We had dinner up on the land yesterday afternoon so I could see the work Andy, Orlando, and Larry did this past week. Here are a couple of views of the old driveway, where they tried sloping the road so the water would run off the side rather than making gullies down the road. In both pictures Andy is looking at one of the channels they made at intervals to let the water run down the hill away from the road.
The colors in this picture of the house as we were walking up the driveway seem a bit strange, but it was the golden light of late afternoon. I’m continually amazed at all the vegetation now.
These pictures of the wildflowers and greenery around the house aren’t very sharp, but they again show all the vegetation we have after the wet spring and summer.
Needless to say, it was a beautiful afternoon and a great trip.
September 12, 2015
Yes, Jean, it’s wonderful to “work the land”. A constant battle. But a battle for the good. In modern pseudo psycho lingo we may call the bond between soil and man “spiritual”.
In a parallel life I’d be a farmer’s wife, looking after the chickens and the vegetable garden. In my life I have had gardens and dug and dug and dug. And planted and planted and planted. And, naturally, cursed and cursed and cursed. Mainly at slugs and squirels. Though, of course, they need to eat too. Though squirels (and there is no excuse for it) swinging from your six foot tall sunflowers like Tarzan in hot pursuit of Jane, in the process breaking the sunflowers’ heads off, do make you wish you had a shooter at hand.
And then there is blackfly … yes, Jean, blackfly on edible flowers – dear dog in heaven, they leave even me with a sigh of exasperation … but am now getting carried away with the memory and emotion of it all …
U
You, like Andy, disagree with Peter Mayle explaining why he would never have a garden:
It is beautiful and worth all the toil that goes into maintaining it.
I agree. Especially because it’s Andy who is doing all of the work. But I do make a great cheerleader. 🙂
It’s great to see the recovery of the land after the fire.
Yes. That’s why it was a no-brainer to hang in there after the fire. Life might have been easier if we took the insurance money and went elsewhere, but we wouldn’t have had the joy of seeing the recovery. This rainy spring and summer helped a lot — now that the worst of the flash flooding seems to be over.
the land looks great – new growth, new life
Yes. 🙂