Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Feb. 24

Hi Katy

It's maple syrup time again in the Great White North, a nice time of year to be outside in the bush with longer days & warmer weather. It has been milder than normal this winter so I tapped our trees this past week, about 2 weeks earlier than usual.

Temperatures above freezing in the day and below freezing at night are needed for the sap to drip. A short stretch of colder weather periodically stops the sap run which can be welcome relief to the constant collecting, boiling & bottling. Maple syrup season usually lasts 4 - 6 weeks, or for me, when I run out of firewood. After a long enough warm spell the trees start to bud causing the sap to sour.

PointyHairedBoss

Updated Below!

A bracing experience! We learn a lot and get a sense what it might feel like just from the photos and description. Thanks.

Gardens of The Horde

An Unexpected Garden Guest

While on a quick down and back trip to our place in Sussex County, I happened to catch this Great Blue Heron standing at the edge of one of our border gardens along the front of our house. The dried growth beside and behind it is from marsh grasses that are pervasively invasive on properties located beside the salt marsh. This visitor, who I encountered as I was pulling out to drive back north, was a cool customer and just watched me and the car back out and pull away. Krebs v Carnot

A great surprise! Wow!

UPDATE

Forgot this bit of joy from Diogenes:

Seems like they are late this year. Or maybe I'm ready for the crummy weather to end sooner.

Either way, crocus time!

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

Garlic and onions are grown near us. I have never seen this done:

Garlic peeling tips
pic.twitter.com/UsBF0ECa2R

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) February 18, 2024

Navel oranges are still sweet and juicy locally, but not this juicy Sometimes those kaolin-type protectants are used on stone fruit trees here in the Valley, but not so thickly:

The juice of Ehime Jelly oranges.

A hybrid of oranges and tangerines originating in Japan, coated with Kaolin, a clay-based powder sprayed on fruit trees for sunburn and insect protection.
pic.twitter.com/PgqDhNRwuk

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) February 22, 2024

We decided to go into a local almond orchard to see how the bees were doing. The Mister has experience with bees, and he recommended not getting out of the truck. The bees were very active. Bloom was just beyond peak.

From a canal bank:

This is a big orchard. Used to be planted in field crops and we sometimes brought the dogs to run there between seasons:

It's next to a young planting of pistachio trees, also a former site of field crops:

Ah, Nature

There were rumors at one time of a platypus in a stream near us. Somewhat plausible, since there were jets flying between our valley and Australia/NZ.

The platypus is possibly the weirdest animal: it's a mammal but lays eggs, it's duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed and venomous.

It has electroreceptors for locating prey, eyes with double cones, no stomach, and 10 chromosomes.

It's fluorescent and glows under UV light. pic.twitter.com/qwydMlo7Ts

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) February 20, 2024

Puttering

My mother once won a prize for darning socks. A LONG time ago. This might be more practical. Watch an expert at work. Have you ever tried anything like this?

How to repair a hole in a jumper
pic.twitter.com/1gMRYHqrPz

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) February 19, 2024

Art

Flowers In Extremis

Hi, KT - This is an older image, but still nice. The back porch had this terracotta planter full of artificial flowers when the snow came in 2021. Got cold that year, too. Looking out on the scene after waking up and having the Morning Coffee, this was the scene that greeted me - so I got out the Nikon. Artificial or not, it's still a nice composition and the snow was still great

Dr_N0

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

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Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Feb. 17
Any thoughts or questions?

I closed the comments on this post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 01:28 PM

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