Friday, June 25, 2010

Livingston Canal - June 2010

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Some people make New Year's resolutions. Buck and I made a Memorial Day resolution. On the holiday we started back on our walking routine at the Livingston Canal.

The first day I was upset because I forgot my camera. (After all, I had to get up an hour earlier than usual to do this, and I am not a morn person.) But, the second day, I got a picture of one of the resident Mallards swimming the canal.





Later on in the walk we were treated to the bullfrog chorus. There is a line-up of about five that serenade us most mornings. I needed to bring my main camera with the stronger zoom lense to get a close up of this beauty.




Unfortunately, I have not been able to get a shot of the kit foxes that we saw the first day. It appears they are living in the blackberry bushes that fence off the canal bank.

It was so nice to see the duck families. I saw this mama and her babies only the one day. Did she move farther down the canal where there were fewer walkers on the banks?

I think of the ocean when I think of shells, yet the canal bank is peppered with them. The sunflowers are out in glory. And, the fire ants are not unique to the canal bank. Yet, with all the hills and tunnels, I wonder how long it will be before the banks collapse and slide into the water.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Looking for Volunteers





*It has been a long time since I updated this blog. Last was a garden entry. I still am not doing much in the garden. In fact, except for a few additional purchases--peppers and cucumbers, I am looking mostly for volunteers.





I have enjoyed the cilantro that came up, all by itself, although I did plant these potato plants from some "seed" potatoes I found growing in my pantry.



I have harvested quite a few strawberries, and they are actually a decent size this year. The potatoes came from a plant I put in the ground last fall. The hot pepper plant was purchased, but the squash and all the nasturtiums are volunteers. The section next to the strawberries (some plants were transplanted to another flower bed) is now in corn and beans--last year's seeds, so it will be interesting to see what turns up. The petunia wintered over and the squash is a volunteer. I am still waiting to see if it a pumpkin or one of the squash varieties. Since it is a volunteer, and I know most seeds are hybrids, it will be interesting to see what it comes out to be. All but two of my ten tomato plants are volunteers, so once again.....