Petunias are gone --
pumpkins have taken their place.
Autumn at the drug store.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Tsukubai
In June, we hosted Kristin and Pia's birthday chaji and I was motivated to make the first baby steps toward a proper roji, a Tea garden.
This is at the entry to our house. Harvey designed the arrangement, I shlepped the stones. We plugged the drain hole in a cast concrete pot to create the basin. No stone lantern yet.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Cooking with Dog Makes Onigiri
Harvey found this video from Cooking With Dog about how to make onigiri.
Oishi!
Oishi!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Baby phoebe grows up
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| Black phoebe, Oct. 6, 2010 |
This little fella obligingly posed for me last weekend. My guess is that it is one of this year's hatchlings. Why? Bear with me as I elaborate on the gory details.
We host a friend's bee hives in our garden, and our yard has become a rich hunting ground for phoebes. In late spring I observed (to both my delight and dismay) phoebes predating these bee hives. They'd perch on the fence behind the hive, swoop out and snatch a bee, then return to the fence to vigorously bash its prey to death before sending it down the hatch. It would gobble up two or three more bees in similar fashion before heading off, presumably to the nest. As I was working in the garden one Saturday I observed phoebes hunting and returning in this fashion, and estimated that, in one day, they dispatched at least 70 bees, probably more.
Later in the summer, these phoebes brought their fledglings to our garden to feast upon the bee buffet. As observed earlier, the adult habitually killed its bee before eating or feeding it to a fledgling. Juveniles hunted awkwardly, occasionally catching a bee but most often coming up empty-beaked and begging a treat from its parent.
I watched this weekend's visitor it for several minutes before it flew away to its next destination and its my guess that it's one of this year's fledglings. Its plumage was fresh, not worn as an adults would be after a season of caring for young, and its hunting behavior seemed somewhat awkward. It wasn't particularly skilled at catching insects, and when it did make a catch it held its prey in its bill for some time before eating it. However, when it caught a bee it failed to dash its little bee brains on a fencepost. I'm anxious to see if Little Baby grows up to be a bee basher like Mommy and Daddy.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Excalibur Faire 2010
If you can't see the slideshow, click on this link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hollymharvey/ExcaliFaire2010#
http://picasaweb.google.com/hollymharvey/ExcaliFaire2010#
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