Laughing Ravens

 More than anything, this was just a chance to test out new gear and see how it felt to try to narrate and shoot at the same time. By and large, I am finding the videography part much harder than my usual photography. If I had to guess, I think my attention span is affecting a lot of the process.  Part of what I was testing last week was the new wireless lav mic I picked up after Christmas... which should allow me (and potentially another person in an interview setting) to talk, and have that audio recorded directly to the camera. I know the rest of the world has been doing this for ages... but for me, this is a whole new world. Tons to learn and tons to play with.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on how this video came through for you. I wish that Blogger had a way to store videos without having to go through YouTube, but from what I can tell, that's the only path for videos longer than a minute or two. If you know of other places I could host videos, please let me know....

Winter sowing jugs in the bright mid-Feb sunshine of 2024   Over the last three years, we've seen progressively warmer winters. Fewer weeks of snow cover. Sure, we've had the dips into really cold weather, but nothing surprising. Climate change in action. Last winter we saw more sun during the winter than we did during the summer. It was strange because it also came with very little snow cover. That can be really hard on plants which rely on that snow for insulation.   Our holding bed for shrubs and perennials that were either divided or propagated from cuttings, heeled into a deep bed of mulch last winter In our propagation holding bed, I often build up a thick layer of mulch to try to help insulate the plants that are being overwintered in pots. More than anything else it helps moderate the temperatures so that the wild swings from a sunny day to a bone-cold night are less damaging to the small rooted cuttings.   Two years ago, we had a decent amount of snow cover in Fe...

Winter sowing in trays, stacked in layers This year, I wanted to try a couple new ideas with our winter sowing. For those who haven't tried winter sowing, at its simplest, it is just planting your seeds during the winter to give them a jump on spring. Perennial seeds do well, some hardy annual seeds do okay, and tender stuff doesn't survive.  One of the issues we have this winter is carryover from the spring/summer/fall. There are lots of pots of seeds that didn't germinate in the spring. A lot of the things I am reading about some of the more difficult seeds to start, indicate that it can take 2-3 years for seeds to germinate. And that also includes scarification/stratification of some form. Winter sowing usually makes that a simple solution, with the repeated freezing and thawing cycles.  We picked up these flat blue trays on Facebook Marketplace. I have seen similar things in use for bread delivery. They are lightweight, rigid and affordable. Best of all, they are perfor...

Bleak skies between winter snows    Frost coated garlic coming up in the raised beds. Something happens in the period between when the leaves blow from our yard into the neighbors and then on into the woods far beyond. When the sun squeaks through greasy skies and gives precious little warmth. It is a strange time. Not quite winter but it presages the inevitable. Most years we watch the weather systems zip around us, leaving us in a relatively snow-free bubble. It might seem that would be desirable, but one of the things I have learned about plants is that they need snow. Snow cover provides insulation (and warmth!) and also slowly releases moisture.  Without snow, what I have seen is that our plants desiccate. The winds roll off the plowed fields to the south of us, with nothing to stop the chilled air. Once it hits our property, it drops into the garden and that cold mass of air finds the lowest spots and hugs the ground. Until recently, I hadn't really seen how this ha...

And just what are we starting again? Everything, I suppose.  I decided to start writing again, after a lengthy hiatus. In the past, I would write about goings on in the pottery studio or in the photography studio. With both of those endeavors in the rear view mirror now, it felt like a good time to turn my eyes forward to what we are exploring in the garden. I always love reading garden blogs, especially those written by those actually understand the value of good writing. All too often nowadays, "content" boils down to whatever can be monetized or will increase readership. I would wager that a year from now, the majority of those sites will be entirely written by AI. For all I know, it might even result in better writing.  Which begs the question: Why return to writing now? I would argue that it is a sign of defiance. After the election, I fell into an abyss of angst and despair. Rather than give in to the feelings of helplessness and desperation, I thought about the nature ...