Tom planted garlic on November 9th of last year, and we have just harvested the first of it called Inchelium Red. This is what the company we buy from, High Mowing Seeds, had to say about this variety:
This widely grown softneck was originally saved by a native population in Washington State and found by Larry Geno on the Colville Indian Reservation.
Softneck means it can be braided, and I am thinking of trying it. I am not naturally "crafty" at all, but I think I will still see if I can do it. I've already found sites that tell me how.
Drying it just where we did many years ago. We got 29 bulbs.
We have two other varieties which aren't quite ready to pick yet - Music, and Chesnok Red.
When we first moved to Windy Poplars Farm in 1981, we heard whippoorwills. This
continued for a few years, and then we didn't hear them. I looked back in my
emails, and found a few correspondences with the state Audubon Society. In 2002,
I found an email I had sent, saying we hadn't heard them in maybe 15 years. The
response was essentially that they didn't know. Some had thought change of
habitat or decline in moths, but no one knew for sure. I also found an article from a state newspaper around the same time despairing the fact that they just weren't around. A few years later, we drove north
an hour or so, and participated in an Audubon study to see if we heard any
whippoorwills. We drove around to several promising spots, but heard nothing.
Flash ahead to 2013, and they were here. Again in 2018, they appeared. When I wrote to Audubon, they said
there were several people who had also heard them! I have a note that I heard it
in 2019. And then an Audubon publication from last year says they are doing well
in certain areas of the state. I can certainly attest to that this year! Without
fail, for weeks now the whippoorwill has appeared just outside the house. It has
been on the roof, in the lilac, and on the terrace. It comes at dusk and dawn. It feels like such an honor. I do have a movie of it, but I
haven't been able to put any of my videos on the blog for a long time. You may hear their sound here.
photograph from Cornell Labs.
There is a terrific new article in The Old Farmer's Almanac, here. They quoted Thoreau:
It could mean many things, according to the wealth of myth surrounding this night flyer. The note of the whippoorwill borne over the fields is the voice with which the woods and moonlight woo me.
Dear common flower, that grow'st beside the way, Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold, First pledge of blithesome May, Which children pluck, and, full of pride uphold, High-hearted buccaneers, o'erjoyed that they An Eldorado in the grass have found, Which not the rich earth's ample round May match in wealth, thou art more dear to me Than all the prouder summer-blooms may be.
Gold such as thine ne'er drew the Spanish prow Through the primeval hush of Indian seas, Nor wrinkled the lean brow Of age, to rob the lover's heart of ease; 'Tis the Spring's largess, which she scatters now To rich and poor alike, with lavish hand, Though most hearts never understand To take it at God's value, but pass by The offered wealth with unrewarded eye.
Thou art my tropics and mine Italy; To look at thee unlocks a warmer clime; The eyes thou givest me Are in the heart, and heed not space or time: Not in mid June the golden-cuirassed bee Feels a more summer-like warm ravishment In the white lily's breezy tent, His fragrant Sybaris, than I, when first From the dark green thy yellow circles burst.
Then think I of deep shadows on the grass, Of meadows where in sun the cattle graze, Where, as the breezes pass, The gleaming rushes lean a thousand ways, Of leaves that slumber in a cloudy mass, Or whiten in the wind, of waters blue That from the distance sparkle through Some woodland gap, and of a sky above, Where one white cloud like a stray lamb doth move.
My childhood's earliest thoughts are linked with thee; The sight of thee calls back the robin's song, Who, from the dark old tree Beside the door, sang clearly all day long, And I, secure in childish piety, Listened as if I heard an angel sing With news from heaven, which he could bring Fresh every day to my untainted ears When birds and flowers and I were happy peers.
How like a prodigal doth nature seem, When thou, for all thy gold, so common art! Thou teachest me to deem More sacredly of every human heart, Since each reflects in joy its scanty gleam Of heaven, and could some wondrous secret show, Did we but pay the love we owe, And with a child's undoubting wisdom look On all these living pages of God's book.
I don't believe that there is any sport on earth that tops the Triple Crown horse races. I won't spoil it for you, but if you haven't seen the Kentucky Derby race this year, you can watch it on you tube. I don't think that I have ever seen a more exciting race in my life. I feel lucky to be alive!
The Kinks page I follow on Instagram says that today is the 55th anniversary of the achingly lovely "Waterloo Sunset". In the video, they are performing on a German TV show in June of 1967. The music critic Robert Christgau once said that it is "the most beautiful song in the English language"!
