’t miss the fun events, like tractor pull. Skid loader competition. Iron chef. The 4H auction. And, so much more.

This year, too, being the beginning of the election season, candidates will be out in force.

Put the fair on your calendar. It truly is a community event, and for 68 years it has been going strong.

Me, I just want one of these for tomatoes. The blue ribbon. I got one last year for my herbs. I keep trying to grow great heirlooms, or cherry tomatoes, or this year, my foray into massive amounts of canning tomatoes.

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I also had success with the gladiolus. Crossing my fingers that they flower in time.

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This one got a second place ribbon last year.

I am thinking about photographs to enter. And, maybe some of my crape myrtle. And, my zucchini bread. It’s fun. Easy to do. Download the fair book and think of the possibilities. You still have four weeks to go.

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The Much Needed Rain

Posted on April 30, 2013 by AnnieRie

Rainy days like this make us happy. Soft gentle rain that greens up the yard, the field, and keeps my trees, shrubs, herbs and flowers healthy is always welcome.

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The lace maples went from budding to full glory in just a few days. These trees are my favorites. One in front and one behind the house. I now have to irrigate the front one as the underground drains carry water out to a grove with younger trees and shrubs that haven’t established their roots as deeply.

The crab apple has exploded with blossoms.

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This is one of those years where it is being covered in white flowers.

My second wave of tulips is loving it. The first bloomers are dropping petals but this variety is coming in with many flowers.

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When I planted the bulbs about six years ago, I used a variety of early and late blooming tulips to prolong their presence across the entry walkway.

This year so far only one iris came up on the side of the house. I think these were planted so long ago by the previous owner that they are pretty much wiped out, and the star lilies and tiger lilies have taken over. But, I did get this one blossom the other day.

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In a vase with a gorgeous deep purple tulip, the only one that color from out front. Sometimes it is weird to see a single bloom of a color that you don’t remember planting.

And, the dogwoods are at their peak. Two more trees that I take extra care to keep fertilized, pruned, watered and happy. Their colors just scream spring time.

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April showers bringing May flowers, and more. Here’s to erasing that deficit in our rainfall totals for 2013. In just a few days, I will be putting in the veggie garden, but still loving those flowers.

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April Fool’s Day

Posted on April 1, 2013 by AnnieRie

No jokes. No pranks. No weird posts. Just the third anniversary of my last day of working. The day I left Federal service was thirty years and one day after starting it. Somewhere in my mind I kept thinking, this isn’t an April Fool’s joke. I am really retiring.

I can’t believe three years have flown by. Always busy. Loving the gardening, volunteering, wandering, and other hobbies like my cooking and wine interests. Today, we ushered in April. A different weather pattern than a year ago. Still breezy and cool. No flowering trees or shrubs.

I did do a mostly local dinner, like I do many nights. Today I used up my CSA basket items to make a veggie stir fry.

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Add to that a local wine, from Linden.

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Good wine. Good food. Success in my seedlings. Check out how the squash are doing.

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And, yes, the pot on the left has two new ones. I now have seven plants of the heirloom Thelma Sanders squash. Retirement gives you that freedom to revel in crazy little things, like success in planting seeds.

April is the beginning of planting, nurturing, harvesting, and enjoying the fruits of my labor. Different from a year ago, when the March heat had the plants all early blooming and I was recovering from surgery. It looks like this year will be a typical mid Atlantic spring. And I am ready to start putting plants in the ground. The mesclun, arugula and kale are getting bigger and need to be transplanted soon.

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Stay tuned for me to check out how the azalea gardens are doing, out at Brighton Dam. It is definitely the beginning of spring. If you think of retirement, my advice is, do it in the spring. You will never miss the office and working.

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Spring Plan(t)s

Posted on March 29, 2013 by AnnieRie

At the moment I made my header and background very springlike. The weather is finally coming around to those lovely days, but still a bit nippy at night. Those baby orchids were on the table at Linden Vineyards today. More on that visit in a post tomorrow, but today I am crowing about my garden planning.

I registered a major victory this week. Some of my heirloom squash seeds germinated, and are growing. Woo Hoo!

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I planted 20 seeds from the Thelma Sanders squash. Five in each container. One container completely germinated. The other three. Nada! Weird. But still, I have five possible plants to put in the ground this spring. This is what the squash looks like.

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We got it last fall in our CSA. First time I have dried and saved heirloom squash seeds. A 25% success rate is OK.

The other success is my heirloom garlic. I have to remember to keep watering the container ones. They could dry out more quickly. The dozen in the ground are all doing well. All told, 24 possible heads of garlic this year. With those lovely scapes, too. I will be curing garlic in the shed if they all come out fully mature in June. Let’s see how I do with curing garlic.

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After the mulching I was worried, but I looked today and all twelve of them are doing fine, and growing. Plus, all three of my chives plants are sprouting new greenery. A great source for fresh herbs in cooking. Crossing my fingers that the rosemary and thyme will prosper. I thinned them a little today, and they do have small amounts of lovely green new growth.

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The lower two pots contain mint. I will trim off the dead parts once they start taking off. Trust me. You can’t kill mint. The two upper containers contain garlic. I experimented here, and they are doing almost as well as those planted down in the beds. The pot on the deck had two chive plants, the third is in the window box on the left that also contains the lavender. Lavender, also a perennial, will come back, too. Not doing much yet, but I know they will generate fresh greenery.

I will be planting chard seeds this weekend, to transplant into the garden once the weather warms. Chard does well up near the house with just a few hours of sun. I cover it with bunny proof netting. Since spring seems to be coming finally, I am psyched for getting more things in the ground.

Planting anything interesting?

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Too Many Tomatoes

Posted on March 22, 2013 by AnnieRie

No, you can never have too many tomatoes. At least that is the case at our house. I am currently deciding which plants to buy this year. I often get asked how we can handle two dozen tomato plants for two people. Easy. The freezer, and oven drying them first. I am plowing through the supplies in the freezer this winter.

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Between the CSA tomatoes and my tomatoes, I put away in the freezer approximately three dozen freezer bags of blanched tomatoes, plastic containers of oven dried with herbs or onions, and plastic containers of tomato sauce. I have less than a dozen left. Getting close to that point where I will be craving fresh tomatoes and can’t wait for summer. The other major item that freezes well and I have used extensively is the pesto. Tomatoes and basil, both staples in my garden. As winter ends, my stocks are being depleted. Greenway Farms is the source of my most prolific producing basil, which was the African blue basil. There will be another half dozen plants like the ones that I harvested all fall last year.

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I will definitely get more red fig, if they have them at the master gardener’s stand on Earth Day at the Conservancy. They produced lots of tasty tiny tomatoes, perfect for freezing. They are an heirloom, first cultivated in the 1700s in North America. They are sweet and dried, they are a treat, just like fig jam. I oven roast them with a little sugar, salt, pepper and olive oil. All winter long they come out of the freezer and onto pasta, bursting with flavor.

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I may do Great White again, as I had success with them last year. My best producers were the Amish paste, the pineapple, and the yellow plum varieties. Can’t wait to get those plants in the ground and see the first fruit of the summer. Nothing like a room full of sunshine, just picked tomatoes.

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Anyone else getting that gardening itch?

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The Hexbeam is Up

Posted on March 13, 2013 by AnnieRie

Long live the hexbeam.

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The first tower, although it is the crank up one, not the 90 foot permanent one going in the meadow, is up and running. Lots of work for about three hours as one of the tubes ended up being misaligned and the tower leaned. Kind of like the leaning tower of Pisa. Back down and a replacement section later, it was up and operating at 48′ above the ground.

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It was so worth it for him, when he worked a country and got a report of “you are 59 plus 10”. In other words, a booming signal. Amazing what directionality and a good location can do. The wires will be coming down for all but a few frequency bands. This beam handles 10, 12, 15, 17 and 20 meters. All we need is the monster wire all the way down the property line out front for the 80 meter band, and the 30 and 40 meter wires in the back yard. Soon, a second crank up will handle those two. This summer the rest hopefully will get done.

It was a windy cold day. It even had snow flurries while we were out there. Wind gusts made putting the beam on the top of the rotor pretty exciting. Then a matter of cranking and adjusting guy wires.

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The Glenwood DX chapter did a great job. My husband owes them lunch at the next meeting at the Lisbon Town Grill. Living out here in west county are lots of “hams”. Amateur radio operators who came out here for the space and the lack of covenants. All the guys out here today have towers and live less than five miles from us. They help each other with tower projects.

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And now you know the answer to the question, How many hams does it take to put up a rocket launcher? Five. Thanks, guys. My OM is happily working rare DXpeditions as I type. Spratly Islands anyone?

One more picture. The difference between the altitude of the wire antennae and the new tower.

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A Perfect Spring Saturday

Posted on March 9, 2013 by AnnieRie

Hopefully the next two weekends have weather this great. Today’s geocaching event at the Conservancy attracted almost three dozen people who wanted to enjoy the scenery and learn to use the Etrex units.

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Six caches were hidden on the property. Lots of fun learning to use the units, and to wander around the farm and the grasslands. The fun was watching all the adults learn to use them. The children pick it up quite quickly.

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The Conservancy has a couple of dozen units used mostly in middle and senior high school programs, on and off site. Today was a chance for families to chase stickers and treats in the boxes hidden by the goats, near the bluebird boxes, in the garden and down in the soil pit.

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Nothing like perfect weather to bring out all ages.

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Next weekend there will be a family hike at 10 am. Age appropriate trails with leaders knowledgeable about the farm and what you can find there. Maybe the wood frogs will still be around to serenade everyone. There were certainly enough of them there today. You could hear them all over the geocache course even when you were hundreds of yards away from the pond in the garden.

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I can find fifteen of them in this picture. Thanks to all the volunteers this was another great day. Come hike with us next Saturday the 16th, or maybe come do forest forensics the following weekend.

And, just so I don’t get bored, we have a training session with a potluck luncheon this coming Thursday, and the art exhibit will open for the Art of Stewardship. Then, the following Tuesday, we are learning about the new pilot training session on Civil War History on the Farm.

What’s not to love about being outside as spring arrives in Howard County?

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Where Did Winter Go?

Posted on February 28, 2013 by AnnieRie

I must admit, typing this, that I may jinx us, and we will get a March snowstorm. But, that would be really interesting as we haven’t had one of those for quite a while. Today temps in the fifties lured me out to mix potting soil and top soil into a container to start my spring greens.

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I buy a simple tray, punch some holes in the bottom. I put this tray in one of those fruit boxes from a visit to Costco, the box wrapped in plastic, and with some newspaper between it and the tray, to absorb excess water. I mix potting soil and top soil. Made three rows of indentations. One I filled with mesclun mix, one with arugula, and one with Tuscan kale. I am trying kale for the first time this year.

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I will see how they do in the east window of the kitchen, and if they need more sun, I will take them up to that large south facing window in our bedroom. The largest and brightest winter spot in our house. Strange place for plantings, but it does work well. Last year I got great results with the mesclun.

As for other spring planting plans, I saw that Tractor Supply has a greenhouse for sale. A small one, build it yourself. Just enough for a few trays of plants. We may check it out and that is where I will start some of the herbs, and where I will harden the heirloom tomatoes. I have my plans in my head, now if it really is getting to be spring, the planting will begin.

Really, I don’t think we got much of a winter. A little cold. Really rainy. Snow that disappeared in a day. Not bad.

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Six Feeders No Waiting

Posted on February 10, 2013 by AnnieRie

Since today was lovely, I went out and did some feeder maintenance and filled everything before next week’s Great Backyard Bird Count.

If you want to do something fun with your family or friends, try and spend just a little time between the 15th and 18th counting the birds you see in your yard, or in a public area near you. It is simple to do, and you don’t need to be an experienced birder. The count had over 100,000 participants last year. Many from this area. In Maryland alone, there were over 2000 checklists submitted. Quite a few from Howard County. Ellicott City and Columbia led the county in participants with 83 lists from each area.

I watch right out my kitchen window for a few hours on one of the days and put in my totals. Since I have a habitat established with regular visitors, I know I will have certain times of the day with dozens of birds popping in to get food and water.

Today was no exception. I had three downy woodpeckers, all female, out there at the same time.

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Don’t know where the males were today, but the females kept coming back. I also put peanuts in the shell out there today to check out the blue jays. I had at least six between those on the ground and in the trees. They are a riot to watch, as they go looking for the biggest and heaviest peanuts. Last year there were fewer blue jays reported. Including by me. This year they are back.

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Of course, with peanuts out there, at some point the squirrel showed up and the blue jays had to go into overdrive to get the lion’s share of the peanuts.

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Today also brought the return of the female red bellied woodpecker. We haven’t seen her around here much lately. Just the male, but out of nowhere she showed up to grab peanuts herself.

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At one point, the nuthatch joined the party. Here a young downy and the nuthatch are enjoying the new food.

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And, just to show that sometimes they do tolerate each other, I leave you with a photo worthy of submitting for the Conservancy program on unlikely friendships. Animal photos of unlikely pairings of animals. That event is on the 24th of February. Another family activity coming up in the next few weeks in the area.

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Peaceful coexistence. Unusual for them. If you can, make time to count birds next weekend in Howard County. Let’s help Cornell and the Audubon Society keep tabs on where the birds are located by creating our own “census”.

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Young at Heart

Posted on February 6, 2013 by AnnieRie

At least that’s how I feel these days. Even though at times the body tells me I am doing too much. I was putting items of interest onto my calendar. Volunteer naturalist training. Habitat restoration. Wonder walks. Program committee meetings. All at the Conservancy.

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Add to that the bird club events, programs, and the Great Backyard Bird Count coming up the weekend of the 16th-17th of February.

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There’s Greenfest, Earth Day and mixed in with all the rest there are cellar dinners, get togethers, luncheons, and family commitments.

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I can’t believe a year has passed since I was getting ready for neck surgery. Thankfully, that is behind me and I am filling our social calendar with possibilities of days out and about. It may be the last month of winter, but things are getting busy. This weekend besides the Ray Bosmans event at the Conservancy Saturday, on Sunday there is the first event at the Little French Market in Ellicott City with River House Pizza selling wood fired pizza.

If you think retirement means days passing time sitting at a senior center playing cards and getting your blood pressure checked, think again. There is so much more out there to do in Howard County. Oh, and I almost forgot. We are having a much anticipated bloggers and friends party at Union Jack’s on February 26th. Check out the link and sign up if you want to meet many of the bloggers on my Blogs I Read page, and from hocoblogs. I may be one of our oldest bloggers out there, but still, I insist that retirement is my second childhood and I will definitely be enjoying myself.

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