inthecityofgoodabode

[inthecityofgoodabode]

June 2025: Last Photo of Sunday

It seems I had one too many photos for my last post. Anyway, enjoy:

[inthecityofgoodabode]

June 2025: The Sunday Post

Rain-soaked bumblebee:

Ambush bug strikes:

One day's harvest:

Seen while walking:

Ambush bug strikes again:

We gave up on trying to start okra plants in the trough planter on the west side of the house because an unknown critter kept eating them to the ground as soon as they put out simple leaves & got a half inch tall. 5 out of 6 seeds isn't a bad germination rate:

All that remains of a mockingbird:

More seen while walking:

I tried my hand at making a smoothie. The recipe was pretty basic - 2 cups of papaya, 1 cup of blueberries, 1 yellow mango, 2 cups of ice, 4 sugar cubes & a generous squirt of pomegranate syrup:

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June 2025: Feeling June

We're getting a half cup to a cup of blueberries per day even with the birds taking their share:

Free tomato plants - 6 containers with 4 plants each:

Less than twenty-four hours later - all gone:

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June 2025: Saturday & Sunday Of The First Full Week

Saturday's harvest:

Seen while walking:

I wished I'd been able to get closer but this is a mockingbird mobbing a hawk:

Just a snail cruising along the front porch:

Sunday surprise - Rats had been digging up and eating the corn seed on one of our rows before the seedlings could set roots properly so we put out our live trap a few weeks back. Sunday morning, it contained an unsuspected visitor. It was young (probably one of this year's births) because a full-grown opossum couldn't fit in the trap. It was safely released after I gave it a lecture about how I hoped it had learned its lesson after its brief incarceration:

Sunday dinner - The pole beans & summer squash are from our garden:

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June 2025: More First Week Of June

The Red Menace in one of his favorite new murder holes behind the volunteer tomatoes:

Thursday's harvest. It might seem meager but I can't remember us every having a summer squash produce a fruit this size this early in the growing season:

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May & June 2025: Last Of May & First Of June

Curbside find:

I didn't notice it at the time but that blossom in the center has a cab spider on it. If I'd noticed it, I would have gotten a macro shot of the spider:

Volunteer cucumber:

Volunteer tomatoes - 3 cherry tomatoes, 1 standard size tomato & a fourth plant that is a standard size tomato that is either a stunted indeterminate or determinate... only time will tell:

We overwinter this plant in the house & I'm glad to see it blossoming in the sunlight:

Tuesday's sweet & heat harvest:

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May 2025: A Little Of The Last Two Weeks

Two varieties of sweet potato in one container - Beauregard & an Asian variety whose name escapes me at the moment:

Our blueberry bushes are loaded with blueberries but we've only eaten 5 berries because a mockingbird keeps picking the day before they are ripe & feeding them to her chick. It is a minor annoyance to be tolerated for a bird whose presence is predominantly beneficial to us:

I've probably said this before but don't buy twine in the garden section of your local hardware store especially if it is labeled as "gardening" twine. Go to the section where they have the chains & rope. 2500 feet of twine for about 20 US dollars. If you don't need very long pieces, you could probably save even more using old or cheap dollar store pantyhose:

Swiss chard harvest. Swiss chard is a garden champ that is cold hardy & produces most of the year. For those who have never tasted it, it is similar to spinach with a little earthiness like beets when raw but that earthiness mellows when cooked. They are delicious sauteed alone or mixed with other greens in olive oil with a little salt, pepper & garlic. My queen normally adds a little smoked pork (ham or bacon). For those who can't partake of the pig, I recommend smoked turkey necks or tails. I don't know if they're available in the rest of the United States or if they're just a Southern thing. Royal quality meats is the brand that we see in stores locally but I'm sure there are others. Seriously, any recipe from the Southern United States that calls for smoked pig (ham, bacon, ham hocks, etc.) can be largely duplicated using properly smoked turkey. The difference is just slightly less umami that you'll only miss if you've eaten the dish with smoked pork:

When I got close, she flexed her biceps:

The first onion harvest. These are onions that we overwintered. We thought that would mean they'd have more time to form large bulbs but instead they finish their life cycle early & start trying to flower. It is a tradeoff... smaller bulbs but we have harvestable onions in the Spring. We have starts that we planted in Spring that should be ready in late June & July which should produce large bulbs:

Just a fly on an aster bud:

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May 2025: Dinners & An Estate Sale Find

Thursday dinner:

My queen & I drove out to a couple of estate sales in Jackson, TN. For those not familiar with TN, that's about an hour coming & going from The City. We picked up this bar stool for doing extended work in the kitchen when mortal legs might fail:

Sunday dinner:

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May 2025: Blossoms & Birds

There is a fountain in there somewhere:

There it is:

Seen while walking:

Cat doing downward dog:

Mystery cucurbit:

Mystery revealed - summer squash:

Mockingbird fledgling:

No one ever mentions how fragrant potato blossoms are. They smell like musky honey:

Mystery cucurbit in the front flower bed:

All signs point to volunteer pumpkin:

Our new addition, a crabapple sapling:

Male House Finch:

Juvenile cardinal:

Male cardinal:

When the air warms, the light begins to fade & the grill fire flickers, Silverback is my constant companion:

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May 2025: Mostly Strawberries

Our potato plants have never looked as vigorous as this:

Saturday's dinner - Steak. Portobello mushroom with onion. Green beans. Oven-roasted carrots, cauliflower & broccoli. Grilled zucchini & homegrown butternut squash:

Three days worth of strawberry harvests complete with slug bites. They might not seem like a lot but we only have two 1 gallon pots dedicated to strawberries this season & they are still producing enough to provide us with a daily handful of strawberry goodness:

Wednesday dinner - barbecued chicken thighs:

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April 2025: The Ring, The Wasteland & Undying Hope

The irises I collected last year from The Wasteland are in blossom:

Strawberries:

Seen while walking:

I haven't seen it yet but I believe this is where the wasteland beaver dwells:

The irises still stand in The Wasteland:

The end of The Oasis. The folks who tended The Oasis have either moved on or passed on. The city mowed the meager remnant to the ground:

Chicken wings with steak sauce. Grilling by me. The idea of steak sauce on wings was my queen's and a surprisingly delicious idea it was:

Eastern Bluestar on the edge of Christine's Wood:

In the backyard garden:

Silverback is my constant grilling companion:

Monday dinner:

We live in dark times. I wish the ring had never come to us, but my friends, like the heroes of legends, we will not turn back. There is still good in this world & it is worth fighting for. When doubt weighs heavy on you, look for that light because no matter how dull the glimmer and how deep the dark, it will shine the way:

[inthecityofgoodabode]

April 2025: The Week Ending In Easter

Sunday's harvest of Swiss Chard & Egyptian Walking Onions:

We planted onions Saturday:

We left some Swiss chard standing:

We planted some more onions in these whiskey barrels:

We had a few onions leftover so we planted them with some of our potatoes:

We relocated our Egyptian walking onions:

Eggplants were planted. One in ground & another in a container:

Peas in front & leeks in back:

Sunday dinner:

The weight of duty:

Hangs heavy:

On the shoulders of the guardian of the griller:

[inthecityofgoodabode]

April 2025: Mid-Month In The Garden

Seen while walking:

Around the backyard garden:

We don't just shred our documents. We compost them too:

Impulse buy:

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April 2025: Sunday Grab Bag

Not available in this photo, is the beautiful fragrance these daffodils have:

Seen while walking:

Some raider's pauldron?:

And the one:

saw the three:

And joined them:

Chastity Belt in the Whole Foods parking lot:

We got not just one:

Not just two:

But three bay laurels:

Sunday dinner:

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April 2025: Wasteland, Grilling & Lightning

Wasted heron egg:

I know you can't tell it but there is either a common or alligator snapping turtle poking its head just above the waterline in this heavily vegetative photo:

Barbecuing during a tornado watch:

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April 2025: Garden, Trains & Wasteland

Beaver gnawed:

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March 2025: The Long Overdue Post - Part 2

I exceeded the 30 image limit so I had to make a part 2.

Red-bellied woodpecker:

Turnips:

Pumpkins sprout in our compost bin:

White-throated sparrow in our weeping cherry:

Some of our cool season vegetables that didn't thrive refused to die. We'll eventually have to pull them out to make room for the warm season vegetables but I'm going to try to rehome some of them:

2024 was the last year for our red Russian kale that we'd had for several years but its children survived:

I think this is lamb's quarter which is edible. I'll probably have to move it since it is taking up valuable growing space but I want to rehome it so I can see what it tastes like: