Spare the ditches

On the drive in to work today I noticed someone had mowed another ditch. Not too unusual around here; it's flat farmland prone to collect water in low areas. So every road has a ditch on either side. And lots of landowners mow their ditches. The funny thing about this instance was the fact that the mower chose to leave the patch of feral asparagus alone.
They NEVER leave anything alone once they start mowing. It's a rural male thing I think. *If a plant isn't something I intended to grow in my fields it's something to be chopped down or zapped with herbicide.* It all comes down under the chains or blades: milkweed, wildflowers, enclaves of native grasses.
I know where they're coming from. Farmers need to give the stuff the world pays them for the best opportunity to flourish. And every one I've known has a deep, abiding affection for the skin of mother earth- the kind that doesn't say "I love you." But the rest of the world needs cheap cornflakes and soy lattes and "grain fed" beef. What can a man providing for a family do? So the ditches are kept mowed low to keep down weed problems, or keep things tidy.
At least the little girls with jobs in the city like me can find the ignored sections and rejoice in a little bit of neglect.

Phooey on the summer solstice.

This may be my least favorite day of the year. Somehow my interior switch knows we start losing daylight now and the whole lack of light thing begins. Add the steam bath outside and, yeah, the worst day of the year.

Exciting weekend events

I've got a chrysalis in the peas.

One of the monarch caterpillars I've been watching formed its chrysalis on Monday. The Friday photo as the sun was setting...



I lost him on Saturday, but found him while I was picking peas on Sunday.










I was beginning to hit the mediative state of pea picking, and I'm glad I caught sight of him before disaster. But, crisis averted, there is now a bit of living jade under the pea leaves.

Peas!!

First pea harvest of the season!! YAY! YAY! YAY!

A good weekend all round

The baby roses are doing well. Apothecary & Rosamund are almost finished for the year. I went down to my folks' place to see my brother and dogs (AKA the Bumpas hounds). Mom and I dug some bricks out from the foundation of the old house in the barnlot. We didn't try going down into the cellar since one side of the entrance was starting to cave in, but we got enough to get me started on the herb garden. I need a crowbar. I also dug up some oak and redbud saplings, plus a fern and a rose of some sort (poss. R. blanda). However, I do think I've got a chestnut oak and a couple swamp white oaks. I also found a second wild clematis, which I think is C. pitcherii, but I can't find anything definite. Got my first peas of the year. woo hoo!